Roman Amphora, ca. 100 A.D.
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GUEST:
It's been in our family for a while. My father is from Italy, and when he was young he was a fisherman, and this is something that he pulled up on the fishing boat when he was out at sea in the Mediterranean Sea.
APPRAISER:
How long ago was that?
GUEST:
Around 1960.
APPRAISER:
Oh good, that's when it was still legal to bring it up.
GUEST:
(chuckling): Yes. And it's always just been in our family. It had a lot more shell encrustations on it, but over time, some of them have broken off and chipped off.
APPRAISER:
Do you have any idea how old it is?
GUEST:
No, that's the whole purpose of bringing it.
APPRAISER:
Can you make a guess?
GUEST:
Well, we're hoping that it's at least 100 years old.
APPRAISER:
You can put a zero after that, and a double up the front, it's 2,000 years old.
GUEST:
2,000 years old?
APPRAISER:
2,000 years old. This particular type of vase came from Pompeii.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
In the first century A.D.
GUEST:
Oh my gosh!
APPRAISER:
Yeah, and this is a table amphora, used only on the table, not like the large shipping amphoras for oils and grains. See that's what we wondered, we wondered if it had oil or wine. In Pompeii, these were used for a fish sauce called garum.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
This fish sauce was so famous, it was like Mole's barbecue sauce in St. Louis.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
It's very interesting, because this fish sauce was so famous, that they were using it from the first century A.D. all the way up to present day. This is really a beautiful work of art, 'cause mother nature improved upon the amphora. The shells, I can tell, are of a Mediterranean type. And, as I say, this is very, very unusual that it's so well preserved.
GUEST:
And would they have shipped it? Is that why it ended up on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea?
APPRAISER:
It was probably being transported to Sicily.
GUEST:
For the sauce?
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
Fish sauce?
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm, for fish sauce, exactly. Back in the '60s, I was offered thousands of these from North Africa for five to ten dollars each.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
Up to the '70s, '80s, they would have sold for $200, $300 for decorative purposes. Today, it's a decorating craze, and this one is of such great quality, that it conceivably in auction could bring up to $2,000.
GUEST:
Wow, wow! Wonderful, thank you so much.
APPRAISER:
Thank you for coming.
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