Japanese Champlevé Lamp
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GUEST:
Bought the lamp about 25 years ago at an auction at the Tulsa Garden Center. I just thought it was a beautiful piece. I have no particular knowledge about it. I thought it was a Persian cloisonné.
APPRAISER:
First of all, it's... the entire thing is Japanese. So but here, the interesting thing is that you've got a mixture of Chinese form, Japanese technique and Western shape, because at that time you had a tremendous amount of cross-cultural influence at the turn of the century, especially the economic fields of porcelains, bronzes and other works of art out of the Far East. We have a Chinese bronze shape, and that's the inspiration for the base. Based very loosely on archaic bronze you have the leiwen ground and these lappets. The Japanese segment is the motif of the phoenix in clouds. However, the shape is Western. Think in terms of Tiffany lampshades. That was the inspiration for the shape. So you've got a Chinese prototype executed in Japan, Japanese design, but a Western shape. It's a wonderful amalgam. Rare because it comes with the shade. Normally, you find just these parts. These normally have been destroyed. How much did you pay for it, by the way?
GUEST:
$200 at an auction.
APPRAISER:
Good, you made 1,000% profit on it. It's probably worth about $1,500 to $2,000.
GUEST:
Well, I sure thank you so much for the information. You've educated me. Thank you very much.
APPRAISER:
Good.
GUEST:
I didn't know anything about it.
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Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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