Pratt Footed Dish, ca. 1860
GUEST:
My parents were transferred over to England when I was a teenager, and we used to go to Portobello Road all the time, every Saturday, but they got this, actually, from an antique dealer. And when my father retired and came back to Oklahoma, we came back to Tulsa.
APPRAISER:
Well, Portobello Road is still there, of course, and a great place to go antiquing, as it was back then. I like this piece because it tells something of a story. It was made in Staffordshire, in a town called Fenton, which is one of six towns in north Staffordshire that together make up what we call the Staffordshire Potteries. And it was made by a company called Pratt, and Pratt had been there since the early 19th century. They made colorful figures and pottery, and when we think of Staffordshire pottery, most of it is blue, transfer-printed onto white, but Pratt really revolutionized that. They made it possible, and inexpensively possible, to make four-color- or multicolor-printed. So after the 1850s, we see a lot more colorful printing on Staffordshire pottery, and not just blue and white. The company's probably best known for making pot lids, earthenware pottery lids, and they also made these things, which were table items. They used scenes mostly that were sort of genre scenes, if you like, scenes of ordinary people. This is taken from a famous painting by Sir David Wilke, and you can just see his signature in the plate of the printing center there. It's called The Blind Fiddler. And it's got the very typical Pratt border of oak leaf and acorn.
GUEST:
Are there very many of them?
APPRAISER:
No, there's a lot of Pratt around, but there aren't that many piece of this scale and with this kind of image inside. It's a great example of Pratt, I think. I would think today the value, no more than about $400 or $500...
GUEST:
Uh-huh. ...
APPRAISER:
is about where it is, which is high for Pratt, but still a great piece of... of Pratt pottery.
GUEST:
Well, that's a nice surprise.
Appraisal Details
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
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."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.