Fake Chinese Vases
Watch
GUEST:
Well, we were living in China for 18 months with my husband's employment, and uh… we purchased these in Nantong, which is a city on the Yangtze River…um, in Jiangsu Province. We bought them at a... we called it a Sunday antique market since we didn't know the correct name in Chinese. Of course, we did not speak any Chinese and very... the gentleman we bought them from did not speak any English. But, ah…
APPRAISER:
It's a matter of dueling calculators and...
GUEST:
Ah… yes, and a lot of sign language and writing it down on pieces of paper of what he wanted and what we were willing to pay. He did tell us that they had just recently been excavated or dug up.
APPRAISER:
Well, in actuality, they weren't. They were brand-new.
GUEST:
Oh, goodness. I was afraid of that.
APPRAISER:
And, um, one of the things about them that you want to know-- you know, you had this piece of material here and you were wondering what the material was.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Well, if you take the material here and you take a steel tool, you leave a mark. See that mark right there, the impression that's there?
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
You can see a mark where the steel has engraved the piece. If it were jade, jade is harder than steel, and it wouldn't have left any mark at all. So this material is some kind of soapstone or steatite material.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And what they're trying to do here is they're trying to make this thing look like it's Tang Dynasty, but some of the things that kind of tip you off that it's not-- this material is aluminum that's on here. There was no aluminum at the time.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
You know, aluminum is strictly like, um, basically an early- 19th-century thing. This piece here is a pottery. The pottery that's underneath there is called chun yao, and um, it's a ware that was made in Henan province, and it's a… like, a turquoise color with a purple blush. And again, what they're trying to do here is they're trying to, like, put a tracery on it of, like, Tang metalwork. But the metalwork is actually anodized metal. It's not even, you know, any kind of gold or anything.
GUEST:
I didn't think this one was because of the way it's rusted.
APPRAISER:
Right. So when you see these things, go the other way.
GUEST:
I told my husband when we bought this one and the fellow said that he had dug it up, I told my husband he probably only buried it six months ago and just dug it up.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, he might’ve - they might have done that just to age it, too. They'll do all sorts of techniques.
GUEST:
Uh-huh. And with all the dirt that's still in the filigree.
APPRAISER:
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
GUEST:
Well, we had to find out.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
So, even with fakes, are they worth anything at all?
APPRAISER:
No, not particularly. $10, $20 apiece.
GUEST:
Ah. Okay, well, I was afraid of that.
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.
