Japanese Bronze Tiger, ca. 1904
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GUEST:
This tiger was… purchased in the 1889 St. Louis World's Fair, about that time, for my grandfather. Ah… it was supposed to have been never taken out of China, which is... it's hard to say.
APPRAISER:
And you did a lot of research, you and your family, trying to figure out where it was from.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And you're sure it's Chinese. And what else do you know about it?
GUEST:
Ah… apparently-- it could be wrong or not-- from the Ming Dynasty, which ranges from approximately from 1350, or something like that, to 1650…
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
Somewhere around that.
APPRAISER:
So you've done a lot of effort and work…
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Trying to figure out what this is…
GUEST:
Correct, I have.
APPRAISER:
And done considerable research into it.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And that's why you came here with it.
GUEST:
You got it, that's exactly right.
APPRAISER:
Well, let's go through it and analyze this, and we're going to figure out exactly what this is, because I told you I knew what it was when you came up, okay?
GUEST:
Of course I didn't believe you at that time, but I think you know what you're doing.
APPRAISER:
Well, we'll see. Number one, it's bronze. As you look at it, it's obviously a figure of a tiger, and as one analyzes it more closely one can see that there are… characteristics of the casting which are pretty unusual. One is, if you look at the surface, you see the stripes are slightly in relief…
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
…from the bronze. That is done by actually using acid to eat down the bronze surface, leaving that in relief.
GUEST:
Hm.
APPRAISER:
Ah, the other thing that's rather interesting about it is the very naturalistic form. Now, that's something that one finds generally speaking done in the latter part of the 19th century. There's a great popularity of very natural forms… depicting animals in their natural state. So as we're looking at this, it's a wonderful big cast. The patina, the bronze surface is beautiful. And as we flip it over, there's actually a mark here down on the underside.
GUEST:
Yes, I realize that.
APPRAISER:
Now, all these are clues as to the age and origin of this object. Now, you all did a lot of research on it, and in fact, you were accurate about some of the things you found, but you're not about some of the other things. And one of those is, the most salient is, in fact, this is not Chinese, and the St. Louis World's Fair actually was in 1904, not 1889, so it's entirely possible that it was in the St. Louis World's Fair. It was sold at auction probably thereafter.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
But it is, in fact, Japanese, not Chinese, and it was made at the time for the St. Louis Exposition-- World's Fair Exposition in 1904-- as part of the Japanese exhibit. The wood that it's on is elm, burled elm, which is perfectly appropriate for a Japanese object from that period of time. It's a wonderful object. It's just not what you thought it was originally.
GUEST:
Well, I didn't really know too much, except by the hearsay, anyways, on that.
APPRAISER:
So I'm glad to set you all straight on it. You have any idea what the value is?
GUEST:
Hard to say-- over $1,000, that's all I would say.
APPRAISER:
It's a bit over $1,000. It's about $7,000 to $10,000.
GUEST:
Okay.
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