GUEST: I found it at an estate sale, just local, in town.

APPRAISER: And how long ago was that?

GUEST: Maybe ten years.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: I love little boxes, and this one's really pretty. (laughs)

APPRAISER: All right.

GUEST: And I paid about ten dollars. It's silver and enamel of some sort. I, that's literally all I know. (laughs)

APPRAISER: Well, you're right about that. The, the casing of it is made of silver, silver gilt. We look inside, it has a gold finish. And there are three different types of enamel on it. The back plate is finished in what we call guilloché enamel. The metal underneath, which is silver, has been given this pattern through engine turning. Then it's covered in this translucent enamel, kind of the color of tea, I would say. There's a little bit more guilloché and what we call champlevé enamel around the sides. But the top is what I want to really look at. The center is a thin slice of natural agate, which picks up the color also of the guilloché. And then it's surrounded by a border of what we call plique-á-jour enamel. And plique- á -jour is a French term, of course, and it translates best as "the light coming through it," rather like a stained-glass window. This, by the way, I would date about 1930, '35. It has this kind of Art Deco flavor to it. It's a little bit too small and a little bit too delicate to be a cigarette case. And it's the wrong period and a little too big to be a snuffbox. So I think it's a compact.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: There is a little tiny mark on it that says "made in Austria" and another little mark that says "sterling," which you would expect to see if it were made in Austria and sold in the United States. Ten dollars is, is a fabulous buy. And I think today, in a good auction, the bidding would start, or the estimate would start, at $1,000.

GUEST: (softly) Whoa.

APPRAISER: And go up to maybe $1,500.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: So, it's, it's a great object and a great find at ten dollars.

GUEST: Wonderful. Awesome. (laughs)