Chinese & Japanese Decorative Art Collection
GUEST: Probably around 2005. I had a good friend of mine that knew I loved Asian art. He saw these two lamps at a house sale. So he called me and he said, "I've got some lamps that have your name on 'em." He shows up at the front door with these two lamps. I went, "I'll take 'em, thank you, they're beautiful."
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: So paid him a couple hundred bucks and he was on his way. And I told my husband, I said, "Get this lamp stuff off of these beautiful vases!" Somebody had converted these into lamps. This guy came from an estate sale about, it's got to be almost 35 years ago. I was sitting out in front of this house at 4:00 in the morning, waiting for the door to open, which didn't open till 8:00. It was freezing cold out, and I only had a quarter tank of gas.
APPRAISER: That's dedication.
GUEST: That was dedication.
APPRAISER: And where did you get our final piece of the puzzle? This fella?
GUEST: That came out of the same estate sale. I think I paid about $200 for it, that's it.
APPRAISER: Okay. And this fella?
GUEST: And this, about the same thing.
APPRAISER: There's one of these that I am most interested in.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: We'll start with the lamps. (chuckles)
GUEST: Okay. Oh, God. Lamps. (laughs)
APPRAISER: They are an archaistic form covered in these little designs. Those are meant to symbolize baby dragons.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: And they have objects on here, Buddhistic objects, and likely were produced in the 1920s. And as odd as it may seem, shortly after their date of production, they were probably turned into lamps right about then. These fellas are worth about $200 to $300.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: This is stylistically an 18th century Chinese box, a birthday gift box, lacquer.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: But it is not 18th century.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: It's 20th century…
GUEST: Amazing.
APPRAISER: ….1970s, 1960s.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: Worth about $200.
GUEST: Oh, my gosh. Well, okay, I'm even Steven.
APPRAISER: This one is what I find to be the most intriguing and most interesting. It is a Japanese bamboo ikebana vase used to display flowers that has been beautifully decorated with menuki, which are sword fittings. Every sword has a handle, of course, and the handles are wrapped with rope and that cord, you can stick little objects underneath it. And that's what you would do with these to show off, to say, this is what I'm interested in. Beside every single one of these, there's a little inscription. Those inscriptions are the makers. So what I suspect is that this was a family's collection of menuki, and they decided to display all of them in one way. So they put them all together on this fantastic vase. There's also an inscription on the base that says, "front left." So that makes me think perhaps this was part of a set. To really get the full value, I would have to sit down and translate each one of these names, find the makers, see who they are. We do have some damage-- the bamboo is split.
GUEST: Okay. Oh, I'm sure.
APPRAISER: There are some menuki that are missing. Overall, though, the inscriptions are strong. The coloring is good on the gilding and the silvering, and it's beautiful.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: This is the first time that I've ever seen anything like it...
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: ...and I showed it to my colleagues at the Asian art table. We'd never seen anything like it.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: I would estimate at auction, without having translated the makers, that this would sell for at least $5,000 to $8,000.
GUEST: (laughing) Really? I did okay. I did okay.
APPRAISER: You did more than okay.
GUEST: (laughs) That's awesome. Thank you. That's amazing. Wow.
$5,400 - $8,500 Auction
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Understanding Our Appraisals
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.
