Fake René Lalique Vase
GUEST: I bought it at a local auction house here in Pittsburgh. I really didn't pay very much for it-- I only paid $20.
APPRAISER: When I saw this come out of your bag, I thought this would be a perfect thing to talk about because we see Lalique on the Antiques Roadshow, we've talked about it before, and this model is perhaps the piece that I see more than any other, and I think a lot of people out there would have this vase. Lalique, as you probably know, concentrated, focused throughout their history on making clear and frosted glass. They've been making it for the last... almost 100 years now. And this particular piece has many of the typical features of Lalique glass-- the modeling of female figures; the use of grapes; the scale of it is typical of a lot of Lalique vases. However, if we look carefully at the base of it, you can see that the base is cut almost in a faceted way, and that's very atypical of Lalique. Only in very recent years did Lalique use that idea of cutting the glass or shaping the foot at all. Now, one or two other features which we might be able to see if we look carefully at this model, including the detail of the molding, which is rather poor in detail-- there's not a lot of sharpness there and so on-- which suggests that maybe it isn't Lalique. Now, if we turn it over, Lalique is likely to have a signature on. Just about all Lalique glass which is authentic is signed. And I think you can see there's a nice, rather large engraving on it which says "Lalique, France" engraved in script. This is a typical Lalique signature. However, a signature like that is not difficult to put on a piece of glass, and I'm afraid to tell you what we've got here is a piece of glass made in Czechoslovakia which has been signed "Lalique" in order to convince you or anyone else who might come across it that it's an authentic piece.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: We see these often. I see, perhaps, this model more than any other-- signed "Lalique, France" or signed "R. Lalique," usually, for "Rene Lalique." Because it's not terribly old, because it is a reproduction or a forgery, really, I'm afraid there's no real value in it. And the lesson, really, Donna, is if you're buying something which has a signature, never buy the signature. Never allow the signature to authenticate the piece-- look at the object, look at the quality of the work, look at the form, look at the design, and use that to determine if it's authentic or not before you look at the signature.
GUEST: Oh, well, thank you, thank you very much.
APPRAISER: You're welcome.
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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.
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