GUEST: I brought a crock that was made by my great-great-uncle, Jacob Swank. And he had given it to my grandmother, and it's been passed down. Jacob and his brother Hiram cofounded Swank Potteries in the late 1850s, early 1860s in Johnstown, PA.
APPRAISER: So they were potters.
GUEST: They were.
APPRAISER: And this piece was made for your...?
GUEST: For my grandmother.
APPRAISER: For your grandmother.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: It is a piece of cobalt-decorated salt-glazed pottery.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And it's miniature, and that's very key to this piece, in the fact that the Swanks were making a lot of large pieces of utilitarian pottery.
GUEST: Yes, yes.
APPRAISER: And well into the 20th century they operated where they actually were making fired bricks.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And this is a wonderful little ovoid jar with a very, very delicate rim. And as you can see, there are a couple of chips on there.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: The cobalt was put in with a slip cup. And it's decorated fully around the entire piece. And this is a piece that collectors would really covet. First of all, it's miniature.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Which makes it rarer. Second of all, it's actually signed by Jacob Swank.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And it's dated March 1874.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Almost all pieces of the utilitarian pottery were signed with a stamp, not in freehand. They were mass-producing these pieces.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: So this became a piece that was given to your grandmother and signed and given as a gift, and maintained in the family all these years.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Now, there's a picture of Jacob right here.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And sadly, he died in the Johnstown floods.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Which was 1889. And the pottery was in the wake of the flood. It came downriver. There was a huge destruction in the Johnstown floods.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Over 2,000 people died. It was quite a catastrophe.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Many, many categories of collectibles and antiques are down since the recession.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: American-decorated stoneware is one of the few that is not. It's actually flourishing quite well.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So today what we're going to do is put a retail value on this piece in the $9,000 to $11,000 range.
GUEST: Oh, my gosh. That's wonderful. I would have not guessed that.
APPRAISER: I think if you wanted to insure it, because you're going to keep it as a family piece..
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: I think you might be comfortable putting $15,000 value on it.
GUEST: Wow, okay.
APPRAISER: Without this signature and the family history, we might be looking at a piece that's only $1,000.
GUEST: Okay.
