GUEST: I yard-sale with my friend a lot, and we were out one Saturday, and it was sitting on a table with a bunch of broken stuff, and I was just drawn to the cats and dogs on it and the way it looked and everything, and I liked it.
APPRAISER: And mice.
GUEST: And mice, and I went back three times and looked at it, and finally, I said, "I have to have it," so I bought it.
APPRAISER: And you paid how much for it?
GUEST: Two dollars.
APPRAISER: Two dollars. How long ago did you buy this?
GUEST: About a year and a half to two years, and I've had it in a cabinet since.
APPRAISER: So, what have you found out about it since you've had this?
GUEST: Nothing, except that it says "Rookwood" on the bottom.
APPRAISER: Okay, well, it does say "Rookwood" on the bottom.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Right over here.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And it also says "Cranch," and that's for Edward P. Cranch, who was an early-period Rookwood decorator.
GUEST: Oh!
APPRAISER: And his work is typified by this incised, sort of illustrative style.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: And he was kind of an odd guy.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And used a very peculiar subject matter. Here we have cats reading books, and...
GUEST: I thought it was very peculiar, yeah.
APPRAISER: Yeah. This incised, or sgraffito, decoration with black outlining, almost always on this sort of brown background, is what he's known for.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: He tended to repeat scenes. He only worked for a couple of years, so it's quite rare.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: Usually from about 1880 to 1884.
GUEST: That's great.
APPRAISER: But this one I've never seen before. And I also like the fact that it's got its original stopper. If this is all it had without the chain, I would have assumed that the stopper was lost.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And somebody just put a cork in it. But this is, is the original stopper.
GUEST: Oh, that's great.
APPRAISER: So I'd say a couple, three years ago, this piece might have been worth about $500 to $700.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Today, without this decoration, but with more typical decoration, about $1,000. But because of the cats and the dogs, I'm thinking maybe between $1,500 and $2,000 retail at auction.
GUEST: Oh, that's wonderful. Oh, that's wonderful.
APPRAISER: Okay?
GUEST: Very good, so that was a good investment on my two dollars.
APPRAISER: I'd say that was a good yard sale find.
GUEST: That's right, that's right, that's right.
