GUEST: I have a dear friend who saw a show a couple of years ago. And there was a bowl of this shape and size with a nature theme to it. And she called me and said, "I think your bowl might be by the same person." I had never ever turned it over to look at the bottom of it. And it's very heavy. So we hung up the phone, and I turned it over, and indeed it was a Frackelton bowl. It was in my grandparents' home, they were married in 190 2...
APPRAISER: Uh-huh.
GUEST: ...went to my father, and, uh, then to me.
APPRAISER: Well, Susan Frackelton was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and a very important figure in Arts and Crafts. Before then, men were primarily the ones involved in the arts. And Arts and Crafts really got women into the decorative arts and designing pieces such as this one. Uh, it's a wedding bowl, and it says here, "Love is the sweet wine of life." And in the middle, it has the initials of the people who were married and the date 1902. The decoration on the inside is reinforced with clusters of grapes on the outside, so it's a punch bowl or a wine bowl. And very beautiful piece. Uh, also, it's very well marked. If you look underneath it, we'll see that Susan Frackelton is incised S and then her full last name, Frackelton, underneath it. And she's also put the date 1902 on the bottom, as well. So you've not had this piece appraised. You have no idea of value.
GUEST: Never. Never.
APPRAISER: It's really hard, because you'll see a piece of Frackelton once every three or four years if you look for it all the time. Consequently, it's a little difficult to evaluate. Easily, easily $20,000 to $30,000 piece of pottery on a bad day. And possibly, if the right museum got involved, $25,000, $35,000, so...
GUEST: No.
APPRAISER: Yeah, really. Um... (chuckles)
GUEST: Oh, my. (sighs) Thank you so much.
APPRAISER: My pleasure.
GUEST: Thank you.
APPRAISER: Thank you. It's great to see it.
GUEST: Could you say that one more time?
APPRAISER: $20,000 to $30,000. Minimum. Minimum.
GUEST: Oh...
APPRAISER: And, the right museum, $25,000 to $35,000. Maybe a little more.
GUEST: (sighs) Wow. (laughs) Me without my handkerchief. (sniffles)
