GUEST: It's a brass, uh, Chinese, I believe, uh, bowl that came from my great-aunt. The family story is that she was married to a, a doctor, and that there was sometimes that she had actually bartered for goods for services during the Depression.
APPRAISER: It's Chinese, so at least you're right on the first...
GUEST: Right about the...
APPRAISER: ...on the first part, but to, to describe it as a bowl is... You're part of the way there.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: This is actually a, a vessel that's used for ritual purpose. Okay. We call this a censer, and a censer is just another way of saying it's an incense burner. Let's picture this vessel, which is bronze, not, not brass.
GUEST: Brass, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Chinese bronzes made for ritual purpose go back kind of prehistory, 2,000, 3,000 years BC. So in China, maybe 1000, 1500 BC, they were making ritual vessels of this general square form, and that would be called a fang-ding. This is not from 1000 BC.
GUEST: (chuckling)
APPRAISER: This is something that follows in a long tradition.
GUEST: (murmurs) Right.
APPRAISER: This is more for a home shrine, perhaps, or it could be for a, for a scholar's studio. I'm gonna lift up the bottom to show a mark that you've certainly seen, and, and probably wondered about-- this is Ming Dynasty. Da Ming actually means "Great Ming." Xuande is the emperor's name. And then this is nian zhi, which just means "period made."
GUEST: (murmurs)
APPRAISER: Now, that's a, that's a 15th-century emperor.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: But this was not made in that period. In fact, this is what we would refer to as an honorific mark.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: The reason it has a 15th-century imperial mark on it is because that's a period that epitomized just a, a high point in bronze production. The Xuande emperor was a devout Buddhist. In his period, many vessels of this type were made to go into Buddhist temples all throughout China. And so this form is synonymous with, with Xuande. I think it was likely made at the tail end of the 17th century.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So it still has considerable age. Right. But not as old as the mark would suggest. There are a few issues as, as far as condition goes. I know from looking at it that this surface has been polished at some point.
GUEST: Yes-- not by me.
APPRAISER: You... (laughs) Okay!
GUEST: It was actually, when, when I acquired it from my, my great-aunt, it, it, it sat on the mantel, and it, yes, it was a, it was a very shiny piece, so...
APPRAISER: (chuckles) Okay, it, it should have a burnished, kind of patinated surface. Now, I'm happy to say that the patination has come back a little bit. This is not as shiny as I'm sure it once was.
GUEST: No, not at all.
APPRAISER: And so keeping that, that's good. What I do see, though, throughout, is this sort of green verdigris, or, or otherwise, we would call this bronze disease.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And this has something to do, probably with, it, it could be a matter of humidity in the air, it could be a matter of this getting wet, or just being exposed to, to something that the br, isn't good for the bronze. I would suggest that this be taken to a conservator just to get this cleaned off. These sorts of vessels really resonate with Chinese collectors. They represent a history of ritual, a history of scholarship. And so the market for these is very strong right now. Do you have any idea what this is worth? Or have you ever suspected what it may be worth on the market?
GUEST: Not really, I mean, we, we guessed at maybe, $2,500 or $3,000, something like that. So…
APPRAISER: You're not terribly far off. I think at auction, I would put a, what may be a conservative auction estimate, in, in 2021, of $5,000 to $8,000 for its sale. Okay. If the patina had been left alone, and it had the original sort of beautiful brown patina, I think a value of perhaps $30,000 would not be out of the question.
GUEST: Wow. Yeah, that's crazy. Just that from her polishing it at some point.
APPRAISER: I'm afraid so! (laughs)
