GUEST: I inherited this from my mother's family. I know it was in their family at least in the '50s because I have a picture of my mother as a young child around this. Other than that I don't really know where it came from.
APPRAISER: The colors, the scene, the ceramic body indicate that it's Chinese. The decoration, as you could see, it's bright and cheery. It's all emblems that have resonance concerning long life, which are the storks. The peaches are prosperity. The yellow colors and the pine is kind of resilience. In spite of the turbulence of life, which is represented by the waves underneath. You've got a rock and a pine tree that stand firm against everything. And we flip it over and look at the underside, and we see that it has a mark, which says it dates to the Qianlong period, 1736 to 1795.
GUEST: Oh, my.
APPRAISER: But that's a spurious mark. It's an honorific mark, so it actually dates to a little bit later, more like about 1900. To the Guangxu period.
GUEST: So is this something that would be made for export?
APPRAISER: No, this is made for domestic consumption. It's a terrific vase. It's worth about $2,500 to $4,000 at an auction sale.
GUEST: Wonderful.
