GUEST: My mother and father purchased it back in the early '60s from an antique shop in Chinatown in Chicago.
APPRAISER: And how much did he pay for it?
GUEST: $600.
APPRAISER: $600-- that was a hefty price in the 1960s to have paid for it.
GUEST: Yes, it was. My folks have told me that it could have come from the Ming Dynasty era.
APPRAISER: All right.
GUEST: And that's about all I know.
APPRAISER: It's not Ming Dynasty.
GUEST: It's not Ming Dynasty?
APPRAISER: No, and it's Chinese export. It was made specifically to sell to the West.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: It was made in South China, probably in Canton Province. These things were made in a factory kind of environment, produced in fairly large
Quantities, of which very, very few have survived.
GUEST: Oh, really?
APPRAISER: And it's pottery that's been cold-painted, and it's a Qing Dynasty official.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And he's a top-ranking official. The plaque that's on the front, and there's a reverse one on the back...
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: ...are rank badges, and he has a crane on that, which means he's a first-ranking Official. The necklace that he's wearing is a court necklace, and then that cap used to be made out of otter's fur. Part of the China trade was, they would send us figures like this, and we sold them otter pelts from the Northwest coast.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: The robe that's underneath there is a dragon robe, and that was an official honor, to be given that robe.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And that robe would have been embroidered with dragons everywhere, dragons and pearls. And it dates probably to the very early part of the 19th century, maybe 1800 to about 1830. And you can tell that particularly because these figures later on get much, much less realistic. And originally, he would have had, on the back of the hat, there would have been a peacock feather. And it has a little bit of damage, but it can be repaired. And it's not a particularly difficult repair to do. It doesn't much affect the price of the piece. I would think at auction, this piece should sell for around $40,000.
GUEST: Okay, cool.
APPRAISER: And wouldn't be surprised at all if it sold for more.
GUEST: That would be neat.
APPRAISER: Yeah. And there were originally two of them, a male and a female figure.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And at that, you don't even know what would happen in terms of the price. It'd be sky-high. They're exceptionally rare--I've never seen any of them outside of museums.
