GUEST: Both of them were in my mom's care, and this one, actually, I'm not sure where it came from, but I think she bought it somewhere in San Diego, maybe 30 or 40 years ago. This one I know she brought back either from China or Hong Kong. My husband's never liked this one. So it sits in a powder room.
APPRAISER: So this one sits in a powder room, okay.
GUEST: And this one goes in a box in a closet.
APPRAISER: So this one, no one sees this one.
GUEST: No one sees that one.
APPRAISER: And people see that occasionally. Well, do you have any idea where this one is from? I think you have some good idea here.
GUEST: Um, China?
APPRAISER: It is from China, yeah. And the decoration is very distinct on this piece. He is a Taoist immortal figure named Liu Hai. He was a bit of a hermit, didn't have any friends, except for the pet frog, who you may not have even noticed in the decoration, living on his shoulder. Well, the frog only has three legs, but would frequently fall down open wells, and Liu Hai would have to fish him out using the string of coins that he's holding in his hand, because that's the only thing the frog was interested in. This piece is a little bit more conventional, you could say, in its decoration. It's very wonderfully enameled. It's porcelain. Of the two, one of these is, I would say, is considerably older. Any idea which piece pre-dates the other?
GUEST: I would think maybe the bowl is older.
APPRAISER: It's actually the vase that's older.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: Yeah, the vase I would date to about the 1870s or 1880s. I think this porcelain-covered box likely dates from the 1920s. We actually call these porcelain boxes, even though it's... one thinks of a box as having some square kind of dimension. But it's beautifully potted. It's well made, fits very well. Of these two pieces, do you have a preference, or... which one you like the best?
GUEST: Well, I like with the little people on them, that one, the bowl.
APPRAISER: I, I do, too. It's a good question when we value Chinese porcelain or pottery, or really any decorative arts, how much does age determine value? And in some cases it does, but in this case, this piece from the 1920s is the more valuable of the two. And the reason why is, is just, it has everything that the Chinese collectors, who do drive the market right now, really wish to see. It's beautifully enameled. It's colorful. The condition is excellent. It's a rarer configuration to have the cover on the box in this way. I would say that this vase right here would sell, likely, at auction, in the $2,000 to $3,000 range. This piece, if it would come up at auction, in 2018, would likely sell between $8,000 and $12,000.
GUEST: Nice, great.
APPRAISER: Thank you so much for bringing these in.
GUEST: OK, thank you.
