GUEST: It belonged to my grandfather, who lived next door to us when I was growing up. He and my grandmother had it on their mantel, and when he died in 1971, we inherited it. I don't know where he bought it or got it from.
APPRAISER: I've seen a lot of jade objects, but I have never seen this form. It is something called a qilin, which is a mythical beast. It was made in China. The animal itself has scales, and it's got this twisted kind of a lion's head or a dragon's head. And surrounding this, rising up or coming down, is this kind of shape that we would call a cloud shape or a lingzhi shape, which is a type of mushroom that has connotations of both good luck and longevity. This is something that is representative of our innermost kinds of feelings and aspirations.
GUEST: That’s Fascinating.
APPRAISER: This is actually a stack of books, so it can be interpreted as a stack of books of knowledge or a box that's containing a treasure.
GUEST: That's fascinating.
APPRAISER: That is purposeful.
GUEST: That's fascinating.
APPRAISER: The material itself-- this color is this yellow tint. Yellow jade is very, very rare. And one of the clues to the age is the way the carving is done. Now, the carving very broadly looks really beautiful, and it is beautiful, but it's not as finely done as you would see during the 18th or 17th century.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: This would date from what is called the Republic Period.
GUEST: All right.
APPRAISER: So that is pre-1949 in China, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, when there was really a huge effort to create a republican form of government in China.
GUEST: Interesting.
APPRAISER: And so part of that was creating works of art that looked back to the high point of Chinese governance and the arts, which would have been 17th, 18th century, in the Qing Dynasty. There were other high points, but that's what this is looking back to. Is this something you're planning on keeping, or...
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Okay. So I'd say, for insurance purposes, somewhere around $40,000.
GUEST: (gasps, laughs) All right, that's amazing. The last time it was appraised was in 1992, for $1,800. It has jumped.
