APPRAISER: Rachel, what a wonderful piece of furniture. What do you know about it?
GUEST: All I know is that it's been in my family since my great-great-grandmother. It was in a villa in Italy.
APPRAISER: Where in Italy was the villa?
GUEST: It was in Florence, I believe.
APPRAISER: Is your family originally from that area?
GUEST: Yeah, my family's from the area.
APPRAISER: Well, this piece of furniture is actually not Florentine. That's why I was curious to find out where this villa was in Italy. It's actually, traditionally, this type of furniture is made in Milan, so, from a completely different area. Characteristically, the type of furniture is inlaid with ivory and/or bone that has been engraved. And what's wonderful about this piece is that so often not only does the ivory pop out and is lost, but it's retained most of the wonderful engraving to it. If you open the drawers and look at the construction, this piece dates in fact from about the 1860s, judging from the construction and just looking at the way the drawer is chamfered. And also looking at the shrinkage, you've got some horizontal cracks here. So overall, I would date this to about the 1860s. A fair value would be between $10,000 and $15,000. It's a wonderful family heirloom with a great story behind it.
