GUEST: About 30 years ago, I was down in Nyack, and there was this lovely antique shop, and I used to go in, and there was a man there who owned it, Mr. Morris Stolper. There were many levels of satsuma and he taught me all these things to look for. He said, "I want you to buy whatever it is that I'm going to tell you to buy, trust me." And he said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to charge you a lot. I want you to have some of these things." So whatever is here he told me to buy. I never paid more than $100 for any object. I love them, my husband loves them.
APPRAISER: I love them, too, and I'm so pleased that you brought these in, and you, you've identified the type of ceramic these are by saying satsuma. The best satsuma ware was produced in Japan during the Meiji Period. We're talking the late 19th century...
GUEST: Yes, yeah.
APPRAISER: ...into the very early part of the, of the 20th century. Satsuma ware is a very fine earthenware. The region where satsuma comes from-- which is the Kagoshima Prefecture, in the very south of Japan-- the region itself, politically, was very closely associated with the Meiji Period.
It was a stronghold of support for the Meiji emperor when he restored the emperor's power from the shogun. The examples you brought here today, which represent the work of three distinct studios, to me, represent the very pinnacle of satsuma production.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: These were wares that were made for export.
GUEST: Oh!
APPRAISER: So these were luxury wares. These were not inexpensive in the time of their production, but these were made to impress the West. This is from the Ryozan studio, these two pieces. The detail of the decoration is exquisite. This jar is in the form of a pomegranate. This vase, it has so much detail.
GUEST: It does...
APPRAISER: One of the studios that was very prolific in this period is the Kinkozan studio. And what's interesting about the piece of Kinkozan you've brought in is, you have this very elaborate design. So it's representing an imperial procession. It's marked "Kinkozan" on the bottom. But what I find very interesting, it actually has the Kinkozan retail label on the bottom, as well.
GUEST: Really? That's original?
APPRAISER: That's right, that is an original label. The finest artist's studio associated with satsuma, though, there's one name that rises above the others, and that name is Yabu Meizan. And you brought two examples from the studio of Yabu Meizan.
GUEST: No. No!
APPRAISER: Yes. And Yabu Meizan is best known for works of art that are, that are very similar to these, where the decoration is intricate, it's well-balanced but it's also sparse.
GUEST: Sparse.
APPRAISER: Both of these have Yabu Meizan marks on the base. The overall Japanese ceramics market is, is mostly a down market. These are pieces for which there's an active buying market, though. If you were to sell these pieces, you could expect at auction something along the line, for this pomegranate jar from Ryozan, $5,000. For this smaller Ryozan piece, $2,500 to $3,000. Kinkozan-- it's an excellent piece of Kinkozan, a little more common compared to what else is here-- about $2,000. Getting to the Yabu Meizan pieces, where even differences in an inch, there's sort of an exponential value accumulation as they get larger. So this smaller piece, to begin with, is probably about a $2,500 vase. But this vase, being of larger size and just such a wonderful example of his work, I would say, individually, is about $8,000 at auction. But I think, from what we see on the table, somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 for this collection.
GUEST: Thank you, Mr. Stolper. Oh, my God. Thank you so much. Oh, it's... I never knew.
APPRAISER: You had a good friend.
