GUEST: My husband had this when we were first going together.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And he had gotten it from his uncle. It didn't fit in our home anymore, and so we stored it, and quite regretfully, it got damaged, and I want to know if it's worth any value or if it's something to just kind of discard and say, "Too bad, it's gone."
APPRAISER: Chinese painting is done in a narrative fashion, so you have the same figure represented in different poses. And this is the figure of a woman named Xiwangmu. She was sort of the leader of the immortals, which is this heavenly band of deities in Chinese mythology.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: And they lived on an island called.... Penglai-Shan which is the island of the immortals. If you look at this figure here, see the details?
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: There's gold decoration on the robe, beautifully painted, which is characteristic of a type of design that you find often on Coromandel lacquer screens from the late 17th, early 18th century. And I think that's when this dates from.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: So we're talking about some time in the 18th century. The big question is, what is the effect... of sitting in the water in the basement?
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And it's lifting from the paper and wooden background. And even some of the pigments are starting to lift from the silk surface. Nonetheless, the quality of it is superb. You rarely get scenes like this, which is a banquet scene, probably given to a very high official for a birthday celebration. Anyone that could have afforded this screen lived in a tremendously large compound with a very high-ceilinged home, had a lot of money. So this was something that was meant for the very highest tiers of society. I think-- and my colleagues agree-- that the value of this has to be in the $30,000 to $50,000 range, as it is now.
GUEST: (laughing) Oh, my goodness. And I-- I was wondering whether I should...
APPRAISER: What were you wondering you were going to do?
GUEST: (laughing) I didn't know whether it should be saved or not. Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER: It's certainly not something to leave in the basement.
GUEST: Heavens, no! And I brought it in an old bedsheet. (laughing) Thank you! (laughing)
