APPRAISER: What we have in front of us is a wonderful Continental porcelain tête-à-tête. It's a little service that was set up for coffee, and it would date from about 1820 to 1840. Is it a family piece?
GUEST: Yes, my-- it belongs to my stepfather's family.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: We have a diary, and it was brought over from Paris in 1929. We have a record of where they were packing it up and they made note of that in the diary.
APPRAISER: Exactly. It's a Berlin service in a Classical design. It's German. And you can see that on the mark that we have here on the saucer. This is the royal scepter mark. The company was founded in 1752, and about 1763, it was taken over by courtly patronage, and they always have continued to produce very beautiful items like this. They're often decorated with scenic designs, sometimes with portraits, et cetera. It's really a very fine service. As you were bringing it over earlier, you had originally pulled out a cup and a saucer, and as we went about through it, out came another cup and a saucer. The next thing you knew, we had a nice little syrup jug, and then I noticed you had pulled out the tray. It's amazing. Part of its importance is its completeness. The other thing that I think we'll notice is the wonderful decoration of it, whether it's the very rich gold tone finish, or whether it's this light blue, the russet colors, the earthenware tones that are here, all colors very popular from that early part of the century. And this Egyptian motif was very important, was a prominent theme. It's just really a very fabulous set. Something that at auction would probably fetch in the area of $6,000 to $8,000.
GUEST: Oh, really?
APPRAISER: Did you have any idea as to what its value might be?
GUEST: No, we didn't. It's been in my mother's china closet for as long as I can remember, and nobody has ever been able to give us a history on it.
APPRAISER: Right
