APPRAISER: I'd love to know more about how you found it.
GUEST: Uh, shopping at a Salvation Army.
APPRAISER: It's a jar and cover. Let's take a look at who made it. It was made in Berlin in Germany by the Royal Porcelain Works, the KPM factory. And we know that by this nice clear mark here. Just above it, you can see very faintly a trace of blue line there. That's a scepter mark, which is a mark of the KPM factory. We think it was made about 1890. It has some flourishes on it. The little knop here, as we would call it, is expertly painted in gilt. Kind of a Gilded Age finish. As is the foot. You didn't have to do that, but they decided to put this little swag on it and put a dark blue, rich blue ground on it, which is very late 19th century. The pot itself and the top are made by a conventional technique called slip casting, where slip, or clay in liquid suspension, is cast into a mold. It's made of porcelain and the painting is done by hand. All of the colors are painted in enamel, uh, including the ground color. And then the gilding, that would be done as a kind of finishing touch. There's a lot of work gone into this object. Very expertly done. And what's nice about it is the condition. It's really in good shape. So what did you pay for it?
GUEST: Five dollars.
APPRAISER: If it came to auction, the estimate on this beautiful KPM vase jar and cover would be between $1,000 and $1,500.
GUEST: Not bad for five dollars.
APPRAISER: Not bad at all.
