GUEST: It's an old family piece that came in, I believe, from my great-grandfather.
APPRAISER: This is a first for ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, I think. This is a piece of French 18th century furniture that's signed, which is really great to see on ROADSHOW. It was made in the reign of Louis XV, right around 1750, and we know this because stylistically, it is a classic Rococo form, with these cabriole legs and the sort of curved outline, as well as the marquetry inlay, which is made of tulipwood and kingwood on the front. And the gilt bronze mounted handles, which have actually been re-gilded and most likely are not period to the piece. It has the original marble top with a rough cut back edge, which is great to see on a piece of furniture that's over 250 years old. And it's also signed, as I'd mentioned, and it's signed on this top right corner, right here. We see the "Freizell," which is the maker, but then there's also a very small stamp that says "J.M.E."
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Which is the jurande des menuisiers ÈbÈniste. And it's basically the guild that they were accepted into. And they were held to a very, very high standard with the furniture that they made. And the J.M.E. guild was created in 1743 and it was disbanded in 1791, so we know immediately it's made in that period. And then we look stylistically at it, and it's classic Rococo form, Louis XV, so we're able to date it to 1750, maybe 1755. One of the things when we're identifying European furniture in the 18th and 19th century, you look at the legs. If they're straight, it's late. If they're curly, it's early. (laughing) And on this, the legs are curly, they're curved, so we know it's early.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: I talked about the mounts. They have been replaced. There has been some other restoration, a little bit of in-painting, and right here along the drawer front, you can see there was some veneer loss, and what restorers do is they infill it, and instead of replacing it with veneer, they paint it, so it's sort of grain painted in these small patches to give you the sense of the veneer. It was easier to do than to find a piece of veneer that matched the grain of the piece.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Great marquetry, veneer which we call sommes traversÈ, because they veneer it right across the drawer front as if the drawers weren't there, it's just a single rosette. So a real treat to see. Any idea of the value?
GUEST: It was appraised in the estate of my parents and was quite expensive.
APPRAISER: Do you recall what it was appraised for?
GUEST: I believe it was '97 in my mother's estate, they came up with a $22,000 figure.
APPRAISER: Okay. That's a strong number for something like this, but it's certainly not out of the ordinary, and it's certainly in line with an insurance value in today's market. The market really has this big, big curve tied to the economy, and pieces like this, while the mounting affects it a little bit, if I were to see this come up for auction today, I would expect it to sell for between about $7,000 and $10,000.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: If it were being insured, I would expect an insurance value of closer to about $20,000 for it.
GUEST: I gotcha.
