GUEST: So I got this at auction. I go to auctions and garage sales, estate sales... weekend warrior. This was probably the most expensive piece I ever bought. I paid around $2,000 for it.
APPRAISER: What a massive bronze. We were saying, I think this must have weighed, like, 75 pounds. How much does it weigh?
GUEST: 76 pounds.
APPRAISER (laughing): Wow. It's an incense burner. Chinese. And it has a marking. For the sake of the weight of the thing, we're not going to turn it over and look at it. But the mark says “Da Ming Xuande nian zhi.” And that means, "made during the Ming Dynasty during the Xuande reign," which is the early part of the 15th century. However, this is not from that period of time. It is an exact copy of one that would have been made at that period of time. The same shape. The Chinese refer to square and rectangular as the same, fang. And then the incense burner, the word is xianglu. But it has all sorts of dragons and other mythical animals, and the dragons are morphing into clouds at the top. And it's just a really bold, bold piece.
GUEST: I just love the detail. I mean, it's detailed from top to bottom.
APPRAISER: The details around the body is... There are wave motifs with all these mythical animals that are floating through the waves. And you can see them on the front. And then you can also see them... on the side. And then they're repeated from the front... to the back. And then they're repeated on the end, but different animals on this side. And then we come back to the front. This piece was actually made probably about 300 to 350 years later than the Xuande period. It was made during a period called Daoguang. And Daoguang was 1820 to 1850. In the Daoguang period, there's this Ming revival, that they'll do things that you're convinced that they're Ming. But they're actually from that period of time. But they're a little cruder, you know, a little less work than the originals. But still, a piece like this, it just has a presence of its own.
GUEST: Yup.
APPRAISER: Ever used it?
GUEST: No, it sits in front of the fireplace, actually. I just like to look at it.
APPRAISER: It would be full of sand, and then you'd put a piece of charcoal in and put the incense on top of it. For your $2,000 investment, what do you think it's worth?
GUEST: No idea. I was hoping that it's worth $5,000.
APPRAISER: In a retail setting, it would probably be worth around $30,000.
GUEST: $30,000?
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Very good.
APPRAISER: Yeah, it was a good buy.
GUEST: It was a very good buy.
APPRAISER: The Chinese market has softened a little bit, so it would have been even more, like, ten years ago.
