GUEST: My husband bought them in England in 1944.
APPRAISER: Here, you brought today the receipt when he bought these plates.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And I love to have old documentation on things like that.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: There's a description. It says, "Six China plates, pierced rim, white with gold, turquoise band, Landseer subject." And he paid a little over 31 pounds.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: We can see that they're all entirely hand-painted. This is really high-quality hand-painted work. Uh, three of them have dogs, which is a very desirable subject.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And two of them have bucks.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Which is also a good subject. And then one here is, like, a pastoral scene, with a wagon and horses.
GUEST: Yes, that's my favorite.
APPRAISER: When these plates were bought by your husband, they were antique.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: They were actually made in the 1870s.
GUEST: Oh my.
APPRAISER: And sold when they were new by Thomas Goode. And then they entered the marketplace, were owned by some family.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And then Thomas Goode bought them back and resold them again in 1944, which is really interesting that they owned them twice. Also on the bottom is a blue painted pattern number, and then a s, another red mark with a number of a plate. Now, these plates were from a whole series done by Minton. And all these plates were after paintings by Sir Edwin Landseer.
GUEST: Oh, that's interesting.
APPRAISER: Landseer died in 1873, and during his lifetime, he was a really famous and prominent British painter of especially dogs and game-type subjects. And they were licensed to copy his paintings on plates. Now, one of the plates, I understand, got broken.
GUEST: Yes. I put it in a plate hanger, and it was bumped, and chipped. And they told me in the States that they didn't have the right gold to repair it. So when we went to England on our 50th wedding anniversary, I took it back to Thomas Goode and Company, and they repaired it.
APPRAISER: And they did an excellent job.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: The repair is across here on the top.
GUEST: Yes, uh-huh.
APPRAISER: But it's really hard to see. So it's a really well-done repair.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: I understand that you had to pay 120 pounds to have that one repaired, which was a lot more than you paid for the whole set in the first place.
GUEST: Yes, it was worth it.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Well, these places are really desirable. in today's marketplace. A retail price is usually between $1,000 and $1,500 each.
GUEST: Oh, my.
APPRAISER: For the ones in perfect condition. And occasionally, in certain circumstances, it might be a bit more.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So you've got five perfect plates-- for the set of five in perfect condition, the total would be between $5,000 and $7,500.
GUEST: (murmurs)
APPRAISER: Plus, you have one additional plate that's damaged and restored well, and that plate would probably be about an additional $500.
GUEST: All right.
APPRAISER: So you've got a really valuable set here.
GUEST: Yes. That's wonderful to hear.
