GUEST: This is part of my grandfather's collection. It was in one of his rooms that he had at the house and he always had American flags in it.
APPRAISER: Where was your grandfather from?
GUEST: From Nebraska. I think it's Arkansas clay.
APPRAISER: You had asked someone about it once. You asked a museum one time to tell you about the piece. And what did they tell you?
GUEST: Well, they said that they didn't make one this big.
APPRAISER: Well, you know it's Niloak. And it was made in Benton, Arkansas. The company was run by the Hyten family, Charles Hyten. And around 1912, Mr. Hyten started making these pieces with, probably, Arkansas clay.
GUEST: Mmm.
APPRAISER: And the idea was to get different-color clay and throw them together to get this swirl effect.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And it's become known as missionware.
GUEST: Oh, uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And it works very nicely with mission furniture-- with a lot of decor.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: We're going to tip this over. Here's the Niloak mark right here. It's N-I-L-O-A-K. Do you have any idea where the name Niloak comes from?
GUEST: No.
APPRAISER: It's actually "Kaolin" spelled backwards. Now, kaolin is the main ingredient in porcelain.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: Now, this is not porcelain. This is earthenware, it's made out of native clays, but that's where the name comes from. And Niloak started making pieces of missionware around 1912...
GUEST: 1912.
APPRAISER: ...and probably made them until the 1940s. So it's difficult to tell exactly when this was made, but somewhere in that time frame. What's really impressive about this piece is the size. And I would think that the man who threw this literally had to be a very hefty, strong man. There's a lot of clay in this piece. Where I have seen pieces like this, it's typically a sand jar. And a lot of times, they would be used in the front of a Masonic temple, where you would have sand in it to put cigarettes out.
GUEST: Oh, uh-huh.
APPRAISER: So they were oftentimes made in pairs. But there aren't many of these. Even though the market for American art pottery is pretty soft right now, this is an exception, because it's so big.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: I believe, in an auction setting, that we're probably looking at this piece selling for between $5,000 and $7,000.
GUEST: My goodness, I'd have never expected that.
