GUEST: It belonged to my mother.
APPRAISER: Where did she get it?
GUEST: I think it was a gift from a friend.
APPRAISER: This is really a wonderful little piece. It is what is known as a Russian wine cup, or a kovsh. And it was made by a very famous Russian silversmith and enameler by the name of Ovchinnikov. And he was one of Faberge's competitors. It is really beautifully done. It is shaded Russian enamel on a silver base. Sometimes they only put, like, the pink in, but here they very carefully, in the flowers, shaded the pink to the white. So that really makes it special. And then when you turn it over, it has a wonderful set of Russian marks. And there are marks also on the handle. Because of the marks on the bottom, we know it was made before 1896. It's very interesting because he was very apt to make his pieces much heavier than a lot of his competitors did. So it's really an exceptional piece. It's small, and it's in wonderful condition. Quite often the enameling gets chipped, and that is really a problem. But I really think this is about as nice a piece as you're going to find. And today, a retail price for this piece would be $18,000.
GUEST: (laughs) You've got to be kidding.
APPRAISER: No, that's the truth.
GUEST: $18,000?
APPRAISER: Yes, mm-hmm.
GUEST: I figured it may be worth a couple hundred dollars.
