GUEST: It was my great-aunt's, who lived in New York. She and her sister came to New York City from Russia in 1906, probably. She was a secretary, worked in the city all her life, had gorgeous things in her home. My grandmother, her sister, was a decorator, and so I have a feeling maybe Grandma Florence sort of helped Aunt Vicky buy some things. It's been in my home for probably 20 to 30 years sitting in a corner with silk flowers in it, and I didn't give much thought to it.
APPRAISER: So do you know who made it or where it came from?
GUEST: I always thought it was Royal Doulton. I knew it came from England and I knew it was signed.
APPRAISER: It is Royal Doulton. There's a mark on the bottom. I'm not going to pick it up, but there's a nice stamp on the bottom that tells us it was made at the Doulton Factory in Burslem, and Doulton had two factories: one in London and one in Staffordshire, in Burslem, where this was made. And that kind of makes sense. It's what they made there at the time, the time being about 1895 or 1900. One of the features I liked about it, and I'm going to pull this out: it has the original liner. Now, these metal liners were placed in vases of this caliber because you didn't want to put water in there and fill it, and indeed you really didn't want to put anything in there that was going to disturb it, so having a metal liner was perfect. And you very rarely find them still there, but it's nice that it exists. You mentioned it was signed. Let's look at that signature. I'm going to turn it around. And there it is. This is Edward Raby. Raby was from a family of Staffordshire potters who were principally decorators of porcelain in the English potteries through the 19th century. And as you can see, I think, as we look around this extraordinary vase, he was very talented, indeed. There were a lot of people who could paint flowers-- it was a tradition to pass down flower painting through generations-- but very few people could paint them in this manner. Raby was able to capture the Japanese taste as interpreted by, I would say, the best French painters of the day and the best decorators in general. His work is quite sought after. I would say if this came to auction today, it would carry an estimate of between $3,000 and $5,000.
GUEST: Oh, my word.
APPRAISER: That's pretty good, by the way, for a Doulton vase. One of the things I like about it is I don't think it's one of a pair. Vases were often made in pairs at this time. They were also made individually, and to me this is a tour de force made as an individual object.
GUEST: Thank you so much.
APPRAISER: You're very welcome.
