GUEST: It seems to be an antique bowl. I bought it at a, sort of a charity auction about five or six years ago. They called it a, uh, silver-tone dragon bowl. I was born in 1976, and so that's, that's the year of the dragon in the Chinese zodiac. So I've always kind of kept a lookout for dragons, and I have a, a few of them. I find them very interesting.
APPRAISER: Oh, I see.
GUEST: So, I work with some people from China. And they always say that it's one of the more powerful symbols in the zodiac.
APPRAISER: It's a Chinese export silver punch bowl. It's made by a company called Wang Hing. They were established in Canton in 1854, and due to their enormous success, opened up in Hong Kong in the early part of the 20th century. I think this bowl dates from after they opened up in Hong Kong in the early 20th century.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Obviously, the trade routes really started to open up in the late 19th century, and the appetite for Chinese export silver became a lot greater as that trade sort of opened up and tastes became a little bit more exotic, let's say. We've got these wonderful dragons. Now, these are separately cast and applied to the bowl. The bowl itself is raised up on a form, as it would be normally, and then these dragons are cast separately. The interesting sort of motif on this, as you've probably seen, is the flaming pearl in the center.
GUEST: Hm.
APPRAISER: So the dragon chasing the flaming pearl is something which you see a lot on Chinese decorative arts. So, you often see these dragons in clouds, and appearing across the sky and all kinds of things, chasing this, this flaming pearl. It's a very, very common motif in Chinese, uh, decorative arts-- textiles and export silver like we see here. We tip it back... We've got the W.H. for Wang Hing. We've got the 90 there, which is the sterling silver standard mark. And we've got the character mark for silver in Chinese, as well. So all in all, a fantastic bowl. Very, very collectible. The market for Chinese export silver has grown exponentially in the last, let's say, five to ten years. So, you said you bought it at this charity auction? It was a "silver-tone" bowl, Chinese-style?
GUEST: Right, uh, you know, I think, if I remember correctly, I think I paid about, about $600 for it.
APPRAISER: $600?
GUEST: Um, yeah.
APPRAISER: Not too long ago-- not too long ago.
GUEST: Yeah, about five or six years I've had it.
APPRAISER: The auction estimate for this bowl would comfortably sit at $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST: Wow. That's pretty major.
APPRAISER: Congratulations for having it.
GUEST: Thank you so much, David, I appreciate it.
