WOMAN: Well, I bought that from a friend as a Christmas gift for my husband.
APPRAISER: And how long ago was that?
GUEST: It was about 20 years ago.
APPRAISER: Uh-huh. And what do you know of it?
GUEST: I just know that it's Weller pottery. Mm-hmm. And that the glaze is done by Sicard.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And that's all I know.
APPRAISER: Okay. Well, it is, as you're saying, a piece of Weller-Sicard pottery, done by Jacques Sicard. Jacques Sicard pioneered these iridescent glazes, which cover this piece, and was hired by Samuel Weller to come to Zanesville, Ohio, in about 1903 to ply his craft there. He kept his process a secret. Supposedly, he had to fire these pieces seven times to get these iridescent glazes. But Samuel Weller was notorious for hiring people, learning their secrets, and then firing them. So Jacques Sicard was a smart dude.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: He kept it to himself and his assistant and worked there for about four or five years before retiring. So, uh, I, I like this piece for several reasons. And, first of all, let's say, how do we know it's Weller-Sicard? It's not the only iridescent pottery out there. Number one, because there's no mark on the bottom of this, only a production number. But if we look on the side, over here, it says "Sicard," and over here, it says "Weller." So we know it's a piece of Weller-Sicard. That's one way of knowing. Number two, it's a molded form. We know this is a Weller-Sicard form.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: I wish I had some silver mitts. You know, those gloves you clean silver with?
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: Because there's so much color in the top of this piece, especially in this part of the lid right here. There's shimmering scarlet and, and midnight blue and emerald greens. This thing would really glow with some silver polish cleaning it off. So that all said, it's a beautiful piece of Weller-Sicard. And you knew what it was when you bought it. What did you pay for this?
GUEST: It would have been under $500, because I wouldn't have paid more than that.
APPRAISER: Okay, that's a good rationale. (laughs) On today's market, a piece this rare and this clean-- especially if we can bring up the color-- at auction, somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500. So it's a very nice piece.
GUEST: That's... good, thank you. Okay, I'd seen the vases, but I'd never seen one with the cover, so...
APPRAISER: That's because the covers tended to break over the years. It's really, really hard to find one.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: I'm not kidding.
