Reproduction Colima Ceramic Dog

Appraised on: July 10, 1999

Appraised in: Salt Lake City, Utah

Appraised by: John Buxton

Category: Tribal Arts

Episode Info: Cats and Dogs (#1619)
Wild Things (#916)

Originally Aired: December 19, 2005

IMAGE: 1 of 2  

Appraisal Video: (1:55)

GUEST: A friend of my dad's, he belonged to an archeological club affiliated with the University of Utah about 35 years ago. This gentleman was a millionaire, and him and my dad became good friends and liked my dad and gave him one of two dogs that he had.

APPRAISER: So do you have any idea what this is?

GUEST: I've seen pictures similar to this in books of Mayan...

APPRAISER: You think it's Mayan?

GUEST: I think it might be Mayan.

APPRAISER: Okay. This piece is supposed to come actually from west Mexico, in the province of Colima, and what we look for in a Colima dog is a wide open mouth like this, real sharp ears, the striations are great, curly tail and fat body. All of that's highly desirable. Unfortunately, what they did with this one is they incorporated it all into what is a contemporary piece. This was made for sale. And the striations normally are on a dog that's sitting on its haunches. Stylistically, it's a little aberrant, and it doesn't come together like an authentic dog. The most telling sign is the fact that it was fired in an electric kiln. When you tap on this thing like this, it has a very high pitch, which means it wasn't fired in a primitive kiln. So therefore, we know that this piece is not authentic.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: They sell this sort of thing on the decorative market all the time for $150 to $200. So how did you come out on it?

GUEST: Oh, it cost nothing, so...

APPRAISER: So you're $200 ahead of the game.

GUEST: $200 ahead.

APPRAISER: If this thing were authentic, a dog like this now would be $4,000 to $6,000.