Japanese Porcelain Lantern, ca. 1900
Appraised Value:
$10,000 - $10,000
IMAGE: 1 of 1
Appraisal Video:
Appraisal Transcript:
GUEST: It belonged to my uncle, my mother's brother.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: We know that it's been in the family about 70 years. Other than that,
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: I did talk with an appraiser and he said that he thought it was like in the 19th century.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And it was Chinese. Other than that, uh, but he really couldn't tell me. So that's all we know.
APPRAISER: This piece was made at about 1900 to 1910. And it's actually Japanese.
GUEST: Japanese. Oh. It is Japanese.
APPRAISER: Yes. And it was made in an area of Japan called Arita, which is a very large porcelain production area with many factories that make porcelain for export to the West. And so this is an example, a classic example of Arita blue-and- white porcelain. And this form is actually a garden lantern. This was made to be placed in a Japanese-style garden probably in the United States or in Europe originally. Have you ever had it outside?
GUEST: No. Never. It's a—
APPRAISER: No?
GUEST: It's always been inside. (laughing)
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: Always.
APPRAISER: All right, well, it has some very sort of typical Japanese motifs. Starting down here, with this sort of meandering vine design. And then moving upward, you see the typical dragons here,
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: along the border. Below, an open work border. And in this section is where the light would have gone. A candle or a lantern of some sort would have gone and then sort of a very subtle light would have radiated from this section right here. Again, we have the motif of the sort of vines right here. And then it's all topped off antastic Shishi
GUEST: Shishi.
APPRAISER: which is a, basically a lion. A Japanese lion. And they generally are fairly fierce creatures. This one looks a little bit more surprised than, (laughing) than fierce.
GUEST: Yes he does.
APPRAISER: It has a few problems, condition problems, as you know.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: There are a couple of chips,
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: uh, and a few cracks here and there. But the fact that it survived at all being a very large porcelain piece is great, it's wonderful. Because it's so unusual and because it's such a large piece, we think that the value at auction would be about $10,000.
GUEST: $10,000?
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Yeah. Very good.
APPRAISER: So it's wonderful.
GUEST: Outstanding.
APPRAISER: Thank you so much.
GUEST: I think I shall hold on to you
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: a little bit longer. I think I shall.
