Marius Hammer Plique-a-Jour Bowl, ca. 1900

Appraised on: August 15, 2009

Appraised in: San Jose, California

Appraised by: Kathleen Bailey

Category: Glass

Episode Info: San Jose, Hour 1 (#1416)

Originally Aired: May 10, 2010

IMAGE: 1 of 1  

Appraisal Video: (2:05)

GUEST: I really don't know very much about the piece. My mother inherited it 60 years ago from a dear friend. And that's about it. And I'm just really excited to learn something about it.

APPRAISER: Well, first of all, I'm going to turn it upside down and on the bottom we have the mark "930," which is the Norwegian standard for silver. So the base of this is silver. We also have another mark on here and it's "M. Hammer." And this stands for Marius Hammer of Norway. Marius Hammer is the most important silversmith in Norway. He was a contemporary of Fabergé. This particular piece is a plique-a-jour piece made to look like a stained glass. This particular piece was made circa 1900. And when these were originally made and sold in Norway, they were only sold to the wealthy people of the time. You happen to have one that has horse's heads. Usually they'll have a dragon or some other more common feature. The horse's heads are the rarest. It's a bowl shape. The interior is red guilloché enamel. And the value of this piece, in today's market-- we're in a little bit of slump in the market, so this is a conservative retail price-- would be $7,000.

GUEST: Oh, great! Unbelievable. Oh, my goodness. Oh, that is thrilling.