Indian Rock Crystal Sculpture, ca. 1850

Appraised on: July 23, 2011

Appraised in: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Appraised by: Anthony Slayter-Ralph

Category: Antiquities

Episode Info: Tulsa, Hour 2 (#1602)

Originally Aired: January 9, 2012

IMAGE: 1 of 1  

Appraisal Video: (1:57)

APPRAISER: Well, it has always been referred to in the family as "the camel," and we always marvel at the jewels around the bottom because my brother told us that they were uncut diamonds. My mother acquired a lot of pieces of art, and I think this is probably one of the ones.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: I believe it is made in India.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Probably around 1840 to 1860. It's a camel, obviously, but it's made out of rock crystal. It's a wonderful quality rock crystal, very clear, very few inclusions in it. It's got beautiful enamel, and also the flowers, and here we see a lizard, which has got that classical green enamel that one finds on jewelry in India from the period. There's a mahout here, who probably would have had a lance or something in his hand at the time, made out of ivory. And as you mentioned earlier on, there is an uncut diamond here. These are cabochon emeralds. Not great quality, but really there to look pretty. I won't lift it up, but the top comes off. Little mahout area here. You can see there are pearls hanging down as well. From the things, yeah. Little freshwater pearls. It was definitely made for export to Europe, and would have been a wealthy person who would have bought it. I mean, this would have been expensive then. Rock crystal has always been expensive. The Indians have a good tradition of working in rock crystal, going back to the Mughals in the late 16th century, the Mughal emperors. This material has become very popular in the last ten years or so. There's a big revival in the Raj from India. I think conservatively, a retail price would be between $8,000 and $10,000.

GUEST: For goodness' sakes.

APPRAISER: I think it's fabulous.

GUEST: It's beautiful. Everybody admires it, but it's always just been "the camel."