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Walker & Hall Dessert Service, ca. 1900

Value (2011) | $1,500 Auction – $2,000 Auction
Watch  

GUEST:
This was found by my mother-in-law, who collected antiques, and she lived in El Paso all of her life and got to know a lot of antique dealers, and at this particular time, Fort Bliss was bringing back a lot of the troops who had great treasures, and the antique dealers knew her quite well, and they presented this to her and she snapped it up.

APPRAISER:
I see, so you think it came from England.

GUEST:
It did.

APPRAISER:
Somebody who was in the war brought it back to her.

GUEST:
Exactly.

APPRAISER:
I think that's absolutely right. It's a dessert service, a dessert canteen. If I take out this tray here, we'll see the marks, and it's made by Walker & Hall of Sheffield. And this mark helps us to date it to around 1900, somewhere around there. What's also very interesting about this set is that it's not actually silver. You may have thought it was silver?

GUEST:
I thought it was silver plate, probably.

APPRAISER:
It is silver plate. Walker & Hall were a very famous company in England, and they were masters in electroplating and Sheffield plating. And if we look here, this is the bowl to serve the fruits and whatnot. If we lift this forward, we can see that it's got a wonderful array of things for the dessert table. We have two sets of nutcrackers. On either side of these wonderfully engraved chased grape scissors are these beautiful dessert spoons. Also, 12 knives and 12 forks. These are dessert knives and forks with mother-of-pearl handles and are beautifully engraved, again, with grapes and floral sprays, leaves. One of the things that's very interesting about this first here is it's in the shape of a crown. Now, that's very interesting given a letter that seems to come with the box. What can you tell me about the letter?

GUEST:
The letter states that the person who received this received it from Queen Victoria.

APPRAISER:
Now, given the crown as we can see it and given the suggested royal provenance that it may have, this could be something that's quite special indeed. However, we would need to conduct much further research into it before we understood, you know, fully how far that went back and whatnot, because obviously Victoria died in 1901 and this is dated 1954, so there's a little bit of a lag there. If we close it, we can see it's in its wonderful mahogany canteen, which is inlaid with ebony and satinwood and it's also got spandrels at he four corners of the border, which is lovely. And in the center is a vacant brass cartouche. If it was without the provenance, I would estimate it at auction for around $1,500 to $2,000. However, with the association, it could do, you know, five or ten times that much.

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Appraisal Details

Appraiser
David Walker
Decorative Arts, Furniture
Freeman's Auctioneers
Philadelphia
Sotheby's
New York
Appraised value (2011)
$1,500 Auction – $2,000 Auction
Featured In
Junk in the Trunk 2 (#1621)
Event
El Paso, TX (June 18, 2011)
Category
Silver
Period
19th Century , 20th Century
Form
Box , Dessert Set
Material
Mahogany , Satinwood , Silver Plate , Wood

Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."

Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.

Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.

Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.

Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.

Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.

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