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Extraordinary Finds | Hear More from Lowry About the Auction!

Extraordinary Finds | Hear More from Lowry About the Auction!

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1938 Chinese Export Silver Cutlery Canteen

Value (2012) | $6,000 Auction – $8,000 Auction
Watch  

GUEST:
In 1936, my father joined the Marine Corps. And from boot camp they sent him to Beijing, China. And while he was there, his sister was getting married. So he commissioned this set of silver to be made as her wedding present and lugged it home in his footlocker, brought it back to her, and she had it in a closet most of her life. Never had children, and about 25 years ago, passed it on to me. Now, I use it because it's fun at dinner parties because it's got interesting dragons on it and there's always a story behind it. And when I got it from my aunt, I tried to get an appraisal for insurance purposes, but all I could find was if I melted it down, what would it be worth? And I thought, "Oh, these dragons are so cute on it." I didn't want to melt it down.

APPRAISER:
What were you offered as the sort of scrap value for it?

GUEST:
They said maybe about $4,000.

APPRAISER:
$4,000. Well, obviously, it is Chinese. It was manufactured by Teh Ling Company in Peking, now Beijing. And I see that we have the original purchase receipt there too. So it's dated 21st of December, 1938. And it cost quite a lot of money at the time, I'm sure. For a private in the military, that was probably a lot of money.

GUEST:
Absolutely.

APPRAISER:
But before we go on to give you the figure, let's just discuss your father here in the photograph.

GUEST:
He's on the left, yes.

APPRAISER:
And this is him outside the Imperial Palace, is it?

GUEST:
It is, yes.

APPRAISER:
It's great to be able to tie in the man who purchased it, the purchase receipt, and the object itself. The box is very, very large, isn't it?

GUEST:
It is very large and heavy.

APPRAISER:
It's the first thing you notice. Usually with European canteens, they're a little bit smaller, and the pieces of cutlery are a little bit closer together. This one's huge. And each piece is spaced out very carefully. There are two other aspects of this box which I enjoy, which kind of really separate it out as being of Chinese origin. And those are the Chinese lock and the lock plate, and of course just on the side here, the very Chinese style handles.

GUEST:
Handles, yes.

APPRAISER:
Much talk has been had in 2010, 2011 of the strength of the Chinese market-- porcelains and whatnot making fantastic sums of money. The same is now starting to happen with silver. Of course, this is for export. Chinese don't use knives, forks and spoons in the same way as we do. But the Chinese are still wanting to purchase these sort of things back and take them back to their homeland. At auction, I think that this would have no problem in selling for between $6,000 and $8,000. So it's quite a big increase.

GUEST:
Thank you.

APPRAISER:
No problem at all.

Support provided by: Learn more

Appraisal Details

Appraiser
David Walker
Decorative Arts, Furniture
Freeman's Auctioneers
Philadelphia
Sotheby's
New York
Appraised value (2012)
$6,000 Auction – $8,000 Auction
Featured In
Myrtle Beach, Hour 1 (#1707)
Event
Myrtle Beach, SC (June 23, 2012)
Category
Silver
Period
20th Century
Form
Case , Cutlery
Material
Silver

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.

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More on This Appraisal

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