Meissen Porcelain Madonna & Child, ca. 1900
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GUEST:
We inherited it from my uncle, who's an Episcopal priest and a headmaster of a private Episcopal school.
APPRAISER:
So how long has it been in your possession?
GUEST:
About three years.
APPRAISER:
Okay. And what do you know about it?
GUEST:
Nothing. (laughing) Except for the fact that it has some symbols on the back of it.
APPRAISER:
First of all, let's look at the quality of it. For something that's white porcelain, all-over white porcelain, not decorated, it's very much in the manner of what the Chinese used to do as blanc de Chine, which is basically white on white.
GUEST:
All right.
APPRAISER:
This is the German version of that, in that just a white glaze, but the modeling is fabulous. As we look at the details in the face or in any of the figures, or right down to the base and the cherubs here, absolutely fabulous quality. And that's really what tells quality when you don't have something that's colorfully decorated, and you can pick out every detail of an eye and nose, mouth. The size is tremendously impressive. Subject matter is really good. The Madonna and Child represents motherhood in many respects. It's a beautiful figure. On the back side are marks that are important to the piece.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
We have the underglaze blue crossed-swords mark, which pretty much tells you that it is Meissen, for sure. But above that, there's a glazed mark, which is hard to see a little bit. And what happens is, it's an impressed mark that's been filled in with a little bit of glaze, so it's not so evident when you see it.
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
But that mark was only used for white glazed Meissen. It was never used for colored Meissen. It also tells us when it was made, because they didn't start using that mark until 1900. Now, it wasn't made much later than that. It's got all the bells and whistles that you would like. Condition-wise, it's fabulous. It's nice that the scepter was actually made as a separate object, so that it allowed it to survive the process. I could see that being the first part of it that would go.
GUEST:
Exactly.
APPRAISER:
Quality-wise, it couldn't be better. It's got the right marks on it. I've never seen one this size like this. And nobody at our table as we were discussing it had seen one, either. Do you have any concept of its value?
GUEST:
Absolutely none.
APPRAISER:
No?
GUEST:
We had none.
APPRAISER:
Well, I'm going to give you two values.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
I'm going to give, tell you the auction value, which if it came up at auction, would have a pre-sale estimate in the range of $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST:
All right.
APPRAISER:
If it was in a retail establishment, easily at $6,500.
GUEST:
All right, nice.
APPRAISER:
It's a fabulous figure. It's interesting to note that lots of the porcelain markets have suffered with the younger generations not being as interested.
GUEST:
Ah.
APPRAISER:
As perhaps the older generations in the idea of collecting porcelains.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
So generally speaking, Meissen has gotten soft.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
I don't think this figure has. You have a son-- does he have any interest in it?
GUEST:
No.
APPRAISER:
No interest whatsoever.
GUEST:
Absolutely none.
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