Look around you.
Do you see something that looks like an antique or is old enough to be brought to an appraiser?
‘Antiques Roadshow’ is a popular American TV show where people bring anything they find valuable and have it appraised by experts.
The program first aired back in 1997, and since then, hundreds to thousands of people have been in and out of the show to check if their “antiques” would give them quite a fortune.
The most exciting part of the show is when an ordinary person walks in with a valuable piece of treasure they found in their attic or basement storage.
Although sometimes, there’d be times when the so-called “treasure” turns out to be a flop.
Either way, it’s always exciting and fun to see different reactions from the people and the appraising expert once the item’s real value is revealed.
The show also gives ideas and inspiration to people who want to venture into the antique collecting industry.
In this episode, an elderly woman brought a celadon ‘bowl’ and said it was a gift from her uncle.
According to the woman, her uncle once served as a civilian director of the educational troops after the war and brought the bowl home from Japan.
She also claimed that the bowl is 80 to 100 years old at the very least.
“Celadon is a favorite of mine, as well as a favorite of the Japanese for centuries,” said Richard Cervantes, the Antique Roadshow appraiser. “There are a number of clues that I would look for to identify exactly what it is and where it came from. The first is the label on this box.”
After a thorough check, the Cervantes concluded that the bowl was a charger: “It’s an oversized dish that they would have maybe used to serve oranges or as a large, dramatic display piece.”
He added that the item was originally Chinese and remarked on the long-standing tradition of Japanese collectors acquiring celadon wares.
The appraiser couldn’t help but show his excitement after discovering the item’s contents because the label on the package showed clear information about it.
He also pointed out the Japanese legacy of collecting and connoisseurship as contributing factors to the charger’s preservation and discovery.
“So it’s good to see that the label matches the contents of the box. Sometimes boxes and ceramics are put together that didn’t originally go together. But this is a box clearly made to house this beautiful work of porcelain,” Cervantes said.
“The dragon is sublime. The glaze is impeccable. And there are very few signs of age in this. So I wouldn’t blame you or anyone else for looking at it and not really seeing the history. You can see the quality, you can see the beauty in it. But the Yongzheng period is from 1722 to 1735,” he added.
The expert then asked the elderly woman about her estimation of the Celadon charger’s value.
Based on her knowledge of contemporary ceramics, she said it might be around $1000.
He then said that factors such as the booming Chinese porcelain market, potential bidders, and buyers could offer as much as $80,000 to $120,000 in 2021.
Some serious collectors are currently looking for this ceramic, and they’d be willing to pay such an amount of money.
Upon hearing its estimated value, the woman couldn’t believe it and said, “Oh, my… You… (laughing) Really?! And it’s under my bed all the time? I feel like crying. (laughs)”
Now let me ask you again, do you have anything that looks old or antique at home?
Or should I say, start looking under your bed?
Who knows, maybe there’s something there that’s also worth $80,000 to $120,000.
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