GUEST: It's a brass, uh,
Chinese, I believe, uh, bowl
that came from my great-aunt.
The family story is that she was
married to a, a doctor, and that
there was sometimes
that she had actually bartered
for goods for services during
the Depression.
APPRAISER: It's Chinese, so at
least you're right on the
first...
GUEST: Right about the...
APPRAISER: ...on the first part,
but to, to describe it as a bowl
is...
You're part of the way there.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: This is actually a, a
vessel that's used for ritual
purpose.
Okay.
We call this a censer, and a
censer is just another way of
saying it's an incense burner.
Let's picture this vessel, which
is bronze, not, not brass.
GUEST: Brass, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Chinese bronzes made
for ritual purpose go back kind
of prehistory, 2,000,
3,000 years BC.
So in China, maybe 1000, 1500
BC, they were making ritual
vessels of this general square
form, and that would
be called a fang-ding.
This is not from 1000 BC.
GUEST: (chuckling)
APPRAISER: This is something
that follows in a long
tradition.
GUEST: (murmurs) Right.
APPRAISER: This is more for a
home shrine, perhaps, or it
could be for a, for a scholar's
studio.
I'm gonna lift up the bottom to
show a mark that you've
certainly seen, and, and
probably
wondered about-- this
is Ming Dynasty.
Da Ming actually
means "Great Ming."
Xuande is the emperor's name.
And then this is nian zhi, which
just means "period made."
GUEST: (murmurs)
APPRAISER: Now, that's a,
that's a 15th-century emperor.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: But this was
not made in that period.
In fact, this is what we would
refer to as an honorific mark.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: The reason it has a
15th-century imperial mark on it
is because that's a period
that epitomized just a, a high
point in bronze production.
The Xuande emperor was
a devout Buddhist.
In his period, many vessels of
this type were made to go into
Buddhist temples all throughout
China.
And so this form is
synonymous with, with Xuande.
I think it was likely made at
the tail end of the 17th
century.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So it still
has considerable age.
Right.
But not as old as the
mark would suggest.
There are a few issues as,
as far as condition goes.
I know from looking at it that
this surface has been polished
at some point.
GUEST: Yes-- not by me.
APPRAISER: You... (laughs) Okay!
GUEST: It was actually, when,
when I acquired it from my, my
great-aunt, it, it, it sat
on the mantel, and it, yes, it
was a, it was a very shiny
piece, so...
APPRAISER: (chuckles) Okay, it,
it should have a burnished, kind
of patinated surface.
Now, I'm happy to say that the
patination has come back a
little bit.
This is not as shiny as
I'm sure it once was.
GUEST: No, not at all.
APPRAISER: And so keeping
that, that's good.
What I do see, though,
throughout, is this sort of
green verdigris, or, or
otherwise,
we would call this
bronze disease.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And this has
something to do, probably with,
it, it could be a matter of
humidity
in the air, it could be a matter
of this getting wet, or just
being exposed to, to something
that the br, isn't
good for the bronze.
I would suggest that this be
taken to a conservator just to
get this cleaned off.
These sorts of vessels really
resonate with Chinese
collectors.
They represent a history of
ritual, a history of
scholarship.
And so the market for these
is very strong right now.
Do you have any idea
what this is worth?
Or have you ever suspected what
it may be worth on the market?
GUEST: Not really, I mean, we,
we guessed at maybe, $2,500 or
$3,000, something like
that.
So
APPRAISER: You're not
terribly far off.
I think at auction, I would put
a, what may be a conservative
auction estimate, in, in
2021, of $5,000 to
$8,000 for its sale.
Okay.
If the patina had been left
alone, and it had the original
sort of beautiful brown patina,
I think a value of perhaps
$30,000 would not be out of the
question.
GUEST: Wow.
Yeah, that's crazy.
Just that from her polishing
it at some point.
APPRAISER: I'm afraid so!
(laughs)