GUEST: It seems to be an antique
bowl. I bought it at a, sort
of a charity auction about five

or six years ago. They called
it a silver-tone dragon bowl. I
was born in 1976, and so that's,

that's the year of the dragon
in the Chinese zodiac. So, I've
always kind of kept a lookout

for dragons, and I have
a few of them. I find
them very interesting.

APPRAISER: Oh, I see.

GUEST: So, I work with
some people from China.
And they always say that
it's one of the more

powerful symbols in the zodiac.

APPRAISER: It's a Chinese export
silver punch bowl. It's made
by a company called Wang Hing.

They were established in Canton
in 1854, and due to their
enormous success, opened up in

Hong Kong in the early
part of the 20th century.
I think this bowl dates
from after they opened

up in Hong Kong in the
early 20th century.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Obviously, the trade
routes really started to open
up in the late 19th century,

and the appetite for Chinese
export silver became a lot
greater as that trade sort of

opened up and tastes became a
little bit more exotic, let's
say. We've got these wonderful

dragons. Now, these
are separately cast and
applied to the bowl. The
bowl itself is raised

up on a form, as it would
be normally, and then these
dragons are cast separately. The

interesting sort of motif on
this, as you've probably seen,
is the flaming pearl in the

center.

GUEST: Hm.

APPRAISER: So the dragon
chasing the flaming pearl is
something which you see a lot on

Chinese decorative arts. So,
you often see these dragons in
clouds, and appearing across

the sky and all kinds of things,
chasing this, this flaming
pearl. It's a very, very common

motif in Chinese decorative
arts-- textiles and export
silver like we see here. We tip

it back... We've got the "W.H."
for Wang Hing. We've got the
90 there, which is the sterling

silver standard mark. And
we've got the character
mark for silver in
Chinese, as well. So all

in all, a fantastic bowl. Very,
very collectible. The market for
Chinese export silver has grown

exponentially in the last,
let's say, five to ten years.
So, you said you bought it at

a charity auction? It was a
silver-tone bowl, Chinese-style?

GUEST: Right, you know, I think,
if I remember correctly, I
think I paid about, about $600

for it.

APPRAISER: $600?

GUEST: Yeah. Not too long ago--

APPRAISER: not too long ago.

GUEST: Yeah, about five
or six years I've had it.

APPRAISER: The auction estimate
for this bowl, if it was to
be in a well-advertised sale,

would comfortably sit
at $10,000 to $15,000.

GUEST: Wow. That's pretty major.

APPRAISER: Congratulations
for having it.

GUEST: Thank you so much,
David, I appreciate it.