Posted on 06/30/2009 10:15:36 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
A woman who inherited a collection of Chinese carved jade from her father has scored the first $1 million (£600,000) appraisal from experts on the US television programme "Antiques Roadshow," the producers said on Monday.
In a record for the show, four pieces of Chinese carved jade and celadon from the Qianlong era (1736-1795), including a large bowl made for the Emperor, were given a conservative auction estimate of up to $1.07 million.
"For 13 years, we've been hoping to feature a million-dollar appraisal on 'Antiques Roadshow;' it's been our 'Great White Whale,'" said Marsha Bemko, the show's executive producer.
"We're thrilled that, despite this year's slow economy, 'Roadshow' finally captured this elusive trophy," she said in a statement released by the Boston-based production company WGBH, which licensed the format from the British show of the same name, but is not affiliated with the BBC original.
On both shows, members of the public bring in items to be appraised by professionals in the hope of discovering that junk from the attic is actually a valuable treasure.
The British version had its £1 million appraisal ($1.655 million) last November - a scale model of Anthony Gormley's artwork, "The Angel of the North."
The statement said the owner of the jade inherited the collection from her father, who bought the objects in the 1930s and 1940s, while stationed in China as a military liaison.
She brought them to an "Antiques Roadshow" event in Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday.
James Callahan, an appraiser of Asian art, said the fine quality of the pieces indicated they were not made for tourists.
"He was rewarded by finding a mark on the bottom of the jade bowl that translates as 'by Imperial order'," the statement said.
The previous highest appraisal on the show was a 1937
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
thread
useless
pictures
Oh, thank you. I was hoping for a picture of an antique, and you swiftly obliged. Kind of you.
You Bastard! Now I have to wash my eyes out.
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY EYE’S, MY EYE’S !
So what is the value of that ugly, useless 1000-year old mummy?
You have burned the back of my retinas with that image.
Again.
Why hit us with friendly fire???
It's good as a prop for horror flicks.
Sometimes the Antique Road Show is simply not equipped to value an item. I once took handwritten books that were 900 years old (predating the printing press by hundreds of years). They were the official genealogy record of the prominent families of Zurich (of which mine was one). They pulled many appraisers together and virtually stopped looking at other things, even with about three thousand people waiting in very long lines at the Las Vegas Convention Center. While the jaws were dropped for a half hour they finally said they simply had no way to assess the value - they had never seen anything like it.
From liveauctioneers.com
Looks like my dog’s bowl, hmmm.
fascinating story.
ping
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