Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

I brought a goose head. It's a perfume bottle. It used to belong to my great-grandmother. She collected all sorts of glass, and this sort of made its way down the family. I was told it was cameo.

APPRAISER

Have you ever had it appraised?

GUEST

It was appraised in 1984, and they said it was about $900 at that point in time. So I've been keeping it sort of hid away so it doesn't get any damage.

APPRAISER

Tucked it away for safekeeping at that point.

GUEST

Yeah.

APPRAISER

It is a cameo perfume bottle.

GUEST

Right.

APPRAISER

It's produced in England, and it does have a sterling silver lid. And if we go in, we can see a set of hallmarks here, which track us back into London in 1884. It's a very, very important English glassmaker, and it was made by a company called Thomas Webb & Sons. And they produced these swan's head.

GUEST

Oh, it's not a goose head?

APPRAISER

It's not a goose head, it's a swan's head. Produced these swan's head in a variety of sizes and a variety of colors.

GUEST

Yeah.

APPRAISER

Ruby is one of the better colors and probably the best color. This is the 5 1/4-inch size, which is a little bit smaller than a large one. And it's great that it's in its original box. Any clue what you think it might be worth today?

GUEST

I figured it was worth probably more than $900, but I've been told that collectible glass, people don't collect it as much as they used to. So I don't know what the value would be.

APPRAISER

Well, there are certain things that perform still. This particular piece, if you brought it into an auction today, conservatively would be estimated between $5,000 and $7,000.

GUEST

Wow.

APPRAISER

Would not surprise me if it exceeded that number.

GUEST

Well, thank you very much. That's amazing.