Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

My great-aunt was a schoolteacher for many, many years, and every summer, she and some of her friends would take a tour someplace in the world and bring back collectibles, whatever they would find.

APPRAISER

Okay.

GUEST

And she had it in her apartment.

APPRAISER

When I'd go visit her, I would always admire it, and she asked me one day if I would like to have it, because the rest of the family thought it was junk. (laughing): Yeah.

GUEST

So that's why I have it. And I've always admired it.

APPRAISER

Okay.

GUEST

I have been told it was made in Vienna, Austria.

APPRAISER

You're right, it is Austrian. It was made in Vienna. It's made of bronze, and here's the giveaway that it was made in Vienna down here on this label that was attached. This is likely the store that sold the piece, and then the Austrian for "Vienna." And with a bronze piece like this, one of the things that makes us all tingly when we see it are these marks here. That is a "B" within a stylized vase. And so that mark tells us, actually, the individual who made the piece.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

And that person was Franz Bergman.

GUEST

Oh.

APPRAISER

So what we have is a bronze by one of the best cold-painted bronze makers of his time. It's basically the Cadillac of Austrian cold-painted bronzes.

GUEST

Really?

APPRAISER

It's enormous... (laughs)...and it is also a lamp. We have it plugged in, and you can see the lighting that glows. And Bergman, his specialty was this sort of exoticism. And he did smaller scenes, things of sort of rug sellers under a palm tree or little oases. In this instance, he's just pulled out all the stops and made this enormous mosque form. It was always conceived to be a lamp. Sometimes we call them boudoir lamps, because they give that sort of intimate glow. I have seen another one.

GUEST

Have you?

APPRAISER

Almost identical. As an auction estimate, I would say $15,000 to $20,000.

GUEST

(chuckling): Oh... Really?

APPRAISER

It's a good thing. Are you sure that's...?

GUEST

Yep, it's got everything going for it.