Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

It's been in our family for a while. My father is from Italy, and when he was young he was a fisherman, and this is something that he pulled up on the fishing boat when he was out at sea in the Mediterranean Sea.

APPRAISER

How long ago was that?

GUEST

Around 1960.

APPRAISER

Oh good, that's when it was still legal to bring it up.

GUEST

(chuckling): Yes. And it's always just been in our family. It had a lot more shell encrustations on it, but over time, some of them have broken off and chipped off.

APPRAISER

Do you have any idea how old it is?

GUEST

No, that's the whole purpose of bringing it.

APPRAISER

Can you make a guess?

GUEST

Well, we're hoping that it's at least 100 years old.

APPRAISER

You can put a zero after that, and a double up the front, it's 2,000 years old.

GUEST

2,000 years old?

APPRAISER

2,000 years old. This particular type of vase came from Pompeii.

GUEST

Wow.

APPRAISER

In the first century A.D.

GUEST

Oh my gosh!

APPRAISER

Yeah, and this is a table amphora, used only on the table, not like the large shipping amphoras for oils and grains. See that's what we wondered, we wondered if it had oil or wine. In Pompeii, these were used for a fish sauce called garum.

GUEST

Really?

APPRAISER

This fish sauce was so famous, it was like Mole's barbecue sauce in St. Louis.

GUEST

Really?

APPRAISER

It's very interesting, because this fish sauce was so famous, that they were using it from the first century A.D. all the way up to present day. This is really a beautiful work of art, 'cause mother nature improved upon the amphora. The shells, I can tell, are of a Mediterranean type. And, as I say, this is very, very unusual that it's so well preserved.

GUEST

And would they have shipped it? Is that why it ended up on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea?

APPRAISER

It was probably being transported to Sicily.

GUEST

For the sauce?

APPRAISER

Yeah.

GUEST

Fish sauce?

APPRAISER

Mm-hmm, for fish sauce, exactly. Back in the '60s, I was offered thousands of these from North Africa for five to ten dollars each.

GUEST

Oh, okay.

APPRAISER

Up to the '70s, '80s, they would have sold for $200, $300 for decorative purposes. Today, it's a decorating craze, and this one is of such great quality, that it conceivably in auction could bring up to $2,000.

GUEST

Wow, wow! Wonderful, thank you so much.

APPRAISER

Thank you for coming.