GUEST
I bought it here locally, in Las Vegas, about ten years ago at a local antiques store. The reason I bought it was because of the color. I paid $65 for it.
APPRAISER
What have you found out about it over the years?
GUEST
Well, I know it says "Belleek" on the bottom. I know there's a mark there. I know it says "Fenton."
APPRAISER
Okay.
GUEST
I know Fenton is a glass company rather than a porcelain company. The mark I think I tried looking up once upon a time in one of the little mark books. I vaguely remember that it was, like, from the late 1890s, and that's about all I know about it.
APPRAISER
Okay, first of all, it has a wonderful, kind of an olive green background color with some gold highlights, and then these hand-painted flying birds.
GUEST
Okay, right.
APPRAISER
Perhaps cranes or something. They almost have an Oriental feel to them.
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
They're very thickly applied, so it's a raised surface, which is really nice. And then we have this really interesting landscape down below, with water and a little hut of some sort next to the water.
GUEST
Right, right.
APPRAISER
Some rocks on the shore, water plants.
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
A really, kind of a charming scene. We see, you have these wonderful figural, dolphin-shaped handles.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
They're all decorated with gold. And then on the back is some interesting stylized plants with this really delicately painted butterfly, again with the raised-gold design. We'll take a look at the mark here...
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
...and see what we can tell you about that. Now, on the mark here, it does say "Belleek." And then there's a crescent, and the crescent actually doesn't say "Fenton."
GUEST
It doesn't?
APPRAISER
It says "Trenton, New Jersey."
GUEST
Oh!
APPRAISER
It's a little hard to read.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
And yes, there is an American glass company named Fenton...
GUEST
Fenton, okay.
APPRAISER
But Fenton didn't make any porcelain at all.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
If you look closely, there's a letter O and a letter B, which are superimposed over the crescent, and that stands for Ott and Brewer, which was the first company in America which made a Belleek ceramic body. The Ott and Brewer Company was originally founded in about 1863 as the Etruria Pottery Company. Eventually they became known as Ott and Brewer, and they made a lot of utilitarian things. But by the 1870s, they were making some pretty fantastic porcelain in America. Now, at that point in America, there had not been very many manufacturers of porcelain that had stayed in business very long...
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
...or made anything of very high quality. Now, this vase, we believe, was probably made in the late 1870s or early 1880s.
GUEST
Oh, oh!
APPRAISER
When they were really doing their best work.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
As far as American Belleek, Belleek is the ceramic body, which was started in Ireland. The Ott and Brewer Company imported some workers from Ireland who had worked there, and they were the first to make this very thin eggshell-type porcelain that's kind of a off-white color.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
And we don't see much of it on this piece...
GUEST
Right, right.
APPRAISER
...but we can see it here on the top, this very thin, translucent, eggshell-colored porcelain.
GUEST
Okay, all right.
APPRAISER
Now, one of their early art directors was a man named Lenox, who went on to found the Lenox Company, which is so famous today.
GUEST
Right, right.
APPRAISER
And they were another of the early manufacturers of Belleek in America. Now, most small pieces will start around $50 to $100.
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
And some of the really nice pieces can go up to $500 or $1,000.
GUEST
Okay, okay.
APPRAISER
But this one has exceptional qualities. This piece is good enough for any museum collection in America. This piece, we believe, at auction, would sell for between $15,000 and $20,000.
GUEST
You are kidding me! Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
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