GUEST
So, back in 1998, I was working with an international organization and I was stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. Every Friday, I would go to the, uh, Baghdadi auction hall. One Friday, I found this thing. I acquired it for under $20. I had rented a home, and it had an empty buffet, and the home was kind of echoey. So I bought this platter to put in the buffet so that it would look homey. (chuckles)
APPRAISER
Mm-hmm.
GUEST
And so then when I finished my assignment there and I was coming back, I didn't know whether I could bring it, whether it fit into the boxes, but it did and it spent years away until one Thanksgiving, I went to my cousin, and she said, "Oh, did you see my new Spode platter?" And it was brown and white.
APPRAISER
Mm-hmm.
GUEST
It's a new collection. And I'm, like, "I think I have one, but mine is blue and white." She said, "Well, you may want to look into it. This is a pretty rare platter."
APPRAISER
Mm-hmm. Well, it is marked on the back, it says "Spode"...
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
...which is the manufacturer in England.
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
And then it also has the title of this piece, which is "Shooting a Leopard."
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
And if we look at the scene there in the center, we have both Englishmen and Indians in India...
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
...on elephants, and they're on a hunt and they're hunting a leopard. And there are dogs, which have cornered the leopard in a tree. Spode and all other manufacturers in the Staffordshire region of England, there were many, many who made transfer ware, which is what this is. It was inexpensive everyday pottery.
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
And it had all kinds of different scenes and patterns on it. And Spode made some of the very best. So this sort of platter was made for more of a middle class. This was mass-produced in huge quantities. I mean, no one knows for sure, but probably hundreds of thousands of pieces of this pattern were made...
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
...and then sometimes exported all over the world. This scene was inspired by a set of aquatints, which were issued monthly for subscribers, they were large prints...
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
...in 1805, and it was called "Oriental Field Sports." And then Spode introduced this pattern in 1809. And within a very short time, the prints were published as a book, and it was a book all about hunting exotic animals in India. So here we are, hunting a leopard, and to a modern world, that sounds kind of gruesome, to, they hunt and kill these wild animals. We have to look at it in historical context.
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
Back then, yes, they were hunting for sport...
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
...but they were hunting for the hides, which they used.
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
But they were also, uh... Leopards were considered a menace.
Oh. APPRAISER
They killed livestock.
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
They killed humans. They, they were considered something that needed to be eliminated for safety. We see now that that is not the best thing for our planet and for the animals.
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
But back then, they thought about it in a different way.
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
And there's another interesting issue here. This is during the period of British colonialism.
GUEST
Yes.
APPRAISER
And wealthy Indians had always hunted for centuries.
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
And so when the British were in India, they went hunting, as well. And here, we have British citizens who are living in India hunting...
Mm-hmm. APPRAISER
...and have Indian guides.
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
These are people, this is, their living at that time...
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
...is taking people out hunting. This is probably around 1810, 1820. So they made this pattern for a very long time, because it was very popular.
GUEST
I see.
APPRAISER
Queen Elizabeth is said to have one of the largest collections of this particular pattern.
GUEST
Oh, wow.
APPRAISER
Most transfer ware platters these days, it, it has fallen in popularity, fallen in value, and most transfer ware platters would only sell maybe in $100 to $500 range.
GUEST
Oh.
APPRAISER
But this, this pattern is worth much more money, perhaps less than it was 20 years ago, but it's worth a lot more money. Unfortunately, this particular platter has a little bit of damage.
GUEST
Yup.
APPRAISER
There's a crack here on the edge, and then if we turn it over, there's a large crack extending through that.
GUEST
Mm.
APPRAISER
So, unfortunately that hurts the monetary value immensely.
Right. APPRAISER
With the damage, I would think that a retail value would be somewhere between $300 and $500.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
If it were in perfect condition...
GUEST
Yeah.
APPRAISER
...it would be a lot closer to $2,000 to $3,000.
GUEST
Oh, wow.
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