GUEST: I inherited this from my mother about three years ago.

It entered my family probably around 1900, having been purchased by my grandfather, probably in Chicago, because he would have attended the 1893 World's Fair there.

And I think it was purchased somewhere around that time.

We did have one person take a look at it a couple years ago, who-- his original thought was that it was Tiffany.

He spent a fair amount of time trying to find marks on it, couldn't find any, and finally concluded that it was probably from Austria and was Loetz.

I think it's Tiffany, partly because my memory is that you one time said that Tiffany had a branch of their store in Marshall Field's in Chicago in the late 1800s.

I'm wondering if that's where this was purchased.

APPRAISER: It's not Tiffany.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: It is Loetz.

L-O-E-T-Z.

GUEST: Okay, okay.

APPRAISER: An Austrian company, and they were working at the same time... GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: ...but this particular piece was made between 1902 and 1904, which means it couldn't have been bought at that exhibition.

GUEST: Okay, yeah.

APPRAISER: What is important to know is that Loetz and Tiffany were competitors.

APPRAISER: They were making iridescent glass at the same time.

Loetz looks very different.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And this is a particular design technique or genre that we call phanomen-- P-H-A-N-O-M-E-N.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And it's characterized by these beautifully swirling decorative designs in this silvery blue iridescence that you see.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: If you look down inside the vase... you can see that the interior of it has been iridized.

GUEST: Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

APPRAISER: makes your piece unusual is first of all, the scale, which is great, but also it has four handles.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: When handles were put on pieces of Loetz, they were done two different ways.

One, they would actually extrude the glass from the body, or they applied them.

These are applied handles.

GUEST: Applied, yeah.

APPRAISER: So they're individually done.

There are no marks on the bottom.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And if you see, you have this beautiful ground pontil... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...which is typical of a Loetz finish... GUEST: Loetz finish, okay.

APPRAISER:...on the underside of the vase.

And the reason it wasn't signed is it probably was sold in Austria.

When Loetz exported their pieces, they would put "Loetz Austria" on the underside.

In a retail setting, this would be between $7,500 and $9,500.

GUEST: Wow, okay.

(laughing) That's a lot of money.

That's way more than the estimate that the gentleman gave me when he thought it was Loetz, so, I’m thrilled.

That's... that's wonderful.

APPRAISER: When the other person looked at this piece, what kind of value did he put on it?

GUEST: He said it was worth about $1,000.

APPRAISER: If this had been the extruded handles, the piece could've been worth double the price I told you.

GUEST: Wow.

Okay.

APPRAISER: But it's still good.

GUEST: (laughing): I'm-- I'm thrilled.

APPRAISER: If I were to put an insurance value on this... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER:...I would make it $10,000.

GUEST: Okay.