GUEST: My mom collected Oriental stuff in the '80s, and found this at an auction house in Nairobi, which is where they were living.

And I don't know how much she paid for it.

She called this a double gourd vase, she was quite sure was Chinese-- that's all I know.

APPRAISER: Well, I think your mom did a great job.

When you first look at it, one of the things that strikes you, aside from the shape, is that it's mounted with these gilded bronze mounts, a group of entwined snakes, and then you have groups of reeds that are bound together on foliate feet.

And the top looks like the capital of a column.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And all of that is decidedly of classical origin, from the west, not China.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And I would venture to say that, in fact, it's probably French.

And the surface is particularly interesting, this fabulous kind of brilliant color blue with this magenta little circles.

It's almost like oil spots...

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: ...on the surface.

That gives it this almost textural feel, but there's no texture to it.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: It's all beneath this smooth glaze.

So there was this fascination in China with replicating natural forms, the appearance of natural forms and surfaces in objects made of porcelain.

And that was particularly, I would say, it reached an apogee during the reign of the Emperor Qianlong.

1736 to 1795.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: So what we have here is the vase, that was created as a work of art.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Merged with French gilt bronze mounts.

Now, when did that happen?

Well, I think that the vase, of course, would have been in the possession of someone who is a wealthy Chinese collector.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And then, at some point, that left their possession probably sometime in the 1860 to 1880 period.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Ordinarily, we can turn it over and take a look at the underside.

GUEST: I know.

APPRAISER: But what do we see underneath?

GUEST: Repair.

APPRAISER: It's not a repair.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: This was an application meant to cover up the base.

They put in a material that is simulating lacquer.

So we're having to guess what's underneath.

So in my guessing, I am going to be thinking of this from the position of maybe there's not a mark.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: I think, and my colleagues agree, that if this came up for auction, we believe it would likely sell in the range of $8,000 to $12,000.

GUEST: Fantastic.

APPRAISER: I thought it was worth something, but I thought it was maybe $1,000.

(both laugh) GUEST: So that fills in the blanks.