GUEST: Unfortunately, I don't know a lot of history about it.

I know that it came from my paternal grandfather's side of the family.

We weren't as close to that side of the family.

They lived in Mississippi.

And I always thought it was this old, ugly vase.

(chuckles) Why would you put that out?

That is so ugly.

And I had, my girlfriend had tickets today to come to the show and invited me, so at the last minute, I thought, "I'm going to take that old, ugly vase."

APPRAISER: Okay, well, let me tell you a little bit about it.

Your vase is Japanese and it dates from the first quarter of the 20th century, and it is part of a group of Japanese ceramics that are referred to as hand-painted Nippon.

This is a, a rare type of Nippon called coralene, and you can see the flowers are built up as little beads of glass.

It's a very intricate technique that takes a lot of time.

We'll look at the marks on the bottom, and there is a mark here.

It actually says "U.S. Patent Office," yeah.

GUEST: "U.S. Patent," yeah.

APPRAISER: That's so it could be imported into this country.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: It's a very typical mark for a coralene piece, and it...

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: But the good news about this, value is probably in the $800 to $1,000 range.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And the question is: is this still an ugly old vase?

GUEST: No, it's not.

I think it's going to have a prominent place in my home now.

APPRAISER: It's gotten prettier in the last five minutes, huh?

Okay.

GUEST: (laughing) It has.

I don't think my mother's getting it back.