The television program “Antique Roadshow” recently valued a clay jug at up to $50,000 and estimated it a relic of the 19th or 20th century, but it turns out it is simply a relic of one woman’s high school experience. Appraiser Stephen Fletcher described the “over-the-top” piece as “bizarre and wonderful”, estimating that it dated back to the late 19th or early 20th century.
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Alvin Barr from SC brought in an odd-looking piece of pottery which he had purchased at an estate sale in Eugene, Oregon, for $300.
This ceramic jug, which Barr picked up at an estate sale in Eugene, Oregon, was worth between $30,000 and $50,000 according to Fletcher.
The water jug actually turned out to be a high school art project from the 1970s.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like it, ever”, Fletcher said.
Fletcher has since revised the appraisal, The Washington Post reports. Given the uniqueness of the vase – and the now unique story that accompanies it – the updated value is somewhere in the $3,000 to $5,000 range. “Still, not bad for a high-schooler in Oregon”, Mr Fletcher said.
A friend of Oregonian Betsy Soule called her to tell her that her creation was on TV, and the former sculptor told the PBS show about its mistake.
A friend she hadn’t heard from in about 40 years called her, Soule told the Bulletin, to say Soule’s school art project was getting national airtime. The show rarely makes errors in their appraisal.
As for Soule, a horse trainer who doesn’t do much sculpting these days?
“Still not bad for a high schooler in OR”. As he puts it, “I hated it when it was $30,000 to $50,000, because who wants $30,000 to $50,000 lying around their house?” I don’t know where those faces came from, ‘ she said.
The reason her pubescent pottery was mistaken for something more precious may have been because it bears similarities to “face jugs” thought to have come from black slaves in 1800s SC.
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“This example, with its six grotesque faces, was modeled or sculpted with considerable imagination, virtuosity and technical competence.The techniques of making pottery, in many ways, haven’t changed for centuries”.
