GUEST: It belonged to my mother, who died about four years ago.

She lived in Tokyo for a long time, and she started a great collection of Asian art.

She would have acquired it sometime in the late 1940s, early 1950s.

APPRAISER: Perhaps part of the occupational forces in Japan at that time?

GUEST: Probably-- my, her... Yes.

My father was in the Marines, and she worked for the State Department.

APPRAISER: I'm not terribly surprised to find that this came from Japan.

It's not originally from Japan, as it is, in fact, Chinese.

GUEST: Ah!

APPRAISER: But it's a Chinese Buddhist bronze.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And these were treasured not just in China, but by the Japanese, as well.

So, a great inspiration to Japanese metalsmiths and bronzesmiths are these Chinese bronzes.

This figure is a specific bodhisattva in the Buddhist tradition, and this is Guanyin.

Guanyin, one could say, is the Buddhist mother of mercy.

Okay.

And a very, very popular figure in Chinese Buddhism.

Guanyin has a bearing that is very serene, protective.

Guanyin bestows peace and mercy and understanding, and so is very inspirational to those who would have an image of Guanyin in the particular shrine or in the temple that they would visit.

She would have been holding, I believe, a lotus flower.

GUEST: Ah!

APPRAISER: Where would it have... So right, right now, she's, she's holding a lotus stem.

There are traces, you may notice, of a little bit of gold.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: You have to imagine this completely gilt from top to bottom.

GUEST: (gasps) You're kidding.

APPRAISER: Unfortunately-- no, not at all.

The way the gilding is applied-- and it's best shown in the back-- it's actually a gilt lacquer.

And lacquer degrades.

Lacquer dries out, it flakes away.

So, we can see here, this is a nice little piece of how bright... You can see, the gold hasn't tarnished.

(murmurs) But the lacquer has largely flaked away.

Mm-hmm.

So, it's a gilt lacquer on top of the bronze.

This is from the Ming Dynasty.

This is the second to the last dynastic period in Chinese history.

Specifically, I'd say this dates from around 1600 to 1650... GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: ...or so.

Maybe even the late 1500s.

Very distinctive.

Oh.

Very Ming.

One of the reasons I can date this as Ming is the size of the head.

The proportions are such that I think Ming.

Another technique that, I look on the underside, this red color.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: This comes all the way back from the casting process.

We're looking at this, and we're seeing evidence of how it came out of the foundry.

This is red clay.

There was a clay core that was put into this cavity to keep the integrity of the bronze... GUEST: Fascinating.

APPRAISER: ...as it was fired.

And that red clay never goes away.

GUEST: That is really cool.

APPRAISER: In today's auction market, I think this would have perhaps a conservative auction value of $7,000 to $10,000.

GUEST: (softly): Wow.

Wow.

(chuckles) My mother would be so excited if she was here.

And I'm also very certain that's not what she paid for it.

APPRAISER: (chuckles) Quite a souvenir.