WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Antiques Roadshow. An Antiques Roadshow guest welled up after discovering her grandmother’s robe was worth thousands. Filming at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, the American version of Antiques Roadshow on PBS saw a woman present her grandmother’s robe, believed to be Japanese, an item which she bought in the 1980s for around $2,000.
When asked where she had got it from, the guest explained: “From an acquaintance whose family had worked in the Japanese embassy and in Asia. “My grandmother has been a prolific collector for the last 60 years but we realised as she’s getting older, the rest of the family doesn’t know about her collections. “So I’ve taken it on myself to help catalogue all of her collection.”. But it didn’t take too long before expert Lark Mason III corrected her, stating: “It’s not from Japan. It’s actually Chinese”, with her laughing: “Ok, I had no idea.”.
He explained that the purple in design was a good “indication of age” with the robe from the Guangxu period, stating that it was most likely from the 1880s. “This was a woman’s surcoat for formal and semi-formal occasions,” Mason continued. “Formal at home for domestic occasions, semi-formal for court uses. “So you would wear this, if you can imagine, this is not your formal wear. You would wear this over your actual robe.”.
The guest commented: “That’s amazing, because it’s so fine, I wouldn’t think it’d be casual.”. Mason went on to elaborate: “If you look at the sleeves, they are incredibly wide and that is to account for another article of clothing being worn beneath it with long sleeves. “It’s silk. It has a wonderful feel. It’s not a satin but here, the embroidery is satin. “This has some couched, gilt metal wrapped thread.
“The cranes up here, they have multiple meanings. They are one, primarily, a symbol of imperial authority. Cranes were a symbol of good luck and heavenly acceptance of whatever you had going on. “They also are symbols of longevity. I think this was something likely created perhaps for somebody’s birthday. The wife of a prince.”. He then went on to point out the “wonderful roundels” that were decorated with the eight Daoist symbols, with images of bats symbolising wealth.
“Looking at the collar, you can see that there’s some wear, well, that’s good. It means that this was actually used,” he remarked. “But there’s not so much wear that it is going to damage the value. What do you think it’s worth?”. Initially hesitating, the visitor said: “Could we say…$5,000?”, with the expert exclaiming: “You are right on the money!”. She laughed: “No way! Really?”, as he confirmed: “Yes! At auction today, this would sell for somewhere between $4,000 and $6,000.”.
“Oh wow! OK. So I guess I have my grandmother’s eye for things. But that’s wonderful,” she commented. He went on to clarify that if they were to put an insurance value on the item, it would be in the $12,000 to $18,000 region.”. It was at this moment that the guest started to tear up as she spoke of her grandmother. “Wow. Growing up, we would just play around beautiful pieces of artwork, carefully, but yeah it was always displayed in her home very beautifully.
