RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Jinx Taylor always thought her father had impeccable taste. Now she knows it’s true.
Four pieces of jade that her father bought in the 1930s and ’40s at No. 10 Jade St. in Beijing were valued last month at more than $1 million on PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow” while the program was in Raleigh, a record appraisal for the show. They’re so valuable, in fact, that Taylor can’t afford the insurance on the keepsakes and plans to sell them.
“I adored my father,” Taylor, who lives along North Carolina’s coast, said in a recent phone interview. “He was interesting and a good, generous man. I’m wishing he could see this and see what was going on.”
The four pieces – a vase with ruby detail, a small bowl, a large bowl marked with “By Imperial Order” and an animal figurine – are from the reign of Ch’ien-lung (1736-1795), said appraiser Jim Callahan, an Asian art expert with Boston-based Skinner Inc.
The dragon bowl almost didn’t make it to the show – it had once been stolen from her brother’s Florida home and then sold to a man for $3,000. Taylor’s brother managed to track it down but had to pay $5,000 to get it back.
Taylor’s father, John G. Taylor, was stationed in China while in the Army, although his daughter isn’t quite sure what his job was. Taylor and a brother inherited the collection when her father died 11 years ago.
Her father became fluent in Chinese and learned the country’s customs, she said. Because of that, he was able to become friends with the proprietor of a shop at No. 10 Jade St. in Beijing, where he bought most of his pieces.
“My father always had great taste,” Taylor said.
Callahan only had to look at one piece – and not very closely at that one – to know he had stumbled upon something special. He saw the edge of a basin carved with dragons, clouds, pearls and a wave motif, which are all imperial symbols, and saw the inscription, written in a calligraphy style that Ch’ien-lung favored.
Because “Antiques Roadshow” is about the surprise factor, Callahan didn’t reveal what he knew about the jade. He didn’t even look at the other three pieces until the cameras were rolling.
“The purpose is to get it on TV and make a TV story out of it,” he said.
He didn’t realize until about an hour later that his conservative estimate of $1.07 million for the jade’s value was a “Roadshow” record. And the rest of Taylor’s collection is “just as good,” he said.
Taylor can’t afford the insurance on the four pieces so she plans to sell them, along with others her father collected in China. “It’s bittersweet,” she said of losing the collection. “I miss it already.”
She plans to split the proceeds from any sales with her brother, who wants to avoid publicity about the collection. Neither has children so the lack of heirs makes the sale easier, she said.
“For us, it’s our family pieces,” she said. “We just have a lot of good memories and lot of stories. But now that we know, it’s not like we can just throw it up on the cupboard.”
© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
