A FAMILY coat of arms from 1734 was kept in perfect condition and passed down for generations until a relative appraised it and discovered its impressive value.
On an episode of Antiques Roadshow, a member of the Shapley family explained that her aunt gave her the coat of arms.
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“My aunt recently passed away, and before she passed away, she knew I was interested in family history and thought I might like it,” she explained.
Her aunt told her that it had been passed down through the family, but she had to do some research to find out exactly what it was.
“It’s a coat of arms for the Jackson and Phillips families, and when I did some research into it, I found out that a Jackson family had married into the Shapley family, so that’s how it happened to me,” she said.
As a descendant of both families, she wanted to learn everything she could about the artifact and decided to take it to the experts at Antiques Roadshow.
Appraiser Sebastian Clarke was impressed with the piece and immediately recognized it as a coat of arms made from paper.
“Some people call it quilling or paper filigree or paper parchment,” he said.
“You can see that each little piece of paper is tightly rolled up and inserted next to each other. You have the two coats of arms coming together.”
Each side had the image “Guns of the Lion Rampant”, with the name Phillips on one side and Jackson on the other.
Underneath was a signature that read: “Executed by Sarah Jackson, AD 1734.”
“So we have both family names formed by what we believe to be the daughter of these two families. Both families were big New England families,” Clarke said.
“When you brought it to me, the first thing I thought was, ‘It’s English.’ Quilling or paper filigree was a thoroughly British thing, and it was something women did in their spare time, much like embroidery, and it was not considered too strenuous on their delicate sensibilities.
“If it was English, it would be a really cool thing, but because it’s American, it’s an extremely cool thing.”
After discussing the coat of arms in depth with his colleagues, Clarke estimated that it would sell at auction for between $30,000 and $50,000.
If the piece were English, it would only be worth between $4,000 and $6,000.
“It is exceptionally rare to see American documents on parchment. For insurance purposes, it probably costs you around $100k,” she added.
INNER BEAUTY
On another Roadshow episode, a woman brought in a vase that her family called “the ugly thing.”
“I’m never sure if it’s a pregnant woman or if it’s about to tip over – it’s a weird little bit,” she told appraiser Suzanne Perrault.
“I liked it when I lived it…it comes from a Dutch dealer.”
She bought it for $580 15 years ago and never looked too deeply into its origins.
Perrault assured him it was money well spent, saying it was a “wonderful, modernist and bizarre piece”.
“There’s an animal, there’s a bird, there’s a female figure, all of this happening in this glazed ceramic piece that was made by a very famous artist.”
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A signature on the vase revealed that it was handmade by Jean Cocteau, a famous French artist, playwright, poet and director.
Cocteau was a friend of Pablo Picasso, who warned him about working in ceramics as it would “steal his heart” and he would never return to his other art.
Unlike his friend Picasso, who created around 600 pieces of ceramics, Cocteau only produced around 300.
One of them was the ugly vase, which Perrault admitted was a “crazy” find.
“If we put this up for auction… easily, we’d put it at $10,000 to $15,000,” she said.
Family heirlooms have sentimental and monetary value.
A woman discovered her favorite doll, given to her by her great-grandmother, was worth $6,500 thanks to its “scary” eyes.
Also, check out the Navajo rug that’s worth $10,000 because of a special emblem on the front.
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