What Happened To The 18th-Century Jade Bowl From Antiques Roadshow?

Granted, $494,615 isn't exactly a small chunk of money. And yet, given James Callahan's valuation of Jinx Taylor's jadeware collection, AOL reports that he told Maine Antiques Digest he was "disappointed" by the amount. Looking to her and Callahan's original discussion on PBS, she was absolutely gobsmacked as Callahan appraised each of her four items at higher and higher values: $30,000 to $50,000 (a bowl), $80,000 to $120,000 (the vase), $200,000 to $300,000 (the dragon), and $400,000 to $600,000 (the other bowl with an imperial inscription). This valuation gave Taylor high hopes that ultimately weren't fulfilled.

Each item dated to China's Qing dynasty (1644 to 1911 C.E.) during the reign of the Qianlong emperor (1735 to 1796 C.E.) in a "golden age of China," as the National Gallery of Victoria puts it. The collection was Moghul in design, Callahan said, a style imported from India's Moghul emperors circa the 16th to 17th centuries. It was the smaller bowl in the collection — the "runt of the litter," he said — that first caught his attention, particularly its thinness and "crisp workmanship." For those interested in more details, a full transcription of Callahan and Taylor's conversation is available on the website of antiquities dealer Roger Schwendeman.

The auction site Christie's says that out of all the periods of Chinese jadeware, some regard items from the Qing dynasty as the highest in quality, particularly the more delicate pieces like the small bowl in Jinx Taylor's collection. 

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