GUEST: I brought a Orrefors Swedish glass vase.

I've owned it for about four years.

I purchased it at a thrift shop auction.

And I liked it so much, I bid and I won the auction.

APPRAISER: What'd you pay for this?

GUEST: I paid $100 for it.

APPRAISER: What's the first thing you noticed about this?

GUEST: Well, the, the interesting graphics is that there's chameleons on the side, and the colors were very attractive, as well.

APPRAISER: Well, I want you to know that this is probably the heaviest vase I have ever appraised.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: (chuckles) GUEST: Yes, it is very, very thick.

APPRAISER: First of all, it is Orrefors.

It is actually signed on the bottom, which I know that you saw.

It's signed.

It's also signed by the artist down here, Edvin Öhrstöm.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And then there's a little number, 143E, which signifies the date when this was produced.

GUEST: Oh, I didn't know what that number meant.

APPRAISER: The design is unusual.

You don't see too many Orrefors vases with th, the chameleon design.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Um, and the coloration is unusual.

It also each, even has some aventurine in it.

Aventurine is, are those little sparkles that you see?

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Those little green sparkles?

That's unusual, too.

Now, the type of vase, it's called Ariel, A-R-I-E-L.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And it was developed byÖhrstöm and Vicke Lindstrand, who were two people who were working at Orrefors at the time, along with the master glassblower, whose name was Gustaf Bergqvist.

Öhrstöm came there in 1936.

He, he's a sculptor by trade.

GUEST: Ah.

APPRAISER: And they developed this in the late 1930s.

Now, why did they choose the name Ariel?

It's uh actually named after the air spirit in Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

But it has something to do with air.

The way this was made is that there was a hot molten blob of glass, what we call a parison.

And when it was hot, it would be carved and decorated, sometimes even sandblasted.

And then this clear glass layer would be, be put over the parison.

And air would get trapped.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And the£ GUEST: Hence the bubbles and the design inside.

APPRAISER: Exactly, exactly.

GUEST: Ah.

APPRAISER: And hence the 15-pound vase.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: I love these things.

I was very excited about it.

It was unusual to see this foot.

The other examples that I've seen, which are not, I've only seen in books, by the way, sometimes they have higher collars and necks.

But this one was always formed like this.

This is the original shape£ nothing's been done to it.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: I did go over it with a fine-toothed comb to make sure.

Your $100 investment£ You did really well.

GUEST: Ah.

APPRAISER: You want to know how well?

GUEST: How well?

APPRAISER: I think in a retail shop, that this could sell for $35,000 to $45,000.

GUEST: Thousand?

$45,000?

APPRAISER: Yes.

GUEST: (clears throat) APPRAISER: (laughs) GUEST: (chuckles): I'm sorry.

Um, okay.

APPRAISER: This is a very special piece.

GUEST: I like it even more now.

(both laugh) APPRAISER: I'm not shocked.

GUEST: No!