APPRAISER: You've brought a great-looking piece of art glass.

Tell me a little about how you ended up with this.

GUEST: It was left to me, uh, by my mother-in-law.

She left me lots of lovely pieces, but this happened to be one that was named in her will.

So I had a feeling that maybe it was one she wanted me to pay particular attention to.

APPRAISER: Have you ever had it valued before, or...?

GUEST: No, I never have.

APPRAISER: Oh, good, well, let's... GUEST: No, I... Of course, I, I love glass, and the Lalique pieces that I've, just have looked at, basically, ones that have been selling in the retail stores new-- new pieces.

APPRAISER: Well, it is, as you say, by Lalique.

Particularly, it's designed by René Lalique, who was the founder of the company in the Alsace region of France, where this was made, and where indeed Lalique is still made today.

If we wanted to confirm that this was Lalique, all we need do is turn it over, and we can see a well-impressed signature on the bottom there.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: It just spells out the word "Lalique" with the L extended underneath.

This is typical of an impressed signature that we find on this vase and others around 1920.

The name of it, and every Lalique design had its own name, is "Courges," which is a French word meaning, uh, "gourds," as we would say.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Uh, and you can see the gourd design on here.

These strange-looking kind of fruits are gourds, which are also very Japanese in taste.

René Lalique was very heavily influenced by the art and design of Japan, uh, which he was exposed to as a youngster in Paris in the 1870s and the 1880s.

Uh, and that influence stayed with him throughout his life.

One of the things I like about the "Courges" vase is the way that Lalique has made the decorative elements here-- the courges themselves, or the gourds-- uh, different from one another.

In one case, you can see in this example, the surface of the vessel is kind of frosted.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Uh, it comes out of the metal mold, in fact, that way, and very little has been done to it to keep this frosting on the surface.

The one next to it, or just behind it, you can see, though, uh, it's been polished.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: After the vase was molded, uh, someone has taken this, when it's in a cold state, and polished this and other, uh, pieces of the design to make them stand out a little from the background.

It's a clever little technique, and the kind of detail that René Lalique was very good at conceiving... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...and, and executing.

You've got a valuable vase, Eileen.

Today, this piece, if you were to see it, uh, on the auction market, would sell for at least $8,000, and perhaps as much as $10,000 or even $12,000.

GUEST: Well, I appreciate that-- I had no idea.