Sara Marberry

I don’t collect antiques. And I’m not a fan of Chinese art. But somehow, I ended up with this antique Chinese teapot.

It was given to me in the 1980s by a company when I was a 26-year-old editor with a commercial furnishings and design trade magazine in New York City. Maybe it was thanks for a nice story I wrote about their products. Or maybe it was a holiday gift to garner my favor to write a nice story about their products. I don’t remember.

But I do remember thinking the teapot was really ugly when I first saw it. The teapot had a mark on the bottom, though, and I didn’t believe that company would give me something that wasn’t worth anything. So, I kept it.

The teapot survived the move from Matawan, New Jersey, to Evanston, Illinois, where I placed it on a shelf in the living room of my new house and didn’t think much more about it. Twenty-six years later when my sister was helping me downsize and move to a new place in Evanston, she took one look at the teapot and told me it might be valuable.

“I’ll take a picture of it and send it to my friend who knows about antiques,” she said.

I immediately thought this could be my “Antiques Roadshow” discovery, where the Chinese art expert on the PBS show would ask me questions like, “Where did you get it? Do you know where it came from? How much did you pay for it?” -- and then declare, to my utter amazement, that it is worth thousands of dollars, and even more at auction.

My sister’s friend thought the teapot might be valuable and advised me to get it appraised. It just so happens that there is a Chinese art dealer in Wilmette right down the road from me. For $350, he told me he’d appraise the teapot and another small decorative Japanese flowerpot I’d somehow acquired, which also has a mark on the bottom. With high hopes, I emailed him pictures of both items.

And guess what? He valued the ugly teapot at $450-$500 and the lovely flowerpot at $400. For two things that were given to me, I guess that’s a pretty good return. But neither was worth the thousands of dollars I was hoping for. So much for my “Antiques Roadshow” debut.

I was in a downsizing mood and asked the dealer if he’d sell these items for me. He declined. “After my 40 percent commission, you wouldn’t make much money,” he said. “You’d be better off selling them on e-Bay.”

Not wanting to figure out e-Bay, I decided to keep them – for now. And while I still think the teapot is rather ugly, it now rests alongside the flowerpot on the shelf in the family room/kitchen area of my new place. Perhaps I have grown accustomed to it.