A COLLECTOR has discovered his unique wooden bowl is worth tens of thousands of dollars.
He bought the item with his dad for $557 at an auction years prior and suspected the expert craftsmanship made it valuable and rare.
A collector was relieved to know his auction bid for a wooden bowl paid off[/caption]
Antiques Roadshow appraiser John Sollo (right) was baffled by the wooden bowl[/caption]
The item (pictured) was designed by a late architect around the 1980s[/caption]
John Sollo, an appraiser with Antiques Roadshow, explained that the collector’s intuition was spot on during a recent episode of the acclaimed series.
Sollo excitedly confirmed that it was turned wood.
Woodturning is a special craft that uses handheld tools to create “a [wooden] shape that is symmetrical around an axis of rotation,” per the American Association of Woodturners.
Some popular and ubiquitous items come from woodturning, including baseball bats and drumsticks.
Other items, including homeware pieces like the bases of many lamps, are also woodturned.
The collector’s bowl was particularly special, as it was far less common and made by the late American architect and self-taught woodturner Ed Moulthrop.
“What you bought was a wonderful piece of Ed Moulthrop turned wood,” Sollo told him.
“I’ve seen a lot of turned wood in my life, and this is by far the largest piece I’ve ever seen.”
“It is absolutely monumental,” the appraiser added in disbelief.
MOULTHROP’S WORK
Sollo also gave a little insight on Moulthrop, who went to Princeton to learn architecture before moving down to Georgia in the 1970s, where he began making wood-turned bowls “almost exclusively.”
“That’s what he did for a living, he has several family members that do it as well,” Sollo noted.
“He really kind of pioneered this, and this look is so fantastic, and it’s so classic Ed Moulthrop.”
The bowl could be seen nearly taking up the entire surface of the Antiques Roadshow table, with a glossy glycol finish and a small hole at the top.
Sollo emphasized that Moulthrop had an especially large setup and tools to make the bowl as big as it was.
Antiques Roadshow best finds
Antiques Roadshow has helped people put a price on their treasures since 1979. Here are some of the most interesting finds
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- A Rolex that cost just $120 is now worth $45,000
- The portrait of a woman’s mother at four years old and its frame was worth $32,000
- A book of hymns that was kept in a basement was worth $50,000
- A rare sculpture bought at a flea market in 1961 was worth $100,000
- An antique floor lamp from an estate sale was worth $15,000
- A mobile from the 1940s was worth a whopping $2 million
- A tablecloth drawn on by a baseball legend was worth $1,500
- A Picasso plate that hung above an oven was worth $15,000
COSTLY CRACKS
There was only one problem with the piece for the appraiser — humidity cracks in the wood along the sides of the bowl.
The cracks, however, were negated a bit by the inclusion of Moulthrop’s signature on the bottom, verifying its authenticity.
Sollo added that he and other experts with Antiques Roadshow also believed it was crafted around the 1980s or 90s by Ed himself, not his family members.
That increased the value exponentially, but Sollo said the size alone still held the majority of the piece’s worth.
WHAT’S IT WORTH?
“I think at auction, if we didn’t have the cracks in it, it would probably be in the $30,000 to $40,000 range,” the appraiser confirmed.
“With the cracks, it becomes a bit more dicey…my guess is with the cracks, we could safely say at auction it’d probably bring $15,000 to $20,000.”
While the cracks did take off around $10,000, it was still a significant potential profit for the collector.
Other similar items brought to Antiques Roadshow have been valued at several thousand dollars.
An 80-year-old bowl was worth a whopping $60,000 payday thanks to an unusual detail.
Expert appraisers also told a collector their mother’s 30-year-old handmade basket was worth around $85,000 thanks to its designer.
