APPRAISER: It's a beauty.

I haven't seen a lamp like this for some time.

Uh, can you tell me a little bit about it?

GUEST 1: My uncle Joe Taylor-- my great-uncle, I guess-- he went to buy a house for he and my Aunt Zora, and he saw this lamp in the house.

He told the people, "I will buy the house if I can have the lamp."

They agreed.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST 1: So that lamp has been in the family.

APPRAISER: I see.

GUEST 1: We're looking at somewhere around 80 to 90 years.

APPRAISER: I see.

GUEST 1: That we know of.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

GUEST 1: So beyond that, I don't know.

APPRAISER: Are you still in the house?

GUEST 1: Uh, no, no, the house... (all laugh) The house is, is long gone.

APPRAISER: We'll take a look at it with the, uh, with the shade off of the base.

We sometimes find a mark on the shade itself.

And this one, I don't, uh, I don't see the mark on it.

But we've established from the particular design that this one is a Pairpoint lamp made in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

GUEST 1: Oh, really?

GUEST 2: Oh!

APPRAISER: This is what we call a reverse-painted lamp, because it's been painted on the inside.

The lamp has... ...right across this part of the, of the puffy, a mark that indicates... GUEST 1: Hm.

APPRAISER: ...a crack in the lamp.

Right down from here, at the top of the corner, following down to the base, is a crack that goes through the glass.

And while it's still fairly secure... GUEST 2: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...it is a, a fairly significant damage.

That affects its dam, its, uh, value quite a good deal.

I would tell you that its value, if it were perfect, would be roughly $5,000.

GUEST 2: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And unfortunately, with a crack in it, its value is somewhere closer to $500.

GUEST 1: Mm.

GUEST 2: Oh, that's a shame.

GUEST 1: That's a big, that's a big difference.

(chuckles) GUEST 2: Yeah.

APPRAISER: It is a shame, and unfortunately, w, we have no way of, uh, repairing a, a, a piece like that.

GUEST 1: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: It's what makes our remaining antiques more valuable.