Ceramic Stylings

Sharon had been watching Antiques Roadshow too much. She saw a multitude of people bringing their finds to appraisers, most coming out of it with the realization of being thousands of dollars richer. There was an old creaky dresser that was bought for twenty five dollars and worth two thousand because it was made in the 1920s by a rare furniture maker that made only twenty of that model. There was a man that spent two dollars on a box of coins and found out that one of them was worth five hundred because of an imperfection in its ridge.

So Sharon became a treasure-finding hopeful. She looked through her attic, prowled through garage and yard sales. Then she found the closest city the Roadshow was going to and made the trip.

The event was swarming with people waiting for their appraisals. A woman stared at her suspiciously and clutched her rabbit etched plates closer to her chest, as if Sharon would snatch them away.

It was an hour before she was seen and it wasn't in front of a camera. The appraiser had a bushy mustache that twitched when he spoke and thick brown rimmed glasses.

"What do we have here today?"

Sharon presented her item, a pair of ceramic kittens. She had bought them at a local yard sale. The man who sold it had said they were passed down from his grandmother. She didn't know what to make of them but they had looked like they might be worth something.

"I see..." said the man, holding the white ceramic felines in the air. He turned them this way and that, examining them with great scrutiny.

"How much did you pay for these?" he asked.

"Five dollars," Sharon replied, filled with great anticipation. She was going to be one of those people she saw on TV. How much would they be worth? A hundred? Six thousand?

"Mm hmm, mm hmm. Would you be surprised to find out that these were made in China?"

"Oh really?" She was getting more excited now. She had thought that the design had an Asian influence. Would that increase their value?

"And when would you guess that these were produced?"

"Well," she said, doing a little mental arithmetic, guessing the seller's age and how old the cats had to be if they belonged to his grandmother. "The thirties maybe? "

"Not quite," the appraiser said. "It's probably closer to the nineties."

"1890s?" she said with a catch in her voice. She had secretly hoped they were older, since that usually seemed to raise appraisals.

"No."

She looked at him with a puzzled expression, so he flipped over one of the cats and showed her their white bottoms and began scratching the center with a fingernail. White pieces that might have been paint or correction fluid started flaking off to finally reveal three conclusive words: Made In China.