GUEST: My grandfather had seven sisters and one of them was a fairly renowned antiques dealer in Joplin, Missouri.

Visited her house one time, it was just jammed with stuff.

So she gave this set to my mother and it was a wedding present.

Hm.

And my mom would always say, "May said this was one of the finest examples of this type of work that she'd ever seen."

APPRAISER: It's a beautiful service.

GUEST: Nice.

APPRAISER: It is a dessert service and it's complete.

There is what we would call a cake plate or a cake stand.

You can see there's a pedestal on this one.

And eight plates to go with it.

And they're in beautiful condition, which suggests they haven't had a lot of use.

These services were made typically with one fruit stand and eight plates.

It's rare to find more than one fruit stand.

Ornithological services typically depict birds.

And these are all hand-painted, very beautifully done, of a more exotic nature.

What I like here is that these are common British birds.

GUEST: Oh, British.

APPRAISER: Um, and common in this case is unusual.

APPRAISER: So, you know, here's a thrush, there are finches.

They're-they're common birds of a garden variety.

There is one that's an exception.

What is that?

Do-- have you noticed?

GUEST: Well, I think it would be this one, right?

APPRAISER: It would, the parrot.

GUEST: Right, parrot.

APPRAISER: And you don't see many parrots flying around naturally in the British Isles.

GUEST: No.

APPRAISER: I think someone has chosen-- whoever painted this chose the parrot, perhaps because that is a fruit stand or a dessert stand.

And fruit, after all, in Britain, is mostly exotic.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Now, I don't know who made it and I don't know who painted it.

Almost certainly made in the county of Staffordshire or very nearby.

I think these are probably mid-Victorian, meaning made perhaps around 1860 or 1870.

There are no marks on them.

There was a time when services of this type were more valuable, frankly, than they are today.

A retail price, it's going to be at least $1,000.

APPRAISER: And possibly a dealer would price it at $1,500 or $1,600.

GUEST: Okay, great.