SOLID AS A ROCK

This elaborately carved marble lion made a splash at an Antiques Roadshow event in 2002.

I just returned from my 34th Antiques Roadshow event since 2001, the year I launched the monthly publication Antiques Roadshow Insider. In a way, the span of 13 years and 34 shows is all a blur, from those first trips in the summer of 2001 (Miami, Tucson, New York) to the two in 2014 (Chicago and a return visit to New York). Yet when I look at the list of events I’ve attended, a lot of it remains clear in my mind, which is helpful when people ask me about the most memorable items I’ve seen up-close and personal.

My most memorable? At the top of the list are two items I saw during my first two years with Insider. I recalled one of them in my July 2 post here: an unforgettable Navajo weaving that drew an estimate of $350,000–$500,000. Ranking up in that stratosphere, for me, is a carved Tang Dynasty marble lion I saw at the Albuquerque, N.M., show in July 2002.

The appraiser was Asian Arts expert Lark Mason, and the guest who brought in the lion was a smallish woman who didn’t have an air of pretension about her. Their reactions were unforgettable….

Mason was visibly moved, both before taping the segment and immediately afterwards. It was such an important piece — one he never expected to encounter in New Mexico — that he got a little choked up. It totally caught him by surprise; in fact, that was the first word in an exclusive story he cast for our January 2003 issue:

“Surprise, astonishment, and disbelief washed over me the moment the owner of a white marble lion walked up to the Asian Arts table in Albuquerque last summer. In my job at Sotheby’s [Mason has since founded his own company, iGavel Auctions], I frequently work with objects of great value and occasionally discover objects in unexpected locations.

Discovering a Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) lion in such an unexpected venue, however, ranks as one of the greatest

surprises of my career. It’s exceptional not only for its size (around 18 inches tall) but because of its quality and condition.”

Mason went on to write: “The craftsman treated this large sculpture in a manner more typical of carvings of much smaller size. The surface is smooth and unmarred from damage. The details are as crisply rendered as the day it left the carver’s workshop. I told the lion’s owner that its value might be a bit more than expected: around $250,000.”

Now, that assessment might have sent some people bouncing off the convention center’s ceiling. But the lion’s owner took it in stride. She was as cool as a cucumber, even if she was as astonished by the value as Mason was by the lion itself. To her, it was a member of the family. She told me it had been in her home as long as she could remember; her parents had bought it while on a trip to China, but she and her brother didn’t see it as an important carving. They called it “Leo the Lion,” and they used to play with it like a toy, dressing it up and putting marbles in its mouth.

It survived, however, and impressively so. The lion’s owner lived “out in the middle of nowhere” in New Mexico, she said; at the time, she didn’t even have a phone.

I ran into Lark Mason while on the road this summer and asked him what he knew about the lion today — whether the woman sold it or still owns it. He said he had had just seen a few weeks ago, and that she still has the lion. About the only change is that she has a cell phone. Otherwise, Mason said, she’s as down-to-earth as ever — and clearly happy to hold onto her childhood friend Leo.

So there you have it: my top two. Actually, there’s a third “most memorable” item for me, and it’s in the realm of baseball. But I’ll save that for next time….

Appraiser Lark Mason gave us an insider’s view of the Albuquerque carved lion find back in January 2003.