APPRAISER: First, I want to show the jug just a little bit for the camera.

It is absolutely an incredible piece of ceramic art, with writhing snakes and spiders all over the jug.

There's a little bit of blue decoration on a man who is sitting in the center of the jug.

His hands are sticking out of the jug, and a snake is biting him on the head.

Tell me everything that you know about the history of this jug.

GUEST: Well, I acquired it from my mother, and we had it in the house when I was growing up, and I always thought it was kind of neat.

And she told me that it had been on, sitting on a highboy outside her bedroom in the family home when she was growing up.

She's from Leavenworth, Kansas, and my grandfather was mayor of the town, and he also owned the creamery and dairy in Leavenworth.

And, um, she has no idea how he got it.

We assume someone probably gave it to him as a gift.

And since then, I've found out it's from Texas.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: And we have no idea how it got to Kansas.

APPRAISER: Well, tell me, how did you find out that it was from Texas?

GUEST: Well, about, about a week after I brought it back from my mother's, I went to a yard sale near my house, and, um... I use a lot of quilts making crafts.

And this gentleman told me that he had a quilt.

So I went to his house, and he had all these crocks.

And I said, "Oh, I have a crock I got from my mother."

And I told him about it, and he says, "I know someone who would want to see this."

So he called, um, Georgeanne Greer, who was a local, um, Texas pottery expert.

And we went over to her house and, um, she went wild when she saw it, and, um, she told me that the gentleman who made it was an East Texas potter... APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: ...from Limestone County, Texas, and was from the 1870s.

APPRAISER: Well, Georgeanne Greer, I am familiar with her.

Unfortunately, I never did meet her.

But she passed away several years ago, after you met her, and she's looked at your jug.

And she was a very well-known collector, scholar, and author about Texas and Southern pottery.

She was very knowledgeable about all types of stoneware and pottery made all over the United States.

Did she tell you about the rarity of this jug?

GUEST: Um, she said that there were prob... As far as she knew, there were only about six or eight of these jugs in the entire country.

And as far as she knew, there, there were none made in Texas.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

And so as far as she knew, this was possibly the only one.

Did she say something like that?

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Because Georgeanne Greer was so well-known and so knowledgeable in this field, if she says it's probably the only one known in Texas, it may well be.

Possibly, there are others undiscovered at someone's home, but, uh, it may be one of the very few around.

And what did Georgeanne Greer tell you that this jug might be worth when you talked to her a number of years ago?

GUEST: Um, she estimated between $5,000 and $6,000.

APPRAISER: My, that's quite a bit of money.

Um, there has been a lot of new interest in Texas pottery by Texas collectors, primarily, in the last few years.

And some examples, especially the rarest and most unusual examples, the prices have gone up considerably in the last few years.

There are a lot of museums who like to represent this sort of pottery in their collections.

And there's also a number of major private collectors who like this sort of thing.

I definitely agree with her that it would, might sell for, easily, $5,000 or $6,000, but who knows?

It might sell for $8,000, $10,000, $12,000.

I would not be shocked if it sold for that much, provided the jug was given a lot of promotion and all the right people knew it was for sale.

Because this is such a very specific and small area of collectability, primarily just here in Texas.

Just like there would be regional things that would be popular in other parts of the United States, Texas things are popular with Texas collectors.

I'm really thrilled that you brought this in.

This is a great pot... GUEST: Oh, I love it.

APPRAISER: ...and I hope you really tr, treasure it and enjoy it your whole life.

GUEST: Oh, I do.