GUEST: It belonged to a friend of mine's father.

He had purchased it probably in the early '80s for his wife at that time.

And we had moved him up from Florida to, up to Michigan here.

This was to be discarded, and so I saved it, and I've had it for close to 18, 19 years.

APPRAISER: And the gentleman that had it before, was it displayed or not?

GUEST: You can see some of the color discoloration up there, and that was, we always felt, due to the Miami sun.

He had it in his condo.

APPRAISER: Did you see it on display in the condominium?

GUEST: I did, I, and I immediately just fell for it.

APPRAISER: This is... (exhales) ...exactly what it appears to be a silk hanging panel with gold wrap thread, and the thread likely is also silk.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: The brilliant color of the blue, which you can see at the very tip top, is sky blue.

And that's the unfaded part.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Right below that, you can see a yellow line.

But the original color would've been a very vibrant sky blue.

And that was purposeful, because what it is representing is the sky.

GUEST: Beautiful.

APPRAISER: So, we have clouds, we have bats, we have dragons.

And down here at the bottom, we have these phoenix, which are these mythical birds that are perched on rockwork, and at the base is the Earth.

So, this has all kinds of different emblems that are all positive.

They are meant to project strength.

GUEST: Mm.

APPRAISER: They're meant to project importance.

What kind of person do you think would have owned this?

GUEST: Um... A high muckety-muck.

(both laugh) APPRAISER: Someone important.

GUEST: I don't know-- yeah, absolutely.

APPRAISER: Well, I think it could've easily been the, an, a commission for the imperial household... GUEST: (gasps) APPRAISER: ...during the reign of the Emperor Guangxu, who reigned from 1875 to 1908.

And behind the scenes was the Dowager Empress Cixi who died also in 1908.

She was kind of the power behind the throne.

I believe it was meant to show imperial power.

The five claws of the dragons are representative of the imperial throne and household, shows that this was an important object that likely was in a reception hall where important people would have come.

And it was a place, because of this kind of color palette, that probably was frequented by the dowager empress.

So you have an important object.

GUEST: Incredible-- incredible.

APPRAISER: And it's actually in remarkably good condition.

A lot of the colors, particularly these down at the bottom part, are just as vibrant as they were when they were originally made.

I think for replacement value purposes, a reasonable figure would be around $30,000.

GUEST (stifles laugh) (inhales) (chuckling) Wow, thank you.

Wow.

Incredible.