CHUMLEE: What do you got here? I have a Roman ancient
bronze duck lamp. CHUMLEE: I'm almost afraid
to touch it, really, man. The word ancient just scares me. I don't want to be
the one who breaks it. JAD: Yeah, right? I purchased the duck lamp
from an antiquities gallery in Manhattan's upper east
side a couple years back. I'd like to sell the
duck lamp because I want to add some new pieces
to my collection with the money I
would get from it. CHUMLEE: All right, so
what exactly is this? This was a lamp used
in ancient times-- the Roman culture--
to light up a room. Also, possibly for
ceremonial purposes. CHUMLEE: Yeah, I was gonna say
it looks a little fancy to just be your average household lamp. I know these lamps
are fairly common. And every household, you know,
had at least a couple lamps-- maybe even one per person
because once the sun went down, this is what you
would use to see. JAD: This is kind of slidable. If you move it gently,
it reveals this opening. You put some olive oil in there. You just put the wick part into
this little hole right here. And you just light it up. All right. I've seen my fair share
of lamps at the shop, but nothing as fancy
or ancient as this. The first century is really old. So I'm gonna need some
help before I even think about making an offer. When you throw words
out like ancient, it kind of scares me to ask
you what you want for it. It is really old, and
it has a frailness to it. But I'd like to
get $40,000 for it. Whoa. If you want to get that
kind of money on it, you're gonna have
to hang out here. I can call my buddy,
Phineas, down. He specializes in artifacts.
- Perfect. Sounds great.
CHUMLEE: All right. Let me give him a call. And I'll be back. JAD: Awesome. I'm not nervous at all about
the shop calling in an expert. I'm pretty confident
that the piece is as described and authentic. CHUMLEE: I have no idea if it's
real or even worth that much, so I called Phineas
in to help me out. DR. PHINEAS KASTLE: Hey, Chum. - Hey, Phineas.
- How you doing? Good. It's really good
to see you, brother. Well, I think you're
gonna be even happier when you see what I have here. DR. PHINEAS KASTLE: Wow. That's a Roman lamp. Bear with me a
second here and let me put something
on so that I can actually pick this thing up.
Wow. That is something else. Look at that. That looks to me like
it might be a swan. And, you know, in the
ancient mythology, many times Zeus would
take the form of a swan. These little caricatures that
you have on the side here, Chum, those are
like little cherubs. So almost like at
Valentine's Day, you know, they have these little
angels walking around-- they're shooting
people with arrows. This would symbolize, let's
say, like, a good marriage. You've got the Gods there
that would encourage love. And this would be an
object, maybe, you know, placed on a bedside table. CHUMLEE: So how much do
you think it's worth? He want $40,000 for it. DR. PHINEAS KASTLE: Ooh. It's a hard thing to
gauge on items like this because when you
go to the auctions, somebody could look at this
and just fall in love with it, and they're going to bid
you right up to $40,000. Other people are going to
look at this and they may say, well, I really don't like
the caricatures on it. And they might not
bid on it at all. I'm going to pitch it right
about $1,000 to $1,500. CHUMLEE: Well, that's
what I need to know. DR. PHINEAS KASTLE: OK.
- Thank you. DR. PHINEAS KASTLE:
You're very welcome, sir. And take that glove off. You look like Michael Jackson. I will do that. Thank you. This is a really great item. I would love to have one. I would definitely
buy it and add it to my personal collection. But at $40,000, that
seemed really steep to me. So I had to be somewhat
of a dream buster today. CHUMLEE: You still
want to sell it? I mean, based on
what the man just said, what would you even offer
for it out of curiosity? $400. JAD: $400? CHUMLEE: It's a beautiful piece. It's nice. But $400 is what I see
comfortable putting money into it. So I'm gonna have
to pass on your offer. CHUMLEE: All right. Well, thanks for
bring it in, man. Absolutely. They obviously thought that
this was an ugly duckling, but I know, to me, that
this is a beautiful swan. And it will bring me
a lot of cash someday.
