I kept an old plate on the wall above my stove for years – then Antiques Roadshow told me face on it makes it worth $15k

A COLLECTOR was excited to learn that the unique plate she had hanging above her stove was worth thousands.

The woman said she only learned she owned a piece of history after seeing a similar plate while visiting a gallery .

Antiques Roadshow PBS

Antiques Roadshow PBS

It’s a large oval plate with various-sized white circles around the edge and a face in the middle.

The collector said the plate hung over her stove in the kitchen and her kids “loved the smiley face.”

She also noted there was a chip on one of the eyes but it “didn’t bother” her, though it might have if she had known what it was: a midcentury piece by Pablo Picasso.

The woman said her family “didn’t even realize it was a Picasso until five years ago,” she said on Antiques Roadshow .

Her family initially bought the plate in Rhode Island in 1970 and when she visited a gallery a few years ago, she saw a similar plate.

The surprised woman told the worker she had an almost identical dish at home.

When he asked her how much she thought it was worth she said, “Maybe $50, maybe $100. I don’t think we paid any more than that.”

The worker, surprised by her find, asked her to take it off the wall behind the stove so it could be in a safer spot.

She did, saying it had “layers of grease” she had to clean, but she was okay with that because she’d bought it to enjoy it.

THE REVEAL

Stuart Slavid, an expert at the Antiques Roadshow said the plate was called “Face in an Oval” and completed in 1955.

He also said Picasso did a lot of the special edition plates for the Madoura studio in France , which he had a relationship with for 24 years.

Some are jugs, figures, and different shaped plates.

Slavid noted that the chip in the enamel was seen “regularly” in high-relief art, but the plate was in otherwise “quite remarkable condition.”

On the back of the plate, Picasso had written that the plate was number 23 out of 100.

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• An antique floor lamp from an estate sale was worth $15,000
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• A Picasso plate that hung above an oven was worth $15,000

Slavid said there was no way to know if the full 100 in the series was ever completed.

Also pressed into the back of the plate was the Madoura logo and another that said it was an original print by Picasso.

Slavid expressed that Picasso’s work has “taken off tremendously” over the last few years.

The woman said she “hadn’t a clue” how much her plate was worth, and the expert told her it could go for $10,000 to $15,000.

She immediately grasped Slavid’s hands and laughed with a big smile on her face when she heard its value.

“That’s fabulous,” she said.

EXPENSIVE PORTRAIT

Another piece of art was valued at a high price at the antique show.

A woman was told the passed-down portrait of her mother was worth $32,000 thanks to the signature.

The painting, done in 1931 of the woman’s mother at four years old was done by Adelaide Chase, a renowned artist from Boston, Massachusetts .

Art expert Robin Starr called the Chase painting and Thulin frame a “quintessential Boston package.”

The woman said she would likely never sell the painting so Starr offered her an insurance value.

She said the oil portrait and its frame would be insured for around $32,000.

“You knew your mom was a winner,” joked Starr in response to the woman’s shock.

Antiques Roadshow PBS