During the show this truly interesting statue was brought in for appraisal. The owner told us about how his mother had purchased it in Las Vegas at a garage sale. It had been brought back to the Youngstown area in the 1970's and it had been a fixture in their home ever since. The statue was large (mostly)standing almost 3' tall, it was cast in bronze and even though it was unsigned it was of obvious quality. The years had not been completely kind to it as it showed damage on the lower part of its leg. During the show I referred to the statue as being Zues, in reality it most likely a Satyr, possibly Silenus. Satyr's are minor gods that are often associated with fertility.
While doing the presentation I picked the statue up by placing my hands between the legs. To me it was the best way to handle it due to its weight. I was also concerned about the risk of dropping it. It was during this process that the crowd (including my mother in the front row, with her purse on her lap) broke out into a huge uproar as I found myself holding onto the statues 3rd leg. As far as this "leg" goes it was quite undersized, especially for a god, but then again I guess we all can't have huge feet.
So, once the crowd settled down I put an estimated price of $800 on the statue. I also included a caveat that the damage could drop the price significantly if the collectors deemed it too extensive. This is yet another reason why we should all frequent garage sales. Just make sure that when your handling one of these beauties that your careful of your hand placement.
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