GUEST: When my husband's parents bought their new home, this chandelier was left by the previous owners.

And after the sale was closed, I think they had regret that they had left it and asked my in-laws if they would return it to them.

But my mother-in-law had a beautiful antique chandelier of her own so she turned them down and gave it to us as a gift.

APPRAISER: Oh, well, once a sale is made, a sale is made.

GUEST: Yes; when my mother-in-law gave it to us, the height of the piece was, uh, taller than the room would accommodate.

And she took it to a business that dealt with antique, um, lighting.

And when they removed the piece that we needed to fit the height, they told her it was an antique Limoges chandelier.

And they also told her, based on the wiring on the exterior of the arms of the chandelier, that they thought it was a gas chandelier converted to electric.

APPRAISER: Here's the spacer that you remarked on.

And there is a mark on the base that says simply "Limoges, France."

GUEST: And that helps you date it?

APPRAISER: It does help us date it, but the mark is not really what we need to date it.

We can do it in other ways.

It must have been quite a production to bring it here today.

Was it hanging up?

GUEST: It's in our dining room, and the electrician that we had hired didn't show up.

So my husband said, "We can manage this."

And an hour later, all four members of my family-- my daughter held the flashlight.

My husband ended up having to use a hacksaw because one of the screws was stripped.

My son and I are under the chandelier sort of you know, because it's fragile, and we were worried about it.

So, it was quite the ordeal to get it down, and my son, who's 15, said, "Mom, if you're not on TV, we're disowning you."

(chuckles) APPRAISER: Well, don't worry about being disowned.

It's made of two materials-- porcelain and then gilded metal.

It's not, I'm afraid, hand painted.

All of the decoration in the panels is transfer printed, which is already an evidence that maybe it's not quite as valuable or old...

GUEST: Old.

APPRAISER: as important as you might think.

This concept of the wires being attached to the arms is sometimes evidence of rewiring a gas fixture, and gas fixtures tend to be at least 100 years old or more.

This is not.

It's also done on fixtures that are inexpensive.

This is not a good sign in this case.

Limoges is a prestigious name.

Limoges has been a center of porcelain manufacturing for 150 years or more.

And they made some great things there.

But they use the name today often more as a prestige term than anything else.

And the quality of the porcelain is really not very strong, as indeed generally the quality of the entire piece.

I'm afraid, in this case, despite all the expectations you may have had and all the trouble your family went to to bring it here, if it came up at auction, I would be very surprised if it sold for more than a few hundred dollars.

GUEST: That's interesting.

APPRAISER: I would have thought between $300 and $500 would be the correct estimate at auction.

GUEST: Well, that helps explain why they might leave it, that it didn't have great value.

But it was free to us, so that's...

I'm, I'm glad to know.