GUEST: My great-great grandmother was an assistant in the Hamilton House, which was where the Tyson family resided in South Berwick, Maine, during the summer.

She worked with Ms.

Tyson quite a while, and she gave this, among many items, to my great-great grandmother as gratitude for her service.

They knew Celia Thaxter, who was a painter of pottery.

APPRAISER: On the bottom, it says, "Celia Thaxter, 1888."

Then below that it says "H&C" over the "L."

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: H&C stands for "Haviland & Company."

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And "L" stands for Limoges, the city in France.

So this is made of porcelain, uh, and it would have been shipped to America as a plain white pitcher.

And then she would have selected this to hand-paint on it.

She has hand-painted all the way around these beautiful purple iris and the wonderful long, spiky leaves.

Celia Thaxter was born in 1835 and she died in 1894.

She was in a fairly educated, affluent family.

She moved to live at her father's hotel, which was named Appledore Hotel, which was on the Isle of Shoals... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...which is off the coast of Maine.

And lots of famous people came and stayed there.

Now, she was a writer and she published a lot of books and poetry.

She was a writer's writer.

Some of her biggest fans were some of the greatest writers of the time.

And they were her friends... GUEST: Oh, wow.

APPRAISER: ...because they came and stayed in the hotel.

She was friends with Hawthorne, Longfellow, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: She was also good friends with a lot of famous artists of the day.

She's most known for her writing about the ocean.

But when she painted, she didn't paint the seashore; she painted her garden, her flowers.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Many of them actually include hand-painted quotes from some of her poetry.

GUEST: Oh, wow.

APPRAISER: As a beautiful, well-painted piece of antique porcelain, if it was unsigned, it would probably be worth $100.

But because it's signed by her, there are people who are avid collectors of her work.

I would estimate a retail price to be between $3,000 and $5,000.

GUEST: Oh, my gosh.

APPRAISER: She-sh-- her work is very desirable.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: There are significant collectors.

GUEST: Yeah, oh, my goodness.

Wow, what a treasure.

This is wonderful.

APPRAISER: Yeah, it-it is a treasure.