'Pawn Stars' guest let down as Chumlee offers just $400 for a Roman item from the 1st century
"Pawn Stars" is one of those shows where people can walk in with playing cards from a few decades ago or furniture from a couple of centuries back, and walk away with a small fortune. However, that isn't always the case, and some sellers are let down. On one occasion, an item that was thousands of years old was only deemed to be worth just $400 by Chumlee.
The item was an ancient Roman bronze duck lamp. It was supposedly used after the sun went down to light up places. Every household must have had multiple, given how crucial these were to life at the time, so one could say that these were not as rare as you’d expect. Chumlee, however, was afraid to even handle it as he believed that he might break it. It did look fragile.
He was also not confident about the value of such an item. So, when the guest said that he wanted $40,000 for it, he was in a spot. Not knowing what to do, Chumlee called in an expert to take a look at the item and ascertain a price. In came Phineas Kastle, who was intrigued by the item at first glance and immediately put on a glove to check it out.
“That is something else,” he said, impressed. “That looks to me like it might be a swan. And you know, in ancient mythology, many times Zeus would take the form of a swan. These little caricatures that you have on the side here, those are like cherubs,” he said. He stated that the caricature and shape of the lamp would symbolize a good marriage and would have been kept at a couple’s bedside table.
Kastle then learned that the guest wanted $40,000, and his excitement quickly turned into uncertainty. “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 gonna bid you right up to $40,000. Other people are gonna look at this, and they may say, Well, I really don’t like the caricatures on it, and they might not bid at all,” he explained.
The expert then placed a value of $1,000 to $1,500 on the object, which was a lot less than what the guest had asked for. It was clear that a deal was less likely, but he still asked Chumlee out of curiosity what he’d offer for the lamp after hearing the expert’s opinion. “400 bucks,” the answer came. As expected, the guest left without selling the duck, which he believed he could get a good price for.
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