I had bought a silver kettle over a year ago, but I was looking to see what was out there again (and to see what prices they were going for). I was really surprised that most of the silver kettles seemed to have really low prices on them.... and then I saw this one in particular that was just amazing, and with about 20 hours left, it was still only at 20,000 yen (~$240). I went to bed thinking, "Wow, I'll bid on that one, I'd pay $1500 for it easily."
Okay, so then I wake up and it's at 700,000 yen (~$8,400) and it ended up closing at just over 1,100,000 yen (~$13,000)... wow! Yeah, so I'd pay $1500 for that easily,
It made me feel a little better, though, because I kept reading the description and thinking "I must be missing the line where it says that all of its previous owners have died horrible, bloody deaths."
Anyway, so yes, Japanese silver kettles still going for a lot...
The pot is listed here for now (scroll down). Because the link will eventually not work and the pictures will be lost, a quick description of the kettle: it has a camel-like (or water creature?) spout; the surface of the pot has a turtle-shell like pattern, and the main body of the kettle has a decorative band in the upper portion; the lid has a similar decorative band encircling it, and the silver-turtle shell pattern has yellow tints to it.
