Too bad about the piece, it is extremely nice. If silver, I think it may be a few thousand, but seeing as it is plated it will be worth a lot less (as everyone else is saying). At a well publicized auction this could sell for $150 or maybe $200, but probably not anywhere else (but this has to be a prominent auction house in a large city- I'm not talking Sotheby's but someplace like Skinner). The latter is a higher hope, but it is also possible that it would only sell for $50. Auctions are very unpredictable. Things often sell for 5 times as much as the predicted value or 5 times less than the predicted value. Just depends. Good luck!