# How to price a Sake set?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-price-a-sake-set/445018>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 12, 2008, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-price-a-sake-set/445018 "2008-04-12T09:37:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-price-a-sake-set/445018/1 "2008-04-12T09:37:01Z")

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My mother has a Saki set, inherited from my grandmother. I’m not sure where it originated from.

I have tried looking up antique Saki sets on e-bay, but I have yet to find a set that matches my mothers. I’ll describe it…

In the bottom of the cups, there is a glass dome. When you fill the cups with Saki (or water, like I did as a child), you can see there is a picture of a naked woman underneath the dome. Nothing hardcore, by today’s standards, but I imagine they were quite the hot items back in the day.

Has anyone heard of or seen a similar saki set?

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**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-price-a-sake-set/445018/2 "2008-04-12T11:59:52Z")

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Cannot really help except for try searching ‘Sake set’

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**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-price-a-sake-set/445018/3 "2008-04-12T14:53:18Z")

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The cups you have are called lithophane cups. A good friend of mine is a collector of such cups and sake sets and through him I have become fairly knowledgable of them. The cups themselves are worth between $2 to $10 each depending on how elaborate the design and their condition. The most my friend has paid was about $125 for a nice set of 6 cups and a matching whistling dispenser. If you could post a picture of the set it would be much easier to give more information.

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-price-a-sake-set/445018/4 "2008-04-12T16:35:30Z")

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I fixed the spelling in the title so people have a better idea of the subject. I originally thought you were talking about a set of the works of the author Saki. 😉

Colibri  
General Questions Moderator

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**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-price-a-sake-set/445018/5 "2008-04-13T00:12:09Z")

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Ah ha! Well, now I feel stupid.

Sadly, I have no pictures of the set, and it’s 3000 miles away. Maybe I’ll see if my mom can come up with some for me…