Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

A very good friend of mine who I used to go antiquing and flea-marketing with and everything for years and years, passed away. Her family allowed me to go to the estate sale a day ahead of time and I purchased it.

APPRAISER

Uh-huh.

GUEST

Her husband had been from New York and she was from New Jersey before she came here, and she met me when I first came here, so we just had always been friends.

APPRAISER

And you think she brought this from New York, or she bought it locally?

GUEST

I think so now, just because I did research the person who signed it.

APPRAISER

Right, and it's a New York artist.

GUEST

Right, and that's all I really knew. I wasn't even sure what it was made of. I just knew... to me it was always like it's coming out of water. Coming out of the background.

APPRAISER

Yes. It's by a New York artist named Erastus Dow Palmer, and he was one of the leading American sculptors in the 19th century. In fact, his most famous work, the "White Captive," is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

GUEST

Oh, wow.

APPRAISER

So he's a very, very important artist. He actually started his career as a carpenter. And he became interested in cameos-- you know, Italian cameo carvings?

GUEST

Yes.

APPRAISER

And for a number of years in the 1840s, he traveled around the United States carving people's portraits in cameo.

GUEST

Whoa.

APPRAISER

He settled in Albany, New York. He was largely self-taught, and what's unusual about him is he actually stayed in the United States and continued his career. All the other sculptors of this generation, neo-classical sculptors, they all went to Italy to study and to be near the quarries, and also to use the Italian craftsmen to carve their works. This is wonderful. It's made out of marble. As a matter of fact, it's made out of Carrara marble. And Carrara marble is a very, very white marble, and it's sort of sparkly. And you wouldn't know from looking at this because this is sort of stained and dirty.

GUEST

Yes.

APPRAISER

This yellowish...

GUEST

Yes, I wanted to know how to clean it.

APPRAISER

Well, I'm not going to tell you how to clean it, because you shouldn't clean it.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

That's why. This sort of yellowing is basically from nicotine and smoke. And at one time, I don't know if you can look in the frame, but it actually had glass here in it. And so it was protected by glass. And at some point that glass broke and it was affected by the smoke. And, basically, what you have to do is you have to have a professional conservator who can take care of this, who can clean it, who can bring it back to normal, the way it's supposed to look again. This is supposed to be very white, with these wonderful sparkles in the background. And it would not really affect the value, the fact that it's dirty and that it's been cleaned.

GUEST

Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER

Now, you say you bought it at an estate sale and how much did you pay for it?

GUEST

$500.

APPRAISER

$500? Well, that was pretty... it's a good amount of money.

GUEST

It's a big purchase for me.

APPRAISER

It's not like buying it for five bucks at a yard sale.

GUEST

Right, right.

APPRAISER

His work is very rare, his work is very desirable. I would think this piece at auction would bring in the $15,000 to $20,000 range.

GUEST

Oh, wow. (laughing)

APPRAISER

Okay?

GUEST

Great.