Antiques Roadshow

GUEST: Back in 1961, in Mexico City in the summer, saw this print and met the artist, invited me to come to his studio at his home and see his printmaking.

Just had a nice conversation with him and purchased it from him at that time.

He was living in Mexico between 1959 and '63, and we just happened to be there at the same time and ran into him.

APPRAISER: Walter Williams, Jr.

He's a wonderful artist, painter, and printmaker, an African American artist born in Brooklyn, who traveled internationally, and he was in Mexico for a relatively brief period of time before settling in Denmark.

He's one of my favorite artists.

This is such a great example of his work.

We don't often see works that he made in Mexico.

GUEST: No.

APRAISER: So this is a color woodcut.

It's dated in 1961, titled Boy Laughing.

And it's inscribed "artist proof," so we know it's a proof outside of an edition.

He painted images of his childhood, and-and this print includes an image of a young boy, and it's really a joyous, innocent image of his childhood.

And that's really what he settled into in the '60s.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: He came to art relatively late after his military service.

He studied art in Brooklyn in the 1950s, and then he died in 1998.

And his studio burned in Copenhagen in the '80s, and a lot of his work is lost.

And I, I was excited to see this print because I haven't seen this print before.

GUEST: Hm.

APPRAISER: And so I think some of the images he made in Mexico are still coming out of the woodwork, and this is one of them.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: The colors are beautiful, the reds and pinks are vibrant.

We don't know the full edition size, but they're often very small.

Some of these woodcuts are editions of only ten.

So, this may be just a handful of these impressions.

Do you remember what you paid for it?

GUEST: I'm thinking it was $90, in that range.

APPRAISER: At auction, it should bring between $3,000 and $5,000.

GUEST: Hm.

APPRAISER: It certainly could sell more on a good day.

GUEST: Great.

I'm proud to own it.

(both chuckle)