Antiques Roadshow

GUEST: Well, my grandparents and my mother traveled from El Dorado, Arkansas, to New Orleans in the summer of 1946 to get my mother's wedding dress and her trousseau in preparation to marry my father.

And my grandparents went into a gallery and my grandfather saw this painting, and fell in love with it, and bought it.

APPRAISER: And then what can you tell me about the little painting?

GUEST: Apparently, my parents, uh, communicated with the artist.

And in 1949, they bought this smaller painting, which is the study that he did before he painted the big painting.

We have a letter from him to my parents that he's enclosing the painting, and it cost $35.

APPRAISER: Not a small amount of money in 1949.

GUEST: No, no.

APPRAISER: And $500 was a lot of money in 1946.

GUEST: Right, right.

APPRAISER: Both of these paintings are by Clarence Millet, oil on canvas and both are of the old French Market in New Orleans.

We don't know for sure when these were done, but we have a pretty good guess.

We know he bought them in 1946.

Clarence was from Louisiana.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: That's where he spent his whole career.

He studied at the Art Students League from 1922 to 1924.

Even though he would tell people that he was self-taught, he definitely was not.

Uh, he was-- he was part of the establishment.

And in 1925, he set up shop in-in New Orleans.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And these are the kind of subjects that he became famous for, uh, an American Impressionist take on New Orleans.

This large painting was exhibited in numerous places, which is quite fun.

It's very unusual that you would track down the study later...

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: ...uh, which I also enjoy.

And I think that, when it comes to valuating something like this, that the question really becomes, "Where is it?

Is it somewhere good?

Is it something that the artist is known for?"

Yes, absolutely, right?

We got the French Quarter in, in, in New Orleans, exactly what he's known for.

Then there's a question of provenance.

Right, where has it been?

Right, okay.

What is the story?

What is its history?

And in this case, we know exactly when it was bought.

We know the artist knows about it.

And then we have letters and receipts that take us all the way back.

And then the third factor, really, when we're evaluating these things is, is color and quality.

Like, how good is it within the artist's body of work?

I think with these, you've really kind of hit it out of the park.

You've got all three things.

I would say a conservative auction estimate would be $30,000 to $50,000.

GUEST: Whoa.

(chuckles) APPRAISER: It would be a shame to break these up.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: I think they should stay together.

Uh, but the study all on its own, I would say is probably worth $3,000 to $5,000 right now.

GUEST: Wow.

My grandparents would be very proud.

(both laugh)