Antiques Roadshow

GUEST: Well, I have a E-Evelyn Ackerman mosaic that I picked up a few years ago in an antique mall locally.

I-I paid $100 for it.

APPRAISER: Well, I love that this has turned up in Michigan because this has a Michigan origin story.

GUEST: Does it?

APPRAISER: Both Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman were born in Detroit in the 1920s.

Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman were really influential mid-20th century modern artists.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And they both studied here in Michigan.

What you have here is, is one of their glass mosaics that Evelyn started designing in 1955.

Originally, Evelyn did the design and production of these herself, but the orders were coming fast and furious... GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: ...and it was just too much for them to keep up with.

So eventually they handed off the manufacture of these to a family of artisans in Mexico City.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And that's where this was made.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: We looked at the original order form from 1958.

So we know the title of this work is "Birds in... GUEST: ...Cage."

APPRAISER: Cage.

And at the time that this particular mosaic was produced, uh, it was sold for $70 retail or $35 to the trade.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And a lot of what the Ackermans did was selling to the trade.

They sold to interior designers.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: They sold to architects and they sold to department stores.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: And they're composed of Venetian glass tesserae, pieces that are arranged in this way so that you could create these types of patterns.

And what Evelyn did is she designed these in like, a small cartoon sketch... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...and then she blew them up, uh, to full size, and she would ship over to Mexico City the original drawing, as well as a color key code.

How she wanted the birds to look... GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: ...what was the color of the cage and the background.

And they were issued in a few different sort of color ways.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: And they're always on this, this Masonite backing.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Which was great to see.

This is its original wood frame, exactly as it was produced.

The Ackermans' work has been receiving a lot of attention... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...particularly in the last ten to 15 years.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: In 2005, this panel came up to auction with another panel; a companion piece, you might call it, that also had birds in it.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And in 2005, those two panels sold at auction for $650.

So about $325 each.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: In today's market, if this panel were to come to auction, we would conservatively estimate it between $4,000 and $6,000.

GUEST: Oh, my.

(chuckles) I see a lot of their pieces online, and I kind of keep an eye out for their work.

I mean, it doesn't turn up a whole lot.