Antiques Roadshow

GUEST: We purchased it about 40 years ago at a small gallery near our home in Lake Elsinore, California.

Just loved it.

I don't even think we paid $1,000 for it.

But I know it's by Frank McCarthy, a very famous Western artist.

We love all this action.

Little vignettes everywhere.

APPRAISER: It's easy to see why he was nicknamed the Dean of Western Action Painters.

This is what he specialized in.

What-what else do you know about him?

GUEST: Well, it, uh, has to do with Chief Joseph, his surrender in 1877, a Nez Perce Indian.

They were forced to surrender.

We had had the magazine at one time, Argosy magazine.

It had the picture in the magazine and a story concerning what was going on in the picture.

So that's how we knew.

APPRAISER: He did do Argosy magazine, and also Collier's and True, and alongside that, he did a lot of covers for the Western novels.

He was from New York, originally.

He always lived there, and-and also in Connecticut.

He was best known for doing illustration.

He studied commercial art, and so he did books.

He also did movies.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: So he did a couple of the James Bond movies...

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...like Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice.

GUEST: That's right.

APPRAISER: And one of my favorite action movies, The Great Escape.

But 1973 was a real watershed year for him, because he had an exhibition of his art...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...and it sold out almost immediately.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And that gave him the impetus to move from New York to Arizona.

And so he went from being an illustration artist to being thought of more as a Western artist.

So there's more the fine art aspect of it.

This is a oil on board.

You had mentioned that it was in Argosy magazine, and unfortunately, you've lost track of that now.

That would have been great in helping us to determine exactly when this was painted.

But given that it's one of his illustration pieces, I'm thinking it's probably in the '40s, '50s.

I think, and I spoke with my colleagues, we think, at auction, $12,000 to $18,000.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Yeah, comfortably.

GUEST: Guess I should get insurance.

(chuckles) Well, thank you.

APPRAISER: I would suggest an insurance figure of $30,000.

GUEST: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: Yeah.