Antiques Roadshow

GUEST: She's one of my ancestors, and I don't know who, but if I find out how old it is, then maybe I can figure out who it is from the family tree.

APPRAISER: It's a pastel portrait, which means it's chalk pigments drawn on paper.

It appears as though it's been in this frame from the day it was finished.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: It, it looks like an original frame.

Certainly the glass that's on it is original.

You can see the waviness to it.

GUEST: It looks old.

APPRAISER: Bubbles here and there.

We know the n, the identity of this artist.

It was Micah Williams.

And Micah Williams was active in New Jersey and New York, through New England, all the way up to New Brunswick.

He was born in 1782 and died in 1837.

We know it's a Micah Williams portrait because there are a lot of works by him that survive.

And there are some really interesting traits that we see from various portraits.

One of those traits is the, the eyes.

They have a very distinct look to it.

They're well formed, nice detail in the eyelids, down in the corners of the eyes.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And they're, it's a fairly prominent feature.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And of course, as we can see in this figure, very prominent eyebrows, rounded face, sort of a strong neck, and just the general pose with this simple, plain background, all hallmarks that we, we see in a lot of Micah Williams portraits.

GUEST: Cool.

APPRAISER: It's interesting to note that the sitter is wearing a, a hair comb that appears...

GUEST: Truly.

APPRAISER: ...to be made from tortoise shell.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And that's a style of hair decoration that became fairly popular in the, in the 1830s.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: So when we look at that, when we look at the type of clothing, the hairstyle, it really points towards this portrait being made maybe the mid-1830s.

GUEST: Okay.

So if you take a look through your genealogy and look for ancestors who were, what, in their early 20s...

GUEST: I'm gonna say...

Okay.

APPRAISER: ... in the 1830s, you may just be able to figure out...

GUEST: I think I know who it is, then-- APPRAISER: ...who the sitter is.

GUEST: yeah.

APPRAISER: And where was she from?

GUEST: She, actually, from New Jersey, or New Ha, New York.

Well, there you go.

And then moved to Massachusetts, and she married my ancestor.

APPRAISER: That's perfect.

GUEST: I have a little tintype of her.

APPRAISER: Oh, wow.

GUEST: When she's a lot older, in the late, mid-1800s.

APPRAISER: Okay.

So... Are there any facial similarities that you can...?

GUEST: I think so, yeah.

APPRAISER: Oh, that's really neat.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: There were a lot of portrait painters in the 19th century that did thousands of portraits across the Mid-Atlantic, New England...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...up into, into Canada, New Brunswick.

The vast majority of these portraits, the sitters are unknown.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Knowing the sitter definitely adds to the potential value of the work.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: The fact that it's in its original frame, which has been gold painted at some point later on in life...

GUEST: Grandma painted everything.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

(laughing) Yeah, not uncommon.

But you've got the original glass.

GUEST: Oh, yeah.

APPRAISER: And it's just a really fine example.

So, if this were to be consigned for auction, I would be inclined to give it an auction estimate in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.

GUEST: Hm!

(laughs): That's a lot-- whoa.