Antiques Roadshow

GUEST: Well, these two paintings have been in my family for probably 150 years, and probably were bought by my great-great grandmother in the late 1800s.

I had copies of them hanging on the wall in my office at work.

And I work at a university.

And one of the art history professors came in one day and she saw the works, and she goes, "Oh, I didn't know we had any Winslow Homers in our collection."

And I just about fell out on the floor, and I said, "Well... (chuckles) those belong to me."

APPRAISER: There are two great watercolorists of the late 19th century: John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Winslow Homer started working in watercolor in about 1873 in Gloucester.

These works date from slightly later, about 1878.

The medium of the one closest to you is pure watercolor.

There might be some pencil underdrawing that's very faint.

The one closest to me, it has the pencil underdrawing the watercolor.

And then these touches of gouache, they're just perfect 1878 Winslow Homers.

The one closest to you, the little boy and girl on a swing, that has lost color.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Um, we call that light struck.

There were times when he painted in very pale washes, um, but this is a little paler than usual.

The one near me is in much better condition.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Uh, this has not lost color.

And you can actually see that the opening goes to the very edge, that there might-might be a little bit of what we call acid burn...

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: ...from the old frame where it's darkened at the very edge.

But you can see that the color hasn't really changed.

You get that full range of the greens.

What might have happened, though, is that the paper might have darkened very slightly.

And you can see that here where the gouache has protected the original color of the paper, this kind of buff tone.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And the papers darken slightly.

I'm going to value them as though they are by the artist.

They look absolutely right to me.

In my opinion, uh, they're signed with every stroke of the brush.

The, uh, little boy and girl on the swing is probably worth about $30,000 to $50,000.

GUEST: Okay... APPRAISER: That's fair market value.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: That would be the range you might get in an auction.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: I would insure it for about $70,000.

For this one, an auction estimate would be about $150,000 to $200,000.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: And I'd insure it for closer to $250,000.

GUEST: Okay.

(chuckles) That's pretty amazing.

I, I don't think I would have guessed that.