GUEST: This is an original painting which has been hanging in my house since it was originally painted in 1836. The people in the picture are my grandfather William Foss and his wife Polly, who are still buried on the family property. It was painted by Joseph B. Davis, an itinerant painter. He used to go from town to town, painting pictures of...
APPRAISER: The local people.
GUEST: The local people.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: And this is one of the few that are still with the same family. It goes back five generations to my grandfather, William, here.
APPRAISER: Unbelievable. I mean, that alone would make this a great piece but added on top of that is the piece itself. The artist's name is Joseph H. Davis.
GUEST: Joseph H. Sorry, I got the wrong initial.
APPRAISER: And we don't know for sure who he was, but we know that he was active in southern Maine and New Hampshire from about 1832 to 1837, and that sort of corresponds with the date that we've got here.
GUEST: The bottom, yeah.
APPRAISER: He obviously was somebody who understood pattern and line and color, because look at how he's done this floor cloth.
GUEST: He's even got the picture in the top of the old blacksmith's shop.
APPRAISER: Oh, the old blacksmith's shop with a man making a wagon wheel, which is, to my knowledge-- and I've been doing this for 30 years-- the only such depiction. So I can't tell you how excited I was to see you and see this piece...
GUEST: We're glad to see you and I'm glad to show it to so many people.
APPRAISER: Yeah, because it really is an extraordinary thing.
GUEST: Even got the cat in the picture. We've still got three cats.
APPRAISER: Got the cat in the picture. You've got the Holy Bible there. Everything is working. You had this appraised in 1975?
GUEST: In 1975, yeah, local dealer.
APPRAISER: And how much was it appraised for?
GUEST: Uh, back then, it was $5,000.
APPRAISER: This thing, I would love to see it in an auction estimated at something like $40,000 to $50,000.
GUEST: That's interesting.
APPRAISER: But I have a feeling that in the right circumstances, on the right day, this could bring well, well in advance of that.
GUEST: Beauty's in the eye of the beholder.
APPRAISER: Well, I think you've got a lot of beholders today that would agree with you.
