GUEST: My mom used to work at garage sales. And, she found them in a garbage can at a garage sale, and told the owners she wanted to buy them, they said, "They're garbage, just take them." And she said, "I'll give you $250 for them." And, she bought them and she took them home. That was it.
APPRAISER: And, how many are in the collection?
GUEST: Eight, eight.
APPRAISER: Eight of them.
GUEST: Eight muses, yeah.
APPRAISER: Uh huh, I think you that the artist is Walter Shirlaw.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: He was one of the great American painters of the turn of the century. He was born in 1838, and he went to school at the Art Institute. He studied in Germany. When he came back to the United States, he taught at the Art Students League in New York with the great American Impressionist William Merritt Chase. So, he was considered of that caliber.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: So, your mom did find some excellent…
GUEST: Right, right.
APPRAISER: …quality works. These are actually the drawings for the Library of Congress murals, and they're the Muses of Sciences. Can you imagine that these are supersized…
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: …to seven, eight feet tall.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: What I think is particularly interesting about these is that they're framed in the original frame, with the original matte, the original glass, and, on the back, are these wonderful labels. Babcock Galleries, who was his dealer…
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: …at the time in New York. Some labels from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. They're in wonderful condition. I think that if you cleaned the glass, you would find they'd be clearer. There may be some tiny, tiny spots of foxing, but I don't think that that's anything that you need to address.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER:You may want to reframe them with ultraviolet filtering Plexiglass…
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: …to preserve them.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: The value of each pastel in the the retail market is about $750.
GUEST: I love them, I think they're wonderful.
