GUEST: I received this from my stepfather. He passed away two years ago. And he had found it at a flea market, and he really liked it.
APPRAISER: And where was that?
GUEST: I think down in Nacogdoches, Texas.
APPRAISER: How long ago was that?
GUEST: My mother said probably about ten or 15 years ago.
APPRAISER: And what do you think he paid for it, approximately?
GUEST: She goes back and forth from five dollars to ten, $15. She doesn't really know, she doesn't remember.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: He just liked the painting.
APPRAISER: Okay, well, Charles Taylor Bowling was born in Quitman, Texas, in 1891 and died in Dallas in 1985. He started painting kind of late in life. He worked as a draftsman and a civil engineer. But when he got sick in his mid-30s, he had a long convalescence, and he started to paint when he was recovering from this illness. And afterwards, he went to the Dallas Art Institute and studied art. And he also got very involved with, with lithography, making prints. And he eventually bought his own printing press and printed prints for himself and other artists. He's really known as a Texas regionalist. And regionalism, when you're talking about art, is art that realistically depicts small-town America, a rural America, usually in the Midwest or the South. So this is a perfect example. It's oil on canvas, but the canvas has been backed by a board. On the reverse, it has a title from the artist, which is, "West Texas Tank."
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And it also has a price of $35, which I assume is from 1940. So he's in many Texas collections. I would say his reputation is probably more local in Texas than maybe nationally. But do you have any... do you want to make a, a wild guess as to what you think this might be worth?
GUEST: My mother said this morning $150, maybe.
APPRAISER: Well, I think it's more than the $35 on the reverse. And I think, if it were to be sold at a retail gallery, it would be about $25,000.
GUEST: Really? No way. I had no idea.
APPRAISER: "Way," as they say.
GUEST: (laughing) Wow! Thank you so much. That's shocking. That means a lot. I mean, he had no idea, I'm sure.
