APPRAISER: It is and it's not by Chagall. And you're probably wondering how that can be at the same time.
GUEST: (laughs) I wonder.
APPRAISER: First of all, you can see that it's signed down here, and that is Chagall's signature, in pencil, okay? And what happened is, Chagall made a watercolor, of this subject, which was then copied in a color lithograph by this fellow down here, Charles Sorlier.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: So the actual printmaker of this image, who made this, is a fellow named Charles Sorlier, after a design by Marc Chagall. Chagall would have worked with the printmaker, Sorlier, to produce the print, authorizing the colors, as he intended it to look, and then when he was done with it, working with Sorlier, and approved the image, he would sign it. And it was issued in an edition, as you see down here, of 150. Yours is pencil number 22 of 150. So it's an original color lithograph that Chagall worked on, but he didn't actually make.
GUEST: I see.
APPRAISER: Okay?
GUEST: My goodness.
APPRAISER: Now, he made a series of 12 of these. This is one of 12 that he made. It's from a series called "Nice and the Cote D'Azur," All scenes illustrating the Bay of Angels in Nice. And you see there's some actual images of Nice here, and then Chagall's signature fanciful images here of carts being pulled by horses with flowers and two lovers down here. Chagall produced by himself, from his own hand, hundreds of prints. He was a printmaker as well as a painter. And one of the reasons why he worked with Sorlier to make a series like this of prints after his watercolors was to sort of extend his output. He could produce more prints and have more of a commercial output.
GUEST: My goodness.
APPRAISER: The entire series of 12 lithographs was produced in 1967. Now, you said you bought this at an antique store?
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And you spent several hundred dollars?
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Okay. Each print from the series now sells for about $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: So your $300 investment has appreciated quite a bit. You did very well buying that.
GUEST: My God, I'm glad I did.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
