GUEST: I inherit this picture from my aunt, and I just grabbed it off the wall.
APPRAISER: Did she collect a lot of paintings?
GUEST: Yeah, she has a lot more, but I just got that one.
APPRAISER: Do you know who painted it?
GUEST: No, I didn't. That's why I brought it.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: I want to know something about it.
APPRAISER: Okay, well, it's signed down here. And I had a hard time reading it myself. The letters are all together, and they're dark on dark, so it
doesn't read as well. But it says "Ada Belle," and then the last name is Champlin, C-H-A-M-P-L-I-N.
GUEST: Oh! Okay.
APPRAISER: Champlin was an artist who was born in St. Louis, and then who studied in Chicago and other places.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: And came out to California around 1910, so she's known more for the California scenes.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: And this is very typical California scene. As you see the bright sky and the brownish hills, and the live oak tree here.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: Is very typical of California landscapes.
GUEST: Oh, okay.
APPRAISER: And this sort of brownish grass. Now, this painting is not on canvas. Do you know what it's, what it's painted on?
GUEST: No, I never knew. I didn't know what it was painted on.
APPRAISER: Well, we can actually hit it-- it's not going to hurt it. It's actually on a hard board.
GUEST: It is?
APPRAISER: It's on a board called Masonite. Masonite is a fiberboard.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: And it has a very smooth side.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And then a rough side, which is more fibrous. And you can see it here, if you can see that pattern right there?
GUEST: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I can see that.
APPRAISER: It makes it easier for the artist to have the paint pulled off the brush because it's rough. But the thing about it is, it tells us when this painting was painted. Now, she lived 1875 to 1950. But since Masonite really wasn't used until 1930, we know this painting was done somewhere between 1930 and 1950.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
APPRAISER: Now, your aunt, she could tell you how much she paid.
GUEST: She never talked about money.
APPRAISER: Didn't, okay-- okay.
GUEST: She never did.
APPRAISER: Well, it's in its probably close to original frame. It's a little dirty, you might want to get it cleaned.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: It's got a little yellow. The market for Ada Champlin a few years ago wasn't very strong, but the market for California paintings, it's one of the great regional schools in America.
GUEST: Okay, wow.
APPRAISER: Now, there's a big market for California paintings.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: If I were to put this in auction, I would probably expect you to make $5,000 to $7,000 for this at auction.
GUEST: Wow! I would never have thought. That picture? Oh, my goodness. (laughing) It's been hanging there for two years, and I just look at it and walk on. I'll be paying a lot more attention to it, that's, that's for sure. Wow.
APPRAISER: So, it's 70, 80 years old.
GUEST: Yeah, I know. That's hard to believe. (laughs) Wow, thank you very much.
APPRAISER: Well, it's a joy to see it.
GUEST: Thank you. Dang, that was something else. I don't believe that one.
