GUEST: It's a Dutch painting. It's been in my family for about 60 years. It was purchased by my grandfather in Michigan. My mother inherited it, and then I inherited it from my mother.
APPRAISER: Do you know how much... for how much he purchased the painting?
GUEST: Oh, I have no idea.
APPRAISER: And do you know who the artist is?
GUEST: Well, it's attributed... There's a plaque on it that says, "Andries Vermeulen," and I did look him up once. He's a Dutch painter of the late 1700s, early 1800s.
APPRAISER: On the back of the painting there are about three or four different labels. Some of those labels are from some major galleries. One of them is from Frost & Reed Gallery in London, which has been in business since 1808. It's a well-known gallery with a very good reputation. Some of the other labels, including another one from Daniel Rees in Michigan, mean that people have accepted this work to be by the artist. However, when you have a painting that does not have a signature, then you're sometimes relying on what the other... the last person said, and you're also relying on your own study, and you're putting your own reputation on the line. When you are putting a label onto the back of a painting, it's saying, "Yes, this is by this artist." So it's kind of like peer review, everyone is together in this. The quality of this painting, it's extremely well painted. The painting is oil on canvas. The canvas at one point has been re-lined. This painting would have been painted in around 1800. It has all of the little details that you want in these Dutch skating scenes. Little pieces of life happening in every little corner. The age of the canvas, the age of the paint itself, also lends credence to the authenticity of the painting. So all of these things together-- the good provenance, the gallery labels, the exceptional quality -- do help us to know that this is an authentic work by the artist.
GUEST: Wow! (laughing)
APPRAISER: Do you know how much it might be worth?
GUEST: My mother had it appraised. His statement at the time was, if it was of the school, it would have been about $8,000, $8,000 to $10,000, somewhere in there. And then if it was truly a Vermeulen, it was maybe $30,000.
APPRAISER: And when was this?
GUEST: I believe this was in '92.
APPRAISER: What's interesting is that the market for 19th-century Dutch works and 18th-century Dutch works has fallen a little bit since the 1990s and the early 2000s. However, if I were to put this painting at auction today, I would put a conservative auction estimate of $10,000 to $15,000 on it.
GUEST: Okay, okay.
