GUEST: Well, I bought it at a house sale in Winnetka, Illinois, 25 or 30 years ago. And I walked in and saw it over the fireplace and just thought it looked like a really nice painting. It was a sort of impressionistic style, which I love. And I came to research the artist and found out that it might be worth some money.
APPRAISER: Do you mind if I ask what you paid for it?
GUEST: I paid $350 for it.
APPRAISER: Okay, and where did you do the research?
GUEST: Well, the first sign that I got that it was something good was I had taken another painting that I had bought to a restorer in Chicago who had cleaned it for me. And I mentioned this one, and I couldn't tell who the artist was. So he came out to my house and told me who the artist was and that if I was ever interested in selling it, to let him know.
APPRAISER: Well, the artist is Anthony Thieme. He was born in Rotterdam in 1888 and in his youth moved to New York City in the 1920s, where at first he was painting Broadway backdrops, but then eventually settled in Rockport, Massachusetts. This seems to be a scene in Rockport. It's titled, "Rainy Day" on the back. And it's an oil on canvas, and it's very typical of his Rockport street scenes. This would date, I would say, circa 1930s or '40s. This painting is done in a plein air style. It's impressionistic. He used a heavy brushstroke in his compositions. It's a great example of his work. Did you have any ideas of the value? I know you researched it a little bit.
GUEST: Well, the only thing that got me excited about that it might be worth a lot of money was I had seen one of his paintings in an antique magazine several years ago. And they were asking it... from a gallery, they were asking $40,000.
APPRAISER: Well, there is a really broad range for his work. His harbor scenes in Rockport tend to bring the highest prices. But then his street scenes also bring pretty good prices. So at auction, I think this painting would sell in the $10,000 to $15,000 range.
GUEST: Oh, wow. That's great; thank you.
