GUEST: So these were hanging in my grandparents' dining room. I've known them to be there forever. When my grandmother passed away in 2002, they were given to me. My mom had them restored. They've been with me ever since, and now in San Francisco.
APPRAISER: And you know who they're by.
GUEST: Yeah, I know that they're Audubon. I'm not sure if there's other people that were involved or exactly how they were made and what they were made for.
APPRAISER: Okay, well, they're from John James Audubon's second great work, which is about the quadrupeds of North America. Everybody knows Audubon for his Birds of North America, which are very, very famous. This is his second great work, and they came out between 1842 and 1848. Now, Audubon's birds are famous because they're very, very large, the first edition. They're double elephant folio, they're all life size. Well, when he got to the quadrupeds, he did a buffalo and deer, he couldn't do them life size, so they're not life size, but they were on a very large paper. It's called an imperial folio paper. And that's what these are. He worked on it, interestingly, with his sons, John Wodehouse Audubon and Victor Audubon. And Victor did a lot of the backgrounds, and John Wodehouse did some of the images. And this was really the last project that Audubon worked on before he died, and there were 150 prints done in the series, which was done generally with three volumes. It was sort of a book, but there was really... the text was actually in a separate volume. These were really plate volumes, and they were sold separately over time as well so that they weren't all bound. Now, it's always been an overshadowed work because one thing is they're not as large as the birds. They're also not as pretty. I mean, the birds have flowers in them and they have all the colorful... And the animals are mostly brown, so they're not as pretty. Plus, of the 150 animals, an awful lot of them are rodents. You know, they're little things like weasels and voles and things, and they aren't very popular. However, there are a good number of them that are very popular, and these are two of the more popular images. People love deer. Now the fawn, for instance, is just a charming image, and the Virginia deer people love it. It's a beautiful image in the woods. Now, in terms of value, the weasels and the squirrels and things, they don't sell for a lot. They're great prints, but not many people want them hanging on their walls.
GUEST: Makes sense.
APPRAISER: So those will sell for maybe as low as $300 on up to about $600. Given that, let's say, a rodent is gonna be $300, what would you think a beautiful fawn would be?
GUEST: Given that I think it is more beautiful than a rodent, maybe three times that? I don't know.
APPRAISER: Actually, quite a bit more than that.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Now, the fawn is a charming image. This one is a little faded, the color isn't quite as rich. If you look at the fur, I think it's been sun-bleached a little bit.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So it's only worth about $8,500.
GUEST: Wow, that's still a lot.
APPRAISER: It's still a lot of money. If it were in better shape, it might be worth around $11,000 or $12,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: This happens to be one of the more popular prints. Interestingly, this one is by John Wodehouse, and you can see down here, it says "J.W. Audubon."
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: That print over there says "J.J."-- John James-- "Audubon." But it's the image, it's the deer, it's a beautiful one. In a retail shop, this one can sell for as much as $28,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: Now, I have seen it offered for more than that, but I think that's a reasonable price. It's a lot of money, but it's one of the great American prints.
GUEST: Interesting.
