GUEST: My husband's mom and dad bought them at a gallery in San Jose which is now no longer in business. They loved them and cherished them for many years and then decided that it was our turn to take care of them, so they gave them to us, and we love them and adore them every day. And we have since studied Bufano and learned a little bit about his history in San Francisco and all the sculptures that he created in San Francisco and around the Bay Area.
APPRAISER: So you've mentioned the artist's last name, Bufano, and it's Ben Bufano.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: He was an Italian immigrant to the United States. He and his family came here in about 1902. They immigrated to New York.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Then he studied at the Art Students' League of New York.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: And there are works of his in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Bufano worked in a number of media, including drawing, painting, terra cotta sculpture, glass mosaic, and even large-scale public mural.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: But possibly what he's most famous for are his large-scale sculptures located throughout the Bay Area. So what we have here today that you've brought us are two of his bronze sculptures of animals. Bufano first did a series of animal sculptures in the 1930s, and then it was a theme he revisited throughout the rest of his career.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: What you have I believe are from the later part of his career. Your in-laws bought them in the 1960s?
GUEST: We think maybe in the '60s, yeah.
APPRAISER: Bufano died in '70, and these would have been towards the last part of his career, I believe.
GUEST: Okay. Yeah.
APPRAISER: Both sculptures are signed at the base and numbered with their limitation.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: When your in-laws purchased these from the gallery in San Jose, do you have any idea what they might have paid for them at that time?
GUEST: They didn't say. We asked them today before we came here, and they didn't remember what they paid.
APPRAISER: I would expect these at auction to bring about $10,000.
GUEST: Okay. Together?
APPRAISER: That's together.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So if I were to price these separately, I would actually put a little bit more on the hedgehog that's near me.
GUEST: Yay!
APPRAISER: Is that your favorite?
GUEST: I love the hedgehog.
APPRAISER: Okay. I would expect him to realize right around $5,500.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And then I would expect $5,000 or a little less, maybe $4,500, for the bird.
GUEST: Okay, great. That's great, we love them.
