GUEST: These paintings were from my aunt's home in Toledo, Ohio. They had been handed down from her husband's uncle, who was also from Toledo. He was a physician who traveled the world.
APPRAISER: Uh-huh.
GUEST: And actually commissioned most of the paintings in his collection. I was my aunt's last relative, and so I had my pick of, of the paintings, of which I took most of them.
APPRAISER: You said he's from Toledo, Ohio?
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: That's interesting-- you have two paintings here by artists from Ohio, originally.
GUEST: Oh, really?
APPRAISER: This painting here is "September Sea" by Cullen Yates. Yates was born around 1864, and this painting is a view, I believe, of Ogunquit, Maine?
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Is that correct?
GUEST: It was of Perkins Cove, and I have traveled there many, many times since I was about nine years old. And so I knew exactly where this...
APPRAISER: Sure.
GUEST: Where this was from. But it wasn't until I took the back off of the painting and had it restored that we found letters from the artist...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: To my, to my uncle's uncle.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm, yeah.
GUEST: And talking about the commission of the painting.
APPRAISER: It's a lovely scene of Maine, and your letters reference that, which is very important, as far as establishing where this is.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Now, the other painting over here, the "Wild Morning Glories" by Charles Courtney Curran, he was a contemporary of Yates, and he was born in 1861. His painting is, is very typical. He did a lot of these attractive young women bathed in sunlight. He lived mainly up in Cragsmoor in New York, up on the Hudson. The Yates here is a, is a beautiful painting. It's great brushwork and use of palette knife here. It's a very lively surface, very colorful. It's huge, too. For him, it's a very large painting, one of the largest that's out there. Also, you add to that the fact that it's a known place. You have the letters that establish that, that adds a premium onto the value, as well. If this were to go to an auction, I would expect a world record for that artist. I would estimate it around $20,000 to $30,000.
GUEST: Oh, my goodness, no! (laughs)
APPRAISER: So, now, the other one, the Charles Courtney Curran...
GUEST: Uh-huh?
APPRAISER: That is a drop-dead-gorgeous painting. That is one of the most prettiest things I've seen here. And that's one thing I've learned in this business: You never underestimate pretty, and pretty girls in white dresses really do well, plus the flowers. That painting, in an auction right now, I would put an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000, and it might even do above that.
GUEST: Oh, my.
