GUEST: When my older sister passed away, my daughter and I came across this painting and another painting, and realized that it was her ex-husband's. And we called him to tell him that we had the painting, and if he would like it back we'd be glad to send it to him. He said, "No, don't worry about it. Just keep the painting-- it's only worth a few thousand dollars."
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: So last night, 12:00 at night, I pull the painting out of the closet to bring it, thinking that the frame must be worth a lot more than the painting.
APPRAISER: Okay. Which it may be. Let's start with the painting. The picture is by a Boston artist, which is why I'm sort of happy to see this. I'm from Boston, so it's lovely to see. It's like seeing an old friend. And it's signed. It's by Hermann Dudley Murphy, and if you look over here, you can see it's signed both in writing, and there's also a funny little monogram up above. It's sort of his cipher. And he would sign many of his works with that.
And when you're training as a painter at the end of the 19th century, it is de rigueur that you have to go and you have to study in Europe. Because that's still where the finest art is at the end of the 19th century. So he went to Paris. He went to the Académie Julian in Paris, which is where a lot of Boston painters went. While he was in Europe, he met up with James McNeill Whistler, who was a rather irascible gentleman, but they became friends nonetheless. And one of the things they had in common was an interest in frames. Framemaking at this point in time in America was sort of a lost art. And so when Murphy came back to the States, back to Boston, he started looking around and realizing there was nobody making great frames. And he didn't want his works going into lesser frames. So he started making his own frames.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: He got many compliments. Everybody commented on how terrific the frames were, how beautifully made they were, how they complemented the art of the day. By 1903 he had started a frame shop of his own. Within the next couple of years, he had hired Thulin and Charles Prendergast, the brother of the famous painter Maurice Prendergast, and they were making these beautiful frames. Hermann Dudley Murphy was painting throughout the beginning of the 20th century. A picture such as this probably would have been painted right in the 19-ones or the early 19-teens. It is a Hermann Dudley Murphy frame, made for his own picture, so that... the fact that the two are unified makes the whole package more special. And it's a lovely painting, in need of cleaning, but when you're 100 years old, you'll need a bath, too. Right now in its current condition, realistically, just for the painting by itself, you're probably looking $7,000 to $9,000 as an auction estimate. Now, the frame has probably also got a lot of value. Not as much, but it's probably a $2,000 to $3,000 frame. But when you put the package together and present it at auction, realistically at auction, the package would sell for between $10,000 and $15,000.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: Really.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: Really. Don't cry. It's okay to cry.
GUEST: Thank you, Bon.
