GUEST: One is a pen-and-ink drawing and the other's a sketchbook that were done by my great-great-grandfather and were given to my mother. They were done by Jasper Cropsey. He was in the Hudson River School.
APPRAISER: Have you always had them in this little marvelous sort of sketch case here that you brought, that I gather is Mr. Cropsey's sketchbook.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: They went out during the summer seasons and sketched things, and then did the drawings and the oil paintings in the winters.
APPRAISER: Well, I think it's very exciting to find such a complete sketchbook. It looks, from the inscriptions here, that he did a number of these in the 1860s after the Civil War, when the art trade in New York was flourishing, as was the wealth. New York City was eclipsing Boston. This marvelous pen-and-ink sketch, I imagine, was done when he was in Italy in the 1840s, and had it at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, where he died. I would think a collection like this for a museum would be in the $20,000 to $30,000 range. You have over 25 sketches here.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: And I'm sure that the ink drawing is probably a sketch for an original painting. We can probably determine what is the study for. So I'm very happy to have them.
GUEST: (chuckling): Well, I'm happy to hear that!
APPRAISER: Yes.
GUEST: The sentimental value is special, but it's nice that they're worth money value, too!
APPRAISER: Yeah.
