GUEST: This picture had been given to my husband's grandfather. In the early 1900s, he took in boarders, and this artist was one of his boarders. The artist's wife used to throw him out from time to time.
APPRAISER: I love that!
GUEST: And he would board with my husband's grandfather. So I believe that this picture was given in lieu of rent.
APRAISER: It's a work by T. Willis, who was an enterprising young man. He figured out that New York and Brooklyn was a port town, and so he started doing portraits of ships in silk. So we've got silk threads here, and we've got silk grosgrains at the top of the smokestacks. And then the hull of this ship, which is the Aquitania, is made out of velvet. And it's a remarkable piece. It is probably in a frame that Willis made himself. And it's one of the few ocean liners that he ever did. And the Aquitania, which was part of the Cunard line, steaming into New York Harbor-- that's why you have these American flags here and here. And it's a beauty. It's a honey. This guy must have been in really bad trouble with his wife, because the value of this painting, with the original frame, would be worth something between $7,500 and $10,000.
GUEST: Oh, my! I am amazed!
APPRAISER: Yes.
GUEST: Oh, my goodness. I had no idea.
