John Fery Painting, ca. 1912
GUEST:
My father was a foreman for a small construction company, and the gentleman that he had worked for, one of the owners had passed away. And his wife was selling some tools and so on, and we were going through a back room and came upon two oil paintings in there. And she said to me, "What am I going to do with these?" She said, "Do you guys want them?"
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
And her daughter said, "I'll take one of them." And I said, "Well, then, I'll take the other." And that's how I came upon it.
APPRAISER:
And do you know where they got them?
GUEST:
They thought her father had done remodeling on a large hotel in downtown Fargo. But someone has mentioned to me recently they thought it might be even out of an old railroad station. But again, I don't know much more about that.
APPRAISER:
Well, first of all, it's amazing you were able to get it here. It's, I think, the largest painting we've had here today. And it's interesting. It tells the story of the Great Northern Railroad, which James Hill completed in 1893. His son, Louis Hill, was rather enterprising and thought one way to get people out to the West would be to commission artists to do paintings of the beauty of the West and to put these paintings in the various railroad stations to lure people out to the lodges out at Glacier National Park. This wasn't a new idea. The railroad barons who opened the Southern Pacific Railroad did the same thing. One of the artists commissioned was an Austrian-born artist by the name of John Fery. And John Fery did a number of paintings for Louis Hill. And it's signed down here, and it's also titled on the back. This is in the original frame, and unfortunately you have some damage in here... (chuckling) You did a nice job taping it up...
GUEST:
Thank you.
APPRAISER:
with masking tape on the reverse. And you have some paint losses here and in other places. And so that's going to affect the value. If we were to sell this painting at a gallery, in this condition it would probably bring $20,000 to $30,000...
GUEST:
You...
APPRAISER:
And if it were to be cleaned and put in good condition, it would take about $3,000 to $4,000 to get it in good condition-- it would probably be something like $30,000 to $40,000.
GUEST:
You are kidding! That much for this?
APPRAISER:
Yeah, so you were very lucky to get this as a gift. (laughing) Thank you so much, and congratulations on preserving it.
GUEST:
Well, thank you, Peter. That's great.
Appraisal Details
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.