1827 "The Guilford Limner" Folk Portraits
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GUEST:
They're my ancestor portraits. They were done in Guilford County, North Carolina, in 1827. And these are my great-great- great-grandparents, and that's my great-great- grandmother, and that's her sister.
APPRAISER:
And you have all the genealogical information.
GUEST:
I do.
APPRAISER:
And they lived in Guilford Country, North Carolina, and then I guess eventually they came down this way.
GUEST:
They ended up in Benton County, Mississippi.
APPRAISER:
There's some artists from up in New England and Pennsylvania that had a certain way of doing things. One of the things I think that they did that was always wonderful, and this guy's doing the same thing, is really nicely articulated faces. The interior is interesting. And they're all sitting in what I refer to as a fancy Baltimore chair. And two of the ladies are posed with flowers in the background.
GUEST:
And two of them are holding books.
APPRAISER:
Yes.
GUEST:
Which I think is unusual.
APPRAISER:
Believe it or not, this is an artist whose work has been studied a lot.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
They're still trying to figure out his name.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
They call him the Guilford Limner, which is just a painter. And they have found over 40 of his portraits. And most of them were painted within five miles of Greensboro, North Carolina.
GUEST:
That's wonderful.
APPRAISER:
The dates are the last year that there's a record of him being in Guilford County.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
One of the characteristics of his portraits are not only the real good detail on the interior, but he also did oversized eyes, with the irises being just a little bit larger than what you normally see. These were all watercolors painted on laid down paper. They're fantastic from an aesthetic point of view. They're beautiful.
GUEST:
I think they're charming.
APPRAISER:
Normally people out there are not interested in having pictures of other people's dead relatives.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
As a general rule, unless the way they're rendered is, like, out of sight.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Which these are. Moses Gibson and Elizabeth both are very attractive. And the real jackpot comes that we have their daughters here also. A family of four by somebody who there's only 40 works known by, pretty rare.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
And I'm being conservative when I say that the value of these four for retail purposes, insurance, would be $60,000.
GUEST:
Oh, my gosh. Well, I don't know what to say. I'm very pleased, but I'm very surprised.
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