1944 Frederick Blakeslee "Battle Birds" Oil
Watch
GUEST:
This was my grandmother's. I didn't notice it until the last day of her estate sale.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
Probably, however many people came to the estate sale, plus all the family, had their chance to collect this. At the last day of the estate sale, it was in the spare bedroom, and we were just packing up and all that, and my uncle said to me, "Why don't you take this?"
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
And it was the first I had noticed it.
APPRAISER:
I'm glad that you brought the painting, because it's a pretty neat piece of artwork. It's illustrator art. Now, not only do you have this painting, but you have the actual magazine that it was used to illustrate. Battle Birds. Now, you said that you were able to find this copy of the magazine online. Can I ask what you paid for it?
GUEST:
I believe $35.
APPRAISER:
I think $35 was a fair price. We should say that the artist was a man named Frederick Blakeslee. He was born in 1898, he died, I believe, in 1973, and he was a very prolific artist. He was mainly working in what they call pulp aviation. He did images like this. Many of the images he did in the 1930s were biplanes from World War I. So, this was well into World War II. Artwork like this, because it was sent into a publisher, is rarely signed. But we're lucky in this instance, because we know the artist, and we also know the exact issue. It's a really dramatic photo, but the thing about illustrator artists is, they had to achieve a balance. Not only did they need to encapsulate a lot of action and a lot of activity, but they also had to do it in such a way so that text could be overlaid. Now, if you look at the difference between the painting here and then where they placed the text, up here in the sky and down here in the background, those negative spaces were left on purpose.
GUEST:
Ah, I see.
APPRAISER:
An editor would have said, "Okay, we're gonna put text here, we're gonna put a headline here," so that's what he was trying to achieve. Now, it's pretty dirty.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
The painting would benefit from a light cleaning. I think that you would get a lot more color out of it, a lot more detail. It is really a wonderfully dramatic image. The market for this has changed dramatically just in the last decade or so. There have been several major collections that have come out, and so it's raised everyone's recognition of the value of illustrator art. There was a time when these paintings, after they were sent in to the magazines, were photographed and then thrown away.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
This is a wonderful survivor. Even though it needs cleaning, even though it needs to be restored, I think in an auction, in a well-advertised sale, you'd be looking at a value on the painting of between $4,000 and $5,000.
GUEST:
Wow, okay. That's a little bit more than I expected.
APPRAISER:
It's a wonderfully dramatic painting. It's a great example of pulp aviation art. I'm so glad you brought it to ROADSHOW today.
GUEST:
I... This made my ROADSHOW. (laughs)
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.
