1954 Wayne Thiebaud "One Summer of Happiness" Print
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GUEST:
I brought a Wayne Thiebaud silk screen from 1954. It was a gift. It's inscribed to my father personally, and spent about 50 years in a linen closet. When my mother died, I found this and one other, which unfortunately was eaten by dogs.
APPRAISER:
(laughs)
GUEST:
(laughing): My sister's dogs.
APPRAISER:
Well, this one survived.
GUEST:
I preferred this one anyway. I have kind of a thing for birds, and I believe this is his first wife. I'm not sure-- that's family lore. It's inscribed, "To Zach," which is my father.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
"One summer of happiness."
APPRAISER:
Yes.
GUEST:
And my father worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad.
APPRAISER:
Uh-huh.
GUEST:
And he could adjust his schedule so that he had days free to volunteer at the art show at the old State Fairgrounds.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
So that's how he met many people there.
APPRAISER:
Including Wayne Thiebaud.
GUEST:
And my mother, unfortunately, was an eccentric decorator who wouldn't allow nails in the wall of our house.
APPRAISER:
Oh...
GUEST:
(laughing): So it was...
APPRAISER:
That makes it hard.
GUEST:
It was never hung.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
So when she died, I got it, I framed it, and I love it.
APPRAISER:
Well, it was the perfect piece of artwork to see here in Sacramento because of Wayne Thiebaud's great history. And Wayne Thiebaud is a fantastic American artist, and he's best known for his impastoed paintings of confectionery and cakes and...
GUEST:
Pies.
APPRAISER:
Pies.
GUEST:
And ice creams.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, and his views of the hills of San Francisco. He got his Master of Fine Arts degree at the state college here in Sacramento. And Wayne Thiebaud, born in 1920, is still living and working. And this is a very exciting work because it's such an early work, 1954, when he was beginning his career. He studied lithography and screen prints, and this is a color screen print, or serigraph, it's edition of 22. I've never seen another example of this print, and it, it's a wonderful image because Wayne Thiebaud is sort of known for his images, as you said, of, of cakes and candy apples. He's sort of a pop icon of postwar American painting, of that kind of imagery that he made his own. But this has very kind of a pop feeling, too. The, the flattened colors, the screen print technique.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
Reminiscent of Andy Warhol...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Early Wayne Thiebauds like this are extremely scarce. This wonderful early print, I would put at auction at $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST:
Oh, okay, that's great.
APPRAISER:
If it had been framed and kept flat, I think, at auction, a conservative estimate would be $6,000 to $9,000.
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