Painted Collector's Cabinet, ca. 1900
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GUEST:
I worked for a lady, and I'd become very attached to her.
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
And I always admired this chest, and she worked for the Air Force, and she lived in almost every country in the world. But she always told me she picked this up in France.
APPRAISER:
In France?
GUEST:
Yeah. So when she died, well, her daughter gave me this piece.
APPRAISER:
Oh, that's so nice. So it's like a memento, something that you really liked.
GUEST:
Yes, yes.
APPRAISER:
As you can see, this piece is separate from the bench, I think you just sort of put it on the bench.
GUEST:
Yes, yes, I figured... Yeah, well, she had it on this bench.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, so this originally would have been on a different type of stand. And this type of form was first made in the 17th century as, like, a collector's cabinet.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Where people would find interesting fossils or shells and things, and they would build and paint, sometimes, cabinets to house these little objects that they found. And you've got this fantastic painting of all these different sort of hunting dogs.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
It looks like spaniels and setters. And when you open up the drawer, here, and if you want, you can pull out a drawer yourself and look on the side, you'll see that it's glued together.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And there are no dovetails. But when we turn it over on the inside, this is all stained, and there's a little join here and here. That indicates it was made probably in the late 19th or early part of the 20th century, in an earlier style.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
The interesting thing, also, when you look at the front, see how this is all sort of carved and chipped away?
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
That's to almost make it look like it's older than it really is.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
It's walnut. These little pulls are also typical for the 17th-century style. And then someone has taken something that was pretty plain, relatively mass-produced, and they painted all these wonderful dog scenes on it. If this were just a plain walnut cabinet, based on an earlier form, you'd probably be looking at maybe $200 in terms of an auction price.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Because it's got this painted subject with the dogs, this is something that could sell for, easily, $2,000 at auction.
GUEST:
Okay, okay.
APPRAISER:
In terms of value, and possibly even more.
Appraisal Details
Current Appraised Value: $2,000 (Unchanged)
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