'Antiques Roadshow' guest brings a painting 'rescued from the trash' — and it got a massive appraisal
The rising awareness about the potential value of artifacts and collectibles through “Antiques Roadshow” has helped people realize the true worth of heirlooms and items resting in the attic or basement. But an extraordinary discovery that appeared on the show was an "Alice in Wonderland" painting that the guest’s father salvaged from the trash back in the late ‘50s or early ‘60s when he was on a road trip with his wife.
The painting was not in the best condition, but it was still worth a lot of money. According to the expert, it was an oil painting done on an artist's board. When the time came to appraise it, she said that its retail value was $10,000. The guest wasn’t expecting such a high valuation at all. “Not bad for something rescued from the trash,” the expert added. “That’s surprising, wow,” the guest responded.
The painting showed Alice interacting with the red queen, as written in the beginning of "Through the Looking-Glass," and a jack of hearts, symbolizing the end of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The illustration is a fusion of the ending of the first Alice book and the beginning of the second. The artist who had made it was John Rae, who was not that well-known, but his work has always been top-notch.
Rae got into portraiture later on in his life, according to expert Nan Chrisholm, and painted one of Alice Liddell, the girl who was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll to write the Alice in Wonderland books. The expert also said that the artist had worked on portraits of people like Albert Einstein and Carl Sandburg. Despite giving it a high valuation, Chisholm could not be sure about the period during which this particular painting was created.
Paintings have been part of some pretty incredible moments on “Antiques Roadshow” as a lot of guests who bring them remain unsure of their value. If they're appraised at a price way more than expected, the reaction is usually priceless. That’s what happened in a different episode of the show when a guest brought a painting by the controversial artist Loren Mozley. The painting itself did not seem controversial.
"This painting is by an artist, Loren Mozley. And it's supposed to be aspen trees, is what it says. To me, it doesn't look like aspen trees, but that's okay," the guest explained. She also revealed that the painting had belonged to her mother, but the guest used to be afraid of it for some reason. “It was my mother's, and she loved the painting. I was always scared of it. It's just a scary-looking forest. I've grown to love it now that it hangs in my house," she added.
When the time came for its appraisal, the expert said that at auction, it could sell for anything between $30,000 and $50,000. The guest didn’t expect this at all. "Oh, my goodness. Everybody says that. G... wow," she said shakily.
