'Antiques Roadshow' guest says 'I wasn't expecting that' after hearing value of her Grandpa's drawings

Art passed on by a loved one speaks to people and carries memories only they can feel connected to. This is often visible on "Antiques Roadshow," when guests turn emotional after learning about the value of their family heirlooms. One such person was overwhelmed after getting a six-figure appraisal for a collection of cartoon sketches that his grandfather left behind. After revealing that they were made by artists from Disney, the show's expert James Supp mentioned that they were in great demand in the market. While he appraised a couple of them at more than $8,000, there was one that the expert believed to be worth $100,000.

The guest talked about the incredible provenance of the items and how her family had preserved the simple sketches for decades. "I have this incredible collection of drawings and cels and other paraphernalia from the artists Lee and Preston Blair, who worked with Disney. They worked on 'Fantasia,' and 'Pinocchio,' and 'Bambi.' They had a long career, as far as I know, at Disney. Lee Blair, in fact, was the last winner of the Olympic gold medal for watercolor," she explained.

Her grandfather befriended the artists when they were teenagers, in their late 20s. "And they had no father, and he had no children at the time. And they just connected, and they had a lifelong friendship," the guest shared.

Supp, who was astonished to see the collection, then took over to explain the significance of the drawings. "You brought in a tremendous collection of items, some amazing things," he said, before explaining, "And I chose what I thought was kind of wonderfully representational of the art leading up to 'Fantasia.' All four of these pieces were done by Preston Blair. We've got a photo of a storyboard sketch over here. And this is one of the storyboards they used for prepping the shots and trying different designs. They'd take photos of it so they could draw on it and take notes on it without damaging things at all."

Before coming to the appraisal, Supp told the guest that such items sold very well at auction. "And I imagine these aren't things you're necessarily going to part with, because they're very much part of your family," he said to the guest. Starting with the least valuable photograph, he told the guest it was probably worth $300 to $500. Coming to his favorite piece, he said that the preliminary sketch would sell for around $5,000 to $8,000 at auction. This was enough for the guest to be shocked as she said, "Oh, my God! Wow!"

Supp moved on to another drawing appraising it to $5,000 to $8,000, as well. He estimated that another photograph that was used in production would be worth $2,000 to $3,000. He then said, "You probably have a lot of things there, between those wonderful Jiminy Cricket sketches, you had Bambi and his girlfriend in there, tremendous. An auction value for that portion of the animation art, I would expect to see between $75,000 and $100,000," he told the guest. Hearing this, the guest broke down in tears, recalling the sentimental value of the items and how her family cherished them. 

"Wow! I wasn't expecting that," she said in the end, before thanking the appraiser for sharing the estimate.