'Antiques Roadshow' expert was left 'emotionally struck' by rare chalk drawing from the 1770

"Antiques Roadshow" experts are the ones on the show who usually leave the guests astonished after revealing the origin and incredible value of their items. But on some occasions, the experts are stunned by rare, fantastic items. That happened when expert Alan Fausel was looking at a chalk drawing, presumably made by Richard Cosway. While the owner did some research on the item, he had no idea that Fausel would appraise it at about $40,000 after being "emotionally struck" by the piece.

The guest first revealed, "This is a drawing by Richard Cosway, who was an 18th-century British artist. The subject matter is his wife, Maria Cosway." After Fausel told him that Cosway is one of the greatest portrait miniaturists of England, the owner was shocked. "He did a lot of portraits, which are these small watercolors on ivory, generally that would be kept personally in pockets and whatnot. But here is a drawing, a red and white chalk drawing," Fausel said.

The appraiser then asked the guest how he knew that the subject of the drawing was Cosway's wife, Maria. The guest explained that in his research, he found that a lot of Cosway's artwork had plump, cartoonish lips, which were seen in the drawing as well. He added that he had seen some photos of Maria as well, and the drawing seemed to depict her.

"This really touched me. It's a very powerful drawing. Part of it is the fact that it's a very personal thing. This is an 18th-century woman. She's seen without her wig. You see, up here, just the hair coming down, cascading across here, just a very informal, immediate, close group. And then the intense gaze and the beautiful quality he's done here with the red chalk, the eyes, and then bringing out the highlights with the whites on the nose through there, and as you say, these plump lips. It's a very scrumptious, succulent kind of drawing," Fausel said in response.

Fausel added that he wasn't sure if the drawing was done by Cosway. "I might throw you a little curve here. We see here this R. Cosway. It's not in the red chalk, it's in probably a later hand," he noted, before explaining, "Joshua Reynolds had a stamp, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and other English collectors had little stamps they would put on to identify their ownership of these drawings. They felt nothing about defacing the artwork, but that's how it was done those days."

The expert added that there was a chance that the drawing was from some other Continental artist. Coming to the appraisal, Fausel told the guest that if the drawing was made by Cosway, it would bring about $10,000 to $20,000 at auction. "Now if it's the other possibility that it's by a Continental artist, such as a Maurice Quentin de La Tour or someone like that, who's even better, you might be looking at $30,000 to $40,000 as an auction estimate," Fausel went on to add, leaving the guest in awe. "This is why I do the Roadshow. This is one of the best drawings I have seen in years," Fausel added. 

In the end, the guest shared that the person he inherited the drawing from cherished the item, and he was very thrilled to get it from her family.  "I've rarely been struck that emotionally by a piece in all my years on the Roadshow," Fausel said in the end.

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