1826 Portraits Attributed to Guilford County Limner
GUEST: Well, I am directly, uh, descended from these two. They were my great-great-great- grandparents. They were painted in 1826.
APPRAISER: Did they descend in your family or...?
GUEST: Well...
APPRAISER: I mean, to you?
GUEST: As you can imagine, there are a lot of branches to this tree.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: I got them about 20 years ago from a lady who was at the end of one of those branches, and had no descendants.
APPRAISER: Okay. Okay.
GUEST: And she found out I was their direct, also their direct descendants, and so she gave them to us, as a gift, yeah.
APPRAISER: That's, that's very cool.
GUEST: Yeah, it really is.
APPRAISER: And the name is Meb, Meb...
GUEST: Me, Mebane. Mebane. There's a town in North Carolina by that name. Same family. I am fascinated by family history.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: And this helps a lot, so...
APPRAISER: And, and you've traced them back to their original ownership, right?
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: In the town that your ancestors founded, which is in North Carolina.
GUEST: Yeah...
APPRAISER: When these came up to the folk art table, my eyes got really big...
GUEST: (chuckles)
APPRAISER: ...and I, my heart started pounding, and, because I love great folk art. They have this, this appeal to them, this... The great colors. Look at the faces staring straight at you. They're very direct. It's literally a record of their lives in 1826, David and Elizabeth Mebane.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: There are a group of portraits done in Guilford County, North Carolina. And this artist is called the, the Guilford County Limner. And a limner is an artist who moved around while he worked, he was... Most were itinerant artists.
GUEST: Oh. Oh.
APPRAISER: And they traveled to different counties.
GUEST: So we, no one knows the name of the artist.
APPRAISER: The artist has not been identified yet. And some of the characteristics are the very large eyes with, literally, eyelashes. And I'll say your great-great-great-grandfather looks like, rather like Paul McCartney...
GUEST: (chuckles)
APPRAISER: ...even, even with the British haircut, right?
GUEST: (laughs): Yeah, he does.
APPRAISER: The flowers in the background of both the male and female portraits. Also, the architectural details that are very bright in the background.
GUEST: Hmm.
APPRAISER: Those are all characteristics of the Guilford Limner. These are fabulous watercolors on paper.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And they've kept their vivid color. The Guilford Limner was known for these bright colors, this brilliant lime green, this really great red. Those colors are just like they were painted yesterday. Considering what a fragile medium it is, these works have survived extremely well. They're the essence of folk art. This limner only worked in Guilford County during the years of about 1826 to 1827.
GUEST: Oh, oh.
APPRAISER: I feel that a conservative estimate on this pair at auction would be $20,000 to $30,000.
GUEST: (gasps, chuckles) Whoa! (chuckles)
APPRAISER: On a good day, they could get up near $40,000.
GUEST: Whoa. So... (chuckles) I hope my family is listening. (both laughing) Well... I'll tell them.
APPRAISER: (chuckles) I'm, I'm pretty sure you're going to keep 'em, though. You're gonna keep 'em.
GUEST: Oh, absolutely, I treasure them.
APPRAISER: You should insure them for $40,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: At least.
GUEST: (chuckling): Yeah, I'll be sure to do that.
$20,000 Auction
$40,000 Insurance
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
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