GUEST: Well, my grandmother, when she was nine or ten years old, wrote to Maxfield Parrish. She had read The Arabian Nights, and she admired his illustrations. And he wrote back to her and sent her a painting.

APPRAISER: Can you read it to us?

GUEST: It says "I want to thank you for your good letter. Miss Ethel Barrymore is staying here, and she read it, too, and enjoyed it as much as I did. I am glad you and I have a tie also in our admiration for Howard Pyle. But believe me, if I was ever placed before him, it was purely for alphabetical reasons.”

APPRAISER: (chuckles)

GUEST: "He was long ago very much greater than I ever can be.”

APPRAISER: (chuckles)

GUEST: "Is there really such a place as the land of Baraboo?" And she lived in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: "It sounds as though it only existed in a book, a place you saw only after traveling 20 days and 20 nights and after crossing seven seas. I wonder, too, what you are like. You sent no photographs, so I shall imagine you are like your good letter. And the 'ideal'? Yes, I am sure I would like to come to Baraboo."

APPRAISER: (chuckles)

GUEST: Signed, Maxfield Parrish.

APPRAISER: And then I see there's a photo, as well?

GUEST: And that's my grandmother, yes.

APPRAISER: And did she ultimately send him a picture?

GUEST: You know, I don't know.

APPRAISER: I, I love that he has this idea that, like, "Nah, I don't think there's any place called Baraboo." (both chuckle) Obviously, a, a, a titan of American illustration, famous for, among o, other things, children's illustrations. And you'll notice on the painting itself, it's further inscribed...

GUEST: With her...

APPRAISER: ...to your grandmother-- really a fabulous thing. So the work here appears to be executed oil on artist's board, and that's what he did most of his work on.

GUEST: So I read that he was famous for a certain color of blue, but this isn't, not the...

APPRAISER: There's a little bit of that in there in the bottom of the coat, but, yes, and, and really, those colors were created by layers of layers of layers, so think...

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: I mean, think of these objects taking months and months to complete. Many of the colors might be created with 40 different layers of color. It's what we call glazes. So the work, just like the letter, is dated 1906. Have you had it appraised before?

GUEST: So my sister had this. She passed away about six-and-a-half years ago, and she had it appraised quite a while ago. I can't tell you how long ago. I bet it's been 20 years. The appraisal was for s, somewhere around $20,000, I think.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm, for, uh, for insurance?

GUEST: Y... I've never had anybody tell me. You know, I don't know about in... I-- it's not insured. (chuckles) (both laugh)

APPRAISER: Okay, okay. 20 years ago, that, that probably made sense for an insurance value. In the market right now, in 2022, I would place the insurance value at $50,000.

GUEST: Wow. (chuckles) Okay, well, I better get it insured. (chuckles)

APPRAISER: Which is pretty amazing for something sent, you know, for free, as a, as a gift. (murmurs)

GUEST: I know, what a, what a nice gesture. Yeah. He was certainly a nice man.

APPRAISER: He really was. And the, and the work is what you want out of a Parrish. It's extremely polished. So even this object that was a gift to a little girl, who was nine or ten, that had wrote him, uh, that's by no means done in one sitting. There...

GUEST: I know, I thought that. Like, like, it took him a while. He must-- she must have wrote him a nice letter.

APPRAISER: She must have wrote him an amazing letter. (laughs)