1966 A.E. Backus "Shelling Gungo Peas" Oil Painting
GUEST: Well, this is a painting by Mr. A. E. Backus. Uh, he was a South Florida artist, and when I was, uh, growing up in Coral Gables, Florida, he would stop by our house in an old car and pull a painting out of the trunk and knock on our door and try to sell it to my father. And sometimes he'd buy and sometimes he wouldn't. And he would also tell Mr. Backus what he would like in a painting for a future painting. Well, I was very young at the time. He just seemed like an older man when he came to our house. He was just in love with his paintings. When my dad passed away, I chose to get this painting, because it was different than other paintings I'd seen from Mr. Backus, because it was not an Everglades scene. It was a scene of a woman picking peas.
APPRAISER: How many did he have in total by the artist?
GUEST: He probably had about five or six paintings. My brothers have a couple.
APPRAISER: Do you have any idea what your father may have paid for this painting?
GUEST: I think hundreds of dollars. Not more than a few hundreds of dollars.
APPRAISER: And approximately what time period would that have been? Any idea about...
GUEST: In the '60s.
APPRAISER: This is an oil-on-canvas painting by Albert Backus, also known as Beanie Backus. He is really the best-known 20th-century painter of the Florida landscape. He is known as the dean of Florida painters. He, of course, is known for the wonderful landscapes of the Everglades. Also, just Florida life in general. He went on to be a real sort of mentor. He would just host parties and bring artists together and created a real energy around that South Florida art market. There's a very famous group of Florida artists, the Florida Highwaymen, or the Highwaymen. They are really the best-known folk artist group of Florida artist. Was 26 African American artists that he mentored the founders of that, Alfred Hair and Harold Newton, are the two best-known Florida Highwaymen, and they traveled around Florida a lot of times with paintings in their trunks of their cars, selling the colorful landscapes, and they were very influenced by Albert Backus. Now, he was really self-taught, for the most part. He did take some summer art classes. This one is particularly interesting, because he had an unfortunate personal event in 1955, when his wife passed away, his wife of only five years. And it really took a toll on him, and he went to spend some time in Jamaica. And so he started painting some new subjects while he was there in Jamaica. This painting is called Shelling Gungo Peas. That title is on the back, with the date of 1966. You have a figure who is quietly sitting, and it kind of evokes that solitude that he may have felt after his wife passed away, and he went to spend some time in Jamaica. His paintings have become quite popular, as have the paintings of the Florida Highwaymen. We see them continuing to go up in value. An auction estimate on this painting today I would say should be $15,000 to $25,000.
GUEST: That's, that's quite a lot-- that's very nice. Just looking at it in this light is beautiful, and, and brings back a lot of memories of my childhood and my father wanting these paintings. I love it very much. Just a minute. (chuckles)
APPRAISER: An insurance value for this painting I would put at $35,000.
GUEST: Okay, thank you very much.
$15,000 Auction
$35,000 Retail
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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.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
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