Charles Ebert Maine Islands Oil Seascape, ca. 1930
GUEST: This is a painting that belonged to my grandfather. It was given to him as a gift from a grateful patient. He was a surgeon at, at Yale New Haven Hospital. I never got to meet him, but the painting hung in my aunt's house my whole life. And then it went to my mother. And when my mom passed away, my four siblings and I had a, a lottery and... I won it. I think it's Charles Ebert.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: I've been told it's Monhegan Island and it's off the coast of Maine.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: And that he liked sailboats.
APPRAISER: It's an oil on canvas. I would date it around the 1920s, 1930s.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: The subject is Monhegan Island, but he's sort of standing on Monhegan Island.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: It doesn't have an official title, but I would give it the unofficial title of "View of Manana."
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: This is Manana Island. You can see here, there's a little bit of a, of a boat landing here.
GUEST: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And that boat landing belonged to a guy named Ray Phillips, who was known as the Hermit of Manana. He was the only person who lived on Manana.
GUEST: Huh.
APPRAISER: And what's interesting about Monhegan is that it was an artist colony...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...starting in the 1890s. It's about 12 miles off the coast of Maine. You can only go by boat. There are no cars there. And it's been an artist colony since the 1890s where artists like Robert Henri and Edward Hopper and George Bellows all painted. Ebert was a member of that colony. He was also a, a Parisian-trained American Impressionist painter...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...who was a member of the Old Lyme, Connecticut artist colony.
GUEST: Ah...
APPRAISER: He summered in Monhegan...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...starting in about 1909, eventually building a house there with his wife, who was also an artist. And what I love about this painting, which is of really, really excellent quality-- and I've been to Monhegan many times--
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...is that this is like late summer color. He's captured the summer clouds.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: There's a little bit of a breeze. Boats and figures and paintings like this always are very attractive, very desirable and add value. Tell me about the condition when you first got this painting.
GUEST: Yeah, well, growing up, I remember seeing it in my aunt's house. It was really a mess, it was...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: ...it kind of sagged and cracked. I really just thought it was worthless. And I think when my mother got it, she had it conserved.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And when it came back, I just was amazed. It's in beautiful condition now.
APPRAISER: The American paintings market is not at the best place at this current moment.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: The height of the American paintings market was, kind of, like the 2008 period. And prior to 2008, never really came back to its previous levels. That said, it is a really gorgeous painting. Even in the current market I would, for insurance purposes...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...say it's probably around $30,000 would be the price.
GUEST: Okay, okay. Great, thanks. Wonderful.
Deborah Gerstler Spanierman & Associates, Inc.
Pleasantville, NY
$30,000 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."
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