Ernie Barnes Oil Painting, ca. 1963
GUEST: This painting was done for my dad, Harold Olson. He played football with Ernie Barnes, um, in the '60s. They played for the Denver Broncos. And they became friends. And when they would go away for games, they were roommates and things. He would come over for lunch a lot, and my mom would fix food and fix sandwiches and things. And they had a place in their living room, it was a big empty wall space. And my dad said, "Hey, Ernie, can you paint me a painting?" And, um, he said, "Sure." And this is what he came up with. From what I was told, um, Mr. Barnes was from North Carolina and Dad was from South Carolina. So they bonded that way. But they were just really good friends. And this was just something that a friend gave a friend.
APPRAISER: Oh, excellent, excellent-- that's a beautiful example. And it's very unusual, because Ernie is famous for his paintings of football players, basketball players, party scenes, and so on. Uh, this is the first time I've seen a landscape painting by Ernie. Ernie Barnes was born in 1938 in North Carolina. He died in 2009. He's an African American artist. As early as elementary school, he showed talent and promise. Uh, he actually excelled at art in high school, and he was a art major in college. He was a, a lineman for the, uh, Denver Broncos. And I think your dad was, too, right? Didn't his, uh, wasn't he an offensive lineman?
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Yeah. So they both were on the offensive line together. For me, it's an interesting contrast to see... The game itself is known as a, kind of a violent game, with all these collisions, and yet, at the same time, he's this painter. And even throughout the entire time he was playing, he was still painting.
GUEST: And I was reading that he was making more money selling his paintings than he was playing football.
APPRAISER: Here we have, like, this serene landscape, probably in the fall, based on the colors, which I think shows a whole nother side of him. It's an oil on board. It's six feet by two feet, and it's signed by him right there.
GUEST: Just "Ernie."
APPRAISER: Normally, he would sign it "Ernie Barnes."
GUEST: Right, right.
APPRAISER: But this is an early painting.
GUEST: Right. This was painted, I want to say, in the '60s. And I asked my dad one time, "How long did it take?" He said, "About a month."
APPRAISER: Oh, okay. There's a photograph of you as a child.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Can, tell us about that.
GUEST: Sure, that was taken in 1964. And it was the painting in the background. And the sofa, that was the place that Mother wanted the painting. And I just remember laying on the sofa looking up at this painting, and it was just so serene and so peaceful, because this was not, definitely not something you would see in Colorado.
APPRAISER: It's unusual, so that it's hard to come up with a comparable, but I think I would put a, an auction estimate on this of anywhere between $85,000 and $95,000.
GUEST: Wow, okay.
$85,000 - $95,000 Auction
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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.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
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