GUEST: This was in my mother's dining room, and it was always in a dark place, and I never really saw the colors and everything. And then when she died, I moved it, and I saw how pretty it was. And I just was very fascinated with it, you know?

APPRAISER: Did your mother collect a lot of paintings? Were there other ones at home like this as well?

GUEST: A few, yes.

APPRAISER: Do you know who this artist is at all, or any idea?

GUEST: I have no idea.

APPRAISER: Well, it's a beautiful painting. You reacted, you know, quite easily to it. It's a charming landscape, beautiful colors, a couple children playing here. He's actually fishing with a little fishing pole. It has all the elements that people liked in a painting in the Victorian era, and that indeed is what this is: it's a Victorian painting by an artist by the name of Sidney Richard Percy. And Percy specialized in these landscapes of Northern England and Northern Wales. Part of the reason why you probably didn't know who it was is it's signed down here, and it's "S.R. Percy," the black on the brown, so you probably couldn't see exactly what all you had here. But Percy specialized in this scene, as I said. Sometimes a little more mountainous, more cattle, a little more going on. But this is very idyllic, very pleasing to the mind. In fact, I wasn't sure who it was until I turned it around, and on the back, you have this label here. And it was hard to read. But this is a lot easier. It says, "Green Pastures by Still Waters." I mean, you couldn't ask for a more calming thing. Then, "Sidney R. Percy." Then his address down below there. Recently, these have gone up in value a lot. He's highly sought after. Did anyone smoke in the family?

GUEST: Very much, about 30 years ago, and they smoked until about maybe 15 years ago.

APPRASER: They smoked like chimneys.

GUEST: Oh, yes, yes.

APPRAISER: Well, anyhow, you see a lot of that here. You see this? This should be white. You can take this to a professional conservator, and what he can do is he or she can actually take off this layer of varnish and dirt and tobacco by using solvents that will take that off, but won't disturb the paint underneath. Then they revarnish over that. And it's going to be like an unveiling to you. It's going to come out, and it's going to be absolutely beautiful whites, great light coming through here, bathing the scene. It's going to be a beautiful painting. You'll see the quality in it. Did you have any idea what it might be worth?

GUEST: I have no idea.

APPRAISER: No idea? Well, recently he's brought a lot of money. His market has gone up. A painting like this, if I were to put it into one of my auctions, I would fully expect to get about $15,000 for it.

GUEST: Oh, my, that's good.

APPRAISER: This is a very good one for him.