A WOMAN was passed down a portrait of her mother and was dumbfounded at its evaluation on Antiques Roadshow.
An art expert revealed the painting was worth a whopping $32,000 thanks to the famous artist who created it.
A daughter was passed down a highly valuable painting of her mother[/caption]
The oil painting was valued at $32,000 thanks to the famous artist who created it[/caption]
In an episode of Antiques Roadshow, a daughter sought an appraisal for a 1931 painting of her mother at four years old.
She shared that it was created by Adelaide Chase, a renowned artist from Boston, Massachusetts.
The daughter noted that as she was growing up, she heard that everyone in Boston had portraits painted by Chase at one time.
In addition to Chase’s oil painting of her mother, portraits of her maternal grandmother, father, and paternal grandfather were also in her family.
ELITE ARTWORK
Art expert Robin Starr shared extensive details on Chase’s background.
Starr shared that she was a very important society painter in Boston in the early 20th century.
Chase was born in 1868 in Boston to an artistic family. Her mother was a pianist, and her father, Joseph Foxcroft Cole, was a painter and her first unofficial teacher.
Starr noted that Chase reportedly posed for famous artist Winslow Homer’s paintings as a child, as he was a friend of her father.
“So from a very early age, she was just surrounded by art and music,” said Starr.
After studying at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Académie Julian in Paris, Chase returned to Massachusetts to become one of the preeminent portrait painters in Boston.
“One of the things I really love about her is she got married in 1892 to William Chester Chase, who was an architect,” said Starr.
“He too was in the arts. Even though she got married, she continued to work as a married woman throughout her career and that was very unusual at the time.”
Starr noted that Chase’s impressionist approach to her art was very representative of what they teach at art school in Boston.
“A slightly more subtle palette than some of the other artists at the time but still clearly impressionistic,” she said.
“Just beautifully captured textures in clothing and objects and flesh and that’s why she was so sought after.”
Starr then pointed out the painting’s carved frame, which was signed on the back by Walfred Thulin in 1932.
She shared that Thulin crafted hand-carved frames in Boston, which were valuable by themselves.
The expert called the Chase painting and Thulin frame a “quintessential Boston package.”
Valuable Items
People have unkowingly stumbled upon valauble items, later shocked to realize their true value.
Here are several examples of items worth more than expected:
- A grandmother’s baseball bat worth $30,000
- A hand-me-down ring worth $595,000
- An antique lighter worth $4,000
- A model bridge worth $25,000
Starr and the daughter agreed she would likely never sell her mother’s portrait, so the expert offered her an insurance value.
She shared that the oil portrait and frame would be insured for around $32,000.
“You knew your mom was a winner,” joked Starr in response to the daughter’s shock.
Others have similarly been shocked by the high appraisals of their items.
One woman kept an old gift from her grandma in her basement for decades – a note inside made it worth $50,000.
Plus, a man held onto a vase he had been gifted for 30 years – it turned out to be worth more than the condo he had just sold.
