http://www.democraticunderground.com/1026388Oh my.
Traffic in the flea-market forum on Skins's island seems to be slowly picking up.
One hopes the trend continues, because the cooking and baking forum's pretty dead.
Digit (5,790 posts) Sun Aug 19, 2012, 10:21 PM
Need help figuring out value for painting or whatever it is
My mother purchased this very large matted,signed painting at a yard sale back in the early 80's. She also purchased a bedroom set from the same people I have since sold which was very high quality. I had introduced my mom to yard sales late in her life and oh my god how she took to it! She would call me every weekend with her "finds" proud as can be. It was so cute! I had created a mini monster!
My mother is since deceased and now I have it. Yes, it is lovely, but I need to downsize and I believe it is too large for the space I am moving to. Framed, it is about 44"wide by 36" high.
Anyway, it is a huge framed and signed painting(?), watercolor(?) of a southwestern landscape at sunset signed by Gaylor or Taylor.
I can tell it is not an oil painting but I am a novice when it comes to art. How do I begin to determine a value and how can I tell if it is a watercolor or whatever?
Yard sales in my neighborhood yield people who want to pay 5$ or less for your entire lot.[b/]
Good grief I feel stupid.
People like the vindictive primitive, no doubt.
Digit (5,790 posts) Thu Sep 6, 2012, 01:20 PM
4. Finally able to post a picture
How would you price this? I would guess it should be a local sale as the glass would most likely break in shipping and it is pretty heavy.
Thank you for any help or suggestions.
after which a photograph of a picture
Here is the signature "Taylor '76". The more I have examined this the more certain I am that it is Taylor and not Gaylor.
after which a photograph of a corner of the same picture
mopinko (38,876 posts) Mon Aug 20, 2012, 01:47 PM
2. look at it with a 10x magnifier.
if the image is made up of dots, it is an offset reproduction. if there are dents in the paper along colorfield lines, it is a lithograph.
look at the tooth of the paper. a watercolor will use a paper with some texture. reproductions are smooth.
^^the hypochondrial primitive, who's put on some serious weight since that primitive get-together hosted by Fat Che in Chicago a few years ago.
Digit (5,790 posts) Sun Aug 26, 2012, 09:40 PM
3. It was difficult to tell, but there is definitely texture to the paper
It almost seems like the paint was "dry-brushed" on in spots.
The other really obvious thing I had forgotten to mention is it has the date after the signature.
I am leaning more towards it saying "Taylor '76".
safeinOhio (7,010 posts) Fri Sep 7, 2012, 06:10 PM
5. Hang on to it.
Right now, fine art is going for about 10 cents on the dollar.
You can always email a picture and describe it to a major auction house in NY. They are more than happy to tell you if is worth their time.
You'll need to take better pictures to send.
Digit (5,790 posts) Fri Sep 7, 2012, 11:31 PM
6. Thank you for your sincere reply
It probably is not worth much, but somebody spent some money getting it matted and framed.
I would be truly shocked if it was worth more than $500, but now I know where I may get an answer!
Probably they spent some money simply because they liked the picture, no matter if it's real or not.
franksolich has a minor fortune tied up in custom-matting-and-framing of mere copies of portraits by Holbein, or portraits of English kings and queens and other personages circa 1377-1977.
The prints themselves were gotten from portrait galleries, and in many cases cost less than a dollar.
The 3'x4' portrait of Richard III, for example, well, the print cost me $1.60 in 1983, but the frame-job, because I wanted it to be appropriate for the portrait, ran to nearly $200. This of course was when I had money to spend, back before the Democrats began screwing with the Reagan recovery.
So probably the original owners spent some money getting it matted, glassed, and framed simply because they liked the way the picture looked. Some of us do that.
