Comments and Valuations on old paintings

Every now and then, we get requests for an appraisal of old paintings or prints found in the loft, or outhouse, or left to hopeful inquirers by Great Aunt Phoebe ... I feel a few general points might be made. 1) If you found it in your loft, no, it's probably not worth anything. Why do you think it was put in the loft in the first place? 2) Prints very, very rarely fetch money: if they're going to, they'll be numbered somewhere on the mount as part of a limited edition, and if you're lucky they'll be signed by the artist. But if they're in a black or cream and gilt frame from Boots, just give them a wipe with a moist cloth, clean the glass, and either hang them on the wall or take them to a charity shop. 3) In the unlikely event your painting is worth anything, some of us can advise on its proficiency; its general condition; and those of us with any background in antiques can probably tell you if it's worth taking to a professional valuer: but if we WERE professional valuers, that's what we'd be doing, not lurking around POL hoping to drum up trade. Few if any of us will be capable of estimating auction value. 4) If you're going to ask for an opinion here, always include a shot of the back of the picture - it could save us making complete idiots of ourselves if we could see your valuable antique painting had actually been painted on a modern canvas, stapled to its stretchers. 5) If your painting looks as though Aunt Phoebe herself, or a favourite niece, painted the picture - well they probably did. Come on - you can tell a well-painted picture as well as we can: professional artists, in the past and now, don't paint wildly crooked horizon lines, foliage that looks like a clump of wilting broccoli, or faces that look as though the subject had one eye 5" lower than the other and was about to be violently sick, probably in horror at the sight of themselves in a mirror. 6) The fact that you do or do not like a painting has no bearing on its potential value. Abstract art can be hard to evaluate because it's not necessarily supposed to look like anything in particular. A picture that is dark and gloomy may just need a good clean. Most paintings which have any value will normally be signed somewhere - but a signature doesn't mean it's good. A painting may be cracked, it might even be torn and have areas of paint missing - but can still be worth more than you paid for your house. On the other hand, a forger might have 'distressed' his own work to make it look old; or someone might quite innocently have wanted a painting to look old and have applied a cracquelure varnish to it (and might even know how to spell 'cracquelure', which I don't think I can). 7) If a painting looks like a Bob Ross copy, it's only going to be worth more than the price of the frame if it's signed by Bob Ross - and even then, you have to be careful. Either way, you'll be well rid of it. 8) If the paint is still wet, it's a fairly safe bet that it's not a Rembrandt. 9) If you think it's a Picasso, do make sure it's not Fred Picasso, who ran an eel-pie shop in Melton Mowbray. 10) Titian, Giotto, Piero della Francesca, were very different artists but what they all had in common was a) they didn't use acrylics, and b) they were scrupulously careful not to include telegraph poles and aircraft vapour trails in their paintings. Any old master incorporating these features is unlikely to be genuine. I hope this helps further seekers after truth and enrichment.

I don't actually mind giving advice - if I can. I've worked with antiques, I can tell a good painting (technically good that is) from a bad one, I know what to look for to tell the difference between a forgery and an original, and am happy to share that with anyone. But what I can't do is estimate value - I've never worked in an auction house: or, except in the rarest of cases, help with attributing a painting to any given artist. And we get a few of those - who do you think painted this? Well - you've already looked online, haven't you? You're coming to us because we don't charge .... it'd be a miracle if we could give any firm attribution for a painting we only see on our computer screens: you just get an image, you can't assess texture, or age (at least not very well) - there are so many clues that give a painting's age away if you can actually handle it and REALLY see it, but otherwise .... No, I don't mind taking a punt if I'm asked, and will give whatever response I can; but it does occur to me that if we said a painting had no value, so it gets given away - and then sold for £50,000.... well we wouldn't be liable in law, so I'm not that bothered, but it is a risk our hopeful seekers might bear in mind, and might explain why most people here take the sensible approach of saying nuffin' - beyond 'go to a valuer'. Mind you - wouldn't it be good if someone really did find a masterpiece and we were proved right by telling them to zip it down to Sotheby's before the day's out?