If you love to shop for art at garage sales or antique shops, how do you know if a piece of art is worth something? Antique Appraiser Gary Germer stopped by to share his expert tips.
Understanding terms. A painting is an original, one-of-a-kind artwork created by an artist — it can be made with various methods: oil paint, acrylic, watercolor, collage, etc. An artist print is a handmade multiple, with many different styles, but usually made with some sort of printing press or hand-done screening — all hands-on printing, which could be etching, engraving, lithograph, serigraph, mezzotint, etc. A mechanically reproduced print is an inexpensive, mass-produced print, poster, or newsprint (magazines, newspapers), which is mainly of decorative value only.
Tools. You need only one: a strong jeweler's loupe or other form of magnification, at least 30X power.
The first thing to look for is whether the artwork is made up of little dots. Late 19th- and early-20th-century inexpensive prints were made with a photo-mechanical process using a three-color dot separation. There are variations of this with different methods, but they will have dots — tiny, tiny, tiny dots, sometimes squares — that you can only see under magnification. If you see these dots, you do not have anything of significant value.
Second, look for printing plate indention marks on the paper, a signature in pencil along the outer edge of the image, and a production number on the outer edge. These indicate a hand-pulled print, made by the artist himself, with a limited number made — making it more likely to be valuable. Some are unknown artists and are inexpensive; others by great masters can be very valuable.
Third, if there are no dots, look for brush strokes or pressure marks — make sure the color follows the brush strokes, or, if pen or pencil, look for pressure marks and a signature in the artwork itself, not in the margin.
Once you know if you have a painting or a good artist print and not a cheap mechanical print, you can then research the artist and make note of condition and such to determine the value.
Originally aired on AM Northwest, KATU.
