Two Late 19th-Century Antonio Jacobsen Paintings

Appraised on: June 22, 2002

Appraised in: Cleveland, Ohio

Appraised by: Alan Fausel

Category: Paintings & Drawings

Episode Info: Roadshow Remembers (#1017)
Cleveland, Hour 2 (#708)

Originally Aired: September 22, 2003

IMAGE: 1 of 3  

Appraisal Video: (2:17)

GUEST: My grandfather acquired them, and I'm sorry to say that I cannot tell you the history of that acquisition. When he passed away, they came to my mother, who truly loved them, and she saw that I had them upon her death.

APPRAISER: You know who they're by, right?

GUEST: I do know who they're by. And I know that he is a top-notch maritime painter.

APPRAISER: Antonio Jacobsen, right?

GUEST: Jacobsen. Thank you. Yes.

APPRAISER: It's alright. You know the subjects, don't you or you know what they are?

GUEST: The America Cup races, yes.

APPRAISER: Absolutely. Antonio Jacobsen is a Danish artist. That's spelled Jacobsen-- "S-E-N." And he comes to America, and he has a whole trade, living in New Jersey. Sometimes he signs these with his address, so we can date them by the address. But he actually dated this one 1885, so we know when this was. And he has his business, painting, basically, portraits of boats. That's almost all he does is painting different people's ships in the harbors, in and around New York. Did you ever figure out who these boats were at all?

GUEST: No. No. I don't know. I don't know those.

APPRAISER: We know it's an America's Cup race because we have this little lightship. This little ship that they all went around. And we know the year 1885, so we know this is the Puritan and the Genesta. These, I'm not so sure. We could probably figure that out. It could be known by the pennants that they have. Only one of these is signed, so it's important to keep these two together.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Because if you have children, do not separate these, okay, Because this one will validate that one. Okay? This one without the signature will not ever be worth as much as the one that's signed. But, together, they make a pair.

GUEST: We have two sons, and that's what I probably would have thought of doing. I thank you.

APPRAISER: They're going to have to fight for that, yeah.

GUEST: I thank you.

APPRAISER: The thing about Jacobsen,you rarely see racing scenes. Mostly, they're just plain, four-square portraits of ships. Here you have these very active racing scenes. You have the men piking out on the sides to counterbalance the boat. You have this very dynamic sea. All these make probably the most valuable Jacobsens that I've ever seen. Because they're known America's Cup scenes, I would estimate these to go at auction-- and this market is very hot right now-- somewhere between $50,000 and $70,000.

GUEST: Oh, my goodness.

APPRAISER: Yeah. Absolutely.

GUEST: It's mind-boggling. I had no... no idea.