1965 Johnny Mercer Painting

Appraised on: July 12, 2003

Appraised in: Savannah, Georgia

Appraised by: Alan Fausel

Category: Paintings & Drawings

Episode Info: Tomorrow's Antiques (#917)
Savannah, Hour 3 (#812)

Originally Aired: April 12, 2004

IMAGE: 1 of 3  

Appraisal Video: (1:37)

GUEST: I bought it from the Johnny Mercer estate, and I thought it was an interesting painting because he was from Savannah and I did know him.

APPRAISER: You did know him?

GUEST: Yes, uh-huh.

APPRAISER: Well, Johnny Mercer was certainly one of the great songwriters and lyricists of the 20th century. You know, worked with Harold Arlen and Hoagie Carmichael, and wrote things like "Accentuate The Positive" for Bing Crosby, and "Moon River" for Henry Mancini later. Um... but we don't know him as a painter.

GUEST: Actually, they said he hadn't painted many pictures, so I was very fortunate to purchase this one.

APPRAISER: Now, apparently, it was a hobby of his that he did. You sort of look at this and you say, well, it doesn't really look like a subject you might do. What's the subject matter?

GUEST: Well, I understand that he was in the Holy Land and he saw the sheep at slaughter and it impressed him, so he painted the picture of that.

APPRAISER: And this one's dated 1965, and his last great hit was "Days Of Wine And Roses" in 1962. What's interesting about this is to try to establish a value because we know his music, but we don't know much about his paintings. Did you pay a lot of money at the sale for it?

GUEST: No, I paid $20 for it.

APPRAISER: You paid $20? So this is about 20-some years ago, 25 years ago?

GUEST: Yeah, I guess it has been 15-20 years.

APPRAISER: Okay, well, what's interesting... An autograph of Johnny Mercer would probably only be worth about $100. But in the Savannah area, I think something like this would probably get about $800 to $1,000.

GUEST: Well... That's wonderful-- my $20 paid off!

APPRAISER: I think so!

GUEST: I'm writing a book about my life and this is going to be an interesting chapter.