1827 "The Guilford Limner" Folk Portraits

Appraised on: July 24, 2010

Appraised in: Biloxi, Mississippi

Appraised by: Ken Farmer

Category: Folk Art

Episode Info: Biloxi, Hour 3 (#1515)

Originally Aired: May 16, 2011

IMAGE: 1 of 5  

Appraisal Video: (2:49)

GUEST: They're my ancestor portraits. They were done in Guilford County, North Carolina, in 1827. And these are my great-great- great-grandparents, and that's my great-great- grandmother, and that's her sister.

APPRAISER: And you have all the genealogical information.

GUEST: I do.

APPRAISER: And they lived in Guilford Country, North Carolina, and then I guess eventually they came down this way.

GUEST: They ended up in Benton County, Mississippi.

APPRAISER: There's some artists from up in New England and Pennsylvania that had a certain way of doing things. One of the things I think that they did that was always wonderful, and this guy's doing the same thing, is really nicely articulated faces. The interior is interesting. And they're all sitting in what I refer to as a fancy Baltimore chair. And two of the ladies are posed with flowers in the background.

GUEST: And two of them are holding books.

APPRAISER: Yes.

GUEST: Which I think is unusual.

APPRAISER: Believe it or not, this is an artist whose work has been studied a lot.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: They're still trying to figure out his name.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: They call him the Guilford Limner, which is just a painter. And they have found over 40 of his portraits. And most of them were painted within five miles of Greensboro, North Carolina.

GUEST: That's wonderful.

APPRAISER: The dates are the last year that there's a record of him being in Guilford County.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: One of the characteristics of his portraits are not only the real good detail on the interior, but he also did oversized eyes, with the irises being just a little bit larger than what you normally see. These were all watercolors painted on laid down paper. They're fantastic from an aesthetic point of view. They're beautiful.

GUEST: I think they're charming.

APPRAISER: Normally people out there are not interested in having pictures of other people's dead relatives.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: As a general rule, unless the way they're rendered is, like, out of sight.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Which these are. Moses Gibson and Elizabeth both are very attractive. And the real jackpot comes that we have their daughters here also. A family of four by somebody who there's only 40 works known by, pretty rare.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: And I'm being conservative when I say that the value of these four for retail purposes, insurance, would be $60,000.

GUEST: Oh, my gosh. Well, I don't know what to say. I'm very pleased, but I'm very surprised.