Associated American Artists Prints, ca. 1940

Appraised on: July 24, 2010

Appraised in: Biloxi, Mississippi

Appraised by: Betty Krulik

Category: Paintings & Drawings

Episode Info: Biloxi, Hour 3 (#1515)

Originally Aired: May 16, 2011

IMAGE: 1 of 4  

Appraisal Video: (3:16)

GUEST: I brought some prints that I've had for about 20 years. They're from the Associated American Artists. They've been in the family for a long time. My great... a great-aunt had them.

APPRAISER: What do you know about Associated American Artists?

GUEST: Well, when I first got them, you know, I didn't have a personal computer, didn't really have any way of finding out anything. I was watching your show a few years back, and a girl had something similar, and she had hers appraised, and I was like, "I have got to see what... a little bit more about these."

APPRAISER: Well, Associated American Artists was a gallery that was formed in 1935 by a man named Reeves Lewenthal. And Reeves Lewenthal decided that art should be for the middle class, not just the super-wealthy. So he, with his populist approach, came upon the idea of commissioning artists to do a series of prints that he would sell by subscription. He only commissioned about four artists a year. And the ones that you have came out of 1939, 1940, 1941.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Reeves Lewenthal, with Sylvan Cole and Estelle Yanco, would choose a variety of artists, all American artists, and one of the most famous was Thomas Hart Benton.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And the print that we have here is Thomas Hart Benton's Slow Train to Arkansas, which is a rather important work.

GUEST: Is it really?

APPRAISER: The painting itself is important.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: And the print is very well known. This work, when it comes on the auction market individually, sells for $4,500.

GUEST: That's good.

APPRAISER: Then here we have Reginald Marsh, and this work, when it comes individually on the auction market, sells for approximately $1,500.

GUEST: Good.

APPRAISER: The... Luigi Luccione is a Vermont painter, and he did these beautiful prints. And this etching sells for approximately $100. Ernest Feeney, if this were to come on the market, this would only make about $50 at auction. So you have 40 works here.

GUEST: 40, yeah.

APPRAISER: Mostly they're in excellent condition. Together, we're talking about a value for the group of 40 of approximately $48,000...

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: ...at auction.

GUEST: That's great. That's unbelievable. I cannot believe that. I had no idea. I mean, I really had no idea.

APPRAISER: It's exciting.

GUEST: That is so exciting. I mean, who'd have ever thought?