A. Paul Brooks Silent Film Art, ca. 1927
GUEST: I know that it's, um, from a person named A. Paul Brooks. I think he ended up in Shreveport, Louisiana, which is where I purchased these at an estate sale about three years ago. I know that they're movie cards. Uh, and he worked at an old movie house, he was on the art director there.
APPRAISER: And how much did you pay for it?
GUEST: A dollar.
APPRAISER: Where do you keep these at the house?
GUEST: Mm, so, currently, they stay between the wall and a piece of furniture.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm. (laughter) Well...
GUEST: 'Cause I don't know what to do with them just yet.
APPRAISER: So how do you know who the artist is and how'd you find out so much about him?
GUEST: The front of the portfolio has his name, A. Paul Brooks. And so I contacted someone that knew things about silent films...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: ...and gave him name and information. And he sent me an obituary for the man.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm. You brought in this great portfolio. But I only chose a couple of pieces. There are three up here, but there are five more in the portfolio. I love silent era films. And the interesting part about these is these are all hand-painted artwork, probably used in the lobby or in the, uh, front window to sell tickets to silent films. And these date from about 1927 or so. These are all lost films. These are all silent films where we don't have any complete footage of the film.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: But these two aren't based off movie posters. They're based off of the cover of a movie fan magazine from about 1919 to 1924 called "Shadowland" by a German fellow, A.M. Hopfmuller. And it was kind of an art and design and movie fanzine all-in-one ar-arts and culture magazine. And these were the color covers. This is a cover from, I believe, 1921. "Wild Geese" is from 1919. And this artist, A. Paul Brooks, copied the cover, but he did a better job. There's more detail, a little more color, a little more life. And he added this amazing text design.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: "The Land Where You Are Not." It says "that dainty little star, Louise Brooks"...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...who was a fairly famous actress. I can find the novel "The Land Where You Are Not," but we can't find the film.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: I don't know if the film was ever made. There are records of the rights being sold for the book for a movie to be made. But was this ever actually made into a film or was it ever released? More research needs to be done-- these are by a really skilled hand and a unknown artist. These are gouache on cardboard and the cardboard is, frankly, trash. It is very thin. Because these weren't supposed to last. They were going to be up on the display for just a couple weeks. Most of these in here, they're beautiful, they're all great. And they would average at auction around $500 each.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: That's around $2,500 for the, for the portfolio. Do you have any idea what the better pieces might be worth?
GUEST: No, I would not have said $500 apiece for those. (laughter)
APPRAISER: For each one of these, at auction, I'd be looking at around... ...$1,500 to $2,000 each.
GUEST: Wow... Wow. Well, they are gorgeous. I-I've really enjoyed 'em and now I'm probably gonna have to take them out (laughing) from between the wall and the piece of furniture.
APPRAISER: (laughing) For that one dollar investment in your portfolio, you're looking at $7,000 to $8,500.
GUEST: Wow.
$7,000 - $8,500 Auction
Photos
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Grant's Farm, Hour 3
Catch a crop of ROADSHOW discoveries in our final hour at scenic Grant’s Farm in St. Louis, Missouri! — Mon, May 11, 2026
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1918 Sallie Coyne Rookwood Vellum Plaque
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John Wayne Memorabilia, ca. 1950
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Victor Dubreuil Oil Painting, ca. 1891
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Maurice Utrillo Lithograph, ca. 1925
Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
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