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Hiroshi Yoshida Original Japanese Woodblock Prints

Value (2011) | $7,000 Retail
Watch  

GUEST:
My aunt passed and I ended up helping to manage her estate. She was a collector of all sorts of things, and these two pictures were among them. And living in Oregon, I thought maybe those were from the Northwest. They looked they might be from the Northwest, so I bundled them with some other stuff and shipped them on home. I suspected they were Japanese, because I knew a little bit about the signature, and I didn't know if they were watercolor or prints, or whatever. So I saw this opportunity and came down to find out.

APPRAISER:
Well, what you have is a pair of Japanese woodblock prints by Hiroshi Yoshida, who is a Japanese artist who was born in 1876 and passed in 1950. Very, very famous woodblock print maker, he also did watercolors and he did oil paintings as well. He was fascinated with nature and he traveled widely and came to America in the 1920s and did scenes of America. These are both prints that depict Japanese subjects, but he did do famous American scenes such as Grand Canyon and so forth. Both of these prints, being original, were published by the artist in the 1920s. His original works are signed in pencil. You can see both of these are signed "Hiroshi Yoshida," and the thing that we look for in his genuine prints are these two little characters. They're hard to make out in this print because they're rather faint.

GUEST:
Wow.

APPRAISER:
But they're easy down here, because they're in red. And that's a Jizuri seal. It means, "printed by my own hand." So it proves that they're genuine, and these signatures are actually brush signatures. Both this and this one here, followed by his artists' chop at the bottom. This is a double-size print. He did not do many double-size prints, and most of them were done only in a quantity of no more than 100. So these are quite scarce. We can see the reverse, where...

GUEST:
Wow.

APPRAISER:
...there's toning. And this toning is a result of having been against acidic mat. And that can be restored. It's going to be much fresher when we get this acid out of the print.

GUEST:
I'll be darned.

APPRAISER:
As is, without restoration, the print is worth perhaps $4,500. But with the restoration, which is going to cost around $300, but well worth it, then the print is between $5,000 and $6,000.

GUEST:
Wow, very cool.

APPRAISER:
That would be a retail price. And this would have a value of, right now, in that condition, it's fine, of about $2,500.

GUEST:
That's great! Thank you very much.

Support provided by: Learn more

Appraisal Details

Appraiser
Frank Castle
Asian Arts
Castle Fine Arts, Inc.
Appraised value (2011)
$7,000 Retail
Featured In
Eugene, Hour 3 (#1606)
Event
Eugene, OR (June 04, 2011)
Category
Asian Arts
Period
20th Century
Form
Print
Material
Paper

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.

Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.

Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.

Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.

Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.

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