Carl Reichert Dog Portrait, ca. 1900
Watch
APPRAISER:
You've had this painting for a fairly long time, you said.
GUEST:
About 20 years.
APPRAISER:
And where’d you buy it?
GUEST:
I bought it at a local auction here in town.
APPRAISER:
Just an estate sale?
GUEST:
Just, yeah, it was out of an estate.
APPRAISER:
Did you pay a lot of money for it?
GUEST:
Uh, at the time, it was $100.
APPRAISER:
The artist is Carl Reichert. It's very clear. It shows that "C. Reichert." He has a very clear signature and a very distinct signature. But Carl Reichert is an Austrian artist, and he's a specialist, primarily in animals and specifically dogs. Most of his paintings focus around animals, and mostly that small format. But Reichert has two really distinct sort of kinds of paintings. You have one here. One type is the anecdotal painting, and that will tell a story, or it's sometimes humorous, about dogs chasing cats or parrots and the house being torn up by them. And then there's the other type, which is what you have here, is the purebred dog portraits. Now, the purebred dog portrait in the 19th century is really more of an English kind of a domain, and generally in the English ones, they show the entire dog because they're trying to show the conformation, the legs, the tail, the size and all that-- proportions. But Reichert focuses primarily just on the faces and the facial expressions. Do you have a dog like this at all?
GUEST:
No, no, no.
APPRAISER:
Well, he's a Great Dane, obviously, and I love the blue of the eyes here, a great color that you pick up, and it's just somebody's specific dog. It was painted probably for a commission, as you'd have a portrait of a family member. But the thing I really like about this painting is the collar. This is a great illustration of a 19th-century dog collar. These collars themselves today are collectible. If you had that collar, it could be as much as $1,000 for just the collar.
GUEST:
I see.
APPRAISER:
But as you said, you paid $100--probably a good deal. A painting like this by Reichert in one of my auctions, I'd probably put an estimate of about $4,000 to $6,000 on it.
Appraisal Details
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.
