GUEST: Well, I inherited this
painting from my parents. My
mother wanted to give my father
a gift

that he would really love. And
he loved reading to his children
books that had illustrations.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And this is one of the
illustrations. She knew how much
he would love to get one of
those,

so she decided that she needed
to make this a secret. So what
she did was,

she saved five dollars from her
food money every week for
probably two years.

APPRAISER: Oh, wow.

GUEST: And didn't tell him this.

APPRAISER: Amazing right.

GUEST: And then it's either his
birthday or their anniversary,
gave him a card that said,

"You can go down to the
Schoonover Studios and pick out
a painting."

APPRAISER: Oh, that's...

GUEST: And he was elated,
to say the least.

APPRAISER: Oh, how exciting.

GUEST: And so we went down as
four kids and the mom and dad,
and

we chose a painting. What I
remember, this would have been
in the early '60s.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: Early to mid-'60s,
I'll say. APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: Dark wooden floors,
paint. I think there were big
windows at one end.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And there was partially
completed canvases here, there
was, you know, old, probably,

I'll say discarded ones there,
and, you know, then there was...
There was sort of stacks of them

.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: This is the one with the
clipper ship, which he thought
was extraordinary.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: And then this galleon,
and... I don't know, he just,

he decided on that one, and we
all, of course, were thrilled.

APPRAISER: And the title
of the painting is...

GUEST: "Privateers of '76."

APPRAISER: Right. The story was
written by an author named Ralph
D. Paine, who apparently

wrote several books in the early
20th century, and a lot of them
relating to history. On the back
of

the painting, we have the
inventory number for the
painting, which is number 1248.
Mm-hmm. There is

a label, which actually is
handwritten, and maybe by
Schoonover himself, that says
it,

it's from chapter 13. The title
of the illustration is "At a
hail from the boat,

he went to the rail." "At the
hail of the boat," meaning the
one below,

the figure on top comes to the
rail. Now, Schoonover, of
course,

is one of the premier artists of
the Brandywine School. And he
studied with Howard Pyle...

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...who is considered
the father of the school...

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...at Drexel
Institute in Philadelphia.

GUEST: Oh, I didn't know that.

APPRAISER: And Schoonover was
very good at, at wanting to get
to reality. So not

only did he go out west, but he
also went down to the bayous in
Mississippi

to sort of get a sense of how
the pirates would have lived in
that environment.

He had a house in Bushkill,
Pennsylvania, in Pike County,
which is in the Poconos.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And he would
spend his summers there.

But he used the landscape of
that area in, in many of his
paintings.

GUEST: You know, I think that
the card that Mr. Schoonover
gave my parents when they
purchased

this said that it was painted in
Bushkill-- is that what it's
called?

APPRAISER: Yes,
Bushkill, Pennsylvania.

GUEST: Yes, yeah.

APPRAISER: And certainly, he was
very popular, especially in the
early part

of the 20th century, because he
illustrated such classic books
as "Robinson Crusoe"...

GUEST: Mmm.

APPRAISER: "Swiss Family
Robinson." And he did a whole
series of books for,

on Zane Grey Western novels.

GUEST: Oh, really? Oh, my gosh.

APPRAISER: So he was quite into
it, as well as magazine
illustrations.

GUEST: Mmm.

APPRAISER: He was born in 1877
and he actually lived to 1972.
So he was primarily painting in

the early 20th century, and
really, I think, up until he
passed away. The painting,

of course, is oil on canvas, and
looks like the original frame.
This painting

is dated in the lower right '23,
1923, and that's when the novel
was first published.

GUEST: Hm.

APPRAISER: He is popular as an
illustrator nationwide. If this
were in a gallery, I think

that it would sell in the range
of $125,000. GUEST: (chuckles) I
know you're kidding me.

APPRAISER: No, I'm not kidding
you. It's a wonderful...

GUEST: (softly) Really?
APPRAISER: Yes.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: It's a
wonderful painting.

GUEST: (breathes deeply)

My father would be so thrilled
to know that people were being
turned on to illustrations.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: And my mother would be
really thrilled at what you just
said.

APPRAISER: Yeah. (both laughing)
Well, it means that her
investment was a good one.

GUEST: Oh, yes, oh, yes. Wow.

APPRAISER: There's a big surge
of interest in illustration.

GUEST: Well, I love
this painting.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: I love this painting.