GUEST: I have two Eschers that
my husband bought from Mr.
Escher in '61. He and a friend

of his were interested in art,
were looking around for what
they could invest in. He didn't

like Andy Warhol's tomato soup
cans, he thought it was ugly at
$15, didn't want it, and moved

to Mr. Escher for the prints.
And I got them and the letters
from Mr. Escher saying that

if he wanted to buy more,
buy them all at once, he's a
feisty guy and didn't want to

keep going to the post office.

APPRAISER: So, of course, we're
talking about M.C. Escher.
M.C. Escher. His visual imagery

is probably some of the
most well-known, nowadays,
to college students
across the United States,

who all have a poster of some
of his work on their walls.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: At the time when
your husband had bought it, he
wasn't as well-known. He was

living in the Netherlands
as of 1941, in Baarn, until
1970. This one is "Belvedere."

GUEST: Correct.

APPRAISER: "A beautiful view,"
belvedere, in Italian. He
lived in Italy from about 1923

until 1935, and the view is of
the Abruzzo mountains. This is
based on Escher's impossible

cube, this was an idea that he
had about a cube which cannot
exist in reality. And what

he was famous for was
depicting, in two-dimensional
form, that which cannot
happen three-dimensionally.

That structure itself cannot
exist. The ladder, the way it's
placed, cannot exist. But all

of it looks so natural.
And a lot of it is very
highly mathematically
informed. Although

he did not consider himself a
mathematician, he was writing
and corresponding with a lot

of mathematicians. This
lithograph, it's signed,
lower left in pencil,
in the margin, and it's

also numbered eight out of
51, and it has a Roman numeral
"II." The Roman numeral refers

to the state. States are one
grouping of the lithographs.
Some little change was made,

and that made into a different
state. Let's also talk about
"Ascending and Descending."

When we're looking here, what
we see are these figures walking
up and down a staircase, but

really, it's an
impossible staircase.

GUEST: They don't go anywhere.

APPRAISER: Because it never
ends. This one was done in
1960, "Belvedere" was in 1958.

This one doesn't have any
Roman numerals, but it does
have a pencil signature and a

number, 26 out of 52. Can
you tell me how much your
husband paid for that?

GUEST: I think they were
$30 for each, and two
dollars for postage.

APPRAISER: And two dollars'
postage. Have you ever
had these appraised?

GUEST: We did. In 2004,
we had our artwork
appraised for insurance.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And at that time,
they said "Belvedere"
was $20,000, and the
"Ascending and Descending"

at $17,500. And we mentioned the
letters, but they didn't seem
to be, go into the, anything

into the equation.

APPRAISER: The letters
are letters from Escher
himself to your husband,
and it actually shows

his wry sense of humor, telling
him to, as you had mentioned,
to buy more at one time.

He was famous for his wry
sense of humor. And there are
a lot of fake Escher prints

on the market, so we know that
with these letters that these
works are real. Okay. And,

in addition, even Escher
autographs, even without
prints, are valuable
in and of themselves.

For value's sake, today, I would
insure these at $50,000 each.

GUEST: How nice. Thank
you! That's nice.