How to find a free valuation of a painting

MissingThePoint

I am not sure which forum to post on. My grand parents left me a set old paintings which have been painted on porcelin which makes them quite heavy.They were possibly pained sometime in the 1930' but could be as early as the 1920's or as late as the 1940's. Where can I go to obtain a valuation and will it be free or relatively cheap but reliable. I do not know much about art work so I need somewhere reputable so I am not conned. any ideas please. they have been signed but it is difficult to put a name to the signature. They could be valuable or nearly worthless.Any advise would be appreciated or if I need to post on a different forum please let me know.Thank you

hollydays

Find your nearest auction house on line and find out their valuation days

bris

Take them to your local antiques dealer and ask him if he wants to buy them, what ever he offers you, you can expect at least treble as a nearer value.

hollydays

More likely is, he won't

hollydays

A good way to look at it, is it incredible detailed and skilled, how it's been painted, every tiny detail .
Does it have a wow factor
I mean , is it really gorgeous
If not
And I suspect this, car boot sale is your best
Bet.
Painting on porcelaine is not a thing of grand masters
Are there any back stamps

Martin85

I would suggest you do need to get a valuation. I don't know how you find Art Specialists which would be the ideal solution .Perhaps someone reading this post might be able to assist in this respect. If you cannot identify a specialist "Reputable" Art Dealer, then you need to find the time to take the paintings to at least 4 antique dealers who will probably give you different valuations. Then you may have some idea if they are worth anything. I have seen some on line sites where you take photographs and they will give you a valuation but have not knowledge how "Bona Fide" their creditials might be!!. I fully understand your concern about getting conned as this is a specialist subject. A contributor mentioned an auction house, but I am unaware how much they charge for a valuation alone, especially if you are not going to proceed by putting your paintings in their auction. You will need to do some research.

DigForVictory

Some museums will offer advice if asked, so carry photos & ask as many curators as you can - where they suggest books or people, follow them up.

M'father's trying to find "the story" of a painting & emailed a museum with a very similar picture - he's now three steps further on, so google images can be your friend.

Andy_L

You could take a digital photo of it and use Google's such by image feature to see if that finds any info

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html

InsideInsurance

MissingThePoint wrote: »

Where can I go to obtain a valuation and will it be free or relatively cheap but reliable.

So you want someone who has expert knowledge but works for free/ low prices?

If you want a professional opinion with little/ no alternative agendas than you really need to pay a professional price. Ultimately you could try and get to an Antiques Roadshow program where their ulterior motive is evidently to make a TV program.

Failing that you have a number of reasonable opinions here of taking it to a dealer or auction house but the skills of these can vary massively and evidently a dealer is giving you not the value but what they'd be willing to pay you for it which in part is driven not by its value but how much they think they can get it from you for.

Finally, watch "bargain hunt" or any other such daytime TV program and you will see how accurately the "experts" get the prices of items for auction (retail would evidently be different)

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

If you want a free valuation, I will give £50 for the job lot. Whether your trinkets are worth more than that, is down to you!

HitAndMiss

I would take the paintings along to a couple of auction houses and see what they come up with. You are not committed to put the paintings in the auction at this stage If they quote a good valuation then you sderiously need to consider your best option and it is probably advisable put them in an art sale, rather than a general auction,at one of the larger auction houses. If however they quote a very low value it may not be worth taking too much time and trouble.