“We’re looking for people who are art enthusiasts, whether they have questions about paintings on their wall, or whether they know exactly what they have on their wall …”
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Sketch for Lake in Algonquin Park, by Tom Thomson. Photo: Heffel Fine Art Auction House
If you have a painting or sculpture you think could be worth more than the dust collecting on it, here’s your chance to find out.
It’s happened before: In 2018, a 71-year-old retired nurse thought her late father was joking all those years ago when he said that the lake painting sitting over the family fireplace was an authentic Tom Thomson.
Glenna Gardiner had long forgotten the painting, which sat for years in her Edmonton basement. But she got curious about it one day and called a friend—who called the professionals.
“She had a friend in Edmonton who sent it to her, along with a note saying, ‘You’re the only person who believed in this painting. If it’s not real, keep it and if it’s real, we’ll sell it and we’ll go on a cruise.’”
Fast-forward a bit and the painting (above) turned out to be the real deal, fetching $481,250 at auction. And yes, the friends did go on that cruise. “And Heffel was very happy to buy them a set of luggage,” Kratzer tells Capital Daily.
A Victoria man also scored bigtime
There was also a feel-good story out of Victoria that same year. A man brought in a painting signed by English-born Sybil Andrews who moved to Campbell River after the Second World War and whose paintings were rediscovered by the art world in the 1970s and 80s. He had bought the art at a thrift shop—using his seniors’ discount to lower the $70 price—and wanted to know what it was really worth.
“And again, once we saw that painting and had it in our hands, there was no question that it was a real Sybil Andrews and we sold it for just over $50K.”
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Who knows if lightning can strike thrice but art enthusiasts curious about the value of their artwork—be that a painting or sculpture—can make an appointment to meet Kratzer next Tuesday or Wednesday (July 9 & 10) to find out what they’ve got on their hands. Kratzer is coming to Victoria on the hunt for art to auction.
Kratzer, who is based out of Vancouver, says there are a lot of collections that have been well-established in Victoria.
Island has artistry
“There’s, of course, a few artists that are of particular interest to Canadian art, like Emily Carr and E.J. Hughes, who are well-known around the world. But of course, they lived on Vancouver Island, so we tend to see a higher concentration of works by those very important artists.”
The appraiser, in this case, Kratzer—will visit people’s homes to examine the art, and—will look at a painting’s brush strokes and composition as well as what kind of materials were used.
Thomson—who is not a member of the Group of Seven, having died before the group formed—liked to use small boards so he could easily move them, for example.
The painting itself is not the only way to glean information—the back also can be a treasure trove of clues to its origin. Is there a signature on the back? A title, or inscription? Sometimes the artist puts the date there. Gallery labels will indicate whether the artwork has been sold or displayed previously.
“We’re looking for people who are art enthusiasts, whether they have questions about paintings on their wall, or whether they know exactly what they have on their walls and want to learn more about them, or have up-to-date valuations,” Kratzer says.
Here’s how to book a meeting
If you have a sculpture or painting—it doesn’t have to be from Thomson, Carr, Hughes, or Andrews—you can book an appointment by contacting mail@heffel.com or calling 604-732-6505.
“We have had such a positive response that we will be coming back for another visit,” Kratzer tells Capital Daily. “So, we’d still encourage people to contact us, and we’d be happy to come back later in the summer.”
Steamer Arriving at Nanaimo by E.J. Hughes. Photo: Heffel Fine Art Auction House
This signed (on the back) 1950 work from Edward John (E.J.) Hughes entitled Steamer Arriving at Nanaimo is oil on canvas. It sold for $841,250 (including buyer’s premium) in 2020. Here are some other results from Heffel auctions.
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LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
