MORGAN PARK — Gloria Artwohl, 90, bought a painting in the early 1970s after renovating her living room in Mount Greenwood.
The painting of a Paris street scene appears to be signed by artist Jules Rene Herve, a French impressionist from the early 1900s. Though that never really mattered to Artwohl.
"It's just a simple, attractive picture to me," said Artwohl, now a resident of the Smith Village retirement community in Morgan Park.
She and her daughter, Susan, hope to learn the value of the painting that now hangs on the wall of her apartment on Sunday at an appraisal event that's being called Antiques and Artifacts.
Howard Ludwig says most old stuff is worth very little, but there's always a few gems:
"Antiques Roadshow" appraiser Gary Piattoni will be on hand from noon-5 p.m. at Smith Village, 2320 W. 113th Place. For a $25 donation to Smith Village's Emilie's Fund, he'll value any two items that can be easily carried or wheeled in for examination.
"It turns out [Herve's] work is in the Art Institute," said Susan Artwohl, who admits that her curiosity about the painting prompted a bit of online investigation.
Susan Artwohl, who now lives in her parents' Mount Greenwood home, is equally curious about a pair of pink porcelain figurines that once belonged to her great grandparents.
The 2-foot-tall statues of a young boy and girl dressed in adult clothing are among several figurines that her great grandmother collected. Susan Artwohl theorizes the figurines may be part of a collection called Bisque Babies.
"They appear to have some markings underneath, which I don't understand," Susan Artwohl said.
Piattoni said these types of mysteries are what led him to a career as an antiques appraiser. He's been making guest appearances as an appraiser on "Antiques Roadshow" for the past 19 years — though he said the event at Smith Village is unrelated to the PBS show.
"Each appraisal opens a new door," said Piattoni, who operates a fine arts, antiques and collectibles appraisal and consulting company in Evanston.
He said most of the items that people bring to him aren't easily valued by common Internet searches. In some cases he's amazed by what he happens upon, including a set of books he recently valued that were signed by astronaut Neil Armstrong.
In other cases, he's only confirms what antique owners already suspect — their ancestor's prized possessions aren't worth much money.
"You do find some people who are disappointed," Piattoni said.
Marilyn Stone, 91, won't be surprised at all if the large oil painting she keeps in her apartment at Smith Village is worthless. She never particularly liked the picture anyway.
Stone's great grandparents, William and Augusta Stanton, were once well-known Chicago socialites. The painting of the toga-clad couple supposedly hung in their Beverly home. The picture depicts a woman holding a rose, and a man is smelling it.
"I just thought the guy looked like such a wimp," Stone said. "I told [my mother] I didn't want this painting, but she said I had to take it anyway."
She also hopes to have a smaller painting of a crate of raspberries appraised. It's also believed to have been owned by her great grandparents, who divorced due to infidelity in 1904. William Stanton died a pauper five years later, said Linda Lamberty, Stone's daughter.
"Who knows, the frames may be worth more than the painting," said Lamberty, who works for Beverly's Ridge Historical Society.
Lamberty is also curious about a tilt-top table that she's traced back to Richard Bingle, her great, great, great grandfather on the other side of the family. He arrived on the Far Southwest Side in 1842, building a home on land that now serves as Mount Olivet Cemetery in Mount Greenwood.
She bought the table in the mid 1970s from a cousin who took it with her to California. Lamberty later refinished the tiny table, which now sits beside the television of her mother's apartment in Smith Village.
"We put our Christmas tree on it," Marilyn Stone said.
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