APPRAISER: What attracted me to this picture, um, was the scene itself, just the fire.

Where did you come by it?

GUEST: Well, it actually is one of a set of three that belonged to my parents, and um, they got them in the Philadelphia area, uh, over the past 30 years.

APPRAISER: What's interesting about this, as I said initially, is the fire, because this is a view of Canton, which is one of the major trading ports, uh, in China.

And it was set up for trade with the western powers, England and France, the United States, and each of these buildings that you see across here are the various trading houses, uh, where merchandise would be bought and shipped and purchased.

One of the other interesting things about the picture is you have such a-an array of different types of ships in the foreground.

And the condition, uh, of it is very nice and bright and clear and easy to see what's going on.

One of the things about paintings that makes it difficult when you're trying to value them is the condition.

GUEST: Mm-hmm APPRAISER: And although, as I, as I said, on the surface, this looks very attractive and it's a pretty picture and the condition looks good, when you start looking at it closely, you see that here there's sort of a darkish area that I'm circling.

That is a hole that has been filled.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: There's another one that's here.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: That was punctured and another here in the sky.

So there was, there was some damage at some point.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And in addition to that, this area here has been overpainted, which means the painting at some point was too thin.

And the restorer... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...came through and they repainted this area.

They repainted some of this area, this area and some of the area up here in the sky.

And over time, that oil paint starts to discolor, 'cause it ages this at a, at a different rate than the original oil paint.

GUEST: Than the old.

APPRAISER: So you start to notice a difference in the color.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And-and if I were to have a black light... GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...an ultraviolet light, and go over it, these things would fluoresce in a very bright color.

That would be quite easy to see... GUEST: Much more noticeable.

APPRAISER: ...what had been restored and what had not been restored.

The other thing that makes it really interesting is that the frame of this appears to be original.

And if you look on the reverse, you'll notice that you can see the original pine surface.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: The pine frame that this is made from.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Pine was typically used because it was a good medium for which to put lacquer... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...which is what this is.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: This burgundy-colored lacquer which you often find used on furniture, is used on porous woods like pine, cause it adheres ver-very well.

GUEST: It chips, though.

(laughing) APPRAISER: It does chip, you're right.

Um... GUEST: As we can see.

APPRAISER: Because it's a, a very specific point in time, it's a rare, uh, view of, uh, of the fire at Canton.

And in a very important historical view, the value of the painting is going to be in the neighborhood of $15,000 to $25,000.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

That's great.

Thank you very much.

APPRAISER: You're welcome.

GUEST: Appreciate it.

(chuckles)