Le Turbau, 1972, 42 ½ x 29 inches

Alexander Calder (1898 – 1976) is best known for introducing the mobile sculpture to modern art, but his artistic production included everything from works on paper and paintings, to designing costumes, theater sets, and jewelry. He was born in 1891 in Philadelphia, the son and grandson of two well-known sculptors, and received a degree in mechanical engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1919 before enrolling at the Art Students League in 1923. In 1926 Calder moved to Paris, where he lived for seven years and immersed himself in avant-garde artistic and intellectual circles.  In Paris he developed his suspended and grounded steel, wire, and brass sculptures, which were later deemed “mobiles” by Marcel Duchamp and “stabiles” by Jean Arp. Evidence of his engineering education can be found in his mobile wire sculptures; suspended, almost skeletal works that achieve harmony and motion while perfectly balanced in the air. These sculptures were first exhibited in the United States in 1932 and his works have since been widely exhibited at every major museum in the world, captivating art historians and art enthusiasts with their animated qualities.

Streetcar, 1951. 42" x 116" © 2008 Calder Foundation - Art Institute of Chicago

The lithographs shown here are contemporaneous with his publicly commissioned grounded “stabile” sculptures. Flamingo, a large-scale, red, sheet-metal sculpture commissioned for the General Services Administration in Chicago was unveiled in 1973, only one year after the production of this lithograph edition. The Art Institute of Chicago also houses a Calder stabile, the Flying Dragon created in 1975, which is located in the North Stanley McCormick Memorial Garden. Flying Dragon, Flamingo, Street Car, Bluebird, Boomerang’s, and Calder’s Circus are all titles synonymous with the flight, speed, motion, and acrobatics present in the works.

Flamingo, 1973. 53' x 60'

Calder’s drawings possess a similar playful, energetic quality as his large-scale stabiles and mobiles. His wire sculptures have been likened to three-dimensional drawings due to their transparent, outlined appearance. The use of primary colors, simple geometric shapes, and crudely out-lined subject matter suggests that Calder was grappling with similar issues in his two-dimensional works as he was in his three-dimensional works.  The spiral effects in both of the works, as well as the dripping paint at the base of the flags in the second work convey motion and rhythm. In Small Sun with Flags from Maggie Eolienne Portfolio (below), Calder depicts a variety of rotating flags; some appear to be waving in the wind, while those at the top of the work seem to be at rest.  The stylized sun’s spiral center and curling rays suggest its inevitable rotation.

After serving in the Germany military in WWI, Drewes  studied architecture at the Bauhaus. In his early years, Drewes worked with many famous artist and spent much of his time traveling.  He took classes from Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer and created art in Italy being influenced from El Greco and Velazquez and explored the United States, Asia, South America, Manchuria, Moscow, and Warsaw, and finally returned to Germany and back to the Bauhaus.  These years must have been formidable for Drewes whose later work combined a wide variety of stylistic elements and always maintained a deep rooted connection with the technicality of architecture and design.

Unhappy with the Bauhaus’s relocation and Europe’s changing political spectrum, Drewes moved to New York to continue pursuing his art. The New York scene was glistening with displaced European artist who were looking for a new venue to display and explore their new discoveries in abstraction. Drewes began a long relationship with Wassily Kandinsky and became involved in key artist organizations.  Most notably, he was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists and was the director of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Graphic Arts Division in New York.

Despite his deep involvement with the beginnings of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, Drewes never formally abandoned realism. Throughout his career, Drewes painted works that used abstract devices but often maintained the shapes of nature. Large, bold blocks of color that were thinly and haphazardly applied to a canvas were weaved together to depict a landscape scene, a still life with flowers , or a stylized portrait. Within these works, Drewes always paid respect to geometry, often using the Cubist ideals of rigid shapes and lines to provide structure and organization to his gestural scenes. The overall effect was unique and representative of the many styles floating around the art world during the interwar period.

During his career, Drewes taught at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn College and at Columbia University. He had a long tenure at Washington University in St. Louis, where he remained until he retired. He continued to make and teach art until his death at the age of eighty-six.

Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist who was famous for creating works of art inspired by old-fashioned comic-strips. Lichtenstein’s work grew in popularity throughout the 1960′s and 70′s when his work was displayed in galleries alongside other leading figures of the pop-art movement such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and James Rosenquist. The artist’s work is often described as “hard-edged, industrial painting.” Lichtenstein’s technique was to employ the same language and visual elements in his paintings as one might see modern advertising. Because of this, there is a subtle humor and perhaps a hint of sarcasm in Lichtenstein’s work which have come to define the basic premise of pop art.

The artist spent most of his life as a student and teacher of art, traveling back and forth from Ohio, where he attended Ohio State University and New York City. In 1960, the artist started teaching at Rutgers University and became heavily influenced by Allan Kaprow, who was also a teacher at the University. This environment helped reignite his interest in Proto-pop imagery. In 1961 Lichtenstein began creating his first pop paintings using cartoon images and techniques derived from the appearance of commercial printing. This phase would continue into 1965, and included the use of advertising imagery suggesting consumerism and homemaking. In 1961, Lichtenstein created his first work to feature the large-scale use of hard-edged figures and Ben-Day dots entitled, “Look Mickey.” This piece is now housed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. In the same year he produced six other works with recognizable characters from gum wrappers and cartoons. In 1961 Leo Castelli started displaying Lichtenstein’s work at his gallery in New York.

At Lichtenstein’s first one-man show at the Castelli gallery in 1962, the entire collection was bought by influential collectors before the doors of the gallery were even opened to the public. After experiencing such success, the artist decided to take a leave of absence from his teaching job at Douglas College at Rutgers University in order to focus on painting and pursue a life of art. It was around this time that Lichtenstein began to grow in fame not just in America but worldwide. His work made use of thick outlines, bold colors and Ben-day dots to represent certain colors and techniques that seemed to speak to viewers as clearly and directly as an advertisement might, but with an entirely different purpose. Lichtenstein borrowed compositions and figures from old comic books and because of this, critics of the time scrutinized and challenged the artist’s originality. Lichtenstein responded to such claims by offering responses such as the following: “The closer my work is to the original, the more threatening and critical the content. However, my work is entirely transformed in that my purpose and perception are entirely different. I think my paintings are critically transformed, but it would be difficult to prove it by any rational line of argument” Rather than attempting to simply reproduce these comic-book subjects, Lichtenstein’s work tackled the way mass media portrays them.

Leon Kroll

Born in New York in 1884, Kroll knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a painter. He began his study of Art at the Art Students League of New York under the American Impressionist, John Henry Twachtman. He continued his study at the National Academy of Design where he was awarded a scholarship to study in Europe. When his painting of a female nude won a grand prix in Paris in 1908, the art world took notice, and Kroll’s artistic career took off.ted several awards for his artistic achievements which ultimately led to his successful career in Academia and the art world.

Stylistically, Kroll is most often described as a realist but an element of impressionist technique is also present. Having spent several years in Paris, Kroll absorbed the influences of French Barbizon painting, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.  He was particularly drawn to the work of Monet, Pissaro, Renoir, van Gogh and Cézanne. As a result, the artist explored many different genres creating striking landscapes and cityscapes as well as still life and figure compositions. Above all else, Kroll loved to paint the female form.

Later in his career Kroll found that he loved to teach art almost as much as he loved to make art. Adding to his already stunning career, Kroll took on a new roll as teacher at the Chicago Art Institute, National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York. In 1930, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of Leon Kroll’s art is his ability to balance his classical, academic training with an openness and acceptance of even the most progressively modern movements in art. Jerome Myers, one of Kroll’s contemporaries, wrote in his autobiography, “Leon Kroll has consistently carried his classic banner through the turmoil of modernism. His success is to be respected. Personally, I have always found him a gallant adversary in argument, an artist who has captured many hearts as well as many prizes.”

Leon Kroll died in 1974 at the age of 89. Kroll’s work is now displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and hundreds of other museums across the country.

Researched and written by Robert Snell.

 In 1898, a group of artists gathered on the bluffs near Rock River in Oregon, Illinois and formed the Eagle’s Nest Art Colony.  The group included painters, sculptors, poets, storytellers and musicians, mostly from the Art Institute and the University of Chicago.  Escaping Chicago’s smoldering summer heat, the collaborators took creative refuge and built their own community in Oregon.

The group’s leader, sculptor Lorado Taft, declared that artists should always have the right to “All the beauty around us which most of us never perceive…”

As one historian puts it,  ”The Eagle’s Nest Art Colony’s intimate, idyllic setting promoted creative cross-pollination between artists working in various mediums and genres, including sculpture, painting, watercolor, music, poetry, playwriting and theatrical productions. ”  The members of the artist community proved to be a significant and positive influence on the city of Oregon and its entire people.

In 1905, the citizens of Oregon were faced with a dilemma: either allow Oregon’s library to remain, truly, Oregon’s city library, or, by referendum, make the shift into a township library. This change would allow the library one distinct advantage; it would qualify the library for a grant from Andrew Carnegie for the construction of a new building. Oregon voters eventually decided that they wanted their library to be a place where knowledge and art could be shared openly and enthusiastically under one roof.  Construction began in 1908 under the supervision of Allen and Irving Pond, two architects from Chicago who were members of the Eagle’s Nest Art Colony.

The artists of the Eagle’s Nest Art Colony were instrumental in the design and development of the Oregon Public Library.  Even before the library was built, the artists voted to designate the second floor as a gallery space.  The space was first used in October 1908 when Leon A. Malkielski, a colony member, installed an exhibition of one hundred paintings.  With the library and gallery space in operation, members of the art colony could contribute to area culture by requiring its members to hold art shows, lectures, and other exhibitions.  One especially notable event came in 1921 when Hamlin Garland, a Pulitzer Prize recipient for literature, spoke at the Oregon library while he was a member of the Eagle’s Nest Colony. 

The permanent collection of art at the Oregon Public Library came from generous donations of statues, paintings and portraits by members of Eagle’s Nest.  Later, a citizen left the library a Currier and Ives lithograph collection which contains 46 Currier and Ives lithographs and 14 lithographs by Nathaniel Currier.

The Oregon Public Library hired MIR Appraisal services to evaluate and appraise their art collection.  MIR’s appraisers were more than happy to do so!  After extensively evaluating the library’s collection, MIR determined that the collection was worth significantly more than anyone could have guessed!  It was truly a pleasure to examine each piece of art in the collection and research the wonderful artists of the Eagle’s Nest Artist Community! More valuable than anything, however, is the priceless contribution that  members of the Eagle’s Nest Artist Colony have made to the community of Oregon, Illinois over the course of the last century.  Want to view the entire permanent collection at the Oregon Public Library? Visit http://oregon.lib.il.us

Palmer’s style ranges from realist to impressionist.  Some of the artist’s favorite subjects included landscapes, street scenes, beach scenes and portraits. She loved to depict women and children in leisure settings as well more formal portraiture.  Like the French Impressionists, Palmer preferred to paint with a soft, pastel palette.  Her work gracefully imports the viewer to a scene that is incredibly tranquil, almost even consoling.  It is no wonder, then, that The Art Institute of Chicago celebrated Palmer by granting her almost every major award and prize they offered.

Beginning in 1899, the Art Institute held annual exhibits of Palmer’s work.  These exhibits continued for 27 years.  In 1918, after an already stunning career, Palmer became the first female president of the Chicago Society of Artists.

Since Palmer produced such an abundance of work over the course of her lifetime, many Chicago area collectors are having Palmer-style paintings professionally cleaned and restored in hopes that it will reveal a previously indistinguishable signature. 

 A woman in Minnesota noticed a beautiful painting that was discarded in the trash on the side of the road. She stopped and picked up the painting which hung on her wall for many years. She decided to get the painting cleaned and after removing layers of dirt and grime a signature was uncovered. To her amazement the painting was signed, “Pauline Palmer.” The woman hired a professional appraiser to research the painting to learn more about it. You learned that the work was an important work by Pauline Palmer that was worth a considerable amount of money. 

MIR appraisal services offers restoration & conservation services in addition expert appraisal and analysis.  If you think you may have a Palmer in your collection, give us a call!  We’d love to help you learn more about any piece of art that is sparking your curiosity!

My grandmother, a nurse in the air force, traveled all over Europe and Asia in the mid 1900’s.  Over the course of her career, she collected exquisite pieces of art including photographs, Japanese silk screens and a few paintings by Picasso and Dali.

When people hear the name Salvador Dali, they often think of the flamboyant surrealist painter who, in the early 1900’s, began producing some of the most bizarre, dream-like, drippy works of art the world had ever seen.  In The Persistence of Memory, perhaps his most famous canvas, Dali depicts melting pocket-watches amid a wide, mysterious, expansive landscape.  Other works by the artist include sketches of strange, other-worldly creatures and images that seem to communicate deep, sub-conscious human experiences.  The young rebel artist feasted upon inspiration from many styles of art, ranging from the most academically classic, to the most pioneering avant-garde.  Exhibitions of Dali’s work attracted mixtures of praise and puzzled debate from critics.  The self-proclaimed Surrealist became audacious in challenging standard approaches to art.

Growing up, I would wander the halls of my grandparent’s modest Florida home in complete awe of the incredible art works that hung, unsuspectingly, from their walls.  It wasn’t until my grandfather passed away in 2002 that my grandmother decided to hire a professional appraiser to give her an idea of the value of the treasures she had acquired over the course of her rich life.

So, next time you stumble across that strange little drawing or an interesting canvas that has been in your family’s possession for decades, remember, you could be looking at a very significant piece of art history.

To determine the value of a work of art, it is always advised to seek out a qualified, fine art appraiser.  At MIR Appraisal Services our qualified appraisers and researchers provide accurate valuations based on comprehensive research and examination.

Identifying a Reproduction

1.       Determine what material the art is painted (or printed) on. If it is cardboard, fiberboard, poster board or paper (usually gray-colored material that’s thin and stiff but lightweight as well), then the work is probably a reproduction.  Most original paintings are done on canvas, wood or masonite panel.

2.      Hold the picture up to the light. Sometimes, reproductions will use canvas to replicate authenticity, and it can be difficult to tell the difference. When you hold it up to the light and look through the painting from behind, however, check to see how evenly the paint has been applied. On reproductions printed onto the canvas, the “paint” seems to be applied evenly, and there is no overlapping. True paintings, however, will have a base coat laid down with colors painted over it. If there is overlap, then the painting could very well could be an original.

3.      Look closely at the back of the painting or original print for copyright information and locate any labels that would indicate if the painting is a lithograph, print series or edition.. If you see a copyright symbol and date in small letters, it’s a clear indication that you’re looking at a reproduction.  If the work is an original print or print series, in most cases the artist will have a signature and a number, such as 2/30.

4.      Use the magnifying glass to examine the differences between the printing pattern on a reproduction versus an original. Reproductions will often be printed with a dot matrix pattern or parallel lines.  You will not see the dot matrix pattern on an original painting, of course–it was created with brushstrokes.

5.      Check the brushstrokes and texture. Manufacturers sometimes add a clear coat to the top of the printing as well as mechanical brushstrokes, which often don’t match the painting. Real brushstrokes follow the flow of the piece.  A brushstroke will leave a thickness of paint on the canvas for oil and acrylic works, while a watercolor painting will leave an impression on the paper. Use a magnifying glass to see any evidence of texture. Texture will reveal that the painting is an original work.

Determining the Worth of Prints and Reproductions

Some pictures are reproductions, which mean that they are photographic copies of paintings, often of famous paintings from museums. These are sometimes called ‘art prints’ or ‘posters’. Some are of high quality and are almost identical to the original. The majority of reproductions of famous paintings have little value. This is partly because so many copies of this picture have been printed over the last 180 years. Some reproductions of paintings do have commercial value, particularly if they were published as limited editions. Supply and demand may mean that they increase in value.

Some pictures are artists’ prints (sometimes called original prints), rather than reproductions. This means that the picture is not a copy of a painting. Artists’ prints are not one-off pictures, but a limited number of copies exists. Methods of making artists’ prints includes engraving, woodcut and etching. Artists’ prints are not necessarily worth more than photographic reproductions. Signed limited edition reproductions of paintings by famous artists can fetch considerable sums, while amateur artists’ prints may have no commercial value.

Limited edition prints are produced in limited numbers; this scarcity of supply can make them sought after by buyers. Some prints are produced in editions of less than 50, while some are from editions of 200 or even more. The number in the edition is often written by hand in pencil underneath the picture, or it may be printed at the bottom of the picture and be hidden by the frame. Limited editions are usually signed by the artist, which can help increase their value, particularly if the artist is famous. Some prints which are not limited editions are valuable, while some limited editions are out of fashion and are not sought after by collectors. Old cinema posters, for example, were not published as limited editions but can be highly valuable (if they are advertising famous films, are visually appealing and are in good condition).

The value of a reproduction can also depend on the type of reproduction or print, for example:

The value or price of a lithograph depends on the quality of the artwork, the quality of the paper and how successfully the print was made. The reputation of the artist who produced the print has a bearing on the price and so does the reason the print was made. Many lithographs were produced in order to inform the general public of how things looked before the camera was invented, and many of these series of illustrations are now quite valuable.

Serigraphs can be even more valuable due to the extensive process of creating this type of print. It can take a serigrapher up to 6 months to produce 1 run of as many as 500 serigraphs of the same image. The paints, sometimes over 100 colors, are applied in single applications. One paint color must then dry for at least 24 to 48 hours before the next color paint can be applied. Serigraphs are also produced in much smaller numbers than lithographs, and they are as costly to produce, and as close to the actual original painting as you can possibly get.  Andy Warhol was famous for his serigraphs.

Giclee printing is a fairly new process believed to have been first used in the late 1980s or early 1990s on IRIS inkjet printers.  Not as laborious as printing serigraphs, prices for giclee prints averaged from $50 to $1,000 in 2010, depending on quality, size, paper used, framing and other factors.

To determine the value or price of a print or reproduction it is advised to seek out a qualified, fine art appraiser.  At MIR Appraisal Services our qualified appraisers and researchers provide accurate valuations based on comprehensive research and examination.

Print Vs. Reproduction

Prints are hand-pulled by an artist from a printmaking surface such as a plate, stone, block or screen. They are usually numbered and signed by the artist beneath the image after the batch, or edition, is printed. Editions are usually 200 prints or less, even as few as 10. The numbering is done in this format: 1/200, 2/200, 3/200, etc.

After the edition is complete, the printmaking surface is often destroyed, ensuring a rarity that makes the prints more valuable. Even if they are not destroyed, printing wears surfaces down, and images pulled from them begin to degrade. Because of this and the paper type used, each print is unique.

After photographing the original, a reproduction is often printed in a batch, or run, of 1,000 or more. Often the artist is not involved in the process. By the nature of the printing technique, all the reproductions in a run are almost identical, with no variation in the printing or paper. Reproductions usually do not match the quality of an original print.

Sometimes artists sign and number a run of reproductions in the same way as original print editions. Marketers then sell them as “limited edition fine art prints.” If you are not aware of the differences, you might believe you are buying an original artwork.

Types of Fine Art Reproductions

There are many methods that artists use for reproducing artwork.  Here are some of the main types that art collectors should be aware of when choosing to purchase prints or reproductions:

• Painted hand: This method of reproduction art involves a trained artist carefully copying the original artwork using the same medium. The artist imitates the exact color, texture, and splashes of original masterpiece to produce a stunning replica of the original painting or drawing.
• Limited-edition print: This is a set number of reproductions of a piece of artwork sequentially numbered and signed by the artist. The limited-edition must be created from the artist’s original work of art under his or her direction. After the print run, the plates are destroyed. If the piece does not have a signature and a number, it is simply a poster.
•  Lithography: This is a print made by an artist on a press.  Today, some lithographs are produced by machines with photographic processes, but the original lithograph was made by drawing on a stone and printing from that same stone.  After the paper dried, it was marked with an issue number and signed by the artist.  Since that particular kind of stone may be hard to come by, some artists use the same process on a special lithographic plate made of metal.
• Serigraphy: This is a silk screened image and technically original art. With a serigraph, the original artwork is scanned and separated digitally into each and every color found in the original. A separate silk screen is created for each and every color that was scanned. There are usually from 80 to 130 individual colors in the majority of some serigraphs. Each silk screen is precisely placed over the serigraph paper, and then using a hand squeegee, paint for a specific color is applied.
• Engravings: Reproductions made by cutting an image into a plate or block of metal or wood (woodcuts) using a graver.  The furrows are cleanly cut out, raising no burr, and then filled with ink which is transferred under high pressure to the printing surface of the press. The earliest known engravings printed on paper date from about the middle of the 15th cent. This is a popular method of art reproduction of drawings, but is not suitable for the reproduction of paintings.
• Giclees:  These reproductions are created using a specialized inkjet printer. The quality of a giclee print is higher than that of a lithograph print. Various kinds of paper can be used for giclee printing, including canvas and photograph paper. Any artwork, including paintings, drawings and photography, can be printed using the giclee process, which is an advantage for an artist who wishes to produce several copies of his artwork to sell.

With the many different types of prints and reproductions it is necessary to understand their differences if you are hoping to determine the value of an art work. Ensuring the quality of fine art is very difficult. Advances in technology now allow anyone with a camera and an inkjet printer to reproduce original works of art. The art reproduction industry is very large, and even prominent museums occasionally purchase fake artwork by mistake.  With little regulation in the art community, it is near impossible for the casual buyer to know if the limited-edition print or reproduction they purchased is authentic.

If you are unsure about the authenticity of your item, we can help! You can reach our office at 312-814-8510 or e-mail us at info@mirappraisal.com

Map of the Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park

1893 marked a great year in history for our great city of Chicago. After three years of planning, the World Columbian Exposition was finally ready to be opened to the public. 46 nations participated in the fair and Chicago welcomed 26 million visitors to the fair grounds between May and October of that year. Towards the end of the 19^th century Americans placed an emphasis on utopian visions, with the beliefs that utopia could be reached through science, discipline and lucid measures in planning. The Exposition was to commemorate the 400 year anniversary of Columbus landing in the Americas, as well as the advancements in science, technology, industry and culture achieved by man since 1492.

Taking place in the neighborhoods of Jackson Park Highlands, Hyde Park, South Shore and Woodlawn, the fair was located in Jackson Park and on the Midway Plaisance. The city gained the nickname the White City due to the white stucco buildings and abundance of street lights that stuck out against the dark backdrop of the predecessors. Many buildings were created specifically for the event, based on classical architecture, and most were temporary-The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood is the city’s only remaining building from the Exposition.

Columbian Exposition Admission Ticket. Many admission tickets have been found in mint condition. There were numerous designs on each ticket ranging from images of Native Americans to images of prominent American figures.

Commemorative Pressed Penny. Elongated pennies were made their U.S. debut at the 1893 World's Fair.

Back side,Half-Dollar USD (scroll down to see the front side!). Special edition half-dollars were produced to commemorate the fair in 1893.

The U.S. post office produced commemorative stamps and picture postcards

Visitors to the fair were able to witness innovations in technology, experience foreign cultural affairs and purchase souvenirs. Similar to tourist traps of today, a plethora of everyday objects were transformed into commemorative pieces. Many of these items have been lost in time; however items such as ash trays, picture post cards, special edition stamps and paper weights are still in circulation; and thanks to the many people throughout history who have enjoyed preserving their personal histories, in addition to these commercial items sold at the fair, many documents such as programs, admission tickets, photographs and limited edition coins have also been saved. Items from the fair have been collected and coveted by museums, institutions and private collectors alike.

Front side of a commemorative Half-Dollar showing a side profile of Christopher Columbus.

Unsure if you own a piece of history? Ask around in your family, there could be boxes of family heirlooms or photo albums that haven’t been gone through in ages. Maybe you know you have something but are unsure if it is even worth anything-these items do possess value and should not be discarded as trash.  If you are planning to display your World’s Fair* memorabilia in your home, donate to a museum or put the item up for sale, a qualified appraiser can help to determine the worth of each piece.

Just a note: Be cautious when dealing with appraisers who show interest in purchasing your items directly.

*The 1893 World’s Fair is not the only fair that left behind valuable pieces of history. Numerous World expositions have taken place to celebrate the technological and cultural progress of man. Items such as tickets, pamphlets and programs may also possess a value and should be inspected by a qualified appraiser.