# Garage sale painting could be worth $ **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 5, 2002, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-painting-could-be-worth/127138 "2002-09-05T15:12:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-painting-could-be-worth/127138/1 "2002-09-05T15:12:03Z")
My mom and her arsty friends buy 99 % of their frames at garage sales. All of the time the frames are a part of atrocious garage sale art. The canvases are always painted over with their own art work. Not this one. A lovely frame surrounds a dark, moody, well done stormy sea landscape in oils. ( no picture available, sorry.) It is truly a well done picture. On the bottom is a signature of Walter Foster, who is well known in the art community for his how-to draw art books. Several websights are devoted to his how to books. I cannot find anything of his particular art work, though. Does any one have any ideas of how I can get more info or appraisal on it? ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-painting-could-be-worth/127138/2 "2002-09-05T20:58:54Z")
My first thought is to check with the art auction records. If you have a good-sized museum or university art library nearby, you can go there and ask to see what they have – these used to be published in books but may now be available through an online service that the museum/library subscribes to. Failing that, there are to-the-public services such as [artnet.com](http://www.artnet.com) and [artprice.com](http://www.artprice.com) that also have auction records, but you’ll have to pay for those yourself. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2002, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-painting-could-be-worth/127138/3 "2002-09-05T23:31:32Z")
Try [ebay.com](http://ebay.com) put his name in & search. Is it anything like this one?: [http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=901124395](http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=901124395) WALTER FOSTER OIL, THE RIVER LOWTHER NR ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-painting-could-be-worth/127138/4 "2002-09-06T01:57:50Z")
To add to Earthling’s comment, yeah, there’s an electronic database of auction/sale records called SCIPIO, although I’ve never used it and don’t know whether it only covers high profile auction houses like Christies/ Sothebies. Your local university art library should have access to it. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-painting-could-be-worth/127138/5 "2002-09-06T02:22:52Z")
Thanks! Every little bit helps. If we end up on “Antiques Roadshow” I wave a hello for you! ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2002, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garage-sale-painting-could-be-worth/127138/6 "2002-09-06T16:24:44Z")
The thing is, there is more than one artist with that name.