Detail -- The J. Walter Scammell by Eduard Adam (1847-1929)

Owner: Well, it’s our great, great grandfather was the captain of this ship, among other ships. The J. Walter Scammell was built in Portland, Saint John, (New Brunswick) here and owned by the Scammell brothers and a Jewett. Different shares. And, he mostly sailed for them out of New York over to France, and all kinds of parts...

Bill Brayley: And, when they sailed overseas, they would make appointments with artists who specialized in ship portrait paintings. We have William Yorke in Liverpool, England, who’s well known, Bruloot from Belgium and, of course, Eduard Adam, from Havre who obviously painted this portrait of the J. Walter Scammell. It’s very nicely painted in good condition. It has two little tears here and there, which isn’t a particularly bad thing because it means that the painting is in its original condition. It would possibly sell, I would think, in the range $9,000 to $12,000.

Well, that allows us to move very quickly to this second item, the sailors' valentine. For a long time it was thought that the sailors made these shell works as valentines. But in fact, that wasn’t the case. Most of these were made in Barbados by natives and they’re called sailors' valentines because they were mostly brought back as gifts for wives, girlfriends, mothers and that’s why, if we look here on this panel, we have this heart-shape and then we have the compass rose which is a sailors' maritime motif. This is in such tremendous condition, the woodwork’s in good condition, the shells are intact and do you have any idea of what its value is, or have you ever had it appraised before?

Owner: No.

Bill Brayley: Well, these have grown in popularity in recent years and this type of valentine in this type of condition, I think if it came on the market, would probably sell, you know, maybe $4000 to $6000 and its date would be around 1880, which is consistent with when the ship was painted.

Owner: Yes, he got married in 1879, so it might have been her first valentine as his wife.

Bill Brayley: Yes, exactly, or maybe a gift leading up to them being married.

Owner: Yes, it could have been.

Adam Painting and Sailors' Valentine $13000 - $18000

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