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How much $ is my Endico
watercolor worth?
Mary never speculates on the current value of her
earlier works.
For an original
purchaser of record (where records exist) Mary will always provide a written receipt on
letterhead stating the price paid at time of purchase. This may
be useful for tax or insurance purposes, or for general interest. Use the
Quick Query Form
to request such confirmation, but read the rest of this page first or you
are likely to be ignored.
If looking merely to
authenticate an acquired Endico see the
example
signatures.
If you wish Mary to
personally authenticate a piece for you, she will still do so free of
charge for purchasers of record (sales with contact information that are
found on her database), otherwise her fee for authentication is $1,000.00
per piece payable in advance.
Mary has no interest in her
past works because she is busy painting new watercolors, so she
automatically appraises all her past work at zero dollars if asked.
As of 10/15/2015 Mary has
experienced a rash of Internet and phone call queries wherein people have
posed as one of her collectors, or an art lover in general who has found
one of her paintings at such as a yard sale, but in fact they were just
doing research in an attempt to sell one of Mary's earlier pieces online
... which experience has shown they always fail to do.
Therefore the current policy
is $1,000.00 per piece for all but registered buyers who are already found
on her database.
As for appraisals for insurance
purposes, insurance companies will
require an outside appraisal in any case, and as stated we know of
no secondary market for Endico paintings.
Just as in the painting of
an Endico original watercolor, the sale of one also can be accomplished
only by Mary's hand alone (as far as we know).
Plus insurance
companies only insure for "replacement value" which is a term that has no
meaning for Endico watercolors because each is a hand made original.
We have ourselves never insured any of Mary's work.
Anybody finding an Endico
painting in the wild has not struck gold.
Mary's paintings are like family photos …
of great personal value to those who own them, irreplaceable if lost or
destroyed, but not a fungible monetary unit to be used for investment and
trade.
Also, be aware that Mary does NOT buy back
for resale her older pieces under any circumstances, except as
outlined in her generous
LIMITED RETURNS POLICY. Mary can
reproduce (similar and better) any of her
earlier works, so if she wants one she will paint it.
In summary we are saying
that Mary will not waste her time helping you setup an eBay startup shop
pretending you have something to sell.
Mary sells only her skill
and her hand painted watercolors which cannot be reproduced digitally.
If you are a purchaser of
record, she is glad to authenticate, scan, and assign a tracking number
for the online database free of charge, but for all others it is $1,000.00
in advance for the service.
Although feedback through
Mary's website remains sparse, a recent e-mail (dated 05/09/05) states
the following, which expresses sentiments often expressed by
collectors coming into the studio:
Hi Mary,
I wake up each morning to two Endico's in my bedroom. I have two in my
hallway in the front of the house and another in another bedroom. I
wouldn't part with them no matter how much they were worth. We purchased
the first one back in the early 80's because we fell in love with it and
just kept coming back for more. You re-matted our first one right before
we moved to Florida back in 2000. I'm glad we received your latest
postcard so we could visit your nice website.
Regards,
Carolyn
Kissimmee, FL
On the other hand, "How much money is my
Endico watercolor worth," is a question that was never asked
except online through Mary's website for many years, so
extra effort is taken here to
explain.
[Actually, one phone call
was received 04/21/06, long after this page was written, and that person
mentioned they had already seen this website, so it must be stated here
again: all pricing information regarding older work is available through this
website. Please do not phone Mary about such things as current value of
discontinued 25 year old hand colored animal prints bought for $4.95 in
1982. Mary does not buy back her own work from people who have lost sight
of why they purchased it in the first place. She is very busy producing
current work and providing the best possible service for current
collectors. ]
On rare occasion an older
Endico watercolor is found, or a collector has lost track of what their
painting is valued at, and a question is sent to Mary requesting assessment of the current value of a given piece.
Mary does not conduct
appraisals of her earlier works, as the art market is too volatile for her to make
realistic judgments about pieces other than her most current work. She has
always cautioned people that art is not a rational investment like
government bonds, or real estate, even if ignoring the fact that the value of those
investments have often revealed their own vulnerabilities and may be subject to their own wild fluctuation. Endico collectors
universally understand this. They buy Mary's watercolors for their intrinsic value, which goes well beyond mere dollars and cents.
In judging her current work
Mary uses a range of criteria that particularizes a specific piece
by placing it within the context of her full body of work, by comparing
the piece's success relative to her current
level of achievement, by evaluating the level of difficulty required to
produce it, and by knowing what her collectors are hoping
to find — and are willing to pay for — among other criteria.
Older pieces may or may not
fit her current criteria of excellence, because she is always improving. The
newest pieces are almost certainly
viewed as the best. Any competent art
appraiser can help decide what a piece is worth and will be able to
explain why it is deemed of value.
Be sure to ask about "provenance"
as that is a word which should scare even the most rational of investors and will put
the rest of the appraisal process in stark perspective — especially where
the word has been expanded to mean, "Formerly owned by a famous person,
and therefore now more valuable than ever."
Don't forget, for the original
purchaser of record (where records exist) Mary will always provide a written receipt on
letterhead stating the price paid at time of purchase. This may
be useful for tax or insurance purposes, or for general interest. Use the
Quick Query Form
to request such confirmation.
Otherwise, the
searchable online
database provides prices of currently available pieces plus a
provenance confirmation of
already
purchased paintings, and the
studio is always interested in receiving images to combine with the local
(unpublished) text records in order to bring more images online.
Records
extend back to at least 1983 in digital form, while paper records may be
found back to 1976. Of course there are works of much earlier vintage that
pre-date all formal records.
For more information about
the database and how to
submit photos see:
About the database.
this page last updated:
03/05/2020 09:37:38 PM |
