One of my services I provide for clients is to appraise their antiques and home furnishings – regardless of whether they are antique or not.

Many people are at a point in their life where they wish to downsize, or they are moving, or they are an executor for a person’s estate. They need to know what has value so that they can make a learned decision about what to do with their possessions.

A couple of weeks ago I did an appraisal for an executor. The family was originally from the USA where the great-grandfather had been a state senator. There were some beautiful items but what they seemed to have the most of was paintings.

I started doing research based on the signatures. Some were readable, some were not but even worst, some had no signatures at all. These were quite old and of good quality but the signature was nowhere to be seen.

It’s possible that the signature was underneath the layers of framing, paper and mat board, however I was not about to pull apart the pictures to check. Some of the pieces were from the last 25 years as the parents were also art collectors. Remember this: Some day someone may want to know who created a work of art. Unless your style is very distinctive no one will ever know it was you. Use a smaller brush if you feel your signature is too big on a small painting.

EITHER WAY – JUST SIGN YOUR WORK! Art and Antique dealers will thank you for doing so!