Dear Benny Enilov,

Thank you for contacting Mearto with your appraisal inquiry.

The appraised item appears to be by the Dutch Artist Adriaen Jansz van Ostade (1610-1685). This is an oil on board depicting a figural scene on a market day. The sight size is 8 x 7 inches.

Ostade was the contemporary of David Teniers the Younger and Adriaen Brouwer. Like these two artists, he spent his career depicting homeliest subjects such as tavern scenes, village fairs and country quarters.

On the back of your work appears to be a stencil, which could well be from Christie’s. There are also some small interesting elements such as chalk marks indicating that it may have been exhibited or accepted to exhibitions. I am mentioning all of that because for a painting by such an artist, authentication can increase tremendously the value of your work.

So the estimate that I am providing with what you know so far about this painting is based on comparables offered and sold at auction in the last five years and is provided on the condition of authenticity, which may need to be confirmed with additional research. For more information, please visit www.mearto.com/authenticate.

The subject work’s size, the composition, the condition as well as the artists’ current auction market were taken into consideration when determining the estimate.

For your information, an authenticated work similar to yours in terms of quality with a full provenance history has been sold last year by one of the major auction houses in New York for the price of $420,000. So authentication is key for this painting.

Best regards,

Karine