GUEST: Well, it's a, uh, Lichtenstein print that I received from my grandparents a long time ago.

And I believe that it's titled Shipboard Girl.

My grandparents were living in D.C.

at the time.

They had a large condo.

They were at the age where they needed to downsize a lot.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: So they actually rented a second apartment, filled it with all the things that they were giving away.

This was in a poster tube, and actually this one wasn't noticed in the poster tube.

There was a, a different poster that I was more attracted to, and they said that I could take it away, and that's how it ended up in my possession.

APPRAISER: You're absolutely right.

Roy Lichtenstein's Shipboard Girl... Shipboard Girl.

...from 1965.

So this is really the beginning of Pop Art.

GUEST: Mm.

APPRAISER: And in 1965, Roy Lichtenstein was represented by the Leo Castelli Gallery, which really, uh... was the pioneering gallery in New York for these pop artists; Lichtenstein and Warhol.

GUEST: Hm.

APPRAISER: Part of the Pop ethos was to embrace commercial printmaking.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: So this poster is an offset lithograph, which is like photomechanical printmaking.

It's done in sort of industrial strength colors in a commercial kind of press.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And there's a couple of things about this print that really stand out, which make it very exciting.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: First of all are the colors.

GUEST: Mm.

APPRAISER: And they're really spectacular, so fresh.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: It seems to me that it never came out of the tube.

It's quite possible it was brought home from a gallery... (both laugh) GUEST: (laughing): I think so, yeah.

APPRAISER: And hasn't seen daylight for 60 years.

The other curious thing about your print how it's signed.

GUEST: Yes, I've always wondered about that.

APPRAISER: Yes.

GUEST: Yeah.

(both laugh) APPRAISER: So, it bears the pencil signature, upper left, of Roy Lichtenstein.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And it's upside down.

And this is typically signed lower right.

GUEST: Mm.

APPRAISER: And you can see that he signed it lower right at the time... GUEST: (laughing): Right.

APPRAISER: ...but its orientation was the wrong way... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...so he ended up signing it upside down.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: This is a well-documented print.

It's in his catalogue raisonné.

It's in many museum collections.

GUEST: Mm.

APPRAISER: But we-- no one really knows exactly how many were printed.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: They were never numbered.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: But the... the signature is absolutely right.

And we actually did find some other examples of this print... GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: ...with the signature this way.

GUEST: Oh, well, that's encouraging.

(chuckles) APPRAISER: So, in the moment of giving it to somebody, a stack of p-prints being signed by the artist, some got turned around... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...and were signed the wrong way.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: Which makes it a curiosity.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Do you have any sense of the value?

GUEST: I had, uh, looked it up a long time ago, and I've seen a wide range of numbers for it.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: I think the high range was around $20,000 to $30,000 that I had seen at that time... APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: ...but the low is around $5,000, so I've never really known.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

Right.

Well, there is a wide range of values for these.

Uh, often that's dictated by the condition.

Sometimes they're quite faded.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Your colors are as good as you would expect.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Because it's signed in this peculiar fashion, though we do have to consider that into the valuation.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: So I would estimate this at auction at $20,000 to $30,000.

GUEST: Oh, great.

Well, that's wonderful.

Yeah, I love seeing it out.

The colors are amazing.

APPRAISER: If this had been signed the right way, it would be conservatively $30,000 to $50,000.

GUEST: Okay.