Seems like you need a auction house to evaluate this collection and determine if sold at a good art auction, what is their fee and estimate. It would need to be the right auction venue to be most productive.

Call John McInnis Auctions in Amesbury, MA 978-388-0400. John is well versed in Massachusetts artists and should be able to give you an accurate appraisal.

Assume you have contacted:

I am on Cape Cod, and have had great luck with Eldred's Auction House. There are in-house appraisers. I don't know anything about this business, but it gets good reviews. Start there and see what the appraiser(s) have to say about value.

Cape Ann Auction House is on Main Street in Gloucester.

As an aside, there was (is?) an artist, a member of the Rockport Art Assoc. He did portraits of local famous athletes, name Joseph Santoro. Luckily, my husband was one of the athletes and we have his portrait hanging in the family room. Fast forward many years, and I am doing development work for my husband's high school. Every year I had an auction. Mr Santoro always donated one of his paintings, which generated the highest bid of the evening. I wish you the same luck with your special pieces.

I contacted both McInnes and Eldred's Auctions. Eldred's did respond. I sent them photos of the items by email and their representative said they would show them to their appraiser. Now the ball is in their court.

The two museums I contacted were the Rockport Art Assoc. and the Cape Ann Museum.

McInnes still hasn't responded.

This is the reply from Eldreds:

Good morning,

Thank you very much for checking back in. Unfortunately these pieces aren’t anything we could handle in our current market. We typically take pieces at a minimum of $200, so these pieces would be less than this.

Apologies we could not be of more help with these pieces, but please feel free to show us anything else you may come across in the future.

Best regards,

Angela R. McParland

Executive Assistant

Here is a very similar response from the Massachusetts Art Accociation:

Hi Debbie,

Thank you for the email. Unfortunately we aren't able to help you with this request. We don't have experience valuing works of art. There may someone based in Framingham who might be able to help you with valuing and eventually selling them.

Best of luck with this process.

Melissa Mastrolia

MAEA President

Since you mention you were the estate administrator apparently the estate is finished. I have a couple of suggestions to simply get rid of what you do not want. Find a small gallery or even a restaurant that will accept the better ones. Here there are several restaurants and coffee shops that hang art that is for sale on their walls. I have not asked but some probably take a commission for doing this. I have seen two types of cards below the pictures. One just has artist name and selling price. The second has the artist name and selling price along with a telephone number sometimes with name of contact or not. The ones that are not of this quality donate to a charity.

While just sketches I think those blue and white ones should be part of the sale items especially if tucked into some type of inexpensive frame.