If someone offered to pay their bill to you with this painting, would you accept? Of course you would if you're a crazy, art-loving dealer! Let me explain the situation with a joke: "There are two antique dealers on a deserted island. Business is great." Never gets old because it's so true.

You see, I had sold something to another dealer and he paid me with this painting. When I got it, it was barely hanging on to it's replaced stretcher. It had a super dry surface. It was in serious need of restoration. It was unsigned. It had no original frame to aid in its attribution. It was a mess and a mystery. And I loved it! I jumped at the chance to go back to the barter system. I thought of famous artists who paid their tabs with paintings, drawings, scribbles on napkins. As I saw it I was way ahead of the game. Then came the restoration. With a light touch, my restorer edge lined the painting and built a new stretcher. Now with a fresh coat of varnish, the painting was ready to hang. No longer a mess, but still a mystery. Have you Googled "Dutch+still+life+painting" lately? I have. And let me tell you, they all look alike. I know I'm not supposed to say this, but my eye is not honed to see those subtle differences. Yet. Is this 19th Century? 18th Century? Did I totally luck out and buy, um trade, a 17th Century Dutch still life painting? The short answer is I don't know. But the clues are there. The outdoor setting. The combination of grapes and flowers. The little lizards walking around. The urn itself. Even the types of flowers. It's all there. And for now it's all gonna stay there. Or more to the point, in my hallway. As another work in my favorite unsigned mystery collection category, I'll continue to Google the keywords until I get them just right. It will be then when the artist, their style, their technique becomes so blindingly obvious that I'll wonder how I didn't see it years earlier. ;-) hkv