前一周去旧货店捡漏时，看到店里面贴出广告，指示8月24日和25日全场五折。这对于我这个热衷淘宝的人来说，绝对是大好消息。颇有些遗憾的是，这个时间不是周末！
起拍价：$698
在8月25日，周五，下班之后，笔者赶往旧货店！要知道，这是周五，又是下班时间，堵车自然很正常。但淘宝心切，笔者自然顾不上了！看来老天也不负有心人，不到一个小时(平时25分钟)，笔者就赶到了，比笔者想象的要好！
看来，降价还真是绝招！旧货店里人流让笔者吃惊，好多货架似乎有一种搬空的感受。笔者直奔自己的重点，瓷器基本没有想要的，那就往油画走。架子很空，心里有些发凉，看来这次来晚了，不要有多大希望。
然而，架子尽管很空，但上面还是有一副画吸引了我。仔细看了一眼之后，瞄了一眼价格，很自然就将它放在购物车里！从经验看，笔者一般要花上半个小时了解油画本身，但是这幅油画很讨笔者喜欢，根本就没有查看了。也许，您想要问，那为何如此快速下决心买呢？
关键就是这副油画的画框，特别罕见，而且保护相当好。从笔者的感受看，这个画框的市场价格应该在四位数。看看标价，想想折扣，笔者自然觉得划算。至于这副画为何没有脱销，笔者估计是由于其价格所致，估计是标价最高的！
笔者回家之后，将其简单整理，挂上，拍两张照片与网友分享，大家都觉得这副画构思很特别。在这个时候，笔者才开始上网搜索画家的相关信息，真出乎笔者意外，这可是英国的名画家Frederick Morgan，他出生在1847年还是1856年，待考究，但卒于1927年，以田园般的童年生活场面而闻名。
网友开玩笑说，“很像原作哦！”我只能笑笑，“要是原作的话，我可发财了，价值在20万英镑以上哦！”当然，我还真没有将它当作原作买，因为概率太低。但是这副画应该还是很有来历的。待我有时间再认真探寻吧！
下面是关于画家的介绍，您可以感受到其价值所在！
Morgan was born in London. He was commonly known as Fred Morgan and was the son of John Morgan, a successful genre artist sometimes known as ‘Jury Morgan’ (after one of his paintings The Gentlemen of the Jury). At the age of fourteen he was taken out of school by his father who then tutored him in art. At the age of 16, while still studying with his father, his first picture, The Rehearsal, was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and, after a hiatus of several years, his paintings were shown there regularly. For a while he worked as a portrait artist for an Aylesbury photographer, – this training proved to be crucial as it “taught him how to observe closely and to give the greatest attention to detail.”
Eventually he turned to other subjects for his art, in particular idyllic genre scenes of country life and childhood. For many years, starting in 1874, Thomas Agnew & Sons’ purchased all the work he produced. Over this period he painted some of his most popular works such as The Doll’s Tea Party (1874), Emigrants’ Departure (1875) and School Belles (1877). Most of his painting was done in the village of Shere close to Guildford, a well-known retreat for artists. He also painted in Normandy, including Midday Rest (1879) and An Apple Gathering (1880).
Although an excellent portrait artist, Morgan had problems in depicting pets and barnyard animals – he enlisted the aid of either Arthur John Elsley or Allen Sealey (1850–1927) when such problems needed resolving.
He is known mostly for his romantic and sentimental paintings of children in the same style as his contemporary Arthur John Elsley. His paintings achieved great popularity in his lifetime and were widely published. He exhibited with the Royal Academy and was a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI).
In 1872 he married another painter, Alice Mary Havers (1850–1890); they had three children. Their eldest son, known as Val Havers, also developed into a painter. Frederick Morgan married twice more, producing two children from the second marriage.
Morgan’s paintings are exhibited at many art galleries and museums including the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and the Russell-Cotes Museum in Bournemouth. His Turn Next, was used to advertise Pears’ Soap and is in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight.
