Judith Ellington of St. Simons Island, an accredited member of the International Society of Appraisers, is a valuation resource for Art & Antiques magazine. The publication invites readers to submit photographs and descriptions of art objects and antiques for valuation by their experts.

Ellington recently hit the jackpot when she estimated an heirloom painting the magazine asked her to value would bring between $110,000 and $150,000 if offered at auction. This is the highest amount to date for items submitted to the magazine's "Queries" feature.

Details of the submission, identification and valuation of the painting are featured in the just-released March issue of Art & Antiques on page 132.

The submission came from an 89-year-old woman in Pennsylvania. It contained a photograph and details of a painting that had been in her family for five generations. She believed it came from Germany and depicted a scene along the Rhine River. The artist's signature was difficult to read, she said, but as best as she could tell it was "Ridwray Kniaby."

When Ellington received this material, she was not familiar with the painting and could find nothing on the artist. She felt, however, that the painting looked too important to be dismissed, so set out again to identify it. Slowly she went through her reference book index of artists' names beginning with the letter K. Eventually she made her way down to 'Knight' and came across Daniel Ridgeway Knight (1839-1924), an American painter from Philadelphia. Ridgeway rang a bell as being suspiciously close to Ridwray.

An Internet search led to a gallery specializing in Knight's works and a positive identification was made.

Rather than a German locale, as the owner had thought, the scene was a French vista of the Seine, a favorite setting for the artist. Recent sales results for Knight put the estimated value for the painting at between $110,000 and $150,000 at auction, pending a personal inspection of the work.

Ellington hopes to meet with her when she travels to an appraisal conference in Pennsylvania this spring.

"It will be exciting to come face to face with the painting and the owner," she says.

Ellington owns and operates Ellington Appraisal Services and specializes in fine art appraisals for insurance coverage, equitable distribution, damage and loss claims, charitable donations, estate planning or merely to satisfy someone's curiosity.