Let's play Antiques Roadshow!

I remember David Levine. Back around the time I started taking drawing classes, I copied some of his caricatures with a nibbed ink pen...
Nixon, and Agnew, specifically.
No, I have no idea what the reproductions would be worth, but I like this as a thread concept, PoM.

Thanks for starting this thread, plainoldme!

I have a hand-colored copper plate engraving from circa 1650-1750. The print is 5 inches by 6 inches and illustrates the planetary system theories of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Tycho Brahe.

I sent a copy of the illustration to curators at the Adler Planetarium here in Chicago. The curators were unable to determine which book the illustration comes from. (There is no text in the print, other than XXIV which is probably the figure number.)

Re: Let's play Antiques Roadshow!


Given the excellent condition they are in, due to you great care in storing them in climate controlled conditions for the past 43 years, I'd estimate their value at $1.

ossobucco -- You know, there are so many knowledgeable folks here, that we might end up with an answer. Besides, all of us have things we want to know more about, esp their monetary value!

Yeah, I love David Levine and he is still alive and kicking at 81. You can go to the New York Review of Books website and be shown his work, year by year. I loved the quality of his line and wit of his drawings. They still make me chuckle.

wandeljw -- It sounds like something that would have been more valuable in the book than as a print. That's what they're always saying on the Roadshow. However, I bet at the right auction, you could make enough for a vacation.

cjhsa -- This is a first! I read your post and laughed out loud! Seriously, I bet playing by Roadshow rules, that the packet is worth a couple of hundred bucks. I resisted the urge to have a few framed because I figure they must be worth more as a packet. And, they are in good shape.

OK, I'll play.

I have a Fireball XL5 lunchbox used by my brother in the 1960's.

Probably used only 1 year, as we got a new lunch box every school year.

In the 70"s I once bought a whole lunch box full of weed. The lunchbox was a Fred Flinstone with the thermos taken out. I had to paybout 250 bucks for the box. So, with your unknown characters Chai, I suspect that its about 50 bucks

I have a 32"X44" painting of one of the "radiant baby" series by Keith Hering. I have no idea why I bought it. Maybe I was sampling my "lunch box". It seemed like a neat idea at the time and Hering was still alive and his stuff wasnt catching on and someone had bought it at an art sale in NJ and I got it from them. I betcha its worth a buck or two.

Col. Steve Zodiac would have kicked Fred Flintstones ass.


but you're right about the value...around $65.

Col, "Steve" is a cross dresser.

I have a shed full of old metal advertising signs. Big ones. The kind that you would see on roadsides. I have quite a few Hires Root Beer, some Double Cola, Winston cigarettes, and some with a more local flavor. Probably a couple thousands dollars worth of signs. I used to have them hung up in my basement, but I took them down when I did some remodeling and have never hung them up again. They are behind a piece of plywood and maybe I will die in a fiery accident at some point today and my property will be put up for sale and some young couple from the city will buy the property because it is such a beautiful piece of land and has such quaint buildings.

One day they will be rummaging around in the shed and Julie (I believe that will be her name) will pull back the plywood, dust away the cobwebs and gasp. She will yell, "Henry! (That will probably be his name) Come quickly! I have found some old metal signs!"

Henry will pick up the Hires Root Beer sign, the oval one with small traces of rust on the edges, and say, "You know, Julie, these old signs would look fantastic hanging up in the basement. What do you think?"

And the cycle will have been completed. And while they are hanging the signs worms will be busily chewing on my eyes.

I really love old signs.



Sigh.

Lunch boxes seem to appreciate rather than any unsigned, commercial lithograph paper reproductions because a pretty sizable number of collectors have established a market for something that most people discarded and thus established a scarcity. Same thing goes for comic books as collectors and retail stores have established a market. I have a feeling everyone who got those prints likely kept them and have never thought of an after market. They aren't antiques -- something has to be one-hundred years or older to be an antique.

In the realm of collectible cars, it's because some people were wise enough to keep an automobile running and either restored or, even more rare and therefore worth more, kept them in original condition.

It's nearly impossible to establish the worth of what you have -- an auction house on a slim chance might give you an appraisal but if you're not near one, that's a problem. Listing them on E Bay at a premium price might give you a clue -- it's probably spitting in the ocean to look for them in a listing.

I still have old copies of Astounding Science Fiction, Galaxy magazine and other sci-fi magazines from 1954-59, but I've never found a market other than a used and rare book and magazine store in Hollywood. They would actually pay a pretty good price. I could probably look on E Bay and find something like that listed for sale. I might just donate them to the AckerMansion, Forrest J. Ackerman's home near Griffith Observatory where he maintains a sci-fi museum he intends on donating when he passes away (which reminds me, I keep telling him I'm coming to visit and never make the time to do so -- besides, I really don't like LA).

That's where I would explore to get an idea of how much would be offered for those prints, considering that they will virtually double what price they will pay. It's possible a rare print store would also make an offer, but I'm doubting that they'd even consider them.

Does Col Steve Zodiac look like a cross dresser to you?



I'm waiting for your apology...

do you have one of Col Steve in his taffeta tutu?

That Haring is worth a lot of money -- I sold Harings in tthe late 80's and one of them 90's, a black-and-white original about that size for $ 40,000.00.

(yayyyyyy)

Farmerman is making plans to buy a new Jaguar. :wink:

He deserves it. Bet it's not a jag he picks...