Amazingly, this vintage piece was found flaking and filthy in the garbage! Then the dumpster diver who found the item, who obviously thought it wasn’t worth much, gave it to a restorer who made a inept attempt to do a “restoration.”  This consisted of an abundant application of wax to hold the painting together, and a wipe with solvent to remove the dirt.

The person who found the painting gave it to a collector who recognized that under the chaos of flaking paint, wax, and dirt, a vintage painting gleamed. Some research and closer examination revealed the title and date: “The Discussion” from 1929. This discovery encouraged the collector to contact FACL (8055 64 3438)  for a closer examination and professional conservation treatment.

Once the painting was cleaned, we discovered the famous illustrator Pruett Carter’s signature in the lower right corner. This finding added significant value to a piece that the original owner thought to be worthless. Once the conservation work is completed, the piece will look immaculate and will be, once again, a quality artwork.

FACL recommends you get an appraisal before you dispose of any works of art, because many pieces can be restored to have significant historical and monetary value. Flaking, dirty and thrown in the garbage, this trash turned out to be real treasure.

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Distinguishing a genuine work of art from a counterfeit wannabe stands at the foundation of every collector’s turmoil. “Fakes” are not always an effort to deceive.  However, most “fakes” are fraudulent. Here are a few different scenarios to consider as a collector:

• An artist’s estate can morally add an artist’s signature to a piece post mortem in an effort to identify the estate and the artist on artwork that was unsigned originally.
• An unscrupulous art dealer can add a fake signature to make the artwork more valuable.  Even the signature of an unknown name can make the artwork more valuable than an unsigned painting.
• A “new” painting can be antiqued to look old and more valuable.
• An old painting can be “doctored” so heavily to mask or disguise repairs that it changes the essence of the artwork and makes the artwork no longer “original.”
• Old artwork, now dirty, can be mistaken for something it is not.  This can be an honest mistake by a collector or dealer.

Here are two interesting examples that recently came into the lab:

1. An art gallery bought a print that they believed was an original but dingy landscape painting. The surface of the print was textured and somewhat masked by the layer of discolored dirt, which gave the appearance of paint.  However the image was a serigraph applied through a screening process, which is a printing type common since the 1920’s.
2. An old painting, clearly from the 1920’s, arrived in our lab for examination. The signature in the lower left hand corner was quickly identified as  blatantly fraudulent.  Unfortunately, this California landscape had cost the client $35,000! Furthermore, there was no recourse from returning it.

FACL offers expertise and analysis to assist in your evaluation processes as a collector. Also, we work closely with a specialized appraiser who is very talented and qualified.

This piece was printed in the 1920’s with a technique that results in paint texture  and was covered with grime.  An art dealer mistook this print as an original painting.

  Because of the fraudulent signature, an antique dealer lost $35,000.

For more interesting information and related stories, visit the following sites! You can also follow us on Facebook under Scott M. Haskins.

www.fineartconservationlb.blogspot.com

www.saveyourstuffblog.com

www.saveyourstuff.com/blog

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!

Ellen Lupton, the curator of contemporary design at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and the director of the master’s program in graphic design at the Maryland Institute College of Art recently posted a well written and humorous article in the opinion section of the NY Times about the angst of having inherited stuff from the past. It appears that her need to eliminate clutter trumps her archival gene… something I didn’t expect from a curator.

Here’s the article: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/how-to-lose-a-legacy/?ref=opinion

Of course, you know that there are always opposites in life, even extremes: throw the baby out with the bathwater is at the opposite end of the spectrum as not being able to throw anything away for fear. Some inner emotional balance is required in this discussion that, surprisingly, has a lot at stake.

Family history, handed down from generation to generation is documented in the items we have passed down: certificates, scrapbooks, ancestral photos, a family bible. These kinds of treasures are somewhat different than your mother’s wedding dress, your grandma’s espresso cups, your great uncle’s underwear… depending on your attachment to your past. But is it only your past? Consider the fact that you are the curator for the future. And like a curator you, are going to pick and choose, evaluate, interpret and establish the family value of items you received. These items are not yours. A certain number of important items will only be passing through you, like a time machine, to the future. You can’t buy an heirloom at Pottery Barn or Ikea. It comes… or goes… via gift, bequest or a heated sibling brawl.

Humans are hardwired with two needs: one, to gather things that document our lives and are important to us and the other, to protect what we gather. But some people are not born with the archival gene. I liked the way the author expressed this thought, “Antique stores are filled with failed heirlooms — that faded quilt or knotty pine commode that was abandoned by its owners, or worse, its owners’ children. Nicole Holofcener’s film “Please Give” revolves around an antique dealer (played by Catherine Keener) who acquires the possessions of recently deceased apartment dwellers and sells them for a profit in her hip urban furniture shop. While she frets about the morality of the postmortem markup, her pragmatic husband (Oliver Platt) sees what they’re doing as a service for middle-aged offspring who want to cut loose from old baggage (and some very ugly vases).”

Toss it or treasure it?

I know, very well, a very successful estate contents buyer in West Los Angeles that appraises and buys entire contents of home, usually post mortem. He is called in by an attorney or siblings to liquidate all the possessions in one fell swoop; done and gone in a blink of an eye. No hassles, no tears, cash on the barrelhead. He does several of these deals a week, carting out of the house even the “great uncle’s underwear” in addition to cutlery, furnishings, drapes, art… he leaves the place clean. How does he make his money (he drives a $350K Bentley)? A recent set of dishes he showed me tells the story: He bought the entire contents of the Beverly Hills home for $25,000. Just the set of china he was showing me was valued at $160,000. Imagine the rest of the “stuff.” He also takes advantage, often, of situations like the following story.

I got a call one day from a lady who had bought a poster at a yard sale from a family getting rid of the worst of grandma’s things. Upon arriving home with her new acquisitions, the neighbor friend told her, “Helen, this looks like a painting to me! No, Betty, that’s a poster… just look at the frame and glass! I just bought it in a garage sale! Really, Helen, I think it’s a painting. You should have it looked at.” So, the new owner called me.

A quick look under the stereobinocular microscope confirmed it was an original Norman Rockwell painting that she sold for $215,000 the week after I got through cleaning it for her.

Perhaps a good look is called for before you throw the baby out with the bathwater? Here are 3 tips of coaching for anyone sifting through piles of heirlooms, memorabilia, family history:

1. Distinguish between simply decorative and meaningful. Consult with others in the family about needs to get a more complete perspective.

2. Make copies of important, emotional, valuable, historical items for safe keeping and to spread the family history around to more than one person in the family.

3. Consult with an appraiser. Appraisers are often specialized in the types of objects they have knowledge about. Get a fine art appraiser for paintings… not an estate, garage sale appraiser.

You only get one shot at this curator gig. Once you’ve thrown it out, let the bugs have it, leave it on the driveway in a cardboard box when it rains… then a piece of your family history is gone… and perhaps, much more than that.

Full of certificates, children growing up, grandparents gone. This was entirely avoidable.

What can you do to take care of your stuff? Go to our “Product” page for FREE downloads NOW.

Appraisal questions? www.faclappraisals.com

For an entertaining 7 min. video story of an appraisal adventure go to http://www.faclappraisals.com/appraisal_video

Recently, my nephew got married to a really great girl. We are thrilled to have her in our family. Their story of how they met, how they romanced each other and how the proposal went was sooo cute and it was all illustrated in a scrapbook next to the sign-in book at the reception. Everyone got a kick out of looking through it. What a priceless piece of family history that was JUST created! I would be heart sick to know that because of moving or because of some other casual forgetfulness that this scrapbook of memories was to be lost…  So, here are some tips to protect, preserve and save these treasured memories:

Family History starts before this moment...

What do you have to do to make this photo archival?

1. Make a photocopy on a laser copier. If you do this on acid-free paper, it’ll be archival. Printing on your home computer is not archival!

2. and keep the copy in a separate location than where the first copy is kept.

3. Once copied, put the copied pages into plastic page protectors and place in a favorite binder.

Actually, I add, if you are making one copy why not two? Send one to Illinois besides the original and a copy in California. Earthquakes, house fires, hurricanes, floods can happen and do. My Mom threw out boxes of wet irreplaceable photos and letters because they got wet when a water heater broke. What a disaster! I could have saved them… I even wrote a book about it!

For a copy of “How To Save Your Stuff From A Disaster” click now, on http://www.saveyourstuffblog.com/productssupplies/

Damage due to handling, storage, heat and humidity

I’ve written before about what it does to a panting to roll it up. But, just to reinforce the issue, here’s another example. But, for the first time, let me make some interesting points:

1. This painting and the others I’ve shown you on this blog, were rolled up on a small cardboard tube (1 1/2″)

2. You can avoid a lot of damage if you use a large tube (Sono Tube from a building contractor- 8″)

3. Wrap the painting around the tube as tight as possible, face out.

4. Protect the outside, exposed, paint with wrapping paper, or even better, another tube bigger than the first.

Avoid high heat, high humidity, crushing… pack it right the first time… my experience is that you’ll forget about it later and it will be rolled up for a long time.

Here’s a question for you: Can this type of damage be included in an insurance claim? Here are a few points that will influence the answer to this question:

1. Do you have a picture of it before the damage? The insurance company doesn’t want to pay for pre-exisitng conditions.

2. What value is there in the artwork? If there is high value, then an insurance rider may be required.

3. What are the conservation-restoration costs/estimates?

4. Is the damage associated with a disaster? Supplemental insurance may be required for earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and water damage.

Download the book, How To Save Your Stuff From A Disaster, NOW, from the products page for other great tips, coaching and examples.

Damaged by being rolled up.

We’ve mentioned before what happens when paintings are rolled up. What happens is not at all like Hollywood shows (…like stealing the Rembrandt in Entrapment with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones). We’ve seem other paintings come into our care that were also rolled up and smuggled out in desperate times (see post on Russian Portraits). This painting has light flaking and has been lucky that more original paint hasn’t been lost. But some paintings react violently to being rolled up (see previous post). But the cracking patterns on this painting are very dissfiguring and unstable. Unless something is done, more paint will be lost with very little abuse.

I love working on these types of projects… rich in history and beautiful in quality to think about. There is something in this example for everyone to learn: take care of your stuff!

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No writing on it... or was there?

With infrared technology you can sometimes read old obscured writing… and we happen to have two types of infrared reflectometers. Under the lights and with the aid of the infrared we were able to see that it was an exhibition label from the World’s Fair of 1861. It clearly read, “Richmond, Yorkshire England, James Peale, 1858″

Very cool! An old crusty label had given up its secret obscured information that has meant everything to the history and value of this wonderful painting. Because of this label, the value went up considerably.

And therein lies the lesson to be learned, especially on old paintings: Protect old labels and the historical information they contain. Here’s an example of what we do to protect old labels:

Valuable info from the past can increase the value of the artwork

This label has been deacidified to neutralize the acids and stop deterioration and encapsulated to protect it against handling. You can provide protection to your labels by covering them over with a sandwich baggie (stable, archival plastic) but remember, never staple, tape  or glue anything directly on the original label or on any historical info written on the artwork. In addition, you’ll notice on the back of the painting/frame, new mounting hardware (no nails hammered through paintings!), new wire (coated with plastic to retard rust) and Foamcor to keep out dust and provide protection against poor handing and storage.

There are some lessons to be learned in this post… some of which will really be of benefit.

There are many other tips and info available in the book, How To Save Your Stuff so go to the Products tab on the top of the page and download a copy now.

Scott,

Another question… for items I want to keep in a transparent enclosure (so they don’t have to be handled directly to view), there seem to be so many choices. I’m thinking the polyester or polyethylene envelopes might be the best because they’re closed on 3 sides (less chance of something falling out) and seem sturdier than the poly bags. But they’re also way more expensive than the polyethylene bags. Please help!

Kathie

Hatfield Historical Museum

http://hatfieldhistory.weebly.com

In the illustration: Acid stains from contact with cardboard

Scott, Hi.

My answers to Kathie are in bold…

I’ve another question. I’m still trying to get a handle on the most effective (but also economical) way to store paper items archivally.

1. Is it OK, for instance, to put paper items in archival manila folders and/or archival poly pages (all acid and lignin-free), but then put those folders and pages in nonarchival hanging files from a regular office supply store?  (I’m hoping so because the archival hanging files are expensive!) Yes, once an item is enclosed, or isolated, away from “regular” or acidic materials in an impermeable material (for instance, acids from paper don’t migrate through the plastic page protectors like they do through a regular paper envelope) then they can be stored in regular office files.

2. I could really use a short primer on acid and lignin and how they travel. Acids in paper cause yellowing and embrittlement. The acids are a byproduct of the breakdown of impurities and unstable products in the paper. One of those unstable products is lignin, which is added for the mass production process. I have a 300 year old piece of paper from Italy that is as clean and strong as the day it was made… its in much different condition than the 75 year old paper from the 1930’s I have which is brittle, loosing pieces around the edge, yellowed badly etc.

Once acids are present in paper, then they can contaminate any cellulose material (paper or cloth) and cause it to deteriorate, discolor etc… unless the item has an alkaline reserve! An alkaline reserve in paper is called a “buffer” and it is there to neutralize the acids should the paper be exposed.

Now, here is where maybe I’m getting into the “more than you want to know” category but I think its interesting: some materials can’t, by their nature, be acidic. So, technically, its impossible for plastic and glass to contain acids. If you see plastic advertized as acid free either they are just using buzz words that they don’t understand or they are idiots.

3. Also, for instance, if I move a paper item from a non-archival environment into an archival enclosure, will it stop further acidification? No, cause the acids are created from within the paper, not from without. Once the paper is contaminated, then putting it into an archival folder may isolate it from further contact with other acidic materials but it will still be falling apart from the acids within.

4. And if I move several items (say, 3 ads from the same old brochure) into one archival enclosure, do they all still degrade each other, in which case they should each be in a separate envelope/folder or bag? Yes, see answer to 2 and 3

Questions submitted by:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B4N9yyhbKY

Contact www.faclappraisals.com for more info to help you and a valuation to protect you. Other than settling a divorce, appraisals are needed for probate, insurance coverage, donations and to know the right price to sell.

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