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Roboframer wrote:
"Finger lift tape" Is a double sided tape which has the release paper fractionally wider than the adhesive to ease separation from it.
Thanks John. You are a wealth of knowledge!
So this finger lift tape puzzles me. Don't you guys use an ATG gun to apply ATG tape?
PS. I also use some PVA glue along with the ATG tape so it will stay put.
These guys are just trying to slip us a green wiener – there ain’t no such words as grockle, cromulent, or even flumb, for that matter. They’re toying with us!
Sure, they invented English. But, there are rules which we all must adhere to … with … which …
Now, take a perfectly good word like “wreltney” – that’s something we can all wrap our brains around.
John,
Sure, our fish have three eyes, but Litchfield is miles away from Springfield. And, at twilight, our trees do have a nifty green glow to them - makes reading at night a snap.
Don't take life so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent! – Porky Pine
It was about 15 years ago when I used to deal alot in L/E prints and aviation stuff in particular. Guy rings up, "I have some Robert Taylors for sale. Are you interested?". Some of the editions he mentioned where rare as hens teeth and had big sec market value. One he had was changing hands at the time for about £900. Ok, says I and offered him £400 for the 'good' one, but stressed that I must inspect it first. Oh, it's in mint condition says he.....
About 10 mins later he's in the shop with said pic wrapped up in a blanket.
The print was framed in the thinnest silver ally wrap, blue mounts (not acid free). All the edges of the print were trimmed and the print was dry-mounted onto the (hardboard) back. It wasn't even properly dry-mounted
and was lifting off the board in places. Whats more, I didn't even have to reach for the pliers to dissassemble the frame. It almost fell apart on it own. I asked the guy who framed it. I forget who actually did the deed but apparently he did them for £30 each. "How many have you got", I asked. "About 40" I think he said. "I have them all stored in my mother-in-law's attic". I then had to gently impart the fact that to a collector, the prints were basically worthless. Now I never went a far as finding out the other titles he had, but if you take a conservative guess that they would average about £300 each in perfect condition, the the whole lot could have fetched £12000. But it could have been double that. At the time I think I was framing this type of print for about £65-75, using proper techniques and materials. So his mate the framer had saved him maybe £1500. He also robbed him of about 10X that figure.
Speaking of Robert Taylor prints, one of his earlier works was a spitfire/me109 duel. Not a very good print compared with later work, but this one was co-signed by Douglas Bader and Adolf Galland. These days these prints are very desirable to collectors. When it was firat published I think they were very cheap. Sort of thing that gets knocked out at air shows. I doubt nowadays that there are any 'mint' copies in existance. The one ones I every saw were in appalling frames. One even had big brushmarks showing though where it had beed stuck to hardboard with some species of wallpaper paste. And to make matters worse, that actuall sigs were done with ink which fades to nothing if you expose them to light.
I have a customer who is an avid collector of aviation prints. He has, so far, over 65 prints, the majority of them Taylors.
Two of them stick in my mind. One of them was signed by the whole crew of the “Enola Gay”, the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima; the other (it is here now but not a Taylor) is of “The Ruptured Duck”, the first plane to bomb Tokyo - essentially a suicide mission. It is signed by the captain, copilot, and General Jimmy Doolittle, the commander of the mission. This one, according to this collector, is worth over $2,200. Everything he collects is in pristine condition.
I feel awful when some jerks treat potential treasures like smurf.
Don't take life so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent! – Porky Pine
Back in 70's and 80s limited editions were all the rage, with everyone convinced they were a gold-plated financial investment for the future, even to the point a gallery would buy in as many as you could get; sell some and 'sit' on the rest until the price went up.
The galleries made the money but the hapless general public lost out in the poor secondary market that followed years later. The printing quality was of its time; prints faded, sometimes quite markedly. Also framing standards were not what we should apply today.
There were four artists who started off the limited edition malarky: Montague Dawson, L.S.Lowry, David Shepherd and William Russell-Flint. The last named at least maintained some investment value, although fading was still an issue and only because of the subject matter.
Since then every artist and his dog have jumped on the L/E bandwagon, therefore losing the kudos, novelty and rarity value.
Yes the bubble burst on L/E prints long since. The only prints I deal in nowadays are by artists who I can also get original work from. No bad thing really as most of the prints were bought by people hoping to make a quick buck, and lots did. Only enquires I get these days are from people trying to sell the ones they have had under the bed for 10 years.
I remember a copy of David Sherherd's "Burning Bright" in another gallery window soon after it was released. Price £300. Next week it had gone. Few months later it appeared again (same copy- I remembered the number) price £900. I had to have a sly chuckle a few days later when I read in the local paper that someone had smashed the (very expensive plate glass) window and nicked it. Also at the time there was a spate of people ringing up asking for particular prints- price no object. They would even pretend to be collectors who were known to me personally. Next day another person would ring offering one for sale......
If you are talking about long term appreciation of mass produced items, then the majority of them has to be lost/damaged/discarded for the survivors to be worth anything in the future. If every Robbie Williams concert poster is conservation framed in the expectation that it'll be worth a fortune in thirty years time, then too many will survive in good condition to have any rarity value. Thats the thing about ephemera, they are supposed to vanish.
I sometimes feel sorry for the next generation who will be landed with the results of our obsession with 'collectables' which will just turn out to be trash.
Only enquires I get these days are from people trying to sell the ones they have had under the bed for 10 years.