Identifying 19th Century Prints - Antiques with Gary Stover

[Music] good evening thank you for joining me for tonight's talk on antiques coming to you from the brass armadillo antique mall in Denver Colorado I'm Gary Stover I do a weekly talk on antiques and have been doing so for the last eight plus years so there are more than 400 of these shows that I've done that are out there on YouTube and online on a variety of subjects tonight's subject is identifying 19th century prints and I've selected one particular painting from which prints were derived to demonstrate how difficult it can sometimes be to identify a specific print and this is an example of one of them George Washington was painted by Gilbert Stuart on many occasions but the most famous portrait of Washington done by Stuart is the so called Lansdowne portrait and we'll put an image of it up on the screen now this is obviously a large portrait of Washington standing it was done in 1796 there was the one original then there were three copies that Stuart did of that original and then there were others that were done afterwards as well the original Lansdowne portrait was sold 15 years or so ago for about twenty million dollars and it was purchased by the National Portrait Gallery and that's where it hangs one of the three copies quote-unquote copies is hanging hangs in the East Room in the White House so that painting justly famous from the time it was done Washington obviously was still alive served as inspiration for printers of various kinds they came afterwards in the 19th century and often times rather than do a lithograph or a print of some sort or an etching of the entire portrait you see this an image similar to this now I have looked online and found maybe eight or ten different print runs done by different printers and lithographer x' based upon the Lansdowne portrait and our job here in the show tonight is to determine for this one which one of them it is and I'm doing this not because I want to spend a lot of time talking about George Washington prints but just to demonstrate that this is often the case if you find a print lithograph you're able to identify that it's a lithograph or an etching or an engraving or whatever and you look online and you see that well this one was done the one you're thinking about was done in 1795 does that mean the copy that you have was done in 1795 or not and so I particularly difficult category to demonstrate the problem with because generally speaking there are not so many different reproduction runs that if you find one or two you'll probably be able to identify but in this particular case it's a lot more difficult in that and I think we'll just we'll work through them and and I'll try to tell you how I go about determining what this was and pricing it thereby before we get into that though I got a couple of housecleaning items to do and that is in the last bargain show that we did I announced last week that the the item which I found to be the best bargain in the mall was a was a pewter teapot and the winner of that pewter teapot was Audrey Davis so Audrey that pots on its way to you now thank you for participating and you're entered for all the future contests that we do and we do one of those bargain shows once a month usually towards the beginning of the month the second house cleaning cleaning item I have is that in last week's show which one in which I talked about victor talking machines or victrolas i asked for input from viewers about what do you think I should be pricing this particular one at we'll put it up back up on the screen so you can remember this this particular Victrola I I ended up price to get at three hundred forty five dollars and so it's for sale now here in the mall at that price and I took all of the comments that many of you made into consideration when I priced it and I thought there was a one particularly really good comment I think it came from you know there were two cut there was a good comment from England that I thought was really good and there was another comment that I thought where that person emphasized the the value in the horns the external horns that people pay up for that particular feature rather than the internal horns that this particular victor talking machine that I add has and that's obviously true and that does figure significantly into the value so those out of the way let's put up on the screen now our first one I'm just going to have to follow along with you here so the first the first print I should say and give due credit to the Philadelphia print shop because they had in their inventory many many of these similar images of George Washington and I pulled off of their website both the the West fill out of your print shop has a as a store here in Denver Colorado its Philadelphia print shop West it's run by a Chris Lane you may know from Antiques Roadshow if you've seen him on Antiques Roadshow and so some of these that I'm going to be showing you now came off of the site here in Denver but many of them came off the philadelphia site as well so the first one we're going to put up here this is entitled on their web site President George Washington this is dated circa 1845 it's a lithograph 11 and 3/8 by 10 and a half and it's originally hand colored and it's in a period frame so let's think about all of those elements and how they go to constitute value I can tell you that it's this is being sold by them Philadelphia print shop for $275 first thing in knowing them and their website and the people there if there's something bad wrong with the condition they're going to say it so you bear in mind as we go through these unless they say there's a problem with condition you can take it that it's in very good condition so 11 and 3/8 by 10 and a half you might be able to tell just by looking that one I have is substantially larger than that you're also able to tell obviously that this is not hand colored it's not colored at all so this first one that I pulled up is definitely not the one I have what went into the valuation of that they're saying circa 1845 so I guess they probably don't know who that Allah the lithographer actually was they would have said it had they known that some of the times you do know who little lithographer is so we know that's not mine but it's smaller than this that's got to be a somewhat of a negative it's hand colored and it's in a period frame and that's priced at $275 so you know bear that in mind we're gonna look at eight or nine of them before we come come down on this so that was a little bit smaller the next one is is a courier now Currier and Ives everybody's familiar with Currier and Ives prints the next one is courier this is George Washington first president of the United States this one is dated 18 in the in the mid 1850s you if I've done shows on Currier and Ives before and so if you're not familiar with their prints you know that they are hand colored that's in the end that they are lithographs I should tell you before we go much further I guess that this is a lithograph so I've looked at this under a loop some of the ones that were going to be on the show tonight are actually etchings or engravings that you know that you can distinguish from lithographic prints all the ones we're looking at our 19th century they're all done prior to do the mechanical production on anyway so this one goes we'll put this up this one this is a courier Nathaniel courier was on his own prior to Currier and Ives so the date on this one by Philadelphia print shop is 1838 to 1856 it's 11 and a half by 9 so here again this second example is smaller than the one that I have they're pricing this one at $350 there is a premium for the name for Currier and Ives they're collectible because people do collect Currier and Ives prints that gives you a kind of idea so the first one was 275 this one is 350 here's what they say about this is separately issued print by American print makers by America's print makers in quotation marks courier knives from 1834 to 1907 the firm of Nathaniel courier and after 1856 Currier and Ives provided for the American people a wide and varied gallery of prints for the new mass market of middle-class society they issued over 8,000 different prints so as I say I've done a show on courier and I as we won't beat that dead horse let's go on to the next one so it put up here this is the third one the Middleton portrait of George Washington this is after Gilbert Stewart all of these are there after that Lansdowne portrait by meaning that they were derived from that they were that the artist used that as his inspiration none of these obviously maybe I should go back a little bit sometimes the lithograph is actually like an original work where the artist draws on the stone and he's not using some other model that's not the case here obviously the model is the Lansdowne portrait no oil painting and so these prints and lithograph says all of them have been lithographs to this point are you an artist has drawn those using the Lansdowne portrait as a model therefore they're all a little bit different because the work of the of the lithographer is there I mean it's he's done it so this is after Gilbert Stewart supporter to George Washington this was done by EJ Middleton in Cincinnati in 1864 it's a Croma lithograph it's 17 by 14 oval in a period frame it's mounted on canvas as issued that's interesting isn't it because I've had other prints before that have been mounted on canvas mid 19th century that's kind of interesting sometimes you see the on the back of the canvas you can pick out a canvas stamp praying of Boston sometimes did that I had a really great Civil War piece that braindeads like way okay here and talk and talking about this one it's they say surface darkened in a few abrasions but overall good condition and this one is priced at 375 dollars now it's 17 by 14 so you might think well this is pretty close to the size of mine however we know this is not mine either because that the one you're looking at is a chromo lithograph it is it is colored so we've eliminated this one too so we're still looking for mine we'll put up on the screen the next one this is Jay s king portrait of George Washington this was then in 1896 in its and engraving so this one is later than the ones we're looking at and it's later than this one to I and in its small it's nine and three quarters by eight inches it's an engraving just because it's in an engraving doesn't in my opinion add or subtract from the value of the lithographs we've looked at before it's just different methods of printing sometimes you got to look at the quality of the etching and the quality of the lithograph of course this one is a hundred and seventy-five dollars and the reason I think it's less is bit number one it's quite small it's nine and three quarters by eight and it's also later in time J s King okay now there are some more this is Alfred Newsome it was printed in Philadelphia by C W Williams in 1846 it's ten and a half by nine here again a little smaller than mine it's a lithograph by PS Duval it's originally hand colored in very good condition this is a rare series a handsome portrait from a rare series of portraits of the presidents the publisher of this series was C W Williams who used two of the most important figures in American early American lithography Alfred Newsome and PS Duval he then goes on to talk about about them this one is priced at $575 and it's priced at $575 even though it's smaller than this it is hand colored and it's of a rarer print run and because of the renown of the lithographer z-- it sells at a higher price I'm not submit you know I'm not really in a position to talk about how many of these individual prints there are out there in other words what's the supply I really don't know you'd have to more or less use as a guideline major print stop shops like Philadelphia print shop to get an understanding about that but they're saying it's rare to me means there are fewer of them available than of those earlier ones that we looked at and this one is priced at 575 the next one after Gilbert Stuart George Washington Philadelphia this is the so-called child's print this was done by George W child's in 1852 it's substantially larger it's 22 and 3/4 by 18 that's the size of the image itself including the margins on this one at 7:27 and 3/4 by 22 and a half the engraving is done by Thomas B Welch it's printed by AE Lent in Philadelphia a fine printing that has survived in excellent condition this is a large engraving taken after Stuart's Boston Athenaeum painting the engraving by Welch is a soft heroic feel which makes this an interesting example of the popular prints of Washington that begin appearing at an accelerated rate in the mid 19th century this is substantially larger well done this is priced at $1,200 so now you're beginning hopefully to see that it is really important to be able to identify the specific print that you have because we've seen a wide range in pricing between a hundred and seventy-five dollars and $1,200 based upon the specific print the specific print run next one up William II Marshall after Gilbert Stuart this was printed by W E Marshall in 1862 it's thirteen and three eighths by eleven and a quarter this is a steel engraving and very good condition here again it's not mine if this is not the item that I have an excellent engraving of George Washington by William a Marshall based on the famous portrait in the Boston Athenaeum one of the best mid 19th century portraits of the first president by an artist who would later produce what is often considered the best contemporary portrait of the 16th President Lincoln so this one by Marshall is priced at $600 and now we go on to the last one we still have not found mine we can see that there are a lot of different print runs maybe we won't find mine but we got one last chance and here it is this is done by William Smith 1865 to 1876 it says tinted lithograph 26 and a half by 22 full sheet in excellent condition so one thing we can do is measure this right we can measure to see the oval image this is a little over 13 that's a little over 15 say 15 and a half by 13 and a half so the measurements haven't duplicated any of the ones we've looked at before it's a little hard to say with the one we're thinking about here now because it just gives you the full sheet size this is smaller than that full sheet but it's possible that the full sheet was cut down to this size okay the thing that is out there however as an issue is that they're telling us that this is tinted this William Smith is a tinted lithograph a bust portrait of George Washington based on paintings by Gilbert Stuart the fine image of Washington whose memory was used to keep the United States together during the crises of the 1850s during the Civil War and through the Reconstruction period a portrait such as this would have hung in homes and offices and especially in schools it's priced at $350 so using the best tools that I could find available I have not found this exact item because I've been doing these things a long time I'm more or less comfortable in dating this lithograph to the mid 19th century it may well be one of these Smith lithographs that's not tinted because this is definitely not what I would call tinted at all in it it's possible that the foot the full sheet size has been cut down to fit in this that one was priced at 350 if this was full sheet and it's cut down that probably affects the value to some extent not much because I think that the proportions as shown are nice and that someone might want to hang this you ask yourself however would a collector pay more to have the full sheet yeah maybe I'm not sure it's Smith this is not tinted wood tinting add to the value possibly therefore for all those reasons I priced this at $225 that's obviously at the low end of the eight or nine other examples of this same image that we've seen in the mid 19th century another reason for that of course is that I'm not filled up your print shop they have a they have people from all over the world who go to their website and I'm sure buy prints all the time and so they're probably able to command a better price and rightly so because I have not taken this out of the frame I have not made sure that there's acid-free backing behind it I cannot guarantee that this this glass is UV resistant it's not turned out as well as it would be in a fine print shop like Philadelphia so for all of those reasons I'm pricing this at two and a quarter I think that it's a probably a pretty fair price because like I said I've been selling prints for 40 odd years and I don't know I'm comfortable in that in that range given all with what we've just seen not all prints that you find and you trying to figure out exactly if it's an etching a print you're looking to see if it's hand colored or it or colored you know with a mechanical process and you're going through all that all that not all of them are going to be as complicated to figure out as this one was and that's why I selected this one just to show you a different one nope put this one up here now this is an image which has also been reproduced but no - nowhere near the extent of the Washington image this isn't from a series called London cries CR IE s cries of London is what it's actually called cries of London and this particular image is entitled old chairs to mend I think it's just a beautiful print and these pies of London I actually have three cries of London Prince there were I think a seer in the series there were ten I have three there nicely framed these are dated 1795 they're painted by Wheatley an English artist from the Royal Academy and I have that one priced at $125 so I'm not going to go through all of how we got there on this one but it's a lot easier to figure out what you have with this one than it is with George Washington one of you you look at things that I mean you can see the plate marks this is an original lithograph it's hand colored you can tell that with a loop and this is from the actual early 1795 series so I've done a number of shows over the years on prints and lithographs the reason I have is because I probably get more questions from from people from customers and from other dealers about how to distinguish how to price and what how do you tell prints from original works of art all of that so if you go on our website I antique dot-com or you go on YouTube and you put in my name and and and just put in prints lithographs etc you'll see a number of shows that I've done on subjects but I thought that because this Washington print was so difficult to identify I'd just demonstrate how I go about trying to figure out what exactly I have so thanks for tuning in we'll be here next week with another show and we'll be doing the bargain show next time thanks very much for tuning in and if you haven't seen the bargain shows before if you go on my Facebook page and like the Facebook page it puts you into a drawing for whatever I determine is the best buy here in this mall that we gift at in each show and as I mentioned earlier today that that pewter teapot which was the best bargain I felt in the last show that we did when is going out to Audrey Davis and you could be the lucky winner if you go on our Facebook page and we draw your name for the next show which we'll do next week so hope to see you then and thanks for tuning in good night [Music]

Channel: DenverBrassArmadillo

Views: 8,001

Rating: 4.9389315 out of 5

Keywords: Brass armadillo, antique, iantique, antiques, iantiques, antique mall, vintage, art, collectible, collectable, retro, history, living history, Colorado, wheat ridge, Denver, bottle digging, roadshow, Colorado history, us history, price, pricing, appraisal, how to price, antiquing, upcycle, prints, 19th century prints, george washington, washington

Id: Ndr7DiOcTYQ

Length: 25min 11sec (1511 seconds)

Published: Wed May 09 2018