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Do you erase this from your original art purchases?
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16 posts in this topic

So I've been attending cons with an eye towards original art and I've noticed that art dealers/agents will often times write, in pencil, the price of the art, either on the top/front corner of the page or the back of the art. Once the art is yours are you inclined to erase it or leave it?

Part of me feels the notation, while not having anything to do with the art process is a matter of historical record and might be interesting to others in the future. The other part of me feels it was added by someone other than the artist, has nothing to do with the art process, can easily be removed, and maybe it's even a bit distracting.

 

Thoughts? Do you erase or do you keep? 

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Another question/thread could be "Should a dealer/rep write on the art in the first place?"  Modern, bronze, copper, silver age, etc - they're seen differently.  It's ok to write in the margin of a modern piece and we think nothing of it, but if that was done on a silver age piece, I think there would be an uproar.

I for one erase the prices on a modern piece when I get them.  On old (i.e., not modern) pieces, I leave them there and smile (cry) when I see them.  I might consider doing things differently based on this thread.  

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I neither add nor subtract. Not my place to do so but I don't mind at all that others before me did it differently. I very much like seeing old prices, notes, etc on the back - ink or pencil, by anybody not just the artists or their primary dealer either. But please - no signatures anywhere on the front...that is too fannish for me ;)

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1 hour ago, Bronty said:

Very much the exception, but I’ve written on the backs of paintings before when there was some circumstance making the info useful. 

Oh this is great practice Bronty. All my info is locked up in my head, but if I ever start selling again, all pertinent and relevant information re: the art and provenance will be added as appropriate to the back in permanent form :)

About a decade ago Roger Hill was selling through (eBay) a large hoard of 50s and 60s sleaze digest and paperback cover paintings. Many of these would be harder to impossible to find in published form and unless one was well-versed in the subject matter and a collector of not just the periodicals themselves but zines related to that hobby, the art would be otherwise unidentified as to publication use. I mean, by most of us, that focus on more mainstream material to begin with, even allowing that some few of us do venture outside the comfort zone of nostalgic comic art. With that in mind...

Roger, in his precise and quite recognizable hand, wrote the publication information in pen on the back of every piece I bought and probably every piece he handled. From that hoard. (I'm not suggesting he does that with everything!) What a service to the collecting community then. And today. And forever. Not and never a mistake that!

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4 hours ago, vodou said:

Oh this is great practice Bronty. All my info is locked up in my head, but if I ever start selling again, all pertinent and relevant information re: the art and provenance will be added as appropriate to the back in permanent form :)

About a decade ago Roger Hill was selling through (eBay) a large hoard of 50s and 60s sleaze digest and paperback cover paintings. Many of these would be harder to impossible to find in published form and unless one was well-versed in the subject matter and a collector of not just the periodicals themselves but zines related to that hobby, the art would be otherwise unidentified as to publication use. I mean, by most of us, that focus on more mainstream material to begin with, even allowing that some few of us do venture outside the comfort zone of nostalgic comic art. With that in mind...

Roger, in his precise and quite recognizable hand, wrote the publication information in pen on the back of every piece I bought and probably every piece he handled. From that hoard. (I'm not suggesting he does that with everything!) What a service to the collecting community then. And today. And forever. Not and never a mistake that!

When I sell art from my collection, I try to include anything I find... old receipts, published info, artist(s) info, facsimiles of provenance if I need to retain originals of them, and when I feel the info is only in my mind, I will make a note in pencil for myself and a future owner on the back.  Otherwise it is lost and sometimes hard to retrieve for the next collector. 

If you are submitting to an auction house or a dealer on commission, they may or may not include such extraneous material in the lot, but they will likely not remove notes  directly on the piece.

I continue back notes to this day, since my experience has been old provenance documents can be misplaced to the detriment of the history of the piece. 

FWIW, my wife is a professional oil painter, and she marks the back of each piece with title and inventory number which indicates the time frame of the making of the piece.  She is currently around 1500 original oil paintings, and I point out the info for the a buyer while I'm packing it up.

David

Edited by aokartman
clarity
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