Original Art Restoration? Recommendations?

[dgillock]

Hey all. A couple of years ago I purchased two Milton Caniff drawings- thus far unidentified character-studies that seem to be from very early in his career, and probably from his college days at Ohio State as editor of the Sun-Dial. Anyway, though they present well both drawings have tears. I'm planning on having these framed sometime soon, but before I do, I would like to have the tears professionally sealed. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for restorers who handle OA. There are some obvious choices for having comics worked on, but I haven't encountered too many names who handle OA. For instance, is this the sort of project that someone like Matt Nelson would do? Or, should I start pursuing info in the "Fine Art" resto/conservation market? Any advice would be appreciated.

[rob_react]

Of the people in the comics realm, I'd guess Tracey Heft would be your best bet, although if it were me, I'd also look into a local documents specialist or a fine arts specialist with a focus on works on paper.

[dgillock]

Thanks for the advice.

One concern I have is that the drawings are on "onion skin" paper and I worry that someone who specializes in resto on comics specifically might not have the experince in sealing tears (invisibly) on this sort of material. At the same time, I know that there are some folks here who have had personal dealings with some of the better comic resto professionals and a personal recommendation goes a long way in my mind. I have a couple of friends in the art gallery business, perhaps I need to put out feelers to them.

[livinglucky]

I think rob is right you should at least check with Tracey.

From what I have seen he is a talent in CONSERVATION.

I more thing maybe you guys are right and KK might be closer than

he seems. I just read OA is fine art

and looks close to other post I have read

[rob_react]

I think rob is right you should at least check with Tracey.

From what I have seen he is a talent in CONSERVATION.

 

He's also got a lot of document experience.

[dgillock]

I took a look at his site last night and also noticed that he has a good deal of experience with documents, photos, prints, etc. And, his pricing seems about right for what I was hoping to pay. (I had a conversation today with a friend who works at a well-known gallery today and the sorts of numbers and time-frames that he was throwing around for people that they worked with were a little daunting.) I figure that I'll make contact with Mr. Heft early in the new year and see what he has to say.

 

PS: Just in case anyone's interested:

 

 

 

If anyone here recognizes these character's please let me know. I've done a good bit of searching over the past couple of years to no avail.

[*paull*]

How significant are the tears? In my opinion, something that is going to be handled should be conserved (tear sealed, supported, etc.), but if it's something that you plan on placing in mylar and leaving there, maybe it could be left as is.

[Timulty]

I took a look at his site last night and also noticed that he has a good deal of experience with documents, photos, prints, etc. And, his pricing seems about right for what I was hoping to pay. (I had a conversation today with a friend who works at a well-known gallery today and the sorts of numbers and time-frames that he was throwing around for people that they worked with were a little daunting.) I figure that I'll make contact with Mr. Heft early in the new year and see what he has to say.

 

PS: Just in case anyone's interested:

 

 

 

If anyone here recognizes these character's please let me know. I've done a good bit of searching over the past couple of years to no avail.

 

You know, I am getting a huge Steve Canyon vibe off of these. Unfortunately, I can't confirm the characters. I don't have full copies of the strips.

[dgillock]

The tears aren't terribly apparent in the images, but they are fairly large. In the top image, a tear goes from the left edge of the page, through the middle of "The Doctor's" face and right up to the left edge of little "Miss Pendergast". On the lower image the tear can just be seen in the scan. It goes from the left edge of the page, through "Sara's" face and over to the right edge of her collar.

 

The problem is two-fold from a conservation stand point. First, the drawings (which I purchased framed... nasty, nasty frames) are basically glued into their mats. Luckily they are only glued at the edges and not over the entire surface. They should be pretty "easy" to remove, but I haven't wanted to attempt it myself because I'm afraid of worsening the tears, plus I would be left with delicate torn pages that would need to be very carefully handled. I'd like them to be worked on immediately after they are removed from the mats.

 

Second, onion skin paper, esp. onion skin paper that is probably about 70 years old is sort of inherently brittle. The main reason I want to have them professionally framed is less for display purposes and more for conservation. However, I think it would be pretty difficult and maybe dangerous to try and frame these pages without first sealing the long tears.

 

I'm willing to put a few hundred dollars ($300, $400?) into keeping them safe. If I'm correct that they are circa 1930 it would make them some of the earliest surviving Caniff drawings and in my mind well worth conserving for the future.

[*paull*]

I would do the same thing with these pieces, especially considering that they are glued to non-archival mats.

 

Susan Ciccone has done art restoring, so she is someone who could help.

[dgillock]

You know, I am getting a huge Steve Canyon vibe off of these. Unfortunately, I can't confirm the characters. I don't have full copies of the strips.

 

Thanks for the input, but I don't think that they are Steve Canyon characters. The main reason is that the signature style is not one that Caniff used for very long. As I said, I've done a good bit of research into his early career and I've only come across this signature style during one period, approx. 1930.

 

Here are some examples from the period that he worked for the Ohio State Sun-Dial (sorry about the image quality, these are from small images I grabbed from the web):

1928/'29:

 

 

1930:

 

Now this signature is from this image from a 1930 issue of the Sun-Dial:

 

 

This is the closest stylistic match I have found thus far.

 

Finally, here's Caniff's "traditional" professional signature, circa 1955:

 

So on the drawings I have, we have the fairly developed "rectangle sig", but without the box. Instead, they have the diagonal line underneath, just like the signature on the stylistically similar drawing from 1930. My best guess right now is that the drawings I have were done in about 1930 either as personal character studies for an illustration project (a book? but then why would Caniff sign them if they were just for personal use?) or they were done as submitted character samples for a project that either Caniff was not awarded or never happen (this would make more sense to me). I contacted the director of the Caniff Library at OSU when I first got the drawings and frankly I wasn't overly impressed with the knowledge base they seemed to have. Really all they could tell me was that "Caniff didn't generally do character studies". Frankly I'll probably never know the exact year of execution or what they were for, but I keep hoping. Sadly, the dealer I bought them from knew little about them and I didn't press him too hard in fear that I would sour the deal. My next line of research is going to be into his time with the Columbus Dispatch, as I've read that before he got "The Gay 30s" and "Dickie Dare" he made some aborted attempts at creating a strip of his own. Whew! long post...

[dgillock]

Just came across this page:

 

LINKY

 

Check the entry for Dec. 15th about Caniff's work for "Life is Like That" for the Columbus Dispatch. I think I'm getting closer at least to the period of work. This pre-1933 period (before he got the Dickie Dare project) makes the most sense to me at this point.

[Timulty]

Could be Terry and The Pirates then.