Help With James A. Farley Follies Signed Autographed Blocks

Hello all. I recently obtained a collection and these were inside. They are 18 blocks all signed and dated by Farley. I am trying to get some information on them, can't find much on a google search. There was a lot of 3 similar blocks that brought $900 at auction in 2006. I am trying to get them identified as Farley blocks, and was wondering what the value of them is. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for the information.

stoogeco,

Those things are absolutely beautiful. James Farley with his green ink. You should really get the stamps out of those inserts and into something more philatelically pleasing.

Jack Kelley

Farley signed a boatload of items. It's great to have a set like this but his signature is really pretty common.

I wonder if the set of 3 that brought $900 was some sort of special blocks? As has been said, Farley signed everything under the sun. Covers with his signature can be purchased for around $5 or so.

Perhaps they are gummed.

No they are not gummed. And what do you think is the significance of him dating them?

None of the Farleys have an issue date in Scott, perhaps this was the first day, or perhaps it was just asked for by the recipient.

The original imperforated, ungummed Foley sheets were issued in 1934. The reprints of "Farley's Follies" were first issued on March 15, 1935, so I don't there's any significance to the date.

According to Johl's US Commemorative Stamps of the Twentieth Century they were placed on sale March 15, 1935, so the date probably has no meaning other then that it was that day.

Thanks for the help so far. So I guess they are only worth $10 each or so?

Check with ebay. Someone may have sold some or is trying to sell some there!

Peter

Thank Peter. I've tried, cant find anything even closely resembling them.

Outside of stamp collecting circles, Farley isn't known and even in these circles, he's now not important enough to affect value. Adding to the fact that he signed so many pieces, his autograph doesn't add much to the value of the stamp blocks. If they were signed by a famous movie star or aviator of the time, the autograph would add value.

I would not be too quick to let go of these blocks. If they are so common as hinted here, then try to find them.

If you could find the missing pieces of signed sets they will do better. There are specialist exhibitors of this kind of material, and they are a better market for what you have. But they tend to want to build complete groupings.

Line blocks, gutter blocks, parks, etc.

I would expect the group to retail for perhaps $400-$500. The difficulty in finding another set is probably matched by finding another collector.

I happen to be very familiar with the National Parks issues of 1934 and the "Farley's Follies" reprints of 1935. First, the original series in 1934 was PERFORATED and GUMMED, ready for use by the USPOD and issued as such.

What brought such a furor was the fact that Farley, the PMG; Harold Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior; President Roosevelt, were presented imperforate sheets which were pulled by Farley before they went through the process of being gummed and perforated. One of the sheets which was pulled somehow was offered for sale in 1934 and sold for $20,000. This created a furor in the stamp collecting community and lead my predecessor at the Norfolk Philatelic Society to pen a letter to Roosevelt complaining that if these sheets were made available to some, they should be made available to all.

This came at a time when Roosevelt was feeling the pressure about his massive spending programs such as the Works Program Administration as he forced the federal government to find ways to put people back to work. There's been an ongoing effort over the last few years to preserve the national building art created as part of the WPA. But back to the stamps.

Farley was basically instructed by Roosevelt to make this problem go away. Farley's answer was to issue all the stamps which could have been or were pulled as imperforate sheets to the public, giving us the twenty stamp run of what is often referred to as Farley's Follies (Scott 752-771). Scott 752 and 753 are perforated but ungummed; the others in the series were issued imperforate. All of the imperforates have an issue date of March 15, 1935.

You have, at least from what I see in the scans provided, eighteen of the twenty stamps in this series, unless I've missed something. I didn't see the 4 cent brown or the 7 cent black National Parks issues.

The fact that Farley signed these in April 1935 doesn't add any real value to them other than that associated with his signature. I haven't been able to find anything of note which occurred in April tied to these stamp to explain it. If I had to hazard a guess it would be that a collector met with Farley at an event somehow and asked him to sign them for his collection. He was well known even long after he was no longer PMG for his willingness to autograph covers and other material for collectors.

Given the Scott catalog value for a set of block is in the range of $245.00, and adding $5.00 for each block for the signature, the value of this lot, if completely sound, would be around $350.00. If the two aforementioned blocks are missing, you would have to reduce that by $23.00.

Hope this helps you out some.