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Valued Member
United States
225 Posts |
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In an upcoming sale at Heritage Auctions I see they have several different die proofs of various vignettes. I'm fascinated by the amazing detail in many of the images. I particularly liked the train ones and imagine those will sell for good prices. In the same sale, there are two lots of printing plates. I was thinking about bidding on one lot of them however the more I think about it, I ask myself what I'd do with them. In case anyone wants to preview the auction. http://currency.ha.com/c/search-res...2088+56+1192-MV
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Pillar Of The Community
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United States
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After looking at the Heritage lots, I can tell you that the presidential portraits are all bookplates from the "Messages and Papers of the Presidents" -- a 10 volume set first published in 1896. The first edition contained BEP engraved portraits and vignettes and can be readily found on eBay. It will be interesting to see what they sell for. |
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Edited by GregAlex - 09/19/2015 01:45 am |
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Valued Member
United States
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[up for sharing some from your collection Greg.
How do you store/display them? If I were to buy some, I want to make sure I'm preserving them properly.
-MV |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
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I keep them in a Lighthouse album that was originally designed for large blocks of stamps. But it's got acid-free pages with clear plastic coverings so I feel like it protects them pretty well. |
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Beautiful pieces GregAlex   Thank you for sharing them with us. |
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Don't grumble that the roses have thorns, be thankful that the thorns have roses |
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GregAlex, that small vignette is beautiful! I can not enlarge it very well, it gets blurry. Is there a name under the two rocks in the foreground?
Peter |
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Pillar Of The Community
United States
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Okay, Peter, just for you I did an extreme close-up scan of the wood chopper and cabin (no, I don't think that's a cherry tree). I looked it over pretty carefully and didn't see any "Easter egg" signatures hiding anywhere. But feel free to keep looking!  |
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Edited by GregAlex - 03/14/2016 7:20 pm |
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I was happy to catch this on eBay recently - it's a proof of a vignette used on stock certificates of the Hamilton Watch Company during the 1940s.  |
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Beautiful stuff. I absolutely love almost anything line-engraved.
The book on the History of the American Bank Note Company is loaded with stuff like this, and is always a favorite of mine. |
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It is a fantastic book. I've had a copy in my library for years. They used to be easily available for $25 to $30 -- now you'll be lucky to find one for $60. Some unethical dealers have been buying them up, clipping apart the individual vignettes and selling them on eBay as "proofs". There are over 100 engraved images in the book, so even if they sell for a buck apiece the dealers make money. I try to educate collectors about this practice whenever I can.   |
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Replies: 27 / Views: 8,228 |
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