People tend to stay away from early Iran material, as 98% (or more) of the pre-1925 material on the market is either forgery or reprint. It's a bit of a mine field. Most collectors and dealers simply buy and sell under the assumption that the material is bogus. This can create buying opprtunities if you know what you're looking at.
The sheet below is the 10 Kran value of the 1924 Ahmed Shah Qajar large portrait series. By the time I saw it on
ebay it had gone through one listing cycle with no buyers, presumably because people are wary of the early Iranian material.
The one thing about this issue though: there are no known forgeries or reprints. I confirmed this last night with Mehrdad Sadri, one of the foremost expertizers on Iranian material.
Scott catalog value as 100 singles: $2,500. Persiphila catalog as 100 MNH singles: $6,500.
Mr. Sadri did say that a number of sheets of this series were found in the portfolio of a deceased Iranian merchant several years ago, so the second number above might soften a bit when the next edition of the Qajar Persiphilia catalog is published.
Still, not a bad little impulse buy and a great showpiece.
Posted 06/24/2017 09:34 am
