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Author Topic: Does anyone own an Ansel Adams print?  (Read 1593 times)

Benny Profane

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Does anyone own an Ansel Adams print?
« on: September 29, 2016, 03:39:03 pm »

I just made a nice thrift store score. A framed Ansel Adams. This image: https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/57.941 four bucks. The frame is beat, but I suspect that it's about 40-50 years old, at least. Took the matted print out of the frame, to see if I could find a signature. After a little peeling back, no sig, so far. Stopped there. This is definitely a B&W print made from a large negative, probably 8x10, enlarged to about 9x12. (Was 9x12 a format back then for contact prints?) not a modern digital or even optical reproduction. Super sharp, awesome tonal range.
I know that there are zillions of AA prints out there. God bless him for providing for his heirs. I'm not really searching for value here, because the market has been so diluted this print isn't worth much, I guess. Still, what's the collective opinion for the direction I should take here? Find an expert to tell me what's going on? Or just frame it up and enjoy?
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Does anyone own an Ansel Adams print?
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2016, 08:02:09 pm »

The absence of a signature will likely hurt the value a lot. Is there anything written or printed on the back of it?
Back in the 1960s Ansel was selling 8x10" contact prints, mounted, numbered, and signed at Best's Studio (later the Ansekl Adams Gallery) in Yosemite Valley. These were from a series he labeled as "Special Edition for Yosemite" and printed in large numbers, as he describes in his book The Print.

I bought several between 1965 and about 1975. At first, they cost $6.00 each (yes: SIX dollars). Once the price had gone up to $15, I decided they were getting too expensive for my student's wallet. Later, he had assistants print for the series, and he would approve and initial the prints. So the full signature ones were the most valuable.

A few years ago I had my collection appraised, and the $6 Adams prints were valued at $5000 each. Not a bad investment, though I didn't know it at the time.

Notice: As almost always in the "Art" market, the artist gets peanuts while later collectors get windfalls.
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Benny Profane

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Re: Does anyone own an Ansel Adams print?
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2016, 08:20:09 pm »

Unfortunately, this print has been mounted with some nasty adhesive, and then somewhat crudely matted, so I'm not doing any peeling to find info. Fortunately the mounting hasn't poisoned the print, and it's not very faded at all - print is in excellent shape, for what I think is its age. Seems that it is an elargement from an 8x10 either glass plate or neg, because the examples I find on the web are all that size, therefore most museum pieces were contact printed. It's a beautiful print. I'll take it to my framer and see what he can do.

I remember going into the Village in NYC in around 1968 as a hippie youth, and looking at his prints in a gallery I forget the name of in bins very similar to record store bins at the time. You know, flip, flip. Most were priced from 50 to 100 bucks, which was pretty steep for this teenager. Oh, to go back in time.
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Telecaster

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Re: Does anyone own an Ansel Adams print?
« Reply #3 on: September 30, 2016, 03:48:55 pm »

I own two signed Adams prints from the high-volume period Eric mentions. My dad bought them back in the day, and my friend Bruce currently has 'em on display in his rec room. I don't have the wall space. Bruce also has my print of this photo on display, signed by the photographer along with the (then) owner of the athlete in question and the guy who went along for the ride.  :)

-Dave-
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Eric Myrvaagnes

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Re: Does anyone own an Ansel Adams print?
« Reply #4 on: September 30, 2016, 05:41:24 pm »

I own two signed Adams prints from the high-volume period Eric mentions. My dad bought them back in the day, and my friend Bruce currently has 'em on display in his rec room. I don't have the wall space. Bruce also has my print of this photo on display, signed by the photographer along with the (then) owner of the athlete in question and the guy who went along for the ride.  :)

-Dave-
I think I've heard of that pony.   ;)
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Chris Calohan

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Re: Does anyone own an Ansel Adams print?
« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2016, 08:46:26 am »

I purchased eight original Audubon prints (all Havells, all mint), rolled in a tube at a family run estate sale for $8.00 several years ago and while I won't give you the final price I sold them for (to one collector), I can tell you I bought a brand new, John Cooper Works Mini Cooper loaded to the freaking hilt and didn't even nearly spend all the proceeds. Sometimes you just get lucky.

I couldn't afford Adams when I became interested in collecting photographs but a few years back I found a Florida photo artist named Clyde Butcher Clyde Butcher's Studioand began a collection of his originals and though I can no longer afford some of the larger works, I still manage one new one each year. I still only collect works made from film originals...oh, call me a purest :-)
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