Posted By:
Seth NagdemanSOME HISTORY OF THESE PROOFS: I compared my scans of these pictures with the ones offered at American Memorabilia and they are identical - these are the same pieces I had in my collection from 1999-2004. I purchased them in December of 1999 for $1,500 from a seller on ebay from Florida: ebay id "vtholstein0esl". They were in a frame. The photos were mounted on a black background. I took them to a framer and he cut them down to cabinet card size - I thought they looked more desireable that way. I decided not to put them in the 19thCenturyOnly.com auction because I did not know enough to represent them in my auction.
I traded them in April, 2003 with one of my customers who ended up consigning them to a major vintage card auction (other than 19thCenturyOnly.com since I did not know enough about them to sell in my auction). They were returned to him because the auctioneer after reviewing them did not feel they were original. They were returned to me in September, 2003 and I refunded my customer for more than our trade because of what happened. I then showed the photos to two major auction houses, and one major 19th century dealer - in all cases nobody would handle them because they did not believe they were period and didn't know exactly why the photos were made. I then sold all 4 photos in Ft. Washington to a dealer early this year for $1000 with an explanation that three major auction houses did not feel they were period pieces.
I don't know of American Memorabilia - have never done business with them before. Their photography expert represents that he found evidence that the photos are vintage. I'm sure they were thoroughly examined by American Memorabilia and it's possible the other auctions may have overlooked something.