Q. How to be certain a poster is original??…A. When they look like this!!!!

[CarltonHendricks]

I just received this little poster and I’m real glad I did now…It sat on eBay with a BIN of I think $150 for forever…It was just too ravaged to get involved at that price…so it sat in my watch list for it must have been two years…Then the price got down to $100 BIN or best offer… and it still sat there….apparently no one wanted it enough to even make an offer….Then one night recently I started looking at it again…First of all I’m wild for these kinds of simple broadside posters…They pack a lot of punch…that is they held a lot of influence drawing crowds to events…And I like them for their utilitarian nature…the fact they weren’t frilly and made to be collected…they had a job to do and after that it was to the trash bin…I sort of feel it’s a privilege to own them…because they were supposed to have been discarded…but this one somehow escaped…

Recently when I revisited and pondered it…it occurred to me I had never seen an early strongman broadside before…that was when I started taking it serious…And then when it occured to me it was not only a rare example of a strongman poster...but it was American!!!...bingo it was coming home to papa...It was torn tapped and chipped but the three images were all intact and looked great…Then I looked for and found the email exchange I had with the seller back in March of this year:

Subject: Other: RARE ORIGINAL 1910 HARD POSTER PRINT of "THE GREAT SANTELL”
Sent Date: Mar-11-14 23:31:18 PDT
Hi, Boy that is one beat up poster...so it's missing two corners?...I've had it in my watch list forever...I was thinking of maybe making an offer...what are the dimensions?...What is written along the top? something about a theater?....do you know where it's been the last 100 years? Thanks
Carlton of SportsAntiques.com

Subject: Other: RARE ORIGINAL 1910 HARD POSTER PRINT of "THE GREAT SANTELL”
Sent Date: Mar-12-14 4:22:27 PDT
Thank you for your interest. poster size is 11" down x 14" across. I rescued it from abandoned building under renovation. took place at theater. I do hope you will rescue from me. it needs to be in better hands

Later on the seller sent me a reminder that he was open to offers…but I didn’t reply…So remembering that I took the bait and on Tuesday, November 11, 2014 12:23 AM I sent the seller a $25.00 offer…by 5:41 AM the same day the seller countered with $50.00…the shipping from it's location in Louisiana was $11.99 so I subtracted $11.99 from the $50 and countered back with $38.01…and boom the walls of Jericho came tumbling down…he took my offer…

Phew…is it beat up or what…but I could hardly care less…I actually like the condition…It leaves absolutely zero suspicion it’s a repop…You know 100% it’s real LOL...



http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=184663
Anyone remember those strongman boots I posted back in May 2009?...wow were those great....I wonder if I'll ever see another pair that good...

[ooo-ribay]

Great story! Any better guess as to what the print says? Was Santell part of the steroid era?

[steve B]

He was great! I can tell because they used "the Great" twice!!

Seriously, that's a cool broadside.

Steve B

[ooo-ribay]

I'm also impressed you found the newspaper article when Heritage could "find no information on Santell." Nice detective work.

[mybestbretts]

Great find, congratulations!

[JMEnglish27]

Very cool. Congrats on a great find and thanks for sharing all the info

[Ladder7]

He's really ripped!

[Jaybird]

really neat piece. I'd love to see it just linen backed with that tape removed off the front, if possible. Not cleaned up but just getting the scotch tape off would be a huge improvement. Great pickup

[Leon]

Cool poster and nicely done on your patience in acquiring it.