Spalding, Reach and other cut outs sold on our BST

[steve B]

Originally Posted by drcy

It's not a simple topic. My usual rule is 'as long as it is described accurately.' However, I'm against the destruction of books and similar. However, many cutouts pictures and such are found in old albums and on old autographed index cards, and I don't think should ban the sale of those things cut out 100 years ago. If you look at a kid's Victorian album you'll see all sorts of cutouts and long ago handmade 'diecuts' mixed in with the trade cards and scraps. Plus, Harper's Woodcuts were cut out of the magazines, sometimes long ago and sometimes just recently.

So I'll say they can be sold as long as they are accurately described. But I'll voice my opinion (I said opinion not rule) that books shouldn't be destroyed in modern times.

And, realize, that if you ban book and magazine cutout pictures, you'd have to ban the sale of cutout Harper's Woodcuts to be consistent. I'm pretty sure even the purists don't mean to ban the sale of Harper's Woodcuts and have even sold them. As I said, it's not a black and white topic. Some Police Gazette 'supplements' are full page pictures from the magazine with article text on the back, though I suspect the publisher half expected, or even intended, that many would cut them out. Likely, most on the market were removed from the magazine when the magazine came out.

For the record, I'm not against the selling of Harper's Woodcuts.

Though the woodcuts can be removed as part of the whole pages without scissors, as the magazine pages were loose and folded as with a modern newspaper. No staples or binding involved. On the other hand, some might argue that removing loose pages from the rest of the magazine is still a sort of destruction. The famous Leslie's Illustrated James Creighton woodcut is a middle two page spread with a fold line down the middle. It's not cut out, but was removed from the publication.

That's sort of what I'm thinking.

If they're banned outright, then there's a whole list of stuff that also could be or should be.
The "cards" published in newspapers.
1910 orange borders
70's Hostess card singles.
The 6 card panels from Dynamite magazine, either cut or just removed.
partial Topps AD panels

All of those were intended to be cut out, which makes a bit of a difference.


And on the opposite end of things......
One of the things in the huge magazine and book batch was a book that would actually be pretty valuable in good condition. A book with a little text, and I think 12 or so plates of women done by one of the famous artists like Christy or Gibson(I forget exactly who) What I got was a water damaged copy with none of the plates. But since the plates are available from other people that remove them, I could eventually reassemble the book. I haven't pursued it because the cost of plates while less than a nice copy is more than a crummy one.

Steve B