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Guys, guys (and gals)...
I did not mean to say there are not really fine examples of old posters and
lobby cards out there. Obviously there are. The point I was making is that when
you hold one of these genuine old paper items, even if it is unblemished and
unyellowed condition, it will still look, smell and feel "old". The paper will
be recognizable as a kind of paper that is not made anymore and hasn't been for
20 or 30 years. The ink will be settled into the fibers of the paper and will
not look and smell "fresh". The paper will have a kind "flex" to it rather than
a crisp stiffness, as the fibers have relaxed somewhat over the 50 or 60 years
(even if stacked and stored in vaults, yes). The items will not feel or smell
"news stand fresh", no matter how perfect they may appear to the eye at a
distance. A recently printed item will look, feel and smell different, and will
be on different paper with razor sharp edges that have not had 60 years to
soften a little to the touch. Eve! n when stacked on top of each other the edges
are exposed to the air.
As for those extremely really old yet super-fine posters, let's not pretend
that they are anything but ultra rare. These were not comic books, which had a
real base of more serious "collectors" almost from the beginning. This was
advertising paper, folded by machine, slapped into unpadded envelopes and sent
through the U.S. mail to the theaters who then handled them roughly, stuck them
up on walls and display cases. Often, these posters were sent back to the NSS
and sent out again and again as a film made the rounds. Those that weren't were
thrown in a back office somewhere, or taken home by a film fan and tacked to
their walls. It was only much later that movie posters became a collectible.
Sure, they may have been a fun hobby for a few people when they were new, but
they were still just a hobby -- and not treated as "collectibles" and handled as
such. Therefore, 99% of the time you are going to have authentic old posters
that are not! "off the press perfect". In the cases of those famous and
legendary warehouse finds, or the occasional happy chance of good storage
where they were forgotten and untouched for decades, yeah, you'll find some
great stuff, but little if any of it will be in truly off-the-press perfect
condition and untouched at least slightly by time. Talk like that is the stuff
of which collector's dreams are made of, but in reality an unbacked and
unrestored "mint condition" poster that is 50 or 60 years old may be
superb and may be honestly called "mint" by the very loose standards of this
hobby/industry -- but it will still have some patina of age.
I always prefer the use of terms like fine, very fine and extremely fine to
the term "mint" when it comes to movie paper. But that's just me.
The point was, as I mentioned before, that with a little practice and
experience you can tell genuine old paper from a reproduction when you hold it
in your hand and compare it to authentic paper of the same vintage.
-- JR
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- Re: [MOPO] A good fake is always worth making J R
- Re: [MOPO] A good fake is always worth makin... J R
- Re: [MOPO] A good fake is always worth m... Phil Edwards Cinema Arts
- Re: [MOPO] A good fake is always worth m... Michael Spampinato
