Andy Warhol Hand-Colored Lithographs
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GUEST:
My husband had these, and he mentioned them years ago when they were just stuck on a shelf. And then when we got tickets to come here, I'm like, "I'm going to go find those prints." And I dug around last night, and they were still in that little file and I just brought them in. I know that somebody told him they were originals, and they sold them to him. And he just kind of shrugged his shoulders, like, "Maybe, maybe not," but he bought them.
APPRAISER:
When did he buy them?
GUEST:
20, 25 years ago.
APPRAISER:
So they've been sitting in this manila folder on your bookshelf, tucked away for...
GUEST:
They've just been stuck there.
APPRAISER:
...a couple of decades now.
GUEST:
Right. I'm not sure anybody has looked at them.
APPRAISER:
We've got early Andy Warhol original works of art. They are prints that he hand colored.
GUEST:
I'll be darned.
APPRAISER:
So you have kind of a combination of his technique, and it's exciting because the colors are still quite fresh. What you have here are offset lithographs of pen and ink drawings. He used an aniline dye. It's like watercolor. The black lines are the offset lithograph. They're signed by the artist.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
They're quintessential early works of his. His mother was involved in the process. She doesn't get much billing, but it's known that she helped him. These were done as books.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
There's one called A la Recherche du Shoe Perdu-- The Search for the Lost Shoe. And this book is a collection of images called In the Bottom of My Garden, a fanciful collection of fairies. You see the sunflower with a face, and you actually have here the last page of the book.
GUEST:
I thought that was kind of neat.
APPRAISER:
You see the end.
GUEST:
The end.
APPRAISER:
It's a great collection in the sense that you have two sets from different books. They're unbound. Each of these books contained about 20 images. These are from 1955 and 1956. So when your husband acquired these 20, 25 years ago, do you know how much he paid for them?
GUEST:
You know what? I don't. And I... I have no idea. I tried to call him, and I couldn't find... he doesn't even know I'm here.
APPRAISER:
Is it someone in the trade, or someone who was just a friend?
GUEST:
It was someone in the trade, and I think somebody needed some money, and so they just came to him, and he bought them. But I'll bet you anything he got a deal. He's just that kind of guy.
APPRAISER:
The thing is, Warhol is ever popular, and so we're seeing increased value for all sides of his work. At auction, as a group, these seven images would be valued as high as $20,000 to $30,000.
GUEST:
This?
APPRAISER:
Yes.
GUEST:
Whoa. That is amazing.
APPRAISER:
The individual prints from The Bottom of My Garden...
GUESTS: Uh-huh?
APPRAISER:
They can sell as high as $4,000 each at auction.
GUEST:
Those can.
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
Wow. So exciting.
APPRAISER:
Thank you for coming in to the ROADSHOW.
GUEST:
Thank you.
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