John Hodgman: A. & M. Provensen Original Childrens Book Illustration, ca. 1973
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APPRAISER:
What are we looking at, what are we talking about now?
GUEST:
Well, Ken, I have no idea, this isn't actually my home. This is an original children's book illustration by Alice and Martin Provensen. It comes from this book "The Animal Fair." Before we came to Maine, we actually spent quite a bit of time in Western Massachusetts. In Northampton, in particular. There's a gallery, and the gallerist deals in a lot of original children's book art. And my wife really loved it in particular. But at the time, it was well out of our price range. This is probably about 12 years ago, and I got a really good job, and she was facing-- or, I should say, celebrating-- a certain birthday.
APPRAISER:
(chuckles)
GUEST:
And so I secretly splurged and bought it for her as a surprise. And we've loved it ever since.
APPRAISER:
Children's art, or children's book illustration, is hot. There are a lot of people who really like it. This piece was done in 1973, or that's when the book came out.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
So I'm assuming that the original was done around that time.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
If you look at each of the letters, they're...
GUEST:
Oh, yeah.
APPRAISER:
The letters are all animals, too. And unless you look at them closely, they're all...
GUEST:
I feel like a real dope.
APPRAISER:
(laughter)
GUEST:
I never-- I honestly never noticed that before.
APPRAISER:
Well, one of the reasons I noticed them...
GUEST:
Did you just make those change with your magic wand?
APPRAISER:
You said at first you couldn't afford it, then you could afford it...
GUEST:
And now we can no longer afford it.
APPRAISER:
Oh, okay, well...
GUEST:
So, we paid about $8,000 for it.
APPRAISER:
$8,000. That's not an unreasonable price, but it's definitely on the high end of what it is.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
If I was going to insure this, I would definitely insure it for that price. This is one of those things that, it's the top level, but you loved it and it grabbed you.
GUEST:
We both became huge fans of these artists and had a lot of their books, and, and are always on the lookout for stuff by them.
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