Ogden, Utah Bird's Eye View, ca. 1915
GUEST:
We go to quite a few yard sales, garage sales.
APPRAISER:
Yeah?
GUEST:
And we went to one, and this lady had this one in Preston, Idaho, and she wanted two dollars for it. And I thought, "Well, two bucks is all right," but I wasn't very impressed with it. (laughing)
APPRAISER:
You're not that keen on maps like this, right?
GUEST:
No, not really.
APPRAISER:
So it was just... you thought it was a good deal?
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
A good deal, so we took it.
GUEST:
Obviously it's a bird's-eye view. It's a bird's-eye view of Ogden, Utah. And here is downtown Ogden along here. And it's an advertising poster for a development called Washington Heights. And if we look down here to the south, you can see the layout of all the streets. And you can see here that it says that they've got this "1,200-acre residence park "owned and planned and developed "by the Federal Land and Mortgage Company, Luther S. Foss, General Manager." Now you're from Idaho, is that right?
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And actually it turns out Luther Foss was from Idaho, but he was a Mormon, and he traveled around the world. And when he came back, he ended up in Ogden, and became the general manager of this land and mortgage company. And they decided to do this development, Washington Heights. And this poster was put out, we figure about 1915. We couldn't actually date it, but that's about when the mortgage company was going, and it seems like that's when they were developing this. And it's a fabulous view. And it shows Ogden. And Washington Heights, as you can see, is actually just as big and looks just as prominent. And the idea was this will be the place to move in Ogden. And it's set against the mountains, which are wonderful. Now, bird's-eye views like this are actually one of the hottest kind of American prints. And there's actually a book by a guy named John Reps, which lists every bird's-eye view he could find in the United States. This is not in it. Which is interesting-- that means it's quite rare. Now, obviously it's got serious condition issues. That affects the value as well. Now, you paid two dollars for it.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Do you have any guess what you think it might be worth?
GUEST:
I wouldn't even guess. (laughing) Two dollars was a big deal for that.
APPRAISER:
(laughing) All right. Well, even in this condition, I think in a retail environment that it would probably be priced at about $1,200 to $1,400.
GUEST:
Pretty good investment. (laughing) I don't know. It's a lot better now looking than it was before. (laughing)
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