1924 Charles Russell Watercolor
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GUEST:
This was given to my father in the early 1970s by a Will Rogers family member and he was a family friend and made a present of it to him so I thought it was kind of interesting and... and I knew it had some value because of the fact it was a Charlie Russell. What this was was a place card for a party in Hollywood in 1924. And, apparently, Charlie Russell was invited to the party and the host had Mr. Russell do a place card for each of the guests. And then when the guests got there, everybody signed the back of the place card.
APPRAISER:
Let's turn it over... look at all the names that are on it here. There's Will Rogers, Harry Carey, Betty Rogers, Gene Stratton Porter, Nancy Russell, Joe De Yong, Walter Dunton, Charles Russell, Edward Borein.
GUEST:
And my understanding was that the person who signed at the top, Will Rogers-- that was whose place card it was. So this was Will Rogers' place card.
APPRAISER:
Very exciting. The fair market value on it is going to be anywhere from $75,000 to $100,000.
GUEST:
Whoa!
APPRAISER:
The main reason is that this was done two years before Charlie Russell died, and this was during his pink period... and the Charles Russell collectors, along with all the autographs on the back-- some of the Taos Founders and some of the movie stars that have signed it-- it just makes it, like I say, the most exciting item I've seen today.
GUEST:
Oh, my gosh.
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