Question
Kevin...I seem to remember you talking about selling old photographs, so I think you may be the person to answer my questions...please.
I just bought a box lot of glass slides. I have about 6 9" by 12" glass plates that are identified on the box as being glass negatives...these are photos of the sporting club at Monte Carlo and the jail and police station at Nice...thye appear to be c1910 or so. I also have about 25 slides of Italy...these appear to be commercial slides as they have a series number on them and an identification of the image in three different languages...plus they all have a black border around the edge where the writing is.
I'm not sure if these have any value or not...but they weren't why I bought the lot...I bought it for the 65 3" square glass slides of the middle east.
There is one slide of T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), 3 slides of King Faisal I of Iraq, 1 of Harry St John Philbey, 1 of Col Leachman (a colleague of Lawrence), 3 of Capt A H Roberts (he was military governor of Zobair), Abdallah Ibn Hussein - brother of King Faisal and ruler of Trans Jordan, plus other people of the Arab world...also pictures of life in bagdad (open air cafe, cobbler at work, street begger, etc), scenes in Basrah, scenes in egypt (a group playing cards, palace servants gossiping, etc).
First question...is there any value in these? I think there is historical value, but is there any monetary value?
Second..can I just scan these for my auction pictures? What category do I list them under?
Thanks for any help
Sharron
Answer
G'day Sharronn,
I have only been looking in very irregularly over the last week or two, so I was lucky to find this on the same day.
I personally steer clear of glass slides and negatives because they are very fragile, particularly for sending internationally, but there seems to be some interest in them. I haven't followed the glass slide/negative market for this reason, but I will give a general overview of your subject matter. Specialist collectors will probably be keen on subjects that they like, if they do not have images the same or in that format. The only glass slide I have sold in the last couple of years was of Jenolan Caves (collected by cave photograph collectors) and made $44 - so, yes, the right material will have a monetary value.
Most general photographs and stereoviews of France are hard to sell. You may have a chance of pushing Casino aspects of Monte Carlo, but I have only had flat results even on casino interiors for some unknown reason. Police collectors may buy the Police station shot, but I have found non USA police photographs to sell lower than I expected.
Photo's and stereoviews of Italy often surprise me, because some of the very common images will sell well, and there seem to be some serious Italy collectors out there. If there is nothing of "special" subject matter in the group, I would be inclined to list the Italian slides as a single lot (at what I am happy to let them go for) and hope that I got competitive bidding on them (I probably would not list the French slides, except the more specialised items).
I would list the identified individuals seperately, but do not know enough about any of them, except T.E.Lawrence, to know whether they will attract interest. The rest of the middle East, I would probably be inclined to list in groups for each country represented.
However, bear in mind that I have not been watching this area of the market, and do some completed searches to see how similar material has been selling.
They tend to photograph better with light behind them, and I have seen scanners with a light in the lid designed for taking scans of negatives and similar - they work will if you are lucky enough to know someone with one. Otherwise the Jenolan Caves one I mentioned above, my photographer just held in straight sunlight coming in through a window and used his digital camera with enough success.
Categories:
Collectibles: Photographic Images: Antique (Pre-1940): Magic Lantern Glass Slides (#14278)
and those Middle East with a military crossover may also go okay in Militaria World War One categroies.
Don't know if this really helps, but hopefully is some food for further thought.
Cheers, Kevin
Answer
Kevin
Thanks for your help. I did think the Italy ones should go as a group. The Monte Carlo ones has one with an old Rolls Royce in the picture but unfortunately part of the car is covered by a lampost in the foreground.
Many of the people in the mid-east photos are those people who were involved in the Arab rebellion during WWI. The role of Prince Faisal (later King of Iraq) was played by Alec Guinnes in the film Lawrence of Arabia.
Thanks for the hints on taking pictures of these...I think I will use my husband's enlarger to provide the light...that should work.
again, thanks for your help