The Collector Effect (Happy Birthday, Edward Curtis)

Deluxe reprint of Edward Curtis's The North American Indian,
a fabulous bargain at $28,500

A recent episode (Season 2, Episode 8) of "The Grand Tour," Amazon's new reboot of the old "Top Gear," featured two rather odd cars: an exact duplicate (not replica) of a 1957 Jaguar XKSS, handmade by Jaguar, that sells for about a million pounds; and a near exact duplicate (it has modern brakes, among other things) of a 1959 Aston-Martin DB4 GT Lightweight, built by Aston Martin Works in the same Newport Pagnell factory where the original DB4 was built.

Why? Presenters Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond explain:

Jeremy: Now we should explain why Aston Martin and Jaguar have suddenly decided to start making cars from their back catalog, and really it's...well, it's secondhand values isn't it.

Richard: Well, basically, yeah. The last genuine original XKSS to sell went for over twelve million pounds.

Jeremy: Was it really twelve million.

Richard: Twelve million.

Jeremy: So anyone who buys that [indicates new/old XKSS]  for a million is getting the bargain of the century...

Richard: Yep.

Jeremy: ...And Jaguar's making more profit on that than it would from selling...

Richard: ...A hundred XE's.

Jeremy: Exactly. I wouldn't be at all surprised if other car makers don't start doing this. Ferrari, Maserati, Lambo....

And that's how one can arrive at the rather odd contention that buying a 60-year-old automobile (granted, in better than perfect condition) for a million UK pounds (about $1,400,000) amounts to "getting the bargain of the century."

Shaded Dogs
I first encountered this "Collector Effect" with vinyl records. In an era when CD had taken over and garden-variety new vinyl records were selling for $8–15 or thereabouts, a few enterprising entrepreneurs noticed that collectors were competing fiercely for original copies of famous classic records on the used market—"Shaded Dogs," original Blue Notes, etc.—and paying anywhere from $60–300 for them, or even more. So they started producing fine reissues of famous old records, lovingly reproduced, often pressed on "virgin vinyl" (as opposed to the partially recycled and adulterated vinyl commonly used in pressing plants back in the day), newly mastered from the original tapes lovingly fished out of record company vaults. The effect was the same—they could sell a new record for a higher-than-normal price, with a handsome profit margin, yet at the same time still be giving the record buyer a relative bargain. If you wanted "Saxophone Colossus" by Sonny Rollins (Prestige 7079, 1956) or Richard Strauss's "Also sprach Zarathustra" by Fritz Reiner and The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (RCA Living Stereo 1806), you had a choice—you could buy a used original for hundreds of dollars or a pristine reissue for $30 or $35.

Today, several businesses cater to record buyers, offering thousands of such reissues of famous records.

Happy 150th
And that explains why Christopher Cardozo's deluxe 150th Anniversary Custom edition of Edward S. Curtis's The North American Indian can be a wonderful bargain at $28,500. (And why the more affordable Complete Reference Edition with the same content put plainer bindings is useful, but not quite as much a bargain, at its price of $5,200 until May 15th and $6,500 thereafter.) It's because single volumes of plates of the original publication sell for ten to fifty thousand dollars, and the last complete set sold went for more than $1 million. The reprint, you see, is cheap (i.e., inexpensive).

Today, Friday, February 16th, 2018, is the sesquicentennial of the birth of the hardest-working photographer in history, Edward Sheriff Curtis. Salut, sir*. You can buy the bargain books here.

Mike
(Thanks to Mattias Jennerholm)

*And don't forget the great book about him, Timothy Egan's fine Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher. I think it's quite possible that no one will ever work as hard at being a photographer ever again.

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

hugh crawford: "That's about $1,120 retail per volume and a project like this can't be that big a seller. A handful of collectors and some institutions. I would imagine that if I were in charge of a library that held an original that I would get a copy to reduce wear on the original. Seems reasonably priced in that context.

"The original Jaguar XKSS was built by taking apart unsold D-Type racing cars and rebuilding them as the XKSS. Then the whole thing ended badly when the factory and, more importantly, the raw supply of D-Types burned to the ground. All of these new-old cars are made possible because the manufacturers generated a lot of paperwork and titles for cars that were either never built or had multiple serial numbers applied to the same car. Thus the old jokes about cars where '25 were built and only 70 survive.' Anyway, the original manufacturers have titles to cars that don't exist that would be worth millions if they did, and the resources to correct that problem. For another altogether more interesting approach to the reproducing old cars, google 'pur sang argentina.'"

Mike replies: ...And "Superformance," which I believe is in South Africa. Here's a nice video about the Pur Sang.

Howard: "An original XKSS resides in Clydes Restaurant's Race Bar in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Fun Fact is that the Bar is located in the basement and the car was placed there prior to construction."

Stan B.: "It was amazing to read how he evolved over the course of his work, and how dedicated he remained to his subject matter."

Gavin McLelland: "You may like this story about the Czech record plant enjoying a profitable period on the back of the vinyl revival."

Mike replies: Reminds me of a quote from the late Ian Brightman, then the owner of Beseler: "In a down market, the last man standing makes out like a bandit."

Comments

[Barry Reid]

In the realm of photo books don’t forget the more modest Errata Editions which do some interesting and relatively affordable reprint/facsimiles,

[Roger Bradbury]

I was in Newport Pagnell only this morning. The M1 motorway is very close, and some years ago Aston Martin regularly used it as a test track. I think they used it in the small hours, this being before the days of speed cameras.

[Mike Marcus]

Another great post, thanks for all the many years of memories.... The Egan book on Curtis is a great read. In the back chapter of that book, it mentions how an Indian art dealer in Santa Fe (Bob Kapoun) ended up buying most of the remaining unsold collection of the Curtis volumes. Every time I go to Santa Fe I go to his store (The Rainbow Man on E. Palace Ave, just east of the Palace of the Governors) just to look at all of the original Curtis prints for sale on the walls and in the portfolio room in the back of the store, where one can just flip through the stacks of Curtis prints (all of the time wishing that I had more fun tickets to bring some of the prints home with me). In fact, during one visit to that store, I was recommended to buy the Egan book, which I did. For those who might not know, the entire set of Curtis books, with the text and all of the prints, is online at http://curtis.library.northwestern.edu/curtis/toc.cgi

[Mike Marcus]

I should have added to my previous post, for those who need to do Curtis on the cheap, I recommend Don Gulbrandsen's "Edward S. Curtis, Visions of the First Americans" that provides nicely done reproductions of a selection of both Curtis' text and portfolio photos in a larger 10x14 inch volume; most photo are close to their original sizes. Also, the Taschen edition of "Edward S. Curtis, the North American Indian, The Complete Portfolios." While this volume has smaller photos, they are nicely reproduced. I have both, flip through them frequently, plus lend them to friends, and both are available from Amazon.

[Andrew Molitor]

I think the original Curtis books sold with a folio of prints, or something similar.

There is a hotel near where I live that appears to have a half dozen of these up on their walls, and if they're not originals they are very very very good reproductions. Incredibly, the staff seem to be completely unaware of what these things are.

I find the whole thing baffling. I assume that, with high probability, these things are almost astronomically valuable, but since they were acquired and hung by some previous generation of ownership, or at any rate staffing, they're largely unknown. I assume that some day they're going to have a designer "refresh" the lobby, and they'll all go in a dumpster.

[Speed]

Slightly related ... back in the 1940s, the US of A Federal Government would pay people to learn to fly a B-17. These days, the Experimental Aircraft Association is auctioning off a B-17, Second in Command Type Rating for (starting bid) $14,000.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/282848295696?rmvSB=true

Of course you won't have to quit your current job and it's not likely that anyone will be shooting at you when you complete the course.

[Adrian Ferre-D'Amare]

"the hardest-working photographer in history". What about Vittorio Sella?

[And August Sander was no slouch. Neither, for that matter, is Q.T. Luong. Lots of photographers were *very* hard workers, that's for sure. --Mike]

[scott kirkpatrick]

Linking over to the Jay Leno videos fills me with relief that I can watch such wonderful cars in action for free and only pull out my wallet to buy cameras and lenses. But does anybody know -- how does he drive them on public roads, especially with a camera truck close enough to shoot the video flybys and pick up the radio link to the lavaliere mike? A link to a "Making of" Leno's Garage would be greatly appreciated.

[Robert Gordon]

I saw an exhibition of the entire Curtis print collection at the Muskegon Museum of Art in August, 2017. Several audio recordings were included. Breathtaking.

I believe the exhibition was not scheduled to tour.

[Bob Curtis]

The entire original is available, virtually, here (can't smell the leather):

http://curtis.library.northwestern.edu/

[Mike Plews]

A couple of Non-Curtis observations if I may.
In the event I win the Powerball I will have to pass on an XKSS continuation but a Beck 904 would fit into my garage very nicely.
A couple of weeks ago I was in the Nebraska Furniture Mart. It is perhaps the smartest brick and mortar retailer in the country. I was looking for a bid on tiling my basement floor but also had time to look at a D750, a 65" Sony and audition a pair of Andrew Jones/Pioneer tower speakers.
On my way through the audio department I was tickled to see that they now stock turntables and high end LPs. I counted 9 different legit turntables. Warren Buffett owns this store and they don't stock items unless they think they will cash flow. Promising news for vinyl lovers.
Finally a prediction. If virgin vinyl remasters are making money the next logical step has to be a return to direct to disc recordings. I have a few and they really are special. Of course you need musicians that can play an entire side in one take and that may be a little bit too old school for today's crowd but if the LA 4 or T. Misago and His Tokyo Cuban Boys can do it...
Happy weekend all.

[John Holland]

Mike Plews,

W.r.t. direct-to-disc, it's already back:

http://www.chasingthedragon.co.uk/

Here's Youtube video of them cutting a record in 2017:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEbnB7vMUf0