A Few Musings About Collecting

I've always wanted to be a collector. I have the gene. (Although I don't have quite enough organizing ability.) But I've never had the means, or the space (which are two aspects of the same thing).

I've told this story on myself before, and it's embarrassing to me now, but it's also instructive.

When I was young I was very interested in books. In Washington D.C. I befriended Bill Hale of William F. Hale books and his mentor across the street, the novelist Larry McMurtry. Larry was first a reader, second a bookman, and third a writer of novels—he won the Pulitzer Prize for his epic Western Lonesome Dove in 1985 (it was also a series of made-for-TV movies). Larry once quit a teaching post at Yale because it interfered too much with his reading time—he said, "instead of spending time talking about reading, I would rather read."

Among other things, I read—voraciously at first—about reading, bookmaking, and book collecting. I decided I might collect fine press books, and an early if obvious enthusiasm along these lines was the book designer Bruce Rogers. So from Larry's tiny little Shangri-la of a bookshop on 31st Street in Georgetown I purchased a three-volume set of John Florio's translation of Montaigne, designed by Rogers. It was a magnificently well made set of books, and I swelled with pride to own it. Admiring it on my shelf, I considered that I was on my way.

There was only one little problem: the set had cost $800 or so, which at the time was a very large subset of "all the money I had." It had failed to occur to my evidently very small brain that to collect books, or at any rate books that other people already valued, required something called resources, which I did not have.

This may be why I'm such an enthusiast of putting nice things in peoples' hands for relatively little dough (is dough still slang for money, or is that just too Edward G. Robinson now? Translated into English: dosh). I always try to make sure that the things we bring you here are bargains.

My "book collection" stood at one title for some number of months while the truth wormed its way laboriously through the thick plate of my skull. Finally, when no others could join it and it began to look lonely, and then accusatory, and finally pathetic there on the shelf all alone, a large tripartite monument to my folly, I sold it back to Larry, who generously gave me all my money back. Larry was very kind—he also gave me a binder's copy of the first Irish edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which someday I will have rebound...probably just before I head for the George.

Not cheap, inexpensive
I wonder if people appreciate being able to buy top-flight signed collector prints for a mere $350, which was the amount I was instructed in photography school to sell my student prints for...way back in the 1980s.

It's not always the right move. In one long-ago print sale here on top, we were selling a print for something like $100, and I got a call from a man who really wanted one. But he had a big problem. He said he lived in a $3 million house, and he didn't have a single piece of art on his walls that cost less than $5,000, and he was very reluctant to hang a $100 print in his home. Of course I quickly offered to sell him the same print for $5,000, but, while that seemed a perfect solution to me, it did not seem so to him. We both ended up deprived on that occasion.

And another story on the same lines—when I taught high school in the '80s, I took portraits of some of my students for the yearbook, charging only $100 for expenses, which I thought was a nominal fee. But there was one girl whose mother wouldn't let her hire me. Her father was famous—if you're anywhere near my generation, you would know who he is—and the family was very wealthy. The mother simply refused to let her daughter pay $100 for her yearbook portrait. It just wasn't enough. So they hired the most fashionable society photographer in Georgetown at the time, and the girl asked me for a bunch of samples of my work, and she took my samples to the other photographer and asked her to make a portrait in the same style. So they got a portrait pretty much like one of mine, but they got to pay $1,200 for it, which was much more satisfactory to them.

So I just wanted to say, if anyone would feel more comfortable paying $1,200 for one of our current Turnley prints—more in line with what they go for in galleries—I will be most happy to try to talk Peter into accommodating you. That's how cooperative a fellow I am.

For everyone else, I hope the nice accommodating price will help you to have more than one single solitary print in your photography collection.  :-)

Mike

P.S. Regarding Bruce Rogers, Paragraphs on Printing is a fascinating window into the world of type design and book design. But it's a book I love, so I can't be objective about it.

P.P.S. Regarding Edward G. Robinson, it's not widely remembered now, but he was among Hollywood's first major art collectors. If you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, search for an article called "Hollywood's First Great Art Collector."

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:

Stephen Scharf: "My advice: stay away from collecting watches (if you think camera-owners suffer from GAS...). Particularly the exceptionally well-regarded-by-watchonistas German brand, Sinn (pronounced "Zinn"). Superb German quality and execution with functionally beautiful, legible design at a fraction of Swiss watch prices.

"It's very easy to become a Sinner; you've been warned!  ;-)"Picture here: my beloved Sinn 104i (photo by yours truly)."

Geoff Wittig: "I went through a phase of diligent book collecting centered on exactly the same kind of thing you did, Mike. Bruce Rogers was by common consent the most brilliant book designer in American history. He designed exquisite books ranging from very expensive limited editions to trade hardcovers that were nearly as beautiful. His goal was to carefully tailor the typeface, typesetting, page design, even the paper and the smell of the ink, to echo the message of the text, without overpowering it. I probably have about 20 Rogers-designed books in my collection.

"But it's not nearly as much fun collecting books as it used to be. Circa 1990, this meant combing through shelved and piled up books in musty little 'used and rare' bookstores, preferably in remote locations. My best finds were in small bookstores in Vermont, and they were quite affordable. All this changed when the Internet arrived. Overnight, bookstores listed their best fine books on-line; prices skyrocketed and serendipitous finds disappeared. Now it's all about the Benjamins."

David Brown: "Your story about the school portraits reminds me of trying to sell my wife's car about 10 years ago. There was really nothing wrong with it, but the dealer didn't want it, so they only offered $1,000 on trade in. Low book value was $3,500, so I decided to sell it myself. I listed it on Craigslist for $3,200, hoping for a quick sale. The only responses I got were people asking if I would take $500. I took down the ad, and drove the car myself for the summer. Then one day, on a whim, I listed it on Craigslist for $5,000. I immediately had several positive inquiries. The car was sold within hours, at full asking price. Apparently the low initial asking price had put people off. The Turnley prints are beautiful. I'm running out of wall space, but I may bite anyway. Thank you for these print sales, they are a great service to the community."

Comments

[Bill Mitchell]

I bought and enjoy his books, (thanks to your recommendations), but I wouldn't pay for those prints. I just don't find them interesting enough to have them framed and hang on my walls.
OTOH I consider the pittance that I paid for your Gordon Lewis print to be money well spent. I enjoy looking at it, and automatically smile just a little.
One man's ARBUS is another man's MAPPLETHORPE.

[alex-virt]

You mentioned Edward G. Robinson as an art collector, and it reminded me a funny scene with the abstract painting from The Little Giant (1933):
"This is genuine Ka... Kaputsevich!"
"Who's he?"
"The guy who painted this."

Sorry, couldn't find it on Youtube.

[Speed]

The WSJ article Mike mentioned is here:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hollywoods-first-great-art-collector-1437077680

(Some WSJ articles are free for non-subscribers)

What began as a hobby turned into a compulsion, so much so that he and his first wife and son sat in 1939 for Édouard Vuillard, who did a pastel portrait of them. “It is short of a masterwork,” Robinson cheerfully admitted. “Paintings on commission usually are. But it beats hell out of a Kodak snapshot.”

Mike's hundred dollar portrait story calls up ...

Cecil Graham: What is a cynic?
Lord Darlington: A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.
Cecil Graham: And a sentimentalist, my dear Darlington, is a man who sees an absurd value in everything and doesn’t know the market price of any single thing.

― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

[Mike Plews]

A little note on how you might fall into book collecting by accident.
Back in the early 1980's Mrs Plews spent some time working for a local fine book dealer. Part of his business was distributing the work of Harry Duncan who printed hand made letterpress books of poetry at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Before this I hadn't given a thought to book design or typography. Seeing Harrys work was a revelation. We were dirt poor at the time but found enough to put ourselves on the standing order list for his work and started buying what we could of his earlier stuff.
Harry only printed between 150 and 250 copies of any book and they were both affordable and infrequent enough that we were able to keep getting the them until he passed away.
One of my favorites was his printing of Charles Martins translation of the poems of Catullus which I believe is also out there as a trade book.
If Harry Duncan still does not ring a bell here is his obituary.

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/23/arts/harry-duncan-80-hand-printer-of-literary-works-dies.html

In a way being on the standing order list was a little like what TOP is doing with prints. It made it possible for us to have original works of a very high quality without missing a house payment to do it.

[hugh crawford]

"One man's ARBUS is another man's MAPPLETHORPE"
They seem like pretty close neighbors in the universe of photographers, and I'd be happy to have a print by either.

Anne Geddes on the other hand...

[John Camp]

My most expensive (and I have to say, beautifully printed and bound) books are the two-volume set of "The Complete Far Side" by Gary Larson, the cartoonist. Impressed even a good friend of mine who once ran a snotty bookstore.

[Stan B.]

I've accumulated a nice little (definitely well over 100) photo book collection over the years, some are even worth a coupla bucks. I just buy the ones I like (and can afford), don't care if they are signed, first addition, whatever... General rule of thumb- they must have at least 20 images I love!

[David Kieltyka]

Re. Bruce Rogers, in the early '90s I stumbled upon a copy of The Centaur Types, being sold as new, in a Borders bookshop. Knowing a bit about the Centaur typeface and its history, I assumed the book was a reprint 'til I cracked it open and noted the ever-so-slightly yellowed paper and musty smell. Turned out it was among the 1000 (or so) copies printed when the book was published in 1948. A book buyer for Borders had discovered copies were available from Perdue U. and so had bought some to sell in a few select stores.

[James Bullard]

Ah, would that I could get $350 for one of my prints, unmatted and unframed. In a good year I might sell one (1) signed 11"x17" print on 13x19 paper matted archivally and framed for $250 minus a 35-40% gallery fee. In a fantastic year I might sell two such prints. In 2018, none (yet).

I have been all over on pricing. In art school, I, like you, was told to charge a lot with the result that I sold nothing so I tried the 'affordable' route and sold... next to nothing. So I have come down to where I'm at which is a 'craft' pricing under which I figure the cost of producing the print multiplied by 4. 25% goes to production, 50% goes to gallery fees, transporting work to galleries for shows, entry fees (paid whether it sells or not), web presence, etc. and I end up with 25% (roughly). I am priced competitively in the area I am in but most of what I create does not sell so I have bins and boxes full of prints as does every other photographer I know. For that matter, the same is true of all the painters I know.

Selling art sucks as a business. Most businesses research the market, create a product that they are sure will sell and have it mass produced as cheaply as possible to sell by the bazillion. Artists produce unique individual works then hope that someone will like them well enough to buy them at a price that will allow them to more. It's more like religion than business, a lot of faith and hope.

I don't buy prints in your sales not because I consider the prints too inexpensive to add to my collection. Rather, I'm already up to my ears in art, not just my own, but work I have swapped with other artists whose work I like and the occasional bargain under $100. And then there's the "I can't afford to pay $350 for a print I'm not totally blown away by" thing. I'd have to borrow the money and I'm not that dedicated a collector.

[Steve Jacob]

For my sins, I used to work for a large IT consultancy firm. It was well known and had a global reputation, so clients would often retain us as a form of reassurance (misplaced) or to prove to their peers that they could afford the best (misguided).

I was actually negotiating the price of an engagement with the CTO of a bank, who told me that the bid was too low. He then explained that he was only responsible for procurement sign offs in excess of a million dollars, and would have to get some operations manager to sign off, which would delay everything.

Needless to say I offered some 'value added' (meaningless) additional services to get the price up to £1.2m and he signed right away. We both knew it was a sham, but the money was largely immaterial. It was practically leaking out of the faucets in the executive bathroom.

Later on, myself and several colleagues joined a boutique company set up by our former boss. Our rates were considerably lower, but we ended up haggling for every cent. Clients were getting the same (or better) service for a fraction of the cost, but our perceived value was lower and we were bidding to less affluent clients.

We still did OK, very well in fact, but you certainly don't get what you pay for in this world.

[Steve Jones]

I used to collect albums, focusing on just a few artists for the most part. And I never spent more than US$25 on any one particular item. So a few decades later, I’ve accumulated stacks of 1970’s Bowie albums, five different pressings of the Sex Pistol’s Never Mind the Bollocks, and Nirvana’s first Sub Pop single, which my roommate gave me for free back in 1989 (he had two other copies, and at that time, who knew…fortunately not him).

Selling is not in the future, although it’s nice to know that some sort of favorable rate of return exists.

The collector bug diminished over the years, and no desire exists to adorn my shelves with pretty but effectively dormant cameras. To be sure, having a 1960 Leica M2 Luftwaffe edition would be all the rage. Retentive paranoia, however, would thwart usage, posing a Catch 22. And my current camera and lens set up is perfect.

Anyway, aside from photographic supplies, most of my money goes to photography books, which serve more for viewing than for financial appreciation. For one thing, moving too much militates against mint condition. But even on the unintended collector’s side, I reckon I have done well with some of Mike’s recommendations, most notably Edward Weston’s Life Work (Lodima).

Oh, and should I start selling prints, I’ll remember now to shoot for US$5,000, but of course, be happy for a fraction of that.

[Eolake]

A good friend of mine (who I used to buy nudes from for my web site) shoots landscapes and wildlife. He is not a name as art photographer, and yet he sells prints for 3,000 to 5,000 bucks in loads, to collectors, businesses, hotels... (They are half-metre to metre prints.)
He says he would not sell many more prints if he charged only a fifth for them.

[Eolake]

Steve Jacob wrote:
“We both knew it was a sham, but the money was largely immaterial. It was practically leaking out of the faucets in the executive bathroom.”

It is revolting the way money is mishandled and misdistributed in this world. And it never seems to have anything to do with actual value.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

Modern editions of books published for the purpose of demonstrating fine book-making tend to be very expensive. I instead sometimes try to get early or signed editions of books whose text means something to me, or where I have some connection with the author. So I've got lots of signed copies of first editions from people I know (the most valuable being probably the American first edition of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, signed by both authors -- worth quite a few hundreds, but cost me about $25 plus having it with me when I had them both in the same room), and first editions (from the 1950s) of all Edward E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman series and such. No signed Heinlein, my photos of him that are on various book covers and web sites came from using my brief access to him for more photos rather than autographs.

I do have a number of Easton Press editions of SF books, which are modern and aimed at relatively high quality, but they sell to subscribers for under $100 usually, and often less on the used market, so they're not competing with your $800 specials (these are not hand-typeset or anything, though they are leather bound and gilt-edged and so forth; but the mass-production level of fancy book production, not the super-expensive by-hand fancy book production).

[Geoff Wittig]

David Kieltyka-
I also stumbled across a copy of Bruce Rogers' book The Centaur Types at a Borders bookstore back in the day. It's a beautiful book, not least because it was written and printed by Rogers himself. Ironically it has some historical inaccuracies, as Rogers was quite aged when he produced it. Purdue was Rogers' Alma Mater and holds his archives.
You may be interested in a newer book about the Centaur type, Kelly & Beletsky's The Noblest Roman: A History of the Centaur Types of Bruce Rogers. It's very nicely printed using a new digital reproduction of Centaur.
https://www.amazon.com/Noblest-Roman-History-Centaur-Rogers/dp/1567925820

[Dave Polaschek]

For what it's worth, I've bought prints from the sales before and been very happy. For this one, I'm going to pass, though. I made myself a promise that the only shopping I was going to do between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year was for essentials. Groceries and gas. Maybe a few toiletries. I guess band-aids would be ok, too. Books? Nope. New gear? Nope. And alas, new artwork? Also nope. Sorry.

[Zack Schindler]

If you want to see some serious GAS take a look at this guys equipment. I had seen him on DPR and written to him as he lives near me. Turns out that he only collects stuff and does not shoot much. Bet he has over $150,000 of stuff here. Check out his Leica lens list! Why someone would own all this and not use it is beyond my understanding. https://www.dpreview.com/members/8130622742/gearlist

[Howard]

HBO is currently running the documentary "Price of Everything"- it's a SMH but worthwhile piece to watch.

[SMH means "shake my head" —Ed.]

[Ilkka]

I have a Sinn. Great value for money. If only it would stop there. But no. I have 10-15 others...
My only excuse is that I have way more cameras than that.

[Bill Mitchell]

Your article was good, but I think that it's the comments (like these) which forces me to read your blog (nearly) every day.

[John Krumm]

We have an eclectic and low budget art collection, and I like it, even though it looks partly like an expanded display of the posters we had after college (we still have a few of those, like the Paul Klee I can see right now). We mostly stick to buying the occasional local work, and that tends to keep things affordable for us, maybe in the $50-$500 range. It also means we don't buy much, because most art, generally, is bad.

Many painters and other graphic artists these days, when they get modestly popular, seem to make a good bit of their money selling good quality inkjet copies of their work, which I appreciate. I have no problem "collecting" a nicely produced copy instead of the original. Not so different than getting a nicely bound book, when you think about it.

[Dori]

Seems to me it's best collecting digital works nowadays. Easy to store, backup, move, pass along, etc. Just make sure you go with a decent standard and keep up to date with the software needed to enjoy them.

[Daniel]

http://mentalfloss.com/article/48844/how-working-class-couple-amassed-priceless-art-collection

The Vogels built an art collection with basic knowledge, improved on through the years and seeing good work while buying the work they liked from young Artists.

[David Kieltyka]

Geoff Wittig, thanks for the link to The Noblest Roman. I'm vaguely familiar with the Halberstam version. :)
(Also, musta had the ethics of chicken farming on my mind re. "Perdue U."

[Dogman]

I guess I'm a collector. Not prints, however. I have several bookcases overflowing with photography books, some quite valuable I understand. But I don't intend to ever part with them. I've run out of space at present so I've forced myself to stop looking at new releases and used books for sale.

I've also had an on-again/off-again fascination with pocket knives for a very long time...since I was a child actually. I have a couple of hundred (maybe more) squirreled away in boxes and cabinets around the house. None are particularly valuable and I my buying habits are democratic to say the least. If I like it and can afford it, I'll buy it.

Some people accuse me of collecting cameras as well. I do have quite an accumulation of them but I wouldn't call it a collection.