Thrift-Store Luck

I needed a pair of thick work gloves recently, to deal with locust seedlings.

If I had the money, I'd chop down the locust tree on my property. Very aggressive reproducer, that ornery son-of-a-bitch, and its progeny are vigorously defended by long, stiff, sharp thorns. The local Tractor Supply had gloves like I needed, but for more than $20. Inflation's been killing me. So I went to the local thrift shop and asked. They might have some, the lady allowed; upstairs, third room on the right or whatever. When I got there, there was one pair of work gloves, just sitting there all by their lonesome, and they happened to be exactly what I needed. And they fit. Back downstairs at the counter: 20¢. I gave her $2, in furtherance of their mission. One-tenth the price of new still seemed like a stellar bargain to me. 

That's how I get lucky at thrift stores, and it seems like it often happens. I'm grateful!

But my luck pales on comparison to the luck of a woman who was browsing through the framed art in a thrift store in New Hampshire and happened upon this:

She didn't recognize the artist...but I would have, instantly. I loved illustrators as a boy, and I knew N.C. Wyeth from his many illustrations for a series of books called Scribner's Classics, big black hardbound books with letterpress pages and tipped-in illustrations. I can tell a Wyeth from thirty feet. He illustrated titles like Robin Hood, Treasure Island, and The Boy's King Arthur. He inspired me to commit larceny once: I liked one illustration so much that I carefully detached it from the school library book where I found it, and stole it!

The woman who found this painting made the right move. She purchased it. Price: four dollars. It ended up at her home buried in a closet with some other stuff. Eventually she found out who painted it, and learned that it was the original. You can read more about that here. It's called "Señora Gonzaga Moreno and Ramona," painted as an illustration for Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona.

This story has not one but two happy endings. After feeling guilty for a good long while—more than a year—I signed out that library book again, carefully glued my pilfered illustration back in where it belonged, and resolved not to be the kind of person who vandalizes books. And "Señora Gonzaga Moreno and Ramona" was successfully auctioned by Bonhams Skinner a week or so ago for $191,000 including premiums. Now that's thrift-store luck!

The fate of art
Personally, I'm glad for her, but you know what I'm most grateful for? That the painting didn't perish. The fortunes of art in the world are various and perilous, and you never know where things are going to end up or what their fate will be. For every valuable old painting that's found on the curbside in the trash awaiting pickup, there's probably another than actually ended its existence in a landfill.

An item on my bucket list: to pay a visit to the Brandywine River Museum, which has many of N.C. Wyeth's paintings. Yes, it will be nothing but indulgent nostalgia, but what's wrong with that? Jim Schley suggested to me that each of us—all of us who like art—should "engage" with a few selected authors and artists in our lifetimes, really get to know them and their work, simply because it's a good way to get to grip with art and we can't do it with everyone. Newell Convers Wyeth is one of those touchstone artists for me.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2023 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. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)

Featured Comments from:

David Lee: "I friend of mine ended up with an Edward Weston print, right out of a box that belonged to his father. He had no idea that it was valuable. His wife just hung it on a wall behind the bar. I am pretty sure I already shared this story here, so I won’t bore you. The print was a gift from Weston to my friend's grandfather."

Mike replies: I'll just point out that Matt Witkovsky, Curator of Photography and Media at the Art Institute of Chicago (to whom I was introduced through Ken Tanaka), once said to me, "You can't get a good Weston for less than $800,000 these days." And that was probably ten years ago now.

Kenneth Tanaka: "Didn’t you recently announce that off-topic posts would be henceforth limited to Wednesdays?"

Mike replies: I'm not scolding you, but can't see how this can be considered off-topic. Goes to interacting with art, the visual life, caring about images, personal influences, the place of art and artists in our lives, the fate of art-objects, looking at art, recognizing style, etc. If this is off-topic, then I'm writing the wrong website.

Jim: "In the early 1970s I was a poor photography student. Driving around near Waxahachie, Texas, I was driving down a dirt road when I passed an old barn. In the open door was the unmistakable front of a Rolls-Royce! As I was getting out of my vehicle, an elderly lady came out if her house. She asked if I wanted to see the Rolls-Royce, which I certainly did! It was a 1928 Rolls-Royce Phantom, which I recall as being like Scrooge McDuck’s vehicle. The chauffeur sat in an open cockpit, while the passenger rode in sumptuous splendor, surrounded by beautiful woodwork and luxurious velvet. The lady told me it still ran, as far as she knew, and I could have it for $4,000. At the time, I would have had to scrimp to come up with $40!"

Comments

[MikeR]

Love the Brandywine. My wife and I visit at least annually. The one piece that they do not have, Groundhog Day, is in the Philadelphia Museumof Art collection. At an Andrew Wyeth retrospective there a number of years ago, one wall was dedicated to the evolution of that painting. I spent a half hour on just that wall.

If you go, contact me. Maybe catch a coffee in their cafe?

[MikeR]

... and plan for enough time to visit NC's well preserved studio, and some of the other sites in "Wyeth country. "

[Leonard Salem]

RE your penultimate paragraph: a presenter on the UK programme "Antiques Roadshow" recently said at the end of a programme in which a woman learnt that her bronze statuette was worth over 100K GBP, that "we never own anything, we are but custodians". He was obviously principally talking about art and other items of historical/cultural significance, and I may have slightly misquoted him, but the sentiment stayed with me and you repeated it.

[Jim Meeks]

My wife and I have both been lucky at thrift stores and antique malls and perhaps art school has paid off after all. I found three photos by Wright Morris at an estate sale and got them for cheap. We sold them and paid off my wife's student loan. She then found a pre-Columbian piece of gold at a thrift and eventually sold it for a decent amount. Just this last summer we went to an antique mall, and I found a work by Holly Roberts (paints and collages on photos) and got it at a very good price. I like her work but it's a bit big for our walls so I'm not sure what I'll do with it.

[Carl Siracusa]

I share your admiration for N.C. Wyeth's art. But before you make the trek to see it in the Brandywine River Museum, you may want to call ahead. Very little of it is on permanent display; it's mostly in storage. At least, that's what I discovered in several visits in recent years.

[Carl Siracusa]

Oops, forgot to mention that the museum owns N.C. Wyeth's house and studio, which is fascinating and definitely worth a visit! https://www.brandywine.org/museum/historic-artists-studios/nc-wyeth-house-studio

[JH]

Karen and I spend almost every Saturday prowling the art galleries in LA and often find wonderful things to see. Last Saturday, we caught the closing DAY of an exhibit at Fahey-Klein gallery that was one of those experiences - an exhibition of photos by Alan Ginsberg. The famous "Beat Poet" shot many photos of himself and his friends that documented the beat generation - Kerouac, Burroughs, even a photo of a very young Ai Weiwei sitting on a sidewalk sketching portraits of people! https://img.artlogic.net/w_1800,h_1800,c_limit/exhibit-e/5769730d87aa2c756368dbf5/7b868c71dd858e78509771af8a38562d.jpeg
You can scroll through the exhibit here:
http://www.faheykleingallery.com/exhibitions/muses-self?view=slider#17

BTW, another place to view photos in LA is the Leica Gallery:
https://leicagalleryla.com

[Gary Merken]

Now if someone can find the 13 works of art stolen from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.

The Museum is offering a $10 million reward for information leading directly to the safe return of the stolen works, which were painted by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Manet, Degas, and others.

[William Lewis]

I enjoy N.C.'s work but I love the work of his son Andrew even more. I dearly love his paintings of Helga Testorf. Thank you for the reminder of this great family (the grandson too!) of American art.

[crabby umbo]

Gotta pal that found a excellent condition Rolleiflex in a St. Vincent DePaul in the 80's for 15 bucks! Still makes me mad, as it was in my neighborhood...

[David Dyer-Bennet]

When I was a teenager one heard "thrift store luck" stories about people finding Leica cameras there (or in garage sales). I probably didn't go to enough thrift stores and garage sales, and I never really believed it would work for me.

[KeithB]

I found a Kodak 1A Autograph in a thrift store for about $100.
https://www.gregoryowain.co.uk/blog/no1-pocket-kodak-review-amp-guide

[Christer Almqvist]

Over the years, I have got a lot of good stuff from local thrift shops; useful and beautiful. No more. Nowadays I only bring stuff. May have something to do with my progressing age. Anyway, it make me feel good, at least a little bit.

[Patrick]

I'm glad you returned that pilfered page from the book. I might have thought a little less of you if just taking it (stole it!) was the end of the story.