The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-03
OLD PRINTS VALUABLE.
IF Kept Long Enough They Acquir
Good Intrinsic Properties.

'Tn our business we make it 3 rule
never to throw anything away" said
a dealer in old prints on Fourth ave-
nue.. II have kept engravings for years
until they became faded and yellow.
My wife-who is literally my partner
in the shop. since the business was
hers when I married her-has often
urged NE to throw them away, but I
refused Sooner or later 1 get my price
that well reDays me for all the trouble.
old sporting prints sell the best;
those gaudy colored things of pugilists
ana race track men that you see
framed and hung in the windows. I
still get orders for cOIored Autographs
OF the Heenan-Sayerss prize fight. Good
COPIES OF them bring as much as a
modern water color. Copies of old base
ball prints. such as the early games
between the MItuals of New York and
the original Athletics of Philadelphia.
are eonstantly asked for. Horse pic
lures, particularly of the trotting cir
cult races in the exter days. are as
good val lie as so many bank notes. So
are pictures of races on some OF the
! best known English tracks.
Iroorietors of read houses, saloons
frequented by the sporting fraternity.
ana stewards OF sporting clubs are the
usual purchasers OF old Autographs OF
TINS sort As general thing they want
good specimens. AMI they do not care
" nat tuey pay Tor fhen. so long as the
price is not rank extortion. These men
nave sense enough to know that a
dealer does not KEEP back number
prints for years without expecting to be
paid for them.
"A few days ago received a call
from a man who kept road house on
Long Island 1t was burned down. One
Of the best collections of sporting prints
IN this country was utterly destroyed.
He is building another road house and
wants TO dnnli69ta his old T1r-fn
possible OF course, he cannot do it,
any more than it would be possible to
reproduce a collection of theatrical
celebrities now in Wel1-ilnown Broad
way cslop house. But the man was
able to restore about one-third Of his
lost collection from my stock, and 1
think he will be able to do quite as well
from another man in the same line of
business on Shaftesbury avenue, Lon
don. The British old-print man and
myself are on the best of terms. We
are constantly calling on each other to
help out on an order.
Men come to New York from the
west and south. see an old engraving
of some sporting event in a road house
or a club and want one like it for their
own place. OF course, it is out of print,
and they have to rummage around in
places like this. A Chicago man paid
SIS the other day for very crude lith-
Ograph of the Sullivan-COrbett fight in
New Orleans. A great many old prints
find their way into the auction rooms,
where there is no immediate demand
for them. They can be bought cheap
as an investment. Most persons who
see them at auctions have no idea of
their value.
factors and professional people do
not have much call for. They have
other sources of supply. Once in a
while playwright comes in for print
TO give him an idea of costumes and
stage setting. Booth, Lawrence Barrett.
Jefferson, Henry Irving, Richard
Harding Davis, Clyde Fitch, Bronson
Howard and number of others, prom
inent in stage life have all been Gus
omers of mine. Charles and Daniei
F'rohman used to come here themselves.
but now they send subordinates. Last
winter I was offered $25 for that old
print of Billy Florence you see over
my desk 1t is not for sale Billy was
an old friend of mine, and I can afford
to keep t.''-Philadelphia Ledger.