Featured Missed etching Salvador Dali

Hi!....I was a a estate sale recently where they had several Lithographs by Calder,Picasso and Salvador Dali....the first day of the Estate sale the Lithographs were from $600 -$800....of which was too rich for me....especially being that I wasn't sure if they were authentic I know very little about art.....on the last day I remembered at the last hour of the sale, so I arrived 20 minutes before closing .....the only thing left was the Salvador Dali etching of called Cervantes...it was still at $400 instead of the usual 50-60% off that is expected on the last day of a Estate sale...when I asked about the price...they said they were willing to negotiate......not sure if they were fakes and I didn't want to get burned.....I felt overwhelmed...so I left....but I still wonder if I made a mistake by not purchasing it for $250.....well here are the pics of some of the art work that was available....please feel free to share your thoughts.....Ps...although all was not lost...I went on to another Estate sale the same day looking for a vintage blue brooch...and found a great Mid century dresser with mirror by Willett...in great condition for very little....I will post pics at a later date in the furniture section...

 

Others will absolutely know more than me, but my first thought is that there's a lot of variables involved in these: dates, printers, editions, signatures etc. Unless I felt real confident in my knowledge (which I don't) I woulda just admired them too.

 

I would have to remove it from frame. Sometimes you get lucky with just a loop but an offset lithograph underglass can still be tricky.

 

You made a good choice to pass on the Dali etching. It is a collectors guild edition , I own one, I paid $10. They sell for around $100. My impression is the rest of the prints were also over priced. I recognize the Calder, I saw one at an estate sale recently.

 

Thanks!...I feel better about not purchasing it

 

....the Estate sale home had vintage Mid century furniture....but I became suspicious because they had so many Lithographs and or etchings by very famous artists....not that they couldn't have been a collector that acquired the art work over the years....but there were so many in one place?...they had about 5 others that I didn't take pics of....and then I thought if they could sell these at a auction for more money.....why have them here at a Estate sale for less?.....this is also one of the lithographs that they had for sale........

 

Lithographs are just a higher end print. The majority of these are around the 100 to 200 dollar range. The prices on them are way too high. I assume whoever was selling them threw a price on the wall and hopefully it worked.

 

Well done on making the right decision (and listening to your
instinct) I know it’s very difficult to sometimes just walk away (especially when you are in the moment and not sure) One can get overwhelmed (my own experience) I have very limited knowledge so I also struggle sometimes but I try and be more ‘disciplined’

 

Just wanted to say how much I agree with this. These days I’d personally never spend serious money on a framed print unless it came with cast-iron provenance. With loose prints however there are often a multitude of clues relating to printing process, paper manufacture, watermarks, border annotations etc. If you then match it with the catalogue raisonne for Dali etchings and prints things can start to get interesting……

 

Agreed, I actually bought a fake Dali once, a really well done one. I went to the library and got the catalog raisonne. Turns out, it was a well documented fake and was in the catalog. I sold it for a healthy profit because it was collectible as a well known fake. I believe the title was something like “Paranoic Village”.

 

Over time, my guy and myself became wiser with our bidding at Estate Sales. Our first one was brutal but we did learn as the years have passed.

 

I've heard this referred to as 'tuition.'

Maybe that way it's a little easier to accept.