The Autotype Company. Do their prints have any value?

I have traced The Autotype Company up until 1906 and they may have been trading as late as the 1950s, but probably no longer producing prints.
We have one of their prints of Frans Hals so called "Laughing Cavalier" Item 84 listed on pg 40 of their 1906 catalogue and illustrated in their Wallace Collection plate XXXL facing pg 122.


We now want to dispose of it, but does it have any value or should we just put it up on Ebay?


Back Label



Autotype Logo





Detail of frame (possibly not original Autotype)

 

You need to post pictures.

 

Thanks, does that help?

 

The company address dates yours to between 1883 and 1905.

Debora

 

I’m probably way off but one or two things not adding up for me here. First of all the label appears to be for a William J Stillman autotype of Rome rather than the Laughing Cavalier. Secondly at the time of that label the Autotype Company was using innovative approaches to the photo-mechanical creation of prints which, based on the ones I’ve seen, were monochrome (though with the intense detail of photogravures). Thirdly I’m just not recognising that logo. I do wonder (probably totally wrongly) if this is a ‘marriage’ of a pre-used frame with a first half 20th century print. Did you track that logo down?

 

That is certainly an interpretation I had not thought of. I always took it to mean that the print was sent to Mr Stillman in Rome on loan and should be returned to Autotype at some point. Note the word "FROM" has been struck through. The meaning of "No2" is unclear.
Although the catalogue I found dates from 1906, there is no indication of when the print was made. It could have been any time in the preceding 40 -50 years. There is no date information.
I have not tracked down the logo, and a reverse google image search reveals nothing. But I did find the following reference to the company in the National Archives here which leads to some further information in the London Metropolitan Archives here. Their main works were in Ealing after 1870 which leads me to speculate that at least 3 of the 4 letters in the logo, ACE , stand for Autotype Company Ealing. I don't know the significance of the "8" or the other "C".
It seems that the company is still in existence. In mid 2005 when it was taken over by MacDermid Inc. of Denver, Colorado and is now known as MacDermid Autotype. For the best part of a century their business has changed from fine art print makers to suppliers of materials for the print industry, coated films etc.