Antique Print

[counselor343]

I purchased a print at an antique store years ago but want to sell it now.

It is a shiny, reflective (like a hologram effect) type but is in an inexpensive frame....the print says The Old Grist Mill (which I learned was a currier an Ives print) ...on the right states The Harry T. Peters Collection , Museum of NYC....On left says Lithograph by Currier and Ives, 1864..

How can I determine if this is valuable/

Thanks Margaret

[chapeau-noir]

@counselor343  Try here.

.........

[maxine*j]

This image has been reproduced for 150 years, in every format you can imagine, including on dinnerware. 

The original is certainly not shiny or reflective.  It was a hand-colored lithograph, in two colors.  The size was large folio (image size 18 1/8 x 26 13/16").  The original was painted by George (G.H.) Durrie.

The Harry T. Peters Collection is an important collection of nearly 3,000 original Currier and Ives lithographs, most hand-colored.  Yours is a reproduction of one of them.

I would be surprised if what you have is even a lithograph, much less one with any real age to it.   Look at it through a loupe (or whatever magnifier you have).  What do you see? 

If it's a traditional, non-mechanical, lithograph, of the sort Currier & Ives published, you'll see a sort of stippled pattern all over but any dots are rather small, vary somewhat in size, and are in no set pattern. 

If you see dots that are uniform in size and in a regular pattern, it's a mechanical photo-offset, mass-produced reproduction.

If you need more help to understand what you're seeing, go here:

http://www.graphicsatlas.org/

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[windycityart4u]

Hey. Please provide a photo. I am guessing it is a later copy that they possibly made from the museum. Usually Currier & Ives is made on regular paper. Please post the photo and we can try and help.