1958 & 1960 M.C. Escher Lithographs
GUEST:
I have two Eschers that my husband bought from Mr. Escher in '61. He and a friend of his were interested in art, were looking around for what they could invest in. He didn't like Andy Warhol's tomato soup cans, he thought it was ugly at $15, didn't want it, and wrote to Mr. Escher for the prints. And I got them and the letters from Mr. Escher saying that if he wanted to buy more, buy them all at once. He's a feisty guy and didn't want to keep going to the post office.
APPRAISER:
Of course, we're talking about M.C. Escher. His visual imagery is probably some of the most well-known, nowadays, to college students across the United States, who all have a poster of some of his work on their walls.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
At the time when your husband had bought it, he wasn't as well-known. He was living in the Netherlands as of 1941, in Baarn, until 1970. This one is "Belvedere.” “A beautiful view," belvedere, in Italian. He lived in Italy from about 1923 until 1935, and the view is of the Abruzzo mountains. This is based on Escher's impossible cube. This was an idea that he had...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
About a cube which cannot exist in reality. And what he was famous for was depicting, in two-dimensional form, that which cannot happen three-dimensionally. That structure itself cannot exist. But all of it looks so natural. And a lot of it is very highly mathematically informed.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Although he did not consider himself a mathematician, he was writing and corresponding with a lot of mathematicians. This lithograph, it's signed, lower left in pencil, in the margin, and it's also numbered eight out of 51, and it has a Roman numeral "II." The Roman numeral refers to the state. States are one grouping of the lithographs. Some little change was made, and that made into a different state. Let's also talk about "Ascending and Descending." What we see are these figures walking up and down a staircase, but really, it's an impossible staircase.
GUEST:
They don't go anywhere.
APPRAISER:
Because it never ends. This one was done in 1960, "Belvedere" was in 1958. This one doesn't have any Roman numerals, but it does have a pencil signature and a number, 26 out of 52. Can you tell me how much your husband paid for that?
GUEST:
I think they were $30 for each, and two dollars for postage.
APPRAISER:
And two dollars' postage. Have you ever had these appraised?
GUEST:
We did. In 2004, we had our artwork appraised for insurance.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
And at that time, they said "Belvedere" was $20,000, and the "Ascending and Descending" at $17,500. We mentioned the letters, but they didn't seem to be, go into the, anything into the equation.
APPRAISER:
The letters are letters from Escher himself to your husband.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And it actually shows his wry sense of humor.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Telling him to, as you had mentioned, to buy more at one time. He was famous for his, his wry sense of humor. And there are a lot of fake Escher prints on the market, so we know that-- with these letters-- that these works are real. Even Escher autographs, even without prints, are valuable in and of themselves. I would insure these at $50,000 each.
GUEST:
How nice! Thank you! That's nice.
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