Dave Garrett Posted March 8, 2014 Report Posted March 8, 2014 Ran across a seller on eBay offering what are described as "negative & print of album cover" for several BN albums. If anything, they look like they might be color separations on B&W film, but I'm not very familiar with the technical details of how album cover art was produced back in the day. Possibly of greater interest is that he claims to have "personal items belonging to Alfred Lion" that he plans to list on eBay within the next few weeks. Any ideas as to what these really are? http://www.ebay.com/sch/Music-Memorabilia-/2329/m.html?item=251469664294&ViewItem=&ssPageName=ADME%3AB%3ASS%3AUS%3A3160&_ssn=thenativeway Quote
ArtSalt Posted March 9, 2014 Report Posted March 9, 2014 They are what he says they are: a B&W "negative & print of album cover". He doesn't actually give any further provenance on these negatives and likely rightly so. The mention of Alfred Lion in the same breathe is a hook, possibly for the gullible to inflate the price of the negatives, but if he has personal items from Alfred Lion with proven provenance then it could be interesting. Quote
bertrand Posted March 10, 2014 Report Posted March 10, 2014 Should Michael Cuscuna be alerted? Bertrand. Quote
Kevin Bresnahan Posted March 10, 2014 Report Posted March 10, 2014 Should Michael Cuscuna be alerted? Bertrand. I let him know but I doubt there's much he can do. He hasn't worked for Blue Note for a couple of years now. Quote
Rooster_Ties Posted March 10, 2014 Report Posted March 10, 2014 I presume these are actual album-cover size, correct? (Can't imagine they wouldn't be.) If Black Fire was among the lot, I can't say for sure that I wouldn't be bidding. Quote
Chuck Nessa Posted March 10, 2014 Report Posted March 10, 2014 Since these are simple black/white negs and prints (and not color separations) I would guess they a smaller than life size. Record companies frequently made negs like this to have on file for catalogs, magazine ads, inner sleeves, etc. Quote
clifford_thornton Posted March 10, 2014 Report Posted March 10, 2014 ^ Yeah, that was my guess - for the BN inner sleeves. Quote
bertrand Posted March 10, 2014 Report Posted March 10, 2014 Should Michael Cuscuna be alerted? Bertrand. I let him know but I doubt there's much he can do. He hasn't worked for Blue Note for a couple of years now. Except doesn't he own the Frank Wolff photos? These were used for the covers so... Quote
Rooster_Ties Posted March 10, 2014 Report Posted March 10, 2014 Since these are simple black/white negs and prints (and not color separations) I would guess they a smaller than life size. Record companies frequently made negs like this to have on file for catalogs, magazine ads, inner sleeves, etc. Oh, I had the impression that these were the color separations. Looking at them again, though, clearly they are just regular negatives as best I can tell anyway. Thanks for pointing that out, Chuck! Quote
Dave Garrett Posted March 27, 2014 Author Report Posted March 27, 2014 The seller now has some of the purported Lion items up in several different listings, all of which are ending today. There's also a listing for the remainder of the negatives listed previously: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-2-Scrapbooks-Alfred-Lion-Many-Blue-Note-Items-1940s-/251481577240?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8d785718 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alfred-Lion-Co-Founder-Blue-Note-Records-Personal-Items-Passports-PLUS-MORE-/251481581748?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8d7868b4 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alfred-Lion-Co-Founder-Blue-Note-Records-Personal-Photographs-/251481584738?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8d787462 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alfred-Lion-Lot-Jazz-Black-White-Photographs-Album-Cover-Negatives-Photo-Sheets-/251486440943?ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:3160 Quote
chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez Posted March 27, 2014 Report Posted March 27, 2014 its the real deal. the horace band photo set is astonishing. 500 gets that Quote
Kevin Bresnahan Posted March 27, 2014 Report Posted March 27, 2014 Those photos look like Francis Wolff negatives. Mosaic got a copyright for the ones they have. If any of these are dupes, does the seller have to worry about that copyright? Quote
Son-of-a-Weizen Posted March 27, 2014 Report Posted March 27, 2014 but if he has personal items from Alfred Lion with proven provenance then it could be interesting. Has his old passports. Odd that his descriptions are the bare minimum. He says it's from a collection that he purchased at auction. Auction or Saturday morning garage sale? Quote
Head Man Posted March 27, 2014 Report Posted March 27, 2014 Is it just me or does anyone else find the selling of personal effects like passports etc on ebay, rather distasteful? Surely that's the sort of thing that should be kept as a memento by family members and not sold to the highest bidder. I guess I'm assuming that the person selling the stuff is NOT a family member Quote
Kevin Bresnahan Posted March 27, 2014 Report Posted March 27, 2014 It looks like this stuff was found next to a dumpster in San Diego. It appears to be from a bunch of boxes of stuff from when they cleaned out Ruth Lion's apartment when she died. Michael Cuscuna is negotiating with the seller to see what he can do to get this stuff. Quote
Head Man Posted March 27, 2014 Report Posted March 27, 2014 (edited) It looks like this stuff was found next to a dumpster in San Diego. It appears to be from a bunch of boxes of stuff from when they cleaned out Ruth Lion's apartment when she died. Michael Cuscuna is negotiating with the seller to see what he can do to get this stuff. Oh, right. Does she not have any relatives or was it them who cleared out her apartment? Edited March 27, 2014 by Head Man Quote
Kevin Bresnahan Posted March 27, 2014 Report Posted March 27, 2014 I don't know who dumped all this stuff. There were a whole bunch of unopened Blue Note CDs from Japan in the boxes too. The seller has already sold most of them. One was the extremely rare Hank Mobley Quartet CD. Sealed. I've never seen one of them sealed before. Quote
Homefromtheforest Posted March 27, 2014 Report Posted March 27, 2014 4 figures on a few lots; wonder who ended up with them... Quote
Leeway Posted March 27, 2014 Report Posted March 27, 2014 Whoever it was, I hope they are the kind of person who would allow them to be catalogued or put on line for study. I noted there was correspondence in some of the lots; that could be of historical interest, along with BN business records. Quote
david weiss Posted April 2, 2014 Report Posted April 2, 2014 $4,383.99 for the photos and negatives.....pretty impressive..... From what I can see, the photos are from the rejected Horace Silver Tentette session and the Thad Jones in Times Square? photo shoot..... Quote
Dave Garrett Posted April 3, 2014 Author Report Posted April 3, 2014 Looks like the same bidder wound up with three of the four lots (he was outbid on the two scrapbooks). Quote
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