Expert: Ben Mahmoud - 1/25/2008

Question
I have a framed piece that has the Taber Prang Art Company Pictures of Distinction label. It says, Frame No. 5443, Title, Christ in Gethsemane,  Artist, Hofmann. Then there is another sticker that says Hand-Colored Picture. How can I find out if it has any real value?


Answer
The best way to determine the value of a work of art is to have professionally appraised. It is most difficult to determine value when the size of the work is unknown.  It would be important to know the surface or ground of the work. In short, it is vital to see the piece itself.

However, that being said, I might offer some hint of its value.  I would ask you to get a good magnifying glass, and look carefully at the work.  Do you see the small dots that would indicate that the piece was printed?

If there is a continuous tone (no reproductions dots), then it may be a photograph or lithograph that was hand colored.

A quick search of the web for Taber Prang showed that a lot of people have such pieces (often the imagery was cupids).  All of the people were asking the same question you have asked, and there was no answer forthcoming.

Taber Prang made some hand colored posters at one time.  The price range of these posters was from $25.00 to $116.00.

However, an older piece might attract some collectors. Following this notion, I found a lot of Taber Prang posters on Ebay.  The prices went from $9.00 to $350. The $350 work was said to be antique from the year 1901.

I did not see any bids on the T/P prints on Ebay.  If you would like to follow the bidding on these prints, you can use this link:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=Taber+Pran...

If that link does not work for you, then you can simply go to http://www.ebay.com and type in "Tabor Prang" in the search area.

I hope that I have been of some help to you in this.

Ben Mahmoud