A few little hints and thoughts on photos....

An absolutely gorgeous day beckons outside, so this will be cheap and cheerful...

Another project dear to my heart is the general care and maintainence of photographs...

Hopefully we will have readers of this blog (we may have some somewhere; probably south of Peru) who can offer up remedies for storing and restoring old photos...

Over the years, I have been told that you can often clean old marks from photos using lighter fluid and a cotton bud (very gently...) for old scratches (often where inscriptions have been removed) Applying olive oil or similarly margerine can also work well. (If you can find the extra virgin variety then all the better!!! But I wouldn't look around here...)

Pentel click erasers are one means for removing some inscriptions as long as they have been done with certain inks. Some photo surfaces are much better for removing them than others...and some leave a nice indentation and some you find half way thru that you won't remove...if you want to do this I suggest you practise on some cheap photos...make sure you secure the photo on a hard flat surface and hold firmly down with a soft cloth so you don't crease and bend the photo... I know an East Coast dealer who spends a lot of time removing inscriptions and does a pretty good job, but you can occasionally tell where he's been...I have tried it on some photos to good effect, but have stuck mainly to felt tip type ink or matt photos... (Gee, I hate matt photos!!!)

Personally I like inscribed photos as they are more likely to be authentic as most forgers are unlikely to write "Love Juan" or "Regards Tatyana" on their photos before they flog them to some mug on eBay or the local markets... they sell for a cheaper price so I can pass them on to my clients for a cheaper price so it tends to be a win, win situation although it still doesn't beat getting autographs directly from the celebrity.

I actually have a friend in Colorado to whom I get photos signed from whichever actor/model does a signing for me...he has some rather risque dedications and I remember a certain voluptuous Love Kitten writing something very encouraging for him that got his attention (and kept it!!!)

Apart from framing photos (and then hanging it in a dark place to avoid the ink fading) the best way to store photos is in folders...does anyone out there have a preference to what sort of sleeves, backing and folders they use for this process...because I deal in such huge quantities of photos I find only the time to store the up-market pieces of my collection in totally acid free sleeves and paper backing...otherwise I would go broke...and there are too many more great autographs I still want to collect before they bury me out on the lone prairie...

I tend to use photo albums for my index cards and smaller photos because you can actually pick these up quite cheaply and indeed I recently bought a pile at a clearance sale at a local shop for next to nothing...

One of my favourite suppliers is also shipping me some terrific matted items ready to frame which makes the job so much easier and he does a brilliant job...many people fail to realise just how good matting a photo (often of your own choice) with an index card, letter, cheque etc looks once it is framed and hanging on your wall....I have a couple of nice ones of Lizabeth Scott and Gene Tierney that look great and I'll try and get a decent shot...one day when I am rich I will get all the photos actors have signed to me up on a Wall of Fame, but I'm like the builder where the last house ever finished is his own. Besides I often sell the signed photos off my wall anyway to make way for something else...

Anyway, time for some sun before getting back to work (finishing an interview article with Connie Stevens: what a fine and talented lady she is too) and then some framing work, scanning photos, listings photos and hopefully packing some for shipping too...but the dog'swork has to be done and I am the chief dog around here...

Here Endeth Blog #4 (You all have a great day, here!!!!)