Featured Being A Cheapskate Almost Cost Me Dearly

If you ask most people "What's the first full length animated feature film?" the answer will be Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As far as drawing goes, that's the correct answer.

However, in Germany 1926 The Adventures of Prince Achmed was a full length silhouette feature created by LOTTE REINIGER. This woman did ALL the paper cutting herself. Her husband and one or two other people worked the camera. This film is incredible. I saw it a few years ago, and added Reiniger to the list of artists I wanted an autograph of. I've only seen two, and they were expensive. Books on her are expensive. Rarer things sell.

In 1926 when the movie was released, they created a 32 print portfolio of stills. You can find it for a few hundred in okay condition. For great condition it's closer to $700. In 1972 they reproduced the prints in book form (much smaller than the 1926 prints). It's expensive.

A little over a week ago, a 1972 book with her autograph went up for sale. The starting bid was $10, or you could Buy It Now for $40. I immediately hit Buy It Now, then my STUPID cheapskate side kicked in and I thought "why not bid $10 and hope no one else bids." I did. I immediately regretted it. For a week I had to hope that no one else searched her out. That didn't last long, as there were a few watchers on the piece by day two. My saving grace was, the seller (in Jersey) had the auction end at 9:30am on a Sunday. I increased my bid that morning to $40. Then a minute before the close I increased it to $120. I didn't want to let this get away. THANKFULLY, no one else bid and I won for $10.

In comparison, in Germany a few days later, a present Reiniger gave someone sold for $160.

These are a few stills from the film. If you've never seen it, it's well worth searching out. The humans are posable. Since the camera was not able to do CUs, medium or wide shots, she cut each piece for the shot.

 

How utterly fabulous ! I try not to dwell on what my chronic cheapness might have cost me over the years . Its too painful.

 

Beautiful stills. I love paper art. She had a great design eye.

I found someone selling a 14k c1900 coral cameo brooch for a start bid of around $45. They hadn't seen the mark and thought the thing was a vintage costume piece. I sent a best offer of $125 and she accepted. I think there was half a second of cheapskate in me, but I'm not the only hunter in that ocean so it was best to just consider it a nice price for the happily ignorant seller. I got it checked recently and it's got sapphires around the frame lol. Normally they're 1k+ and I thought I'd never have one in my collection.

I only gamble with lower prices on things I'm not as excited about. Nice things to have but not the kind that make you sweat lol. I like a BIN of a reasonable price because I don't enjoy the heart rate of an auction and the heart ache of a loss!

 

This one?
https://www.ebay.de/itm/316258263004

 

Before seeing it, I had wondered how they were going to handle telling the story of the 3 brothers in the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows movies. I thought their use of a shadow puppet effect was brilliant. Wouldn't be surprised if it was inspired by this.

 

If you post photos, I'd love to see the cameo. I'm sure you've seen my wife's collection. I've posted quite a few.

I love the heart racing. I hate losing. I've only lost two things I regret. But, it came down to dollars.

1. A Barnabas Collins (Dark Shadows) replica sterling cane owned by Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis' manager. It was an online and in person auction. I was winning at $100, on screen it was going once, going twice, another bid came in. It ended up selling for $600. I stopped at about $350. So, others went at it.
I've seen the cane before. I can buy a brand new one for about $400 (who would pay that much for a cane?). It was the Elvis connection that made it special.

2. I will one day own a Lon Chaney Sr autograph. I know I have to PAY for it. I see them on photos that are cool. But, the photos aren't special. The one I bid on was Chaney as Whistler's Mother. It was oversized, 11 x 14 on heavy double stock paper. I'd never seen it before. It was inscribed to a film editor. I LOVED IT. I've never before or since bid so much on anything. I stopped at $2000. Which I would have had to taken time to pay off my credit card. It sold to the next highest bidder. It was a beauty. Since seeing that every other Chaney autograph just sucks.

Yes. That's cheap or the price has drastically dropped.

The original prints from 1926 are larger than this book. The pages of this are 8" x 10". The original is a portfolio of prints. I'm going to eventually find a set that I can afford. This has 32 prints from the film. They're all b/w. The film of course had scenes tinted using gels.

I'd never heard of Reiniger till seeing Achmed. She's more popular now that she's gone than when she was alive.

This is a compilation of some clips and bio. AMAZING!


Cinderella

 

That one doesn't have the dustcover, and there's a stamp an a dedication on one of the pages, so that might explain the low price.

 

When I was first looking about a year or two ago, the cheapest copy was over a $100. There is a softcover version that's not expensive. I think it's also newer. This one looks like the hardcover. For some reason my computer couldn't translate the german to english on it.

 

It was posted over in the Cameos thread, but you know I'll use any excuse to obnoxiously share my collection... She's a big gal at 2in (5cm). My jeweler tested the stones as sapphire and said they looked natural, and not lab, to him.

 

Superb Mirana- If my Lady was into jewelry I would've jumped on it for $125-weird,because to me it screams high quality & artistry (you know that cause yer an artist !).

 

Followed back to the post in the cameo thread because I wanted to see the back for an idea of the age of the setting. I know they did not figure out how to produce blue corundum in the lab until well after they could do it in red, but have never seen exactly when this was. Your jeweller may well be right in any case, but there was a chance that the age of the mount could confirm it.

 

She is definitely better carved coral than many I see, but that is commensurate with the expensive frame materials and her size. If you see another like this at that rate you should jump on it anyway because the cameo fans here would surely buy it off you, though you'd probably make better return on the open market.

GIA says 1914 for one shop, but doesn't definitively state it was the first. The white metal I now assume is white gold as that's the only mark present...so that would be at least post WW1. Late tens, 20s at earliest. My jeweler is a young lad who gets excited when I come in because he learns about old jewelry from me hahaa. Apparently the focus in school is more on contemporary design and skills. I think he said they get a single jewelry history class and that's a crime.

...but I do not want to hijack this thread.

See y'all...we got good arts in the cameo thread, I promise.

 

Looks like an autocorrect Gotcha!

 

That wasn't a bargain, that was a STEAL. Absolutely gorgeous. You are so lucky the seller accepted that offer. Had it stayed up and gone through the bidding process, I'd have bid more than that. I look through cameos on ebay and everywhere else I can.

 

Very likely, but there is a slight possibility it is older:

https://www.velvetboxsociety.com/ma...AQaJ4n4aVnZQckKvD3nPGBM-RMJUaYJmw8KxsGFrGmT#/

 

The Adventures of Prince Achmed. 32 pictures from the silhouette film with a narration of the contents,
Reiniger, Lotte:
The Adventures of Prince Achmed. 32 pictures from the silhouette movie with a narration of the content,
Wasmuth, Tübingen, 1972,. hardcover edition
Language: German
ISBN: 3803030153
EAN: 9783803030153
Order no.: 68222
Comments: with 32 pictures from the silhouette film by Lotte Reiniger, without dust jacket, ownership stamp and dedication on the endpaper, cover with traces of storage and slightly stained, otherwise in good condition, KIBU-1024 9783803030153
Keywords: 1001 NIGHTS, children's book,
EUR 32,00 (incl. VAT)
Free shipping within Germany

 

They also ship internationally, should anyone be interested.

 

Hate to steal Prince Achmed's thunder,but there's no shortage of badly executed silhouettes in cameo world-this one's a cut above.

 

Oh, I would have gone higher if the first attempt was rebuffed but I do put an upper limit on myself where I walk away and try very hard to forget!
Other than a once-a-week thrift, these are the only non-food thing I ever buy these days so I hit up my spots several times a day to check in. My tastes are rather a lot higher than my budget so constant searching is my only weapon lol. I'm sure there's a few of us here who do that.

Lollll thanks. It is pretty shocking after scrolling through thousands of mass produced pieces when you find a stunner. Then I'm usually shocked again buy the high prices and crawl away....