Ham On Rye with painting (1 Viewer)

[chronic]

Does this look right? Yellow backstrip on an illustrated issue? According to Krumhansl the backstrip should be dark blue.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Charles-Bukowsk...0QQihZ013QQcategoryZ29223QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[bospress.net]

Hi,
An excellent question. Also interesting is that he shows 6 pictures, but none of the colophon with signature. Forging "Buk" and adding artwork that COULD be by Buk would be easy. Copying Barbara Martin's handwriting for the numbering and copying Buk's signature circa 1982 would be a bit tougher.

On second thought, someone that wants to try their luck and increase the value of a book COULD take a $300 signed edition with a goldenrod cloth backstrip and add a painting to the front, thereby increasing the value to $2250 (or lowering it to worthless...) I have no doubt that the signature on the colophon is legit. The only question is this: Is the painting real or a forgery?

This is a question for those that are lucky enough to have copies with paintings.... Weren't the paintings bound in as an extra page? Is there a way to confirm that this is legit or thast this is a fraud?

If this is legit, the numbering should be 47/100. If it says just 47 or 47/350 then there are some serious problems with it. This could be cleared up with a scan of the signature page.

Bill

 

[mjp]

This is a question for those that are lucky enough to have copies with paintings.... Weren't the paintings bound in as an extra page? Is there a way to confirm that this is legit or thast this is a fraud?

They were not bound in, strictly speaking, as part of the signature, but rather glued into finished books. Mine appears to have had a thin strip of glue applied to the front and back of the painting, then jammed in tight right after the title page.

And the painting is on very thick art paper torn from a notebook-type pad. You can see the holes at the top of the image: https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://bukowski.net/paintings/bukowskipainting013.php

But that painting looks like pure Bukowski to me. As art it looks legit. Whether it was always part of that book is the question I guess.

Others here who have multiple books containing art may be able to shed more light on the subject.

 

[chronic]

I don't really doubt the legitimacy of the painting, and the binding is that of the regular signed/numbered edition. Just that since the cloth doesn't match the illustrated issue I wonder if the painting was bound in later by someone other than the publisher.

 

[nymark]

I wonder why there's such a huge disparity in the asking pricing between his copies of HAM ON RYE and WAR ALL THE TIME? Both paintings are strong. Is HAM a more important title than WAR to the tune of an extra $900?!

I also think it's curious that he included a pic of the colophon with his listing for WAR, but not HAM. Nice call, Bill.

For what it's worth, my copy of DANGLING IN THE TORONOFORTIA is in the 1/100 series, but the spine cloth is the burgundy that was used for the 1/350 series. Sometimes, they just ran out of material towards the end of the binding process. I've heard of this happening with other titles as well.

Not long ago, Skyline Books was selling a copy of HAM ON RYE in the 1/350 series with a painting laid into it. I'm not inferring that this is the case, but if you could get your hands on a loose painting, you could probably bind it in with some PVC glue fairly easily.

 

[mjp]

I wonder why there's such a huge disparity in the asking pricing between his copies of HAM ON RYE and WAR ALL THE TIME? Both paintings are strong. Is HAM a more important title than WAR to the tune of an extra $900?!

I wondered the same thing.

Especially since - as art - I think the painting of the bird head in War All the Time is much more interesting than the abstract in Ham on Rye.

If the premium placed on these editions is strictly due to the art, I would think a stronger painting would be more valuable. But I realize that for book collectors the actual art may be a secondary consideration.