Camp Keeper’s Diary
Nabobs of Negativism — What the Experts Said About Our Plates
Listen to the Camp Keeper
Two stories. The same result.
Story 1 — The Photographic Expert
Shortly after our acquisition of the plates in 1982, I took the Portfolio plate of Chief Joseph to a photographic expert at a major auction house. After some pleasantries, I showed her the plate and asked what it was worth.
She said, “Take a razor blade, score it with marks, and throw it into the garbage can. It is worthless.”
A few years later, after an auction of a different plate at the same auction house, Chief Joseph sold at retail for $800,000 and now hangs next to a Basquiat.
Story 2 — The Phony Press
After that wonderful meeting above, we hired a press agent for the project. He immediately got us an interview with the local paper. A reporter came out and interviewed me for several hours, fascinated by the history of Curtis and our plans to continue with the sets and, ultimately, sell the plates as collectibles. We were promised a favorable article.
I told my partner that we had done good.
The article was published two days later. To my horror, the headline said, “Two Entrepreneurs Buy Flop!”
I called the reporter. She said that her editor thought the story was too favorable toward us — a typical entrepreneurial story — and would have little interest to their readership, so they were asked to reinterpret the facts to support the new premise.
My partner was not happy.
Forty-four years later, the plates are still here. The article is not.