GUEST: It is progressive proof plates from Les Affiches Illustrées. This is Toulouse-Lautrec, and that's about all I know.
APPRAISER: Les Affiches Illustrées was a book that was done catering to the poster collecting community in the 1890s. Posters were a craze sweeping France,
and the original posters-- which were five feet high by three and a half feet wide-- were too unruly to collect, and so people really began to collect these smaller
versions of the posters. The book was printed in 1896. The poster was done a few years before that. Now, in the book, all they would have is the finished, full-color
lithograph. But what you have is the progressive plates. Each color that appears in the final poster was done on an individual lithographic stone. And when they overlay on each other, they come up with the final image. How much did you pay for these?
GUEST: About 250 euros, which was I think approximately $280.
APPRAISER: The poster is fantastic. This alone, at auction, would sell for between $700 and $1,000.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Now, the progressive proof plates, they are phenomenally interesting, they're phenomenally important. But posters really are an aesthetic medium. So the fact that they don't look that good makes them less appealing to collectors. With the group of four color proofs, you're probably looking at $1,500 to $2,000
for the group of five.
GUEST: That's great, that's great, great news.
