Prints & Posters

1968 Warhol Campbell's Soup Can Screenprint

Appraisal: 1968 Warhol Campbell's Soup Can Screenprint

Transcript

GUEST: It was a gift from my ex-husband right before he left me. Uh, he gave me a birthday present, and this was it. Best thing he ever gave me, actually. I know that it was probably purchased in Philadelphia, and it probably cost around $1,800. I received it in 2005.

APPRAISER: It's actually a color screen print by Warhol...

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: ...from the first Campbell's Soup series that he did in 1968.

GUEST: What?

APPRAISER: Which is a set of ten different soup cans, all Campbell's Soup cans.

GUEST: Wow, okay.

APPRAISER: And these are based on a 1962 painted series that he had done and first exhibited at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Just as he was shifting from his career as an advertising artist in New York to more of a fine artist.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And Warhol got on the map and became a famous artist through his appropriation of everyday images.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: In this case, Campbell's Soup. And he said that one of the reasons he chose Campbell's Soup early on is because, as a kid growing up in Pittsburgh...

GUEST: (chuckles)

APPRAISER: ...he was fed Campbell's Soup and ate Campbell's Soup all the time.

GUEST: Makes sense.

APPRAISER: So he made a, a set of ten different subjects, ten different soups, in the first Campbell's Soup series...

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: ...number one, in 1968. These were done in an edition of 250, each of the prints, and each of them are signed in ballpoint pen and ink...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...and numbered with a rubber ink stamp.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And you can see that on the back of this image, because the mat is nicely cut out... Somebody cut it out, right. Now, he was very well known when these were made, and the reason why he made them in the late '60s, based on a painted series from the early '60s...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...is that he could make multiple images of them.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: And, using screen print, run off a lot, and ten times 250, you have 2,500 prints to be sold from this series. So...

GUEST: Not bad, yeah.

APPRAISER: Cashing in on his growing popularity. I found this one interesting, too, because up here, on the accent above the E on consommé, you can see the pattern of the white screen. That's actually white ink on that, and you can see...

GUEST: Oh, my God, oh, yeah, yeah.

APPRAISER: ...how it's crisscrossing with the red.

GUEST: Wow, cool.

APPRAISER: These were printed in New York and published through Warhol's publishing outfit called Factory Additions.

GUEST: Mmm.

APPRAISER: Even though he was well known at the time, a lot of people viewed these as, as prints...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...and sort of common images, not of great value.

GUEST: What did he sell them for originally?

APPRAISER: Originally, a couple of hundred dollars, yeah.

GUEST: A couple hundred of dollars? Yeah, wow.

APPRAISER: Or the whole set for maybe $1,000? A lot were put on the wall, and from the late '60s on to today, have lost their color, have been damaged, so... The surface of a screen print is very susceptible...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...to scratching...

GUEST: Gotcha.

APPRAISER: ...and bends in the paper and breaks. Yours is in great shape.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Yes, on a scale of one to ten...

GUEST: Good.

APPRAISER: ...ten being the best, you're...

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: ...you're at about a eight-and-a-half, maybe nine with this one.

GUEST: Well, and it's been on a wall. It was on the right wall (laughs)

APPRAISER: But you've kept it... You've kept it out of the sunlight.

GUEST: Right, yeah, I did, I did.

APPRAISER: So what would you guess? What, what would you say as a, as a value?

GUEST: (sighs) I, I am clueless, because, I mean-- and, and part of it is what you were explaining, like, there were original paintings, and then there's this series of prints and that series of prints. So, I don't know where this fits in. I'm really clueless.

APPRAISER: Oh. I'd never heard of divorce gifts, either. Is that a...

GUEST: I don't know.

APPRAISER: That's a, that's a new thing for me. (laughs)

GUEST: It was a birthday gift right before the, right before he left.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: I think, maybe, we call it a guilt gift or something, I don't know.

APPRAISER: A guilt gift, I like that one-- go with that.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: In this condition, great shape, I would put a replacement value of $50,000.

GUEST: What? Come on. That's crazy. My goodness, I don't, I... I'm speechless. (shudders) I don't know what to say.

APPRAISER: The more common the soup-- take tomato soup?

GUEST: Right.