|
An American Art Treasure Found!
Authentic Antique “Printer Proof” Artwork
(Werthan Building Built Circa 1850)
Where The Rare Printer Proofs Were Found:
J ust two years ago, William E. Kantz, Jr. accidentally discovered these original early 20th Century
Printer Proofs. It was incredible that years after the old Werthan Fabric Bag factory was closed, these prints remained safely locked away. The company had stored
these original proofs from their early manufacturing days in the catacomb-like basement of their Historic “Werthan Building” (which was built in the mid-1800s), They remained undisturbed for up to 100 years
. Amazingly, even some of the very early ones were in perfect condition. These “one-of-a-kind” printer proofs
represent early color printing for advertising purposes from the early 1900s to as late as the 1970s.
The printer proofs are one of the most important finds of collectible
American Commercial Art found this century. It is a true Treasure. Each Proof is complete just as it was found, with signatures, dates, and company information,
along with the quantity produced from each print run. Some even show inky handprints of the printers who used them. Mr. Kantz knew these historic art prints must be preserved and enjoyed by
contemporary Americans. So he has taken this last year to categorize and shoot digital pictures of every printer proof found in an effort to bring this incredible art to the public.
 The historic Werthan Building, is located near the heart of downtown Nashville, Tennessee. This old building
housed one of the first companies in the USA to manufacture and print cloth bags with colorful advertising. The Werthan company specialized in producing both burlap and white cotton fabric bags used for packaging
milled flour, seed, sugar, cornmeal and all sorts of other foodstuffs found in the local corner groceries of the time. These bags were shipped all over America to food
companies using the bags to contain their products on grocery market shelves. Each finished bag displayed original colorful artwork for the product named and usually
showed the company logo. These bag prints display animals, people, places, nature scenes, early autos, planes and trains from that nostalgic period, the images
displayed are of things actually used in the life of Americans of past generations.
These prints provide a unique accounting of
American History, “Nostalgic Americana” in its truest sense. This original artwork is a treasure and shows history, unpolluted and authentically representing the America of the early and middle 20th Century.There are several thousand prints in this private collection, all of which
represent products actually produced during those great days in America.
What Are Printer Proofs?
Throughout the ages printers have created a special copy (“proof”) of what they were going to print for
customers. After the customer approved it the printer kept a copy to use when reprinting to assure printing uniformity. The printer would refer to this proof during the reprinting to insure the current run
matched exactly all previous printings. Only ONE “printer proof” was made of any image, and it was printed on a high quality card stock so that it would last for years.
|
