Price tag on vintage print from Goodwill

October 28, 2018 7:30 AM

I found a quaint lacquered print at Goodwill yesterday, and I’m curious about what may be a price tag on the back. The piece is stamped “made in Italy” on the frame and my best guess is it dates at least to ~1950s, but could be older. Lacquer and hardware both have a good deal of patina. The sticker may be newer though. The handwriting appears non-American. Does anyone recognize the currency, if it is a price tag?
posted by drlith to Grab Bag (15 answers total)

Could it be "61/C" as in print number 61 out of 100?
posted by pharm at 8:13 AM on October 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

Or it could be an identifying sticker from an auction, estate sale or inventory?
posted by doornoise at 8:28 AM on October 28, 2018

As in, "art"icle number 61/C?
posted by doornoise at 8:29 AM on October 28, 2018

That was my thought doornoise.
posted by pharm at 8:49 AM on October 28, 2018

NB. The print is of a painting by Joos de Momper II, (sometimes called Judocus de Momper) if the attribution on this antique print sold by an Italian art house is correct.
posted by pharm at 9:27 AM on October 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

(well, the landscape bits anyway: according to the art history I just read Joos de Momper & Breughel often collaborated: Momper did the landscape & Breughel the figures.)
posted by pharm at 9:29 AM on October 28, 2018

It’s not a print, it’s a reproduction, made to look like aged, with craquelure on the paint. It’s stamped “Florence Made in Italy”, so most likely for export market.
posted by Ideefixe at 9:44 AM on October 28, 2018 [2 favorites]

It looks a lot like a pre-decimalization way of writing out English prices: "6l" means six pounds (libre) and then the smaller unit would follow the slash. But pennies were written as "d" not "c" (as you might think), so I don't know.
posted by praemunire at 9:52 AM on October 28, 2018

It's most likely art(icle)/art(icolo) 61/c.

I am 100% certain about it being the number 61; that is how 1 is handwritten in Europe. A lowercase l is rounded, and in any case, there is no feasible explanation for a painting, even a reproduction, having been sold for six lire, which would have been ridiculously cheap. Six lire would have been less than a penny, no matter what period of lire we're talking about.
posted by fraula at 9:59 AM on October 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

It may be an l in reference to the italian lira, so 6 lira/0 centesimi. However 6 lira would have been less than one american cent in the 1950's so unlikely in value terms. Could it have been £600? ie, Six pounds x C (centum).
posted by freya_lamb at 10:01 AM on October 28, 2018

Here is an example of the number 1 written as in France/Spain/Italy.

It's not the lowercase letter l, it is the number 1.
posted by fraula at 10:11 AM on October 28, 2018

Well, we don't know where that tag was written, except that it seems very unlikely to have been done at the Goodwill! That's why I think there could be some uncertainty about it.
posted by praemunire at 10:18 AM on October 28, 2018

Pre-decimalization English prices were written like £6/19/11 i.e. six pounds nineteen shillings and eleven pence. Six pounds exactly was written £6 or £6/-/-, and never as 6l. Six shillings exactly was written 6/-, and six pence as 6d (never 6c).

I agree that the sticker means article 61/c. The sticker itself looks too fancy for a simple price tag.
posted by monotreme at 10:32 AM on October 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

I occasionally restore old furniture, it looks to me like an auction lot or batch number sticker (you get these on things that come in sets like chairs 1/8, 2/8, 3/8 etc), they're fairly common to find tucked away on old furniture.
posted by Helga-woo at 10:46 AM on October 28, 2018

The tag looks like it was torn off a roll, with a gum backing (like a stamp), so I picture this as being part of an auction lot in the 60s or 70s.
posted by bonobothegreat at 10:55 AM on October 28, 2018 [1 favorite]