writingANTIQUE ROADSHOW ? ?
And, any chance of those people, some of you read French?
Here's my problem - many years ago when I worked as Security Director for a shopping center, I began to do odd jobs for shop owners and for antique dealers who rented booth space within one of the stores. One woman was clearing out some items and came across an old lithograph that had a broken frame. She asked me if I wanted it, and for some reason I said yes. Its a frou-frou victorian thing, colored almost as if it were chalk, blue and brown. It is of 2 european (hence, the frou-frou) fops in thier 'little boy blue' type garments, frilley shirts, leggings, capes, and yes, caps with a feather in them. They are prancing around the corner of a house where a girl in a dress and apron and a bonnet is standing next to a spinning wheel. Her hands clasped, coyly looking over her shoulder towards the 'men'. (ok, so my sarcasm is getting the better of me, you'll see it in a second if you follow the link)
There is no signature that I can see. It is oval but looks like it was professionally trimmed in that shape, not done on oval paper. The back has marks that make it look like maybe it had once been folded over twice as if pressed in a book. And in pencil, there is writing in what appears to be french. I've googled with no real luck - its pretty random trying to search images on the net. The writing may be meaningless, but it appears to be as dated as the stained paper it is on. There is a sticker for the gallery where it was framed, but I don't even get a hit on the address, much less the shop, when I google it.
Your challenge! Go to my yahoo page to this folder where I posted severaal closeup digital pix I took of it this morning. If you have internet explorer as your browser, your window probably has the little magnifying glass in the lower right corner as mine does. These are digital pix, so click the image size up to 200% or more and see if you can decipher anything. If your work results in a multi-million dollar find, I'll share a couple bucks with you! Images are taken left to right bottom to top, so #7 and #8 are the two key photos with 7 on the left and 8 on the right. http://new.photos.yahoo.com/bbmyls2go/album/576460762401819048
good luck, this blog will self destruct in, well, ok, it won't self destruct.bb.
ps - I would recommend you first double click on the individual shot to get the full sized view, and THEN try to enlarge that.
