Antique Print - 1870s Preciously Handsome Black Lads Posed as RAPHAEL'S CHERUBS - Black Americana At Its Best - Victorian Era Stereopticon

Antique Print - 1870s Preciously Handsome Black Lads Posed as RAPHAEL'S CHERUBS - Black Americana At Its Best - Victorian Era StereopticonTreasures from THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLECTION at The Willing Mind. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review. Print size 24 x 12, and consciously formatted to work with a 24 x 12 frame, or custom framed as you see fit. _____________________________________________________________________________ VERY exciting when something you envisioned really, really works. This 1870s 1880s stereopticon card was in terrible condition, but in all my years as a

Treasures from THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COLLECTION at The Willing Mind. By exclusive arrangement with The Grand Review.  Print size 24 x 12, and consciously formatted to work with a 24 x 12 frame, or custom framed as you see fit.
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VERY exciting when something you envisioned really, really works.

This 1870s / 1880s stereopticon card was in terrible condition, but in all my years as a collector, I'd never seen its like.  I bought it and put it into our endless inbox, passing it repeatedly for work I knew to be easier and more instantly gratifying.

Still, it called to me, and eventually I pull it from the stacks of other worthy gems and stood it at the base of my computer screen where it continued to stare at me for several months.  When I was lucky enough to have a visit from my friend of 25 years, Lisa, a true digital alchemist, we talked about it and she saddled up and gave it a try.

She worked, and I paced, and she came at it from a number of directions, and I made quiet suggestions while trying to not be a pest.  Eventually, the restored work as you see here came to life and on my part, there was much whoopin' and hollerin'.

As our own Tug McGraw famously said, "You gotta believe".

PLEASE tap through the accompanying pics to see close ups and where we started.

Personally, I'd like to see this on every wall of every home, church, work place etc in the US.

Yes, Raphael created a great work, but I admit to having had cherub overdose when it was reintroduced to popular culture in the 1980s and was on every greeting card and coffee mug in the universe.  Here, though antique, is an entirely fresh approach to a classic work, and an instant classic itself.

Forgive my gushing.  It is one of the best works we have ever created.

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SHIPPING
All prints are shipped in a sturdy mailing tube for $8, which covers postage, tube and S & H.

BUYING MORE THAN ONE PRINT? Add a second print or any number thereafter of this or any other prints in our catalog and shipping is still just $8, total!!!

International shipping is available and reasonable. Please contact us for details.

A NOTE ON OUR PROCESS, OUR CHOICES AND THE QUALITY OF THE GRAPHIC CRAFTSMANSHIP THAT GOES INTO OUR PRINTS.

Every print we deem exciting enough to present to the public via our Etsy store or available here at our studio has gone through a number of steps. The first of those is always discovering and falling in love with an obscure image, always an original that we can hold in our hands. That image is speaking to us, sometime screaming “Don’t leave me here. See what I am, what I was, what I can be, what I SHOULD be!”

There is a real sense of excitement involved, and a great many smiles and knowing grins when we make that deal and bring that ancient print, that battered photo, that scrap of ephemera that contains some scrap of genius from an unknown commercial artist home with us, knowing already how we mean to approach its restoration.

There is the heady promise of a further hunt just as real as what drags a weekend fisherman out of bed at 3AM to work a favorite brook as we start our research, looking for that great backstory, and both ready and willing to tumble down as many rabbit holes as are revealed to us to get that story.

Then there is a meticulous digital restoration that is as often as much fun as riding a vintage Moto Guzzi on a winding coastal road. I don’t care if that sounds crazy, it really is like jumping in the saddle! So many choices, so many chances to take to subtly or spectacularly give new life to otherwise permanently obscure images.

This dedication and the ongoing rush of joy in the accomplishment of it, and the opportunity to share the results in our studio and here on Etsy, is the fire of passion that keeps these engines roaring. We make every effort to ensure our customers are not just satisfied but thrilled, and we happily stand 100% behind our work.