Did Nelson Eddy Really Get A Bargain?

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You will not find Nelson Eddy listed in the index of Don Robert's book , Rockwell Kent The Art Of The Bookplate, but at the bottom of page 91 is the following paragraph :

" There were other bookplates to be completed in time for Christmas. A Philadelphia art dealer had inquired about one as a gift for Nelson Eddy. Rose Marie , the actor's second picture with Jeanette MacDonald,was that years sensation-but the client had balked at Kent's fee of two hundred fifty dollars."

The client went instead to the prestigious firm of J.E. Caldwell & Co. and ordered a second rate knock-off in the Kent style. Let us assume $100.00 was saved by doing this.

At the time of Nelson Eddy's death in 1967 the pencil signed proof that Kent would have supplied would have fetched about $1,000.00 . In today's market it would be worth upward of $4,000.00