i have a hand written letter with a ink drawing obove it . dated 3-12-1917 by cm russell to a friend is it $?

Question

it is a real letter and picture above it. its o man riding a horse with a pack mule and three more horses ahead of hem. is is to a mr.geo.w.farr ,telling hem that he(cm russell)would be attending the stock growers meeting at miles and he(cm)will be there with the rest of the reps.cm said cow folks are scarce now but i am gladof a chance to meet with the few that still live.most of my old friends eather rode for one ownedirons. many of them have crossed the big range but they left tracks in history that the farmers cant plow under. good or bad they wereregular men and americas last frontier men.

Answer 1

It will need to be authenticated. Let me stress right here that you should never ever send it to someone for authentication. Never let it leave your sight. If it turns out that it is really from the C.M. Russell, it could be quite valuable.

I would think that if anyone could help you, it would be the fine folks over at the C.M. Russell Museum:
http://www.cmrussell.org/

C.M. Russell Museum
400 13th Street North
Great Falls, MT 59401-1498
phone [406] 727-8787
fax [406] 727-2402

The Museum Shop: [e-mail]
Membership: [e-mail]
General Information: [e-mail]
Education & Tours: [e-mail]
Employment Inquiries: [e-mail]
Renner Library: [e-mail]

Give them a call or drop them an e-mail describing what you have. If your looking to make some money, don't let them talk you into donating it, though.

I have also heard good things about the people over at Country living and there online appraisals. You send them photos of what you have and they can at least give you an idea.

http://magazines.ivillage.com/countryliving/collect/worth/spc/0,,284646_407824,00.html

Some of the late great Mr. Russell's work auctions for well over a quarter of a million dollars.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%22C.M.+Russell%22+auction&prssweb=Search&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-top&n=10&fl=0&x=wrt

If I have been of any help to you, and you do sell it, I do accept donations. (LOL)

Best of luck to you.

Blewz4U

Answer 2

I got one at goodwill today for 99 cents. 12 April 2015, I got online to investigate and am sure it is just a nice print, but I could not leave it there. My print is dated 1917 too, but I guess that is when he wrote the letter. At the bottom corner it has Penn Prints 1959. I dont know, guess I will go to the bother of framing it. Might as well. My sister has some Remingtons, I thot she might really like it. I put the pic on, how cool is that?

Answer 3

You should talk to an art dealer. C. M. Russell was a very celebrated American artist. It should be worth quite a bit. You don't also have any statues of horses that say Remington just lying around, do you? lol

Answer 4

Besides bluz4u's answer check out Sothbey's and Christies auction houses websites and rare document sellers plus the Library of Congress website.

Answer 5

It would definitely be worth some serious money if it was authentic. I would take it to someone to have it looked at. These days you do not get much for a forgery.

Answer 6

Try to find out who the people are otherwise you can go to ancestry.com message boards and follow the links to the surnames and see if it is anyone's family there.

Answer 7

I would say at least 50 bucks!