HOS 92 Color Touch Opinion 2 2

[danchoi03]

I want to ask your opinion about color touch restoration. I purchased
HOS 92 recently on Ebay and I noticed the back of the front cover has
a tiny purple dot. This purple dot is located on the back side of the
Bat right wing of the front cover. I am not sure this is color touch
or manufacturing error. 

 

Thanks

Edited February 23, 2022 by danchoi03

[theCapraAegagrus]

Looks like A-1 color touch to me, which is the best that you can ask for.

[Get Marwood & I]

It's always difficult to assess from photos, but I would say not colour touch.

Logically, if someone was going to touch that cover up, with either a view to enhancing eye appeal or increasing value, then I would have expected them to touch these areas up too:

 

A dot on the Bat wing line seems an odd one to target. Does it feel like there was something there to touch up?

Nice book, by the way.

[Kevin76]

It's not manufacturing, Printed ink never bleeds through

[danchoi03]

@Get Marwood & I the area around the purple dot is smooth. I don't feel anything unusual. I think you are also right about the fact if someone wants to color touch, why doesn't he/she touch other areas where color touch will need the most. Therefore, my conclusion is probably not color touch. 

[greggy]

On 2/23/2022 at 12:17 PM, danchoi03 said:

@Get Marwood & I the area around the purple dot is smooth. I don't feel anything unusual. I think you are also right about the fact if someone wants to color touch, why doesn't he/she touch other areas where color touch will need the most. Therefore, my conclusion is probably not color touch. 

I have seen dots like that in past in parts of the book where it doesn't make sense for it to be colour touched.  I can't see anything obvious based on your pics. 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 2/23/2022 at 8:17 PM, danchoi03 said:

@Get Marwood & I the area around the purple dot is smooth. I don't feel anything unusual. I think you are also right about the fact if someone wants to color touch, why doesn't he/she touch other areas where color touch will need the most. Therefore, my conclusion is probably not color touch. 

Kevin76 is right about printed ink, so it might have been a flaw in the paper or an ink drop of some kind post production. Hard to see it as a conscious attempt at CT in that location alone, but who knows, people do odd things. If it's smooth to the touch, what were they covering up anyway? 

Send it in to CGC and it'll come back trimmed 

Joking. 

[zzutak]

On 2/23/2022 at 12:20 PM, greggy said:

I have seen dots like that in past in parts of the book where it doesn't make sense for it to be colour touched.  I can't see anything obvious based on your pics. 

My experience matches greggy's, which places me in the not color touched camp. 

Remember, this cover was one of several covers (usually 4 or 6) that were first printed onto a larger sheet of glossy stock.  These printed sheets were then placed in stacks.  Eventually, the individual covers on a given sheet were separated and mated with matching interiors.  It's likely that the printed-but-as-yet-untrimmed sheet directly below the one containing your specific cover had a wet spec of purple ink.  That wet ink then bled onto the underside of your cover by direct contact.  The ink on your IFC didn't bleed thru from your OFC; it bled from another OFC of this same issue (IFC = inside front cover; OFC = outside front cover). 

[The Lions Den]

The only problem you may have is that it looks like color touch even if it's not...   

[thehumantorch]

On 2/23/2022 at 6:49 PM, The Lions Den said:

The only problem you may have is that it looks like color touch even if it's not...   

That's where I am.  Looks like ink bleed through.

[zzutak]

Lions Den is correct: if the restoration check is being done by a novice, he/she might rule this purple dot "color touch."  However, I don't believe a seasoned pro would.  There will be no surface anomaly observed when the outside front cover is rotated under an oblique or raking light.  Even more convincing is the fact that the deepest/strongest purple on the dot (which is at the center of the dot, just as we'd expect) is offset from the purple line on the front cover.

 

[Kevin76]

Could have had a pen sitting on the book and leak on the book many years ago   Just cause there's ink on the book doesn't mean color touch was intended to be a color touch. Only way to know is to have it graded and see what CGC thinks. 

[The Lions Den]

To be honest, I don't think this little spot of ink was intentional, and that's usually the deciding factor as far as CGC is concerned. 

I'm constantly impressed by the combined knowledge of my fellow board members, however. A most excellent thread!   

[joeypost]

On 2/23/2022 at 9:13 PM, zzutak said:

Lions Den is correct: if the restoration check is being done by a novice, he/she might rule this purple dot "color touch."  However, I don't believe a seasoned pro would.  There will be no surface anomaly observed when the outside front cover is rotated under an oblique or raking light.  Even more convincing is the fact that the deepest/strongest purple on the dot (which is at the center of the dot, just as we'd expect) is offset from the purple line on the front cover.

 

I'd be more concerned about the stain over the "T" than the dot of ink.