Help! Curator Pedigree: Who was it and where was it? 1 1

[Jaylam]

Trying to find more information on the Curator Pedigree. Nothing I've been able to find reveals who the collector was and where the collection was purchased and stored, like what city and what museum did this collector work for? Can anyone shine anymore light beyond what I've been able to find so far? Thanks!

[lizards2]

 

[Randall Dowling]

John Hauser can fill you in.  He's not on the boards, though.  

This is the only link I found on the boards.  It's nearly 20 years old and John no longer maintains a website.  But he's a staple at shows in the upper midwest, always a good guy to talk with.

 

[jjonahjameson11]

Here’s a bit of information from the Pedigree section of CGC’s board:

Considered one of the best Silver Age collections ever discovered, the Curator boasts an Avengers #1 in 9.4, an Amazing Spider-Man #1 in 9.6, an X-men #1 in 9.8 and a Tales of Suspense #47 in 9.9, among many others. The collection began in the late '50s and continued into the '80s, its condition peaking in 1962. They were amassed by an employee of a museum (hence the name), who stored the comics in tight packs on the museum's premises. John Hauser acquired most of them in the '90s but sold many without a pedigree identification. As a result some copies have lost their pedigree as the books do not have any distinctive markings.

[namisgr]

To my knowledge, the details you ask about are not known in the collecting community.  The old thread copied above has a brief discussion about the Curator pedigree and the original owner.  It also has information on books from the collection that were sold before the collection was recognized as deserving of pedigree status, and so are in the collecting community without attribution.

The only thing I can add is that Dan Jurgens is the comic book creator who is referred to in the old thread linked above and owned the SA Fantastic Four run from the Curator pedigree.  It was auctioned in 2012 on Heritage, and initially the books were not recognized by either Heritage or CGC when they started grading them as being Curators.  Fortunately, they were clued in by board member Ghost Town, and properly attributed to the pedigree.  And the collector referred to in the original thread jokingly as the 'high priest of high grade' is Tom Brulato, who at one time owned a significant amount of the Curator Marvels.

Edited August 9, 2022 by namisgr

[blazingbob]

I would buy the pedigree book that explains all the pedigree's that are out there.

Oh wait,  still waiting for that book that I paid advertising for over xx years ago.

[lou_fine]

On 8/9/2022 at 4:38 AM, namisgr said:

And the collector referred to in the original thread jokingly as the 'high priest of high grade' is Tom Brulato, who at one time owned a significant amount of the Curator Marvels.

Doesn't Tom still own these Curator Marvels or did he eventfully end up selling them off and left the hobby as there hasn't been much about him?  

[Cat]

On 8/10/2022 at 12:53 AM, lou_fine said:

Doesn't Tom still own these Curator Marvels or did he eventfully end up selling them off and left the hobby as there hasn't been much about him?  

He'll let you know if there's anything to know about him, maggot. No go flex some comics. Failed. He's does it better, and you know that! 

[THE_BEYONDER]

[namisgr]

The Boards aren't for everybody.

[Sweet Lou 14]

On 8/9/2022 at 11:05 AM, THE_BEYONDER said:

All these years and I finally know who ended up with my undercopies.

[Robot Man]

On 8/9/2022 at 8:05 AM, THE_BEYONDER said:

Big books, Lil PP…

[Robot Man]

I have a couple of Gold Keys I bought from John many years ago. Mostly, just wanted a couple examples for my collection. Got them very reasonable.

They are Awsome books. Bone white pages, perfect centering and incredibly glossy. They look fresh and unread. I selected ones with dark background colors to show the amazing sense of preservation. 

Supposedly, they were neatly stored with alternating spines in a safe. Glad to have them.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Robot Man

[lou_fine]

On 8/9/2022 at 9:20 AM, Robot Man said:

I have a couple of Golf Keys I bought from John many years ago. Mostly, just wanted a couple examples for my collection. Got them very reasonable.

They are Awsome books. Bone white pages, perfect centering and incredibly glossy. They look fresh and unread. I selected ones with dark background colors to show the amazing sense of preservation. 

Supposedly, they were neatly stored with alternating spines in a safe. Glad to have them.

Like you, I also contacted John about 15 years to pick up about 8 to 10 of the cheap Gold Key/Dell #1 issues from the Curator Collection.  

Nothing expensive at all as they were all at less than $100, save for the Total War #1 since I wanted a nice copy to go with the Files Copies which I had for the Mars Patrol 4 - 10 portion of the run.  They were all pretty much at guide and included low demand books like Toka 1, Naza 1, Tarzan Lord of the Jungle 1, Jungle Tales of Tarzan #1, Gunmaster 1, etc.  Certainly nothing special at all, but just to get a small sampling of the Curator books at a very reasonable price. 

As for their condition, although they are might techically up there from a pure CGC grading point of view, they just didn't seem to be as bright and glossy as the Mars Patrol File copies or the Dell Office Files copies which I had from back in the late 30's.  To each their own, but I guess I am much more about eye appeal which you can see from a distance, as opposed to the tiny technical barely perceptable (but improveable and hence revenu generating) flaws which CGC is so focused on nowadays.  

I guess I also got the impression that there were probably multiple copies of these later Curator books as they were certainly sold to me at a very reasonable price and I had figured how is this possible for a big name Curator pedigree, since I found it rather unlikely that everybody else and their dog had passed on them already since this was several years after the collection had come to market.  

Still, like you have stated in your post, glad to have them as I now have them safely stored back into the same packing box which they came in. 

Edited August 18, 2022 by lou_fine

[lou_fine]

On 8/9/2022 at 8:05 AM, THE_BEYONDER said:

 

On 8/9/2022 at 8:39 AM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

All these years and I finally know who ended up with my undercopies.

Well, if I was Sonny Boy here, instead of simply sitting back and taking it on the chin, I would have taken an offensive jab back at him.  

I would have asked him if his former partner in crime at Via had used these copies as a practice run in order to perfect his technique.    

Especially since according to the CGC.data website, virtually every single one of these books were graded right when CGC first opened their doors and long before they knew what was going on.  

[iggy]

I bought a cheapish copy from John a couple years ago off eBay. Beautiful copy of Our Love #1 if not for a staple pop on the cover. 

Spoiler

 

Edited August 19, 2022 by iggy

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 8/19/2022 at 2:13 PM, lou_fine said:

 

Well, if I was Sonny Boy here, instead of simply sitting back and taking it on the chin, I would have taken an offensive jab back at him.  

I would have asked him if his former partner in crime at Via had used these copies as a practice run in order to perfect his technique.    

Especially since according to the CGC.data website, virtually every single one of these books were graded right when CGC first opened their doors and long before they knew what was going on.  

Sonny boy was @joe_collector

Dig up the thread and give it a read for the responses...
 

 

[THE_BEYONDER]

@lou_fine
 

He shows up on page 5

[lou_fine]

On 8/19/2022 at 1:09 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

Sonny boy was @joe_collector

Yes, whatever happened to good old JC as I remember he used to be so active on these boards here when they were filled with new posts from an almost endless stream of boardies who used to post here?  

I imagine he probably left the hobby awhile ago as it's been years since I last saw a post from him.  What a defference between the good old days and now when the boards are pretty much like a masoleum and you can now go for hours before seeing a new post on some of these forums here.     

Edited August 19, 2022 by lou_fine

[iggy]

On 8/8/2022 at 9:44 PM, Jaylam said:

Trying to find more information on the Curator Pedigree. Nothing I've been able to find reveals who the collector was and where the collection was purchased and stored, like what city and what museum did this collector work for? Can anyone shine anymore light beyond what I've been able to find so far? Thanks!

I quickly looked over this and the other thread to see if the location was answered, and I don’t think it has. I dug out my copy to see if it was mentioned on the “certificate”  (nope- see pic)… but I seem to remember reading somewhere it was either Minneapolis or St. Paul, the Twin Cities of MN. I’ll see if I can’t get a message through to John to try to verify…