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Auction History Result 1w067 WILLIE THE SLEUTH linen 3sh R17 cool stone litho art of man being arrested for murder! Date Sold 9/18/2014 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. An Undated (probably 1917) Re-Release Vintage Theatrical Linenbacked Three-Sheet Movie Poster (3sh; measures 41" x 81" [104 x 206 cm]) (Learn More) Willie the Sleuth, the 1916 silent murder mystery crime comedy ("We arrest you for murder"). Note that this is a poster from the Unicorn Film Service. This was a company that in 1917 or so bought the rights to early 1910s movies and then re-released them, often with changed titles. I had long suspected this, but I got confirmation from exhibitor magazines from 1917 that had ads for the Unicorn Film Service, which explained that they had older movies available to be booked by theaters who were doing poorly with movies they were currently showing and wanted to replace them with something that would do better! If anyone knows more about this movie or the Unicorn Film Service, please e-mail us and we will post it here. If you know who did the art (if any), please let us know. Important Added Info: The poster was placed on to a very thin linen backing shortly after being printed (this was a common practice in the mid-1910s; in the later 1910s and 1920s they switched to using a kraftpaper backing). The purpose was to combine these large posters into a single piece and also to reinforce them, so that they would survive, when they were passed from theater to theater, and when they were put up on walls and taken down. All of the posters on the thin linen backing have round metal grommets in the top corners, which allowed the posters to be hung by hooks. The linen backing DID serve its purpose, in that the vast majority of three-sheets and six-sheets that survived from the early 1910s are the ones that were placed on a linen backing, but the linen did not age well, especially when the posters were stored folded up. Most often, the linen has significantly deteriorated along every fold, and there is paper loss in the poster along all folds. Such posters can be professionally removed from the original linen and placed on to a proper linen backing. I have done this to several such posters, and they end up looking wonderful! What IS linenbacking? Learn More Overall Condition and Pre-Restoration Defects with Quality of Restoration: fair. The poster was mounted on a thin linen with grommets in the top corners (see above). There is much scattered paper loss on some foldlines and pinholes around the edges (through the poster and the linen). There is water staining in the top right corner of the poster that has discolored the poster, and there are many smudges, stains, and creases scattered through the poster. Certainly, this poster can and should be removed from the old linen and properly re-backed, because it is quite possibly the only existing example of this poster, but bear that expense in mind before placing a bid on it. Learn More about condition grades 
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