in my mid-twentys, my friend Claudia Kable and I went to the enormous outdoor antique meet in
Brimfield, Mass. we saw, at least a dozen times, over the week, an elderly lady who was approaching
various antique dealers, in the hope that one of them might purchase this 18th Century Japanese Woodblock print.
No one seemed to value it very much; and the dealers either refused to express any interest, whatsoever,
or just offered a pitance for it.....late in the show, as dealers were packing up and customers were
returning to their hotels and motels....i approached the pitiful lady and asked how much she had been
asking for the Utamaro.....she replied, "$80". I was dumbfounded! When I handed her the money....actually, I gave her a $100 bill and asked that she keep it......she seemed so grateful that i even liked it, saying "It's so plain and boring.....I was originally going to throw it away, but a friend told me that some antique dealer would actually give
me money for it!" a few years later, i paid $1800 for an inferior print by the same artist........
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