Bill,
I made it very clear in my first post that I am a collector of photography related items. Why does someone purchase a peice of art? Simply for visual satisfaction or investment purposes, hoping that someday it might be worth something. I purchased that copy negative because not only did I have a print of that image (which was larger then the copy negative itself) but it is something neat to have in your collection if your a collector. I have already reseached it abit, and found that it was most likly used in the production of one of the earlier printings of "The Negative" by Ansel Adams. You can lay the negative on top of the image in the book, and it matches up perfectly. When I get back to work on Thusday, I will reseach it more to try to find out more about what it was used for. I will be glad to post scans or text of the information I found.

Just for your information, I also own 8x10 copy negatives of a few Edward Weston's images. One of "Pepper #30", a portrait of a man, and one of the chambered nautilius. These were all made by Brett before Edwards death and I am unsure of these reason of making them. Althought, I have came acrost several loose Edward Weston prints made from copy negatives in the CCP's collection, printed mainly by Brett.

I could easily make myself a beautiful print of Pepper #30, but I have no desire or reason to atempt to print from ANY of these copy negatives I own, mainly out of respect for the photographer and preserving their vision in crafting the fine print. When a print is made of a photographers negatives by another photographer, the original vision is manipulated and lost, unless the photographer who made the image is there to instruct the printer and aprove the print.

There is one photographer that I know that still makes prints of "copy negatives" but he is the grandson of a famous photographer, and makes these prints for educational purposes only...then the print is destroyed. Althought there is no laws ect to stop him from printing these, but he knows that a "Fine print" cannot be truly obtained by a reproduction negative.

If you have any other questions for me, or are interested in discussing this topic with me in person, feel free to email me.

Thanks,

Ryan McIntosh