Tintin Forums

My grand-father worked as a sea captain and had Hergé as passenger on one of his trips.
They spoke and Hergé gave my grand-father a signed Tintin album, two Christmas cards with Tintin motifs, both signed, and he also draw two small drawings of Tintin and Milou (both signed).

I wonder about the value of these items? Do you know about auction results for items of this kind or have any idea about the market value of these items? It would be interesting to know.
Many thanks
Pieter

UPDATE: I spoke to my dad about these items today. It was my dad who got them from Hergé and Bob De Moor, who also was on that trip.
My father was just a kid back then. Hergé and De Moor took that trip to draw sketches for a Tintin book partly set on a boat.

I'm not going to sell, but it would be interesting to know the value, I've tried to search different eBay sites and on Google, but can't find a selling price for signed Tintin books.

Wow! Was your grandfather's ship the MS Reine Astrid? Hergé and Bob De Moor's research trip on this Swedish cargo ship to research the fictional freighter Ramona that features in The Red Sea Sharks (Coke en Stock) is mentioned in several biographies of Hergé.
Apparently they had a great (and rather drunken) time! They must have got some work done too though, as the Ramona is extremely well drawn in the book.

If you've got signed souvenirs of this well-known trip given by Hergé to the captain of the ship and his son (your grandfather and father), I'd imagine that they'd be worth a huge amount to collectors, especially if the little signed drawings of Tintin and Milou that you mention are original and specially drawn piece of artwork.

It's nice that you don't want to sell them though, given their sentimental value to your family and your dad's memories of meeting Hergé as a boy. Some things are more important than money (but a value might be important for insurance purposes).

Make sure you're keeping them somewhere very safe!

Yes, it was MS Reine Astrid! Hergé's drawing is a small pencil drawn piece of Tintin and Milou and Bob de Moors drawing is of Hergé sitting in his cabin sipping on a drink.

Thanks a lot for the information Balthazar!

No problem. The Bob De Moor drawing of Hergé in his cabin sounds extremely interesting (and I'd guess would be worth a huge amount as well). I'd imagine the author and journalist Michael Farr, (who writes and compiles books on Hergé's background research) would be interested to know of the existence of these personally dedicated drawings from the Reine Astrid trip.
One of his books, Tintin at Sea, focuses on the ships in Tintin books and their real-life inspirations (it accompanied an exhibition of the same name), so you might find out more about your grandfather's ship in that.

One of the biographies that covers Hergé and Bob De Moor's research trip is a comic-strip biography that was published in volume 4 of Drawn and Quarterly, (a compilation album series of contemporary adult and "art-house" comic work), published around 2001.
The captain of the Reine Astrid is pictured in several frames over a couple of pages, though I don't know whether he bears any resemblance to your grandfather. The author-artists of this comic strip biog portay the Reine Astrid's captain as a slim man with only one eye, visually hinting that he was the model or inspiration for the character Skut, the Estonian pilot whom Tintin and Captain Haddock befriend in The Red Sea Sharks. But I'm guessing that this may be creative licence on their part. (It's that kind of biography, creatively mingling fictional elements from Hergé's work into his life, sometimes quite symbolically.)

Very interesting indeed, the signed album is The Secret of 'The Unicorn' in English, published by Casterman.
You can see pictures here.

When I preview the message it looks like the adress comes out wrong it should be 1172867479 in the end, without any spaces between the numbers

Many thanks to you balthazar

That's probably the rarest of the English Tintin books! Definitely worth something if it is signed!

The other stuff has no real way of valuing it, very unique items. Worth getting insured though!

I;m sure the recent Tintin at Sea exhibition would have been interested in borrowing them!

R

Thanks for the link to the pictures, 0195pieter. Good to see that Bob de Moor cartoon of Hergé knocking back the drink, and the other stuff too. (Actually, I found I had to click on one of the links near the top left hand corner of the page you gave a link to, to get to the actual page with the photos. The url address for that page seems to be this: http://www.antikviteter.net/antikprat/messages/175/173412.html?1172530 488 Hope that helps anyone else trying to find the pics.)

Jockosjungle is right about the rarity of the Casterman English edition of Unicorn. This, along with Casterman's English edition of the sequel Red Rackham's Treasure, was an early attempt (1952) to launch Tintin onto the UK market, which precedes Methuen's more successful English editions by some years. The translations are quite different.

Someone told this forum a while back about one they'd found in an attic and were selling on eBay.
I believe it went for about £1,000, and that wasn't signed by Hergé. Any author-signed copy of this book would be worth a good bit more, but an author signed copy dedicated to the son of the captain of the Reine Astrid (with the direct connections to the creation of The Red Sea Sharks discussed above) must be extremely valuable, I'd have thought.

0195pieter could you please contact me at the adress you find by clicking on member just under my name to the left?
I'm Swedish, so you don't have to write in English.
Unfortunately I don't have the kind of money to buy your very fine items but I have quite a good connection to Swedish collectors if you decide to sell and will of course help you free of charge and can give you tips about how to store them.

I also have contact with Bonnier Carlsen who might be interested in your items. But please do contact me since I don't want to fill this forum with a lot of Swedish information.
If you google my real name (which is the same as my mail-adress) plus Tintin you'll find my website dedicated to Tintin and Hergé.

I think you should contact the Studios Hergé in Brussels; I am sure that they would be delighted to know of the items you have, and Philippe Goddin might like to have them appear in one of the volumes of the Chronologies.