The Curator pedigree is right up there with Pacific Coast and White Mountain for the best Silver Age material ever discovered. It is a tough decision trying to rank them...
Curator
The Curator pedigree is arguably the first or second best
collections in existence when concerning Silver Age books. The books are among
the highest and even some of the absolute highest graded books around. Its
breadth includes some pre-hero books from the early 1950’s (the early books are
not of top tier quality) to the 1980’s. The books were not exceptionally well
preserved by the owner until November of 1962. The collection is well known for
its high grade Silver Age runs of Marvel and DC books.
The Curator collection bears the highest known existing copy
of X-men #1 (CGC graded at a 9.8) and Tales of Suspense #47 (CGC graded at a
9.9). A great deal of the collection is unaccounted for as it has largely been
split up. The current whereabouts of many of the Curators is unknown either for
books being unaccounted for, or the current owner not wanting to be revealed to
the public.
The collection was owned by a man who was not ignorant to
the potential value of comics, and knew that their condition was a great influence
to their value. This knowledge of comics led to a very strange method of storage
which was unheard of for its time. The books were stored in a walk-in vault of
a museum in what is called, “bricks”. A “brick” is a group of five comics
packed together as tightly as possible in a bag. This tight packing is what
gives the Curators their amazing spine and crispness.
