James Dean Rare Original Racing Photo & Negative In His

Own the priceless photo and the exclusive copyright printing rights to a rare James Dean racing photo! A beautiful and rare piece of James Dean history re-discovered after over half a century! From the personal collection of Gus V. Vignolle, well known journalist, photographer and publisher of "MotoRacing", which was one of the first and most influential racing newspapers of the 1950’s. This is one in a series of photos and negatives that have been missing for over 50 years until recently re-discovered by Vignolle’s daughter, Zaz Clark. These amazingly intimate photos are of James Dean in and around his Speedster 23F Porsche (License Plate #2U73378) that he bought at Competition Motors in Hollywood. They were taken during his infamous first car race in Palm Springs, California in March of 1955, which he won, not long before his accident in September of that year in his new Porsche Spyder 550 while on his way to a race in Salinas, California. These photographs only appeared once in the January 13th 1956 (Vol 1, No. 7) exclusive, fully-illustrated memorial issue of MotoRacing. This is a Black and White photo and inter-negative made by Vignolle on Kodak Safety Film, from a color negative taken at the race. All the color negatives from this race have been lost, making this the only existing negative. This is one of Vignolle's favorite shots It shows James Dean sitting alone in his Speedster 23F, after having just finished his first race, and winning by over 300 yards. He is wearing a victorious checkered flag cap given to him by his friend and mechanic Bill Tunstall, and is holding a stopwatch which was held by Tunstall and shows his remarkable record breaking time. The negative comes with a COA, plus full copyright release for unlimited reproduction printing and selling to the winning bidder. The Photo and Negative are carefully packed in a wax envelope, and includes a positive proof photo struck from the negative. Also includes a copy of the MotoRacing issue. (Negative approx. 2 3/8" x 2 3/8" & photo approx. 5" x 4").