Paint By Numbers
July 19, 2010 
Last week was my birthday and a friend of mine gave me this paint by number painting that was done in 1958 by someone very famous (I’m sure!). We laughed about the fine art collectability of it, and then I got to wondering so I did some research.
Evidently paint-by-number, or PBN for aficionados, was the brainchild of designer Dan Robbins in 1951 who was inspired by a story about Leonardo da Vinci assigning numbered portions of paintings to his assistants to complete. Wasn't he such a genius (Leonardo, I mean!) Who knew - I've never seen the PBN listed among his many inventions! Do you think he invented the little plastic pots for the paint too?
My own history with PBN dates from the mid 1950’s when I won a whistling contest by being the first to produce a sound after chewing up a mouthful of crackers. This display of early talent earned me the right to choose a prize from a table stacked with toys. Unfortunately, the girls seemed to have walked off with all the prizes that day and the only prizes left were boy’s prizes. Lincoln Logs. Oh I was sooooo disappointed... how boring! A kind official took pity on me and allowed me to choose a prize from the table for the older girls – a PBN!! I was thrilled. I wonder where this masterpiece hangs now. Probably some museum somewhere, or perhaps the back of my parents’ closet.
Curious, I checked Ebay and found prices going as high as $189 with most bids being around $25. Not a bad return on investment I suppose, since PBN kits originally sold for $2.15.
Reader Comments (3)
whistling after eating crackers? Let's give that a try today.
Ooh, I remember being thrilled to pieces to get a PBN set as a birthday gift when I was in the 2nd grade!
Happy Birthday!!