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After receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania James Camner founded La Scala Autographs in 1975 as the first firm in America to specialize in autographs of opera classical music theater and the performing arts. In his more than 30 year career James Camner quickly became a recognized expert in this field and has appeared on the Joe Franklin Show was a consultant for the Time-Life Collectibles Encyclopedia and served on the Vetting Committee of the prestigious Winter Antiques Show in New York City and has done numerous appraisals for collections donated to premiere American institutions including the Harvard Theater Collection the Metropolitan Opera Archives and Guild the New York Philharmonic the University of Buffalo the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress among others.
James Camner has been the autograph consultant for the Metropolitan Opera Guild for over 20 years is a founding member of the Professional Autograph Dealers Association in which he has served as an officer and has been a member of the prestigious Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America for more than 30 years. James Camner is the author of more than 10 books on the performing arts and five photo histories for Dover including: "The Great Composers in Historic Photographs" and "Stars of the American Musical Theater " and has written feature articles for "Opera News." James Camner's pioneering 1978 illustrated "Film Autographs 1893-1941" which listed and illustrated over 1100 autographs created an industry standard and it is still used as a valuable reference guide. | 