$1176 Yankee Stadium Directional Sign

[ruth-gehrig]

Anyone have any authenticity issues with this Yankees sign??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&_trksid=p4340.l2557&item=360439780947&nma=true&rt=nc&si=QoQz24RxnGVTzpB%252Fov999nn2EFM%253D&sspagename=STRK%3AMESINDXX%3AIT&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

[sayhey24]

No issue at all -- it's definitely not vintage!

Greg

[Splinte1941]

Hate to say it, but it's as authentic as that Cobb ball in the other thread. My condolences to the "winning" bidder.

[Leon]

OK, let me show my ignorance. Can ya'll tell this sign is bad due to the "aging" of it or something else? Admittedly I know nothing about this part of the hobby. I didn't bid on it nor would I have but I could see how someone would be fooled (just glad it wasn't me).

[thebigtrain]

I'd also like to know. Seems like it'd be a lot of work to fake this for not really too big a payoff.

[sayhey24]

Wooden replica signs similar to this one are all over the internet. They usually are identified as such, with words like "vintage replica" or "vintage style". They all have that aged country look to them, and often are quite attractive and I'm sure make nice decorator pieces at the right price. I've seen the "pointing finger" on a number of them.

There are also some that are sold as being vintage, hopefully in most cases by people who have been fooled and truly think they have a vintage piece. Some of the more generic ones that say things like "enter here" or "ladies room" are probably exactly what true vintage signs looked like back in the day.
I don't the Yankee Stadium sign passes that "smell test" -- it's hard to imagine a country-stye pointing finger sign like that hanging somewhere in the middle of the Bronx, even in the 1920s.

I hope all that makes some sense.

Greg

[steve B]

For me one of the things that seems "wrong" about this sign is the white paint and black paint have different weathering. The black has far more holes in it than the white. That would make sense if it was old and a touchup had been done with incompatible paints, latex over oil based sometimes gets like that. Especially if the preparation isn't good.

But on this sign the holes go through both layers of paint. And that's odd enough to be deliberate. Especially since that effect is only seen on the letters and not on the border.

The wear is also a bit suspect. It's got hanging loops, but also bolt holes. And while the bolt holes are in a low area they have lots of wear around them. So either it's fake wear, or whoever bolted it in place couldn't get the bolts to stay tight and left it loose long enough for the paint around the holes to wear through.

Steve B

[thebigtrain]

For me one of the things that seems "wrong" about this sign is the white paint and black paint have different weathering. The black has far more holes in it than the white. That would make sense if it was old and a touchup had been done with incompatible paints, latex over oil based sometimes gets like that. Especially if the preparation isn't good.

But on this sign the holes go through both layers of paint. And that's odd enough to be deliberate. Especially since that effect is only seen on the letters and not on the border.

The wear is also a bit suspect. It's got hanging loops, but also bolt holes. And while the bolt holes are in a low area they have lots of wear around them. So either it's fake wear, or whoever bolted it in place couldn't get the bolts to stay tight and left it loose long enough for the paint around the holes to wear through.

Interesting take/analysis, and one of the reasons I love this board. I "felt" the same way about this piece, but was just curious to see the specifics people pointed out.

I looked at it again and believe the wear around the bolt-holes is fake, and was done by one of those little "mouse sanders" like you can get for a Dremel tool, or maybe just sanded away by hand to "fake" the wear. I have seen old paint do the exact same thing when sanded in my own 1920s house (which I'm currently rennovating).

I do disagree that the "finger" was too quaint for the 1920s Bronx- look at photos of Yankee Stadium in 1923 and there was NOTHING around it- the place was truly almost "out in the country' back then, although the sign does overall have a look of someone trying a little too hard to make it look old.

Also the "bolt holes AND hanging eye hooks" observation was a great catch/detective work. Wouldn't the "Yankee Stadium" lettering be on BOTH sides if this actually hung from a ceiling or doorway, etc? That alone seems like a real "red flag" that this is a fake. I also think the font used in the lettering looks like a newer font that's mimicking an "old" style, rather than something that actually IS old/vintage. The spacing of the letters also makes me think this was one large stencil that was taped on and sprayed, rather than true hand lettering. Lettering was a high art form in the pre-war era, and this looks too ameterurish to be authentic.

At any rate, I can see this type of thing being a pretty good racket for the fraudsters. Even if it took 10 hours to make this, that's $100+ an hour for what is essentially 'craft' work that can be done with stencils and other crap from Micheal's Crafts, plus some old scrap lumber from a dumpster or whatever. Whoever bought this thing is probably not very savvy when it comes to antiques.