Forgery Help Needed

[Archive]

Posted By: Greg Theberge

Hi Guys,

A while back, there was some discussion on fake pieces hitting the market and one person, if I can recall, seemed to come to mind. I was wondering if anyone knew a name?

The reason that I'm asking is that I just received a piece (a beer piece however) that I really have some bad feelings on. To makes this worse, the seller (who is actually a very nice guy) sent me pics of two more pieces he picked up. All three I have never seen before but things are not adding up on them. What really sucks is that two of them have objects printed on them which I think came directly from the items we have that are pictured in our beer book we put out a while ago. They actually look like they were printed over the existing item.

This fellow says he picked them up from a guy selling items at a flea market in OHIO. I couldn't recall, but that somehow sounded sickenly familiar with the bogus baseball stuff that's been hitting the market.

Any recollections?

Thanks in advance.

Greg

[Archive]

Posted By: Vincent

. . . but I think I found the prior posts you mention by using the SEARCH POST option, using keywords SIGNS OHIO, and sort by MATCH.


I realize you may have already used this option. If so, my apologies for my response.

[Archive]

Posted By: davidcycleback

If I am thinking of the same person, the Ohio flea market guy made cheapo computer reprints. They weren't professional productions. Due to home computer capabilities, my guess is that he didn't produce anything larger than 8"x11." He also didn't flood the market with hundreds of one reprint, but made a few to sell to the unsuspecting locals. Duly note that Ohio is a big state, and someone being an Ohioan doesn't much by itself. I've had numerous successful eBay sales involving Ohio buyers and sellers.

For display items, like labels and posters and signs, the reprints-- whether professional or via home computers-- are often different size than the known originals. If the original sign was 20x14, the known mass reprints littering eBay are 11x14 and yours is 11x14, that would suggest yours is a reprint. Even home computer printers printing smaller things, like tobacco labels, often create a different size. Their flea market and eBay newbie customers have no idea what the genuine size is, so exact sizing isn't a concern.

In the fine art print world-- ala John James Audubon and Renoir-- one of the first things you check on is the size, as the originals have to match of with known original sizes. If a print is the correct size that of course doesn't mean it is genuine-- a reprint can be made in the same size. But if the size if different than it's supposed to be, it's probably a reprint or fake. And as the original printing plate was eternally one size, the graphics part of the original prints (the image) is constant-- even if bigger or smaller paper was used. Albrecht Durer didn't have a zoom in and crop or 'fit to paper size' function on his printing press.