[Robert_Lifson]

The Kaywoody die-cut advertising sign posted above by Will is definitely a fake. In fact, there is no original Kaywoody counter sign featuring Babe Ruth of this type. All of these small Kaywoody counter signs are fakes. They have been intentionally created to cheat people.

Technically they are fantasy pieces (as there is no original of this size) but there is an original much larger cardboard Kaywoody Ruth sign of this very same design that is original and period (circa 1930). I have only ever seen or heard of two examples of the original. The dimensions of the original are approximately 48 inches tall and 19 inches wide. The best of the two examples I have seen was in the Barry Halper Collection ( Lot #2240 in the 1999 Halper Sotheby’s auction). That Kaywoody example was pictured in the Sotheby’s catalog in a huge image that took up most of a full page.

All of the fakes have been made by copying the huge catalog image of the Halper example – using some type of color copier or computer technology to both copy the image and make it just a little larger than the catalog image, so that the quality of the image is still strong, and then mounting the copy on a cardboard backing with an easel attachment added on the back to create a fake “Kaywoody counter sign”). If you check the fakes (including the example posted above), you’ll even be able to match up the many imperfections found on the Halper original with the fakes made from the Sotheby’s catalog image by criminals.

I hope this explanation was not too tedious and I hope this helps someone out there avoid buying one of these fakes that might not otherwise know!

Sincerely,

Robert Lifson