Many of you probably noticed this Brock sketch signed by Ken Sugimori sold over the weekend in a 24 hour auction. My kneejerk reaction was that it is a fake, but I wanted to get your opinions. If it is real, then I would say it sold very low. If it is fake, then it is a very very good fake. Thoughts?
Also, a side question: Does PSA offer any services for this kind of item? Would they at least be able to authenticate the autograph?
Thanks.
Well his name is right there so that means it has to be real, right?
What makes you think it’s a fake? I don’t doubt that it could be fake but that does look like his art style. How much did it sell for?
Link to the auction?
@ascendedbidoof , It sold for 91,000 yen (~$850 USD).
The artwork itself it awesome. Whether it’s real or not, I love it.
I don’t have any proof that it’s a fake. It’s just my gut feeling. I’ve seen similar artworks sold over the years in Japan, and I heard somewhere on these forums that they were made by an artist in Brazil. I can’t remember where I read that. If anyone has any more info on that, I’d love to hear it. Also, none of these listings claim that they are original owners. They were all purchased secondhand, so that’s a dead end.
@rattlebear , page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/l675847387
I also considered buying this but had a weird gut feeling at the end to not go through with it.
One thing that makes me suspicious about this drawing is that the first character, normally the three slashes, the top one either is completely underneath the “木” character, or pierces the top. This one looks like either sugimori intentionally squeezed the three slashes underneath the 木 character.
Source: google sugimori’s signature on PSA cards or check this thread out:
www.elitefourum.com/t/fake-ken-sugimoris-drawings/22004/1
It doesn’t look too different to 杉 in the Kanto starters pictures in that link though. In fact, it’s pretty damn close as far as I can see.
The kanto starters one’s top slash is complete above the horizontal line of 木 whereas the brock’s never goes above the horizontal line. I just find it peculiar, especially since most if not all the three slashes in all the other authentic signatures have the same degree of thickness in the slashes, but it feels like this one the top slash was particularly thinner to sneak under the 木 symbol. It’s pretty close but since its an autograph, I personally think being nitpicky would be important, and honestly this is all just an assumption; I’m no autograph expert. Also learning these symbols when I was younger, these tiny differences would get my ass handed to me if I get it wrong, but I don’t think it really matters here since Sugimori is just doing an autograph and I don’t think he cares about making his characters to be perfect (as evidence of his slashes going through the 木 symbol).
@nuttun, Thanks for the link to that thread. It was very helpful! I think that’s good enough for me to feel relieved that I didn’t bid on the Brock. Unfortunately at this point, I think we wouldn’t even be able to spot a real one when it shows up for auction.
Gives brock such a more serious style compared to the TV show