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Authenticity is Everything
James Stewart - Harvey Sketch - Opinions Please
Asking here how this "HARVEY" sketch from James Stewart looks. It's on a vintage artist board approx. "11 x 16". Found amongst some other signed entertainment pieces from the 70's.
To my eye, it seems to have a natural (if somewhat infirm) flow like an older person would write with. It's not a "cookie cutter" type piece like so many that have been on the market.
Thanks for any opinions you may care to offer!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by JK on
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Does not look like one that I got from him but mine was a couple decades later. Mine has whiskers in a thinner pen. Not sure I like the shakiness in the face.
But I'd focus on the signature. If its good the sketch is good, if it's bad then it's all bad.
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Permalink Reply by Eddy on
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That's good advice about focusing on the signature, JK. I'm aware there are collectors who stay away from Stewart/Harvey pieces as there has been a lot of forgery.
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Anyone else with an opinion to share on this Stewart/Harvey piece? Thanks again in advance!
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Thought I would bump this from over a year ago. I'm still curious as to what members might think of this piece. Thanks!
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Permalink Reply by Jason H on
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Not an expert on James Stewart so take this with a grain of salt.. but if I saw this available to buy, I would pass.. there are a few details that match. It could be real, but the bad outweighs the good for me. However, I dont know his history of signing. The signatures I'm comparing to could be from a different period of his life... if anyone has a signature like this one, or can find one online, please post.. i also don't like the pressure difference between the sketch and signatures but he was known to use different pens.. the sketch pen could have been almost dead where the signature pen could have been fresh.. as a potential buyer, these are details I would look into more but would ultimately force me to pass if I didnt have enough info.
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Permalink Reply by JMS1223 on
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I don’t like it. I wouldn’t buy it. The signature doesn’t look quite right to me and the sketch doesn’t look like the typical ones I know.
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Thank you both, JMS1223 & Jason H.....much appreciated!
On the one hand, one of the reasons that I have looked back at this from time to time is actually because it doesn't look like so many of the others on the market. However, I appreciate what you guys are saying about this one.
I think it's for the best to stay very wary of Harvey sketches...just like most of the Stewart autographs themselves. Here's the description on this from the dealer:
"White artist board appx. 11”x16”. Drawn with a blue ink marker is a huge sketch of “Harvey: a rabbit’s head with large stripped bow tie. This is Stewart’s rendition of the invisible rabbit Harvey in the film of the same name. Stewart has identified the sketch as “Harvey”, and inscribed this sketch: “To Chance, James Stewart.” A while back we checked the last 17 Harvey sketches offered in the autograph market. Out of the 17 only one dealer admitted theirs was not an original sketch. In our opinion, only two were found to be genuine. The individual who started forging Stewart’s “Harvey” did not use a genuine example as an exemplar. Thus, the market for years, has been flooded with non genuine Harvey sketches. The example offered here is 100% genuine".
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This is what an authentic Harvey sketch James Stewart sent ttm in the 1990s looked like:
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I got one from him TTM but apparently I don't have a photo of it. But as I recall it, it closely resembles the one linked by JMS1223.
On Etienne's, perhaps it's a much earlier example and perhaps he drew them differently early on, but there are some inconsistencies with mine and similar ones.
It has no whiskers, but maybe he just forgot to draw them or didn't have a thinner pen. The tie is a little off with those big loops at the corners, but maybe that was how he drew it years earlier. The details in the face are different than what I am used to, but maybe that is how he drew them earlier on. "Harvey" is in quotations, but maybe that was an earlier style.
Notice all the "maybes" above. More research would be needed.
I am also not a fan of the style of the writing in the inscription. But I am more familiar with his 1980s and early 1990s writing, for example.
You note some infirmity in the lines and you attribute that to old age, but if this is an older drawing then he wasn't yet in "old age". Hmmm.
There is a "tell" in the ears that most forgers miss, but at least yours approximates that feature.
The write-up by the seller is interesting, but I must admit that "100% genuine" has always been a turn off for me - is there ever a 90% genuine or a 50% genuine? It's either genuine or it isn't. ;-)
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I don't like it.
The sketch is questionable. It doesn't resemble any that I have ever seen before. An early attempt? Maybe. I know that the ones he sent out TTM were mostly preprints that he would hand draw just the whiskers on to, and then would sign. They are also highly forged, as with anything Stewart related.
As to the signiture, it looks like a moderately decent attempt at a forgery. Some of the letter shapes are fine, but some of the things I look for with Stewart just aren't there, and the shape of the "S" in Stewart puts me off as well.
The sellers description is a red flag to me too. I'd love to know where they came up with all that information. I know there are a lot of forgeries, but they have a whole story about how it started, which I've never heard. It just sounds made up to me.
There's a pretty large thread to be found somewhere on the site that discusses both his signature as well as the Harvey sketches. I'd recommend checking that out.
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Thank you JK & alitoseeker.
Yes, that "S" in "Stewart" is a problem for me as well. In fact, I think it's the most important flaw in this presentation. I've looked at a lot of Stewart autographs from the 1930's-90's and have yet to see an "S" quite like this one.
Unfortunately, the seller seems to have a LOT of secretarials & forgeries (with a bit of decent stuff here and there).
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The thing with Stewart autos is that he had a pretty basic signature, especially later in life. As a result, its not hard to forge a pretty authentic looking copy. This is made worse in that, as one of (if not THE MOST) iconic American actors of all time, there's a huge incentive to forgers. His auto is desirable to even those who may not be collectors.
He was a really good signer, and he signed A LOT of stuff over many decades, so his sig really isn't THAT valuable. But you regularly see obviously fake examples sell on Ebay for 3-5x what they are worth, because someone who isn't a collector just assumes he must be valuable because of his status as a star. Obviously this is true for just about any celebrity auto, but it seems to be a much bigger thing with Stewart.
When it comes to Jimmy, unless you have some amazing provenance with the sig, at the end of they day it just comes down to confidence in the authenticity, probably more so than any other golden age signer.
Here is the link to the thread I mentioned earlier.
James Stewart Autographs: Which are Genuine, Autopens or Forgeries?
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