Pegasus Mystery solved! - Tue Apr 22 2014 07:46 PM
There were a lot of questions surrounding the authenticity of this Pegasus on the day I bought it and there was quite a bit of discussion here on Old Gas about it, with no real clear consensus about its authenticity! Several well known enthusiasts weighed in on it at Columbia and they were about even for and against!
It kept bothering me that there should be a way to tell---and then it came to me!!!
Back in the day when these would have been in use, they had to be a die cut sign, or they would have been fairly crude looking! Certainly not cut out with a torch or other metal cutting apparatus to have such detail and uniformity!
If they were die cut, then, then a person should be able to discern from the edges as to the method used to form these works of art! At this point in my thoughts, modern metallurgy came to mind and todays use of laser technology popped up! What if these were cut out with a modern laser machine? Would a person be able to identify the edge cut from a laser?
A quick call to a friend of mine that has been in the laser business for many, many years, and he agreed to take a look at it and was fairly confident that he should be able to tell! Last week, I was able to stop by his shop with the sign and he spent a fair amount of time examining the edges with a magnifying glass and he came to the conclusion that he is 99% positive that the sign was cut out with a laser!
Now I'm not sure when lasers first came into commercial use, but I know it wasn't back in the time period when this sign would have been used! Its a very nice sign, but definitely a fantasy /reproduction piece!
It should be easy to tell on other fantasy/reproduction pieces too, if they were indeed cut out with a laser machine!
This sign measurers 36 inches from front hoof to the farthest back hoof and is 26 1/2 inches tall from the ground to the highest wing point! If you have one of these, I hate to break it to you, but they are definitely phonies and are nothing more than decorator pieces!
This one will be permanently marked as such with an engraving on the back side! Hopefully others will do the same!
SPREAD THE WORD! These are PHONIES!
It kept bothering me that there should be a way to tell---and then it came to me!!!
Back in the day when these would have been in use, they had to be a die cut sign, or they would have been fairly crude looking! Certainly not cut out with a torch or other metal cutting apparatus to have such detail and uniformity!
If they were die cut, then, then a person should be able to discern from the edges as to the method used to form these works of art! At this point in my thoughts, modern metallurgy came to mind and todays use of laser technology popped up! What if these were cut out with a modern laser machine? Would a person be able to identify the edge cut from a laser?
A quick call to a friend of mine that has been in the laser business for many, many years, and he agreed to take a look at it and was fairly confident that he should be able to tell! Last week, I was able to stop by his shop with the sign and he spent a fair amount of time examining the edges with a magnifying glass and he came to the conclusion that he is 99% positive that the sign was cut out with a laser!
Now I'm not sure when lasers first came into commercial use, but I know it wasn't back in the time period when this sign would have been used! Its a very nice sign, but definitely a fantasy /reproduction piece!
It should be easy to tell on other fantasy/reproduction pieces too, if they were indeed cut out with a laser machine!
This sign measurers 36 inches from front hoof to the farthest back hoof and is 26 1/2 inches tall from the ground to the highest wing point! If you have one of these, I hate to break it to you, but they are definitely phonies and are nothing more than decorator pieces!
This one will be permanently marked as such with an engraving on the back side! Hopefully others will do the same!
SPREAD THE WORD! These are PHONIES!