• Navigation
  • Home
  • Search Photos
  • Photographers
  • Special Sale
  • Photo Exhibits
  • Member Dealers
  • Collecting
  • Newsletter
  • Calendar
  • Photo Links

• Home
• Issue #282
• Article

By Alex Novak

A forged Le Gray signature on the back of a French daguerreotype that came up at auction.

If the article above by Michael Diemar with an interview with photo dealer Terry Etherton makes you a bit more cautious when it comes to buying collectibles and photography, that was the purpose. This is especially true when buying from lesser known sources.

While there are many good and honest photo dealers and galleries who are not members of the Association of International Art Dealers (AIPAD), that membership does provide a bit more substantiation of a dealer or gallery's credentials and experience in the field. Plus, even if the dealer makes an honest mistake, they are more likely to refund your money. You can find a list of AIPAD members here: https://www.aipad.com/members. Likewise Daguerreian Society members who are dealers are also somewhat more likely to be knowledgeable and honest. These are good places to start to vet your sources.

I have reported on a number of dubious items that have come up for auction, even at well-respected auction houses, where expertise today is in short supply. It's become easier for everyone to buy online these days, especially during and after COVID. But I find asking questions up front can avoid a lot of problems later. Any honest dealer or auction house should be more than willing to answer any reasonable question. And a little early due diligence can prevent a lot of headaches later.

I still see quite a few lesser known, online auctions on Live Auctioneers with very clever descriptions that imply that the items for sale are something that they are not. It's one thing to sell legitimate photogravures, such as the ones from Camera Works and Camera Notes. But describing pages simply cut out of books as 'photo lithographs' or 'gravures' when most are simple common photo offset printing, is treading the line and is really misleading at best. Often there is no description of the medium at all. And sometimes it is clear that the images are simply copy photographs not made by the photographer.

These auctions never allow physical visits, and answer questions with non-responsive or vague answers, if they respond at all. Many are associated with China (CN), and you will see that in the clearly fake glowing endorsements posted to their site. Phone calls are, as Terry Etherton said in the previous article, rarely answered, and when they are you won’t get any straightforward answer.

Often I see real, but very low-end items mixed in with high-end photos by a well-known photographer, like Man Ray, which is priced unrealistically low.

Noted photo curator Keith Davis once emailed me a group of such items on Live Auctioneers with $150 to $500 "starting" prices for what would have been $50,000 to $250,000 photographs if they were actually made by the photographers, instead of being either copy prints or tear sheets out of a book. Such merchants depend on people's impulse to think they alone found a fabulous item for nearly nothing. The first give-away is that the merchant has many more of such 'miracle' finds. In today's world of easy access to information, it is unrealistic to think that you can buy something for a three figure price that is worth hundreds, if not thousands, of times more. Yes, there are bargains, just not insane ones.

When you check out the seller comments on either eBay or one of the other auction sites like Live Auctioneers, do a deep dive and look at the more negative remarks. If they note problems that aren't responded to by the merchant, pay attention. These same merchant often flood the posts with their own disguised positive posts to bury the bad ones. That’s not to say that a few negative posts mean the seller is a bad source; but coupled with a pile of clearly faked positive comments, it should be "buyer beware!"

I've seen many other such auction houses still on LiveAuctioneers in particular, which appear to be the same troubled merchants, but they appear under different names. Changing names and continuing the same misleading practices doesn't fix the problem. Both EBay and LiveAuctioneers have had a tough time policing such sellers, and, frankly, they have little incentive to do so, because such dubious sales make them money. It seems that the companies would rather put buyers who complain through intense scrutiny, rather than their dealers who make them money, which is somewhat understandable from a financial perspective, but not when those dealers repeatedly abuse customers. And, as I've noted, even when these companies do the right thing and prevent a seller from posting, the seller just changes their name and continues the same practices, and even makes the same item posts!

And, yes, signatures of photographers (and famous subjects) have been forged numerous times. Even daguerreotypes have been remade on old plates and put into 19th-century cases, sometimes with signatures (or name punches) forged and added to the plates.

This tintype has an 1860s U.S. revenue stamp on the verso, but the image was actually made in the 1880s in France.

Old cabinet, stereo and CDV cards are occasionally stripped of their original (and common) images and modern copy prints of more exciting subject matter is substituted. American Indians are some of the typical subject matter. Tintypes can be remade on old plates. I even saw an 1880s French nude as a tintype with an 1860s revenue stamp on the verso at auction on eBay. The seller was actually an honest person; the consignor, not so much.

One last thing that you should check before bidding online or any where else: make sure to find out what the auction buyer's premium is before bidding. I have seen some ridiculously high add-on premiums on many, if not most auctions. Most have recently raised their rates, so don't count on the same premium as last time. Today even 35% isn’t out of the ordinary, so when you are looking at an item's auction history, make sure to check if that buyer's premium was included or not. And remember that shipping from some auction houses, particularly on international purchases and from the major houses, can be thousand of dollars even on one photograph. Photo galleries and private photo dealers are very often less expensive when you factor in all the costs of an auction house. Plus most dealers offer guarantees and personal service/advice, unlike today's auctions, which rarely do.

For more of our past articles on deceptive practices and problems at auction, etc.:
--Group of Reportedly Altered Daguerreotypes with Dubious Signatures, etc. Appears on Market:
https://www.iphotocentral.com/news/article-view.php/1/253/241/1581/4/0/0.
--French Police Investigate Possible Forgery of 19th-Century Photographs Auctioned At Artcurial Deauville:
https://www.iphotocentral.com/news/article-view.php/1/199/189/1208/9/0/0.
--Quillan "Leaf" Controversy: Does Sotheby's Go Overboard With Its AuctionPromotion?:
https://www.iphotocentral.com/news/article-view.php/1/157/148/877/13/0/0.
--What to Do to Protect Yourself When Making Purchases At Auctions:
https://www.iphotocentral.com/news/article-view.php/1/157/148/878/13/0/0.
--Some Thoughts Concerning The Henry Bright Album's Photogenic Drawings:
https://www.iphotocentral.com/news/article-view.php/1/157/148/879/13/0/0.

Novak has over 49 years experience in the photography-collecting arena. He is a long-time member and formerly board member of the Daguerreian Society, and, when it was still functioning, he was a member of the American Photographic Historical Society (APHS). He organized the 2016 19th-century Photography Show and Conference for the Daguerreian Society in NYC. He is also a long-time member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD. Novak has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Photo Review, which publishes both the Photo Review and the Photograph Collector, and is currently on the Photo Review's advisory board. He was a founding member of the Getty Museum Photography Council. He is author of French 19th-Century Master Photographers: Life into Art.

Novak has published numerous photography articles and columns in several newspapers, including the Photograph Collector, Focus magazine and the Daguerreian Society Newsletter. He has been interviewed extensively on the photography art market by the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Classic magazine, Maine Antique Digest, the Art Newspaper, Art News, Art Business News, Focus magazine, PDN, Black & White magazine, Photographie Internationale, Antiques & the Arts Online, Art Critical and the Photograph Collector newsletter, as well as by many other publications, television programs and websites, both in the USA and in France. He was quoted extensively in the book, "Collectingphotography" by Gerry Badger. He has spoken at numerous photography events and programs.

He writes and publishes the E-Photo Newsletter, the largest circulation newsletter in the field. Novak is also president and owner of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, a private photography dealer, which sells by appointment and has sold at exhibit shows, such as AIPAD New York and Miami, Art Chicago, Classic Photography LA, Photo LA, Paris Photo, The 19th-century Photography Show, Art Miami, the Daguerreian Society, etc.