“In 1999 ken sugimori while in newyork at the hotel where he was staying at in manhattan the sellers father worked security there and was with sugimori while he was out here. The setting was intimate and it led to the sellers father getting a personalized sketch on a small blank card in pen and watercolored and signed by ken himself as a gift and kind Gesture also included is a post card.The precision of the artwork and water coloring aged on the blank card along with the auto precision in both kanji and english has solidified the authenticity of this absolute Grail in my eyes. Honestly everything checked off i just needed the backstory especially when i saw it in person . The aged texture of the card and water coloring popping in person I can go on and on. The lines in the drawing signature sugimori its just Too many things right that to me solidified this . The kind person who posted this runs a antique store where he had this available. But speaking with him along with the sellers story and just shocked he had this gem in his antique store that is just incredible . very nice guy even offered refund But after seeing this in person this is just absolutely insane . And there is more details to come . salute to all the credible sources that helped me make this decision especially my collector friends who offer me so much insight who for years have kept me informed on things i wouldve never known and helped me attain things i wouldve never had the chance to buy . just being patient and maintaining humility along with privacy. Now some may not feel this is real… Some may feel it is. As a owner of several sugimori’s and also a student of his work this purchase was a chance I had to take because everything looked legit. I believe the story. So I will cherish this art . Not everything is from sanctioned events. And alot of collectors can attest to this. Much love to all just wanted to share this new grail. And if you feel it isn’t legitimate its ok… It isnt for you . Just wanted to share these new piece of history.”
I saw it on ebay for $999 but it just looked too off to me to take a gamble on it when I live in the UK so a return would be very difficult. I messaged the seller for more details and heard nothing back. That was about a month ago. My simple understanding of Japanese (mostly my wife who tried learning) suggested it wasn’t the right spelling of his name.
I’d love for it to be real for this person’s sake though because that’s a nice story of how it came to exist.
I’ve looked at a lot of Sugimori autos when compiling this thread. I believe that this auto is fake. Some “Sugimori Hallmarks” which I won’t discuss publicly here are not used in the signature, which gives me concern about its authenticity.
杉森建
Fun fact, I just learned that “sugi” “mori” is cedar forest, so that’s neat.
I have no idea what’s going on with the “mori” character 森 (forest). It’s three tree characters and the above doesn’t seem to have any resemblance to that.
The “Ken” 建 part is also very suspect. The loop at the top is just invented. It’s also missing entire strokes.
The other points made:
possible inconsistency with paper damage vs ink damage
drawn in ball-point pen, signed in brush
is basically just a straight copy of the official art, right down to the shading:
Bonus point. In 2001, Sugimori was signing in lowercase. Why does this allegedly older autograph look like his newer autograph?
Final note is that it’s impossible to prove someone didn’t autograph something. Maybe there’s a reason for all these inconsistencies. But for me personally, there are far too many red flags here. So while I would never say something is definitively fake, there’s definitely way more reasons to think this is illegitimate than a genuine autograph.
It’s fake just based off the artwork alone. The art is a very poor recreation of Sugimori’s official Blastoise art. The execution of the drawing has all the marks of amateur / beginner artists: shaky/scratchy lines, blotchy watercolor, no rhythm and cohesion. Not to mention the actual drawing itself is wrong. Skilled artists work boldly with confidence and do not work like this.
And that’s putting aside why he would redraw his own drawing for a fan. I doubt any fan would give him the box art and say “draw this again”, they’d want something original and unique. It just doesn’t add up.
My understanding was that Sugimori signed lowercase for pen (or small tipped) autos, but otherwise used capitals for sharpie/marker/larger tipped autos. Is this incorrect?
Maybe? The problem is a lack of data here. Is there an example of an autograph before the 2001 NJ event? Is there an example with lowercase after that event? I genuinely don’t know
This is why I didn’t jump on it; and Sugimori draws like myself - in single “scratch” strokes for a line vs. one long line. Too many red flags, including the possible fact that it would’ve been the older signature vs. the new one.
For context, I was posting it as an example of an uppercase signature with a thinner marker.
I have not seen an uppercase signature pre-2001 and a lowercase one post-2001 but I know a lot of people go way deeper into this stuff than me so maybe I’m just unaware of examples
The Pichu sketch was awarded to the 2nd place winner of the aug 8 2006 tournament in New York. so think that still stands with the lower case being only on the older stuff and the uppercase on all the newer stuff.
so think that still stands with the lower case being only on the older stuff and the uppercase on all the newer stuff.