Another spurious John R. Neill drawing has emerged on the market from
Rhyton Gallery - this is the third that I've seen in the past year, and
this time the artist has chosen to try replicating a drawing that I
own.
The drawing chosen is a chapter heading of Glinda, from 1914's
Tik-Tok of Oz. The other two copied drawings that the gallery offered were both based on pieces from
The Wonder City of Oz,
a much later title featuring Neill's late style of drawing - bolder and
simpler. In attempting the more delicate style of Glinda, the artist's
deficiencies are pronounced - there's really no comparison between the
original and the copy.
Aside
from the obvious visual
differences, the new drawing is on paper rather than artist's board. The artist was probably unaware
of the fact that the original of this illustration is drawn on a much
larger board than the image itself. The double ruled line beneath the drawing, something seen on most of the
chapter titles from this book, has been discarded and a nice fat fake
signature has been added - in spite of the fact that none of the Tik-Tok
drawings are signed. It's the same signature seen on the other two
drawings previously offered, and of the wrong style for this time period.
While I feel the addition of the signature makes
this an outright forgery, it doesn't stop the piece being offered. There has at least been an improvement in the style of listing on
Live Auctioneers. Rather than being listed as "attributed to"
John R. Neill, it is now listed as "in the manner of". This is a
significant change, as anyone can try drawing something in the manner of
another artist - but there’s no excuse for sticking a fake signature on the piece. The listing already has two bids - as always in collecting, Buyer Beware!
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