Verve Gallery was located on West 55thStreet in Manhattan.
The certificates all have the same date because the inventory was purcahsed at that time.
The artists signed the illustrations because it was their work, their bread and butter, their heart and joy. Large, numbered prints were in vogue post WW II because the foundries had starved for nearly 40 years and moneyed Americans bought them for a premium. The artist was exploited and so was the buyer.
Distributors of fine art illustrations (lithographs in the truest sense) also had the artists sign the art. They saw what was going on, they had the relationships with the artists, so they pulled the art from the editions and paid the artists to sign them. "Experts" can not tell the signature from other prints in a blind sampling. This is because the signatures are real.
Roualt was as big as Matisse in his day and his print work in illustrations extensive. He was not a fan of what the foundries were doing either (nor were many of the artists) and he did sign some of the lithographs. Many lithographs by Roualt and etchings with the Nat'l Art Gld Cert are not signed. Some were and the signature is totally correct. One of the (beautiful) lithographs he signed was a cover piece for Verve.
Picasso serigraphs are very desirable and beautiful not to mention a very challenging medium to work with. Heliogravure is a process where the negative lines from a photomechanical process are burned into a lithographic plate. The plate is then finished by hand. Dali, Picasso, Matisse - are just a few names that used the process and thought highly of it. If you visit MOMA you will see more then a few piece on display that use Heliogravure.
Cercle D'Art ..... you may have a low opinion, but as you said you're not an expert. Picasso for one had a 25 year long relationship with the publisher and their prints are fantastic and on quality stock. You should visit their online catalog. I'm sure they would find your views questionable - perhaps having an agenda too?
eBay regrets ever having done business with Sothebys. Sothebys recently settled 70,000 .... again 70,000 lawsuits filed against them by customers who had been defrauded. The suit tried to attach itself to eBay because Sothebys partnered with eBay. Sothebys also was caught trying to dump questionable items on eBay. eBay dumped Sothebys. btw - Christies recently settled 30,000 .... again 30,000 law suits with similar claims.
And yes, there are questionable sellers and there are also questionable pontificators, but your views of how things are, what is significant or insignificant are entirely subjective. I'd imagine the artists who did the work would be hurt by your comments.
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