Posted by John Fiorillo on December 12, 2001 at 09:02:54:
In Reply to: authentic Sharaku? posted by Tom Dryden on December 11, 2001 at 22:47:58:
Tom,
Your posted web picture is too small for me to make a definitive judgment, but I doubt very much that you have an original. Despite its small size, I see differences from original impressions. Also, if your web scan is at all true to your print, the blue color on the robe is modern, not 18th century. Overall, the whole print has the look of a 20th century copy.
You can try posting a much larger, sharper image (say 4x or 5x larger), so we can attempt a better-informed assessment. Alternately, you can go to the Fine Arts Museums of SF website for their original impression of Hangorô III and then play around with the useful zoom feature to compare the details yourself. You will eventually find small differences in the key block lines, which will be much easier for you to do with your print at hand than for us to work with web scans (though I'd be happy to try if you will post a much larger picture).
If these two suggestions won't work for you, a SF area resource for an opinion would be the Butterfield's auction appraisal service.
John