Issue with AMG sketch

[Jarmel]

So anyone read Japanese?

http://ekizo.mandarake.co.jp/auc_e/item ... 4830100001

Is the mosiac covering a name or an address? Translation programs said address but that doesn't make any sense. Either one significantly hurts the value of the piece though.

[sensei]

å®›å

[cutiebunny]

In my brief contact with the autograph market, having a personal inscription tends to increase rather than decrease value by making the autograph more personalized and giving a provenence for the item. A shikashi that has just the drawing and an uninscribed autograph would likely be a fake.

I disagree with this. It's pretty easy to counterfeit a shikishi. Having a name inscribed onto a shikishi does not mean that it is an authentic item.

A lot of people, including myself, do not like artwork that has been dedicated to others. The majority of artists that I have met at conventions will not draw you anything unless they personalize it. This is largely because artists don't want to see people line up for their artwork only to post it on Yahoo Japan the next day. The belief is that the resale value of a personalized shikishi will not be worth the time/effort/money that a potential seller would invest in obtaining that signature.

A lot of auctions block out names and/or other personal identification when they sell personalized shikishi items. On YJ, a common phrase is "I'm selling this for a friend" when you and probably everyone else knows that the recipient is most likely the seller of the item.

I have yet to see a shikishi personalized with the recipient's address. I have seen shikishi come with packages from manga companies where the address is printed onto the envelope and I have seen postcards (generally New Year's posties) where the address/name of the person is listed on the back. Not all recipients of prize shikishi keep the packaging.

So...no...the shikishi won't have something like "P Sherman, 24 Wallaby Way, Sydney" on it.

When I buy shikishi, I look for a lot of different things when trying to validate its authenticity. With Mandarake, you're probably a lot safer buying shikishi there than other auction sites. Mandarake hires people whose job it is to be able to tell whether or not something is counterfeit. They do research, such as investing the item's provenance and any associated proof regarding its authenticity, and they specialize in signatures. Because Mandarake promises that you're not buying counterfeit goods, their auctions for shikishi end higher than the same item would had it been sold on YJ.

I would think with all the Belldandy fans out there that there will be quite a bit of competition for this item.

[sensei]

Well, I'm not a shikashi expert, so I don't know the routine. I was just inferring from the autograph market, where a picture or note that was inscribed to someone identifiable could be authenticated with more certainty than a blind signature. This is, of course, not the day after the item was signed, but several years later, when the value of the autograph had appreciated considerably.

I once sold some autographs that my grandmother had obtained through her social connections for my father, a child at the time. Many of these were inscribed to him, or to my grandmother, and as I could attest that the items had not been in any other hands than my family, the more desirable ones did well at auction. I'd guess the same will eventually be true for the artists who stand the test of time.

I think "address" here means "term of address," i.e., the name of the person commissioning the sketch, and not "street address." Think of the verb: "The artist addressed the fan standing before the table, asking him for his name and whom he wanted the sketch to show." I'm sure this is clear in the Japanese, and it's just an accidental ambiguity in English.

[Keropi]

Back when I was collecting autographs, the autograph catalogs I would get would go out of their way to mention unpersonalized signed photos because they were considered better than average items. The personalization of signed photos were usually considered detriments and were described as such (except in cases where the items were old or historical).

For me it didn't make much of a difference, but I was much more forgiving if the item was older (1960s or earlier). I'm glad that my Judy Garland signed photo was personalized because it has more of her writing on it.

[sensei]

I stand addressed and corrected.