Questions about Muppets Photo+Frame and Henson Autograph

[Joe P]

Greetings from Joe Pawich; just a noob, but I like what you've got going on here. I wanted to share the 2 centerpieces of my small Muppet collection and am hoping fellow fans/collectors in the know can offer opinions as to their authenticity.

Both came from Ebay; the first (as seen in my avatar) is a framed prop photo that was advertised as having been used in 2011's "The Muppets":

A similar pic can be seen in select scenes in Miss Piggy's dressing room, and again here in her dressing room as seen on display at the movie's premiere at the El Capitan:

The frames and base pictures look the same; the only reason I might question whether they were is because the last picture almost looks like it could have writing in the upper right corner, which mine does not. What do you think? In the movie, you can't see it closely enough to be sure. The seller, edwinstoys2000, said he purchased it in a prop lot sale in California and certainly had a number of other photos which could be spotted in the movie, so it seemed legit. Wish I knew for sure, but either way, it's a nice piece for the price I paid. And if in fact it was the same pic from Miss Piggy's dressing room, the surreal nature of having it in my room is not lost on me.

The other is this:

Again, no way to guarantee its authenticity. It came from a seller who dealt in autographs, mailed it from an actual name and address and issued his own COA. The autograph(s) seemed similar in nature to other Henson examples. The lure of owning something signed by 2 of my favorite icons proved too much, and again, for what I paid, I felt it was more than worth the risk.

If it was just Henson's autograph, I'd say the chances of it being fake would be greater. The addition of Kermit's would seem to make it too long and complex to convincingly duplicate. But for those of you who deal in Henson autographs, what do you think? Would this pass an initial sight test for you? Would an LP be an odd, random object to fake an autograph on? Should the good price I got it for be considered luck or for good reason?

Thanks for the look, and any feedback would be appreciated.

Keep Calm and Muppet On;
Joe

 

[muppetperson]

Two nice items you have there. Personally, I think they are authentic, as from what you say, they weren't that expensive, and it would take a lot of effort to go to the trouble of making forgeries. Having said that, the film industry nearly always works in duplicate and triplicate, to have things on standby should a prop get lost or damaged so not to hold up the film, so you never know for sure, whether you are getting the screen used item, or a standby version. just enjoy the items for what they are. welcome to the forum.

 

[Joe P]

Thanks for your feedback and welcome. I hadn't thought of multiple props, given the specialized nature of some of the frames involved and the fact I hadn't seen duplicate pictures for sale, but it certainly is possible and would make sense. I guess one of the only people who would know for sure would be the set designer; beyond that, there might be no way I'll ever be able to verify it.

As for the LP, I do have 2 others that were sold as having been signed by Jim, but this one is by far the nicest with Kermit's signature as well. I'd love to find someone local who could authenticate it somehow. I certainly do enjoy both items for what they are, but if I knew for sure they had that authentic pedigree and were exactly what they were claimed to be, it would give me peace of mind and make them that much more special to me. Again, I wouldn't be out much in either case if they weren't, but it would be nice to know.

Do you have any signed memorabilia of your own?

Joe

 

[muppetperson]

I have a few. I have a black and white photo of jim Henson and Frank Oz, working Kermit and Miss Piggy in front of dinnah Shore, that they both have signed, Miss Piggy gloves signed by Miss Piggy, a picture of Kermit, signed by Kermit only, and a group photo signed at Muppetfest by Muppeteers, post Jim.

 

[Joe P]

Sounds neat; do you have pics of that stuff? Where do you acquire the bulk of it?

 

[muppetperson]

No pics at the moment. Nowadays, most stuff comes from ebay. The photo of Kermit came from Henson associates at the time, and they told me that Jim signed it himself.
when I am feeling up to it, I will gather them together and take a pic.

 

[Kermieuk]

Hi joe

I would say the album cover autograph looks real. I have several jim/kermit autographs and yours looks just as good as the ones I have.
I agree with muppet person, films will sometimes have several of an item, so your picture may be one of two, or three. Either way, it's still from the actual design team and set of the movie.

Nice items.

Chris

 

[Joe P]

Thanks for the feedback, Chris. Do you have any pics of any of the autographs in your collection?

As for the picture, I was inspired to take a shot in the dark at some detective work and actually found an e-mail address for the listed set decorator of "The Muppets", Tracey A. Doyle. I sent her the picture, and she replied with this photo of Miss Piggy's dressing room set from her own files:

and her opinion that my picture was the same one she used for the set dressing (but how it got to market, she had no idea). I still think it almost looks like there's writing on the one in her pic that isn't on mine, but I may never conclusively prove that. All I know is that one of the people best equipped to answer my authenticity questions feels I have the print and frame from the set, so that's good enough for me and I am taking it at face value as the final word unless/until proven otherwise

Joe

 

[muppetperson]

OK, I am feeling better now, so here are the pics...

 

[Joe P]

Great pics. I've seen gloves like that on Ebay before and always thought they'd be neat to have too. Thanks for sharing!

Joe