The full title is Loquacious Parrot Convinced That It is Teaching Man a Basic Vocabulary. Ronald Searle's talkative bird is grand and grotesque, sitting on its perch and pontificating with a wide-open beak. Forum Auctions of London just listed a work of original Searle art, a variant of the original book illustration from The King of Beasts & Other Creatures (Allen Lane, London, 1980) or, for American readers, The Situation is Hopeless (Viking Press, New York, 1981). It shows Searle's characteristic baroque technique complete with controlled ink splotches. The presale estimate was 800 to 1,200 GBP with a starting bid of 550 GBP, fairly low for a fully-realized watercolor drawing by this cartoon master.
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Ronald Searle
Forum Auctions—UK listing accessed March 12, 2023
March 30, 2023, Lot 467
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Ronald Searle
Forum Auctions—UK item description |
April Fools!
Oh, for crying out loud! This atrocious copy could never pass for the work of Ronald Searle. Forum Auctions, which should not have listed it, withdrew the work at least a week prior to the sale.
Anyone trying to pass off a Searle forgery faces at least three serious problems. The first is Searle's masterful technique with pen, ink, and watercolor. Good luck copying that. The second is Searle's distinctive left-handed signature. I don't think I've ever seen a good counterfeit of it, especially after it became more horizontal in 1970 or so. The Forum Auctions drawing is copied directly from the book illustration freehand, it would seem. Its deficiencies are pretty obvious when you also have the real deal in front of you:
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Loquacious parrot convinced that it is teaching man a basic vocabulary
Ronald Searle
The King of Beasts & Other Creatures, 1980
https://www.ebay.com/itm/192114458300?hash=item2cbae9febc:g:VMAAAOSwSlBYsxRH&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA8IxV%2FyGuRuTdnb4dMUxYHpw4tGYoKeKeW1 jBRz9b5eWrQW4zs0ItpdXSwy8bHUrQR%2BWIk8vW7Cq5vlQnJF5nngeWvwpsgJYj71c%2F9PuOSIhoNOcX4YU%2BYRT1J8H6Q3F3XnH%2FR9M4qmVD7sjuL QELVx0Thl0JYrLe6oV7XxKOwwFBGdgop9BNftFx5KwJTxLWfhx2ehfxe15hAI5Zvrzv28Y%2B38K5mfaSnWVQbIokhIUkD3x8%2BEdr1qxvA%2F Lcxa5v27Xwo1pUVAOEaBUJ6ZS0728L0JngApvNPtU9ST3s4bqiXei%2FhPPaVKYynLqK2kppMQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8TrvqLnYQ
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There is, in fact, a close variant of the original book illustration out there, one created by Searle himself in 1979. Here he set the perch at an angle and used a heavy horizon line. It too would have worked just fine in the book, but Searle preferred the other more basic version.
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Ronald Searle
Christie's December 1, 2004
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Ronald Searle Christie's item description |
The third significant problem for the forger is how to cash in on the high prices Searle's art fetches, particularly in the U.K. Spurious pieces like this one typically end up at smaller British auction houses and booksellers where the Searle name is known but the nuances of his art perhaps are not. Original Searle work often goes to Christie's or to the illustration dealer Chris Beetles. As we have seen, Searle's preliminary or variant art can be surprisingly close to his finishes. Once you're familiar with Searle's work, it's hard to not be repulsed by the work of an amateur copyist.
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