Another to good to be true thread.

[TheZ]

I'm far from an expert, but IMO that box looks as iffy as the label. Just doesn't look like something that was made that way at that time. Looks like a more modern, cheaper construction.

[Scipio]

Where an Escher appears to be unused, coupled with its label being 'undersized,' in addition to its box looking somewhat dodgy, you have to ask yourself what is to stop an unscrupulous seller forging an Escher? Given that SRP is accessible to anyone, sadly the classifieds act as a valuation database for all tonsorial items, including hones. It is very easy to ascertain the market value of an Escher.

While that Escher does appear dark, I have seen Thuringians that colour before, and dark blue Eschers. Factor in lighting, resolution etc. In a way which I can not explain, the label just looks fake.

[dave5225]

Labels are easy to fake , just ask any bottle collector . IME , if it looks like it was made yesterday , it probably was .

[Piet]

For me this one apart from the label, is not well represented in the pictures to be able to tell.
I am looking at the face of the stone and is hard to tell if it is escher or not.
I have a dark blue and it is much lighter than the one in the pics, may be the lightning is bad but it looks very dark.
Also I recall a seller form Hungary, had Escher with same label to stone size before, NOS and all that. I wonder if was the same guy.

There was a thread about this Escher or a similar one at B&B (offline atm). Sic.transit rings a bell for me so I think it's the same guy. The labels are not copies of each other, I assume both were printed in 2 steps and they have a slightly different offset. You can see white space below the red line below the right block of text on the box' label. That alone makes me thing it's genuine.

Assuming it's the same stone I think the buyer either recognized it as something else or more likely got remorse from reading the B&B thread.

Wasn't there an Escher stamp on the stone as well?

[mainaman]

There was a thread about this Escher or a similar one at B&B (offline atm). Sic.transit rings a bell for me so I think it's the same guy. The labels are not copies of each other, I assume both were printed in 2 steps and they have a slightly different offset. You can see white space below the red line below the right block of text on the box' label. That alone makes me thing it's genuine.

Assuming it's the same stone I think the buyer either recognized it as something else or more likely got remorse from reading the B&B thread.

Wasn't there an Escher stamp on the stone as well?

I have not seen the thread on BB.
For me the pics do not show ell enough the stone to be able to tell. The surface looks finely spotted which is not what eschers are, may be that is dry slurry mark I do not know.

EDIT:
I was looking at the listing again, and noticed the box is bigger than the stone, may be to accommodate a slurry stone?

[Piet]

The missing stamp on the surface was bothering me, I knew the buyer nor the seller would scratch it up and remove the stamp. So I figured I'd do some searching and found the previous auction:

NOS Escher & Co Water Hone Razor Sharpening Stone | WatchedItem.com

Different stone and different box. Of both the box seem to be slightly bigger, but not enough room for a standard Escher slurry stone. All 4 labels seems to be unique i.e. printed with a different offset between colors.

This would mean he had at least two Eschers, we may see more of them.

I have seen another auction with a similar labeled box with a slightly shorter stone (unlabeled or with label facing down). So for a forgery he would have had to find 2 similar boxes, old paper to print on, an appropriate Escher label to scan and modify in Photoshop to make 4 unique labels, create 2 stamps (one for on the box and for the stone) and 2 Thuringians of matching size.

It seems more likely he stumbled upon a barber shop's lot with an x amount of (NOS) Eschers. The lucky sob.

The only thing about this auction that is bothering me are the excessive shipping costs

SicTransit is even a member here and has been on today, step in say hi lol.