The Art Forger's Handbook [Complete and Concise Guide to Forging Drawings, Paintings, Oil and Tempera, with Recipes for Glue, Size, & Aging Techniques, Resource for Recreating Old Master Forgeries, Illustrated with Examples, Old Papers, Aged Panels, Etc]

RARE / Scarce Edition: Cassell 1997 / UK Edition / First Edition Stated / Overlook Press. Hard Back. Very Good/Yes. Art History / Reference / Biography. 3. Illustrated with Color Photography. Collectible hardback book, very nice condition. Previous onwer name on ffep, minor. Clean bright, hardly opened condition. Very slight edge wear/shelf wear, normal for a book of it's age. In nice dust jacket, with some wear at the edges. Previous owenr name on top of ffep, minimal. Features interesting photos and/or illustrations to enhance the text. Excellent source for study. Poignent research material for students and academics. Delves into this subject with fresh ideas and thoughts, a good read. I am an artist, I've read this book twice. It is the best book on creating the look of old master works. Easy page turner, full of brilliant ideas and references. With recipes and tips from vaccum dust to stripping old furniture for it's wood panels, to recipes for tempera, ink, oil paints, size, glue, varnish, as well as ways in which to pass off newly created works as aged relics. If you're an established artist or just a beginner, this is a "must have" book for all those interested in drawing and painting [oil and tempera]. Many of Hebborn's works have gone unquestioned as orginals. This is the follow up to his autobiography "Drawn to Trouble: Teh Forging of an Artist". This books is scarce, because the information it gives is top secret, the book comes with a disclaimer: All the art techniques and practices described in this book are for imformation only and should not be undertaken without full regard to their legal consequence. The legal views expressed in this book are those of an art forger and not a lawyer and readers should proceed with utmost caution. -- Simply brilliant work. -- About the author: Eric Hebborn was born in the London suburb of South Kensington to a Cockney family in 1934, although his mother was a gypsy. According to his autobiography, his mother beat him constantly as a child. At the age of eight, he states that he set fire to his school and was sent to Longmoor reformatory in Harold Wood, although his sister Rosemary disputes this.[citation needed] Teachers encouraged his painting talent and he became connected to the Maldon Art Club, where he first exhibited at the age of 15. Hebborn attended Chelmsford Art School and Walthamstow Art School before attending the Royal Academy. He flourished at the Academy, winning the Hacker Portrait prize and the Silver Award, and the Rome Scholarship in Engraving, a two year scholarship to the British School at Rome in 1959.[1] There he became part of the international art scene and formed acquaintances with many artists and art historians, including the British spy, Sir Anthony Blunt in 1960, who told Hebborn that a couple of his drawings looked like Poussins. This sowed the seeds of his forgery career. Hebborn returned to London where he was hired by art restorer George Aczel. During his employ he was instructed not only to restore paintings, but to alter them and improve them. George Aczel graduated him from restoring existing paintings to "restoring" paintings on entirely blank canvases so that they could be sold for more money. A falling out over Eric's knowledge of painting and restoration destroyed the relationship between Aczel and Hebborn. Eric and his lover Graham David Smith also frequented a junk and antique shop near Leicester Square, where Eric befriended one of the owners, Marie Gray. In organizing the prints catalogued in the shop Eric began to understand more about paper, and its history and uses in art. It was on some of these blank, but old, pieces of paper that Eric made his first forgeries. His first true forgeries were pencil drawings after Augustus John and were based on a drawing of a child by Andrea Schiavone. Graham Smith states [2] that several of these were sold to their landlord Mr Davis, several to Bond Street galleries and two or three through Christie's sale rooms. Eventually Hebborn decided to settle in Italy with Graham, and they founded a private gallery there. Life as a forger When contemporary critics did not