Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Pegasus Mystery solved!

There were a lot of questions surrounding the authenticity of this Pegasus on the day I bought it and there was quite a bit of discussion here on Old Gas about it, with no real clear consensus about its authenticity! Several well known enthusiasts weighed in on it at Columbia and they were about even for and against!
It kept bothering me that there should be a way to tell---and then it came to me!!!

Back in the day when these would have been in use, they had to be a die cut sign, or they would have been fairly crude looking! Certainly not cut out with a torch or other metal cutting apparatus to have such detail and uniformity!
If they were die cut, then, then a person should be able to discern from the edges as to the method used to form these works of art! At this point in my thoughts, modern metallurgy came to mind and todays use of laser technology popped up! What if these were cut out with a modern laser machine? Would a person be able to identify the edge cut from a laser?
A quick call to a friend of mine that has been in the laser business for many, many years, and he agreed to take a look at it and was fairly confident that he should be able to tell! Last week, I was able to stop by his shop with the sign and he spent a fair amount of time examining the edges with a magnifying glass and he came to the conclusion that he is 99% positive that the sign was cut out with a laser!
Now I'm not sure when lasers first came into commercial use, but I know it wasn't back in the time period when this sign would have been used! Its a very nice sign, but definitely a fantasy /reproduction piece!
It should be easy to tell on other fantasy/reproduction pieces too, if they were indeed cut out with a laser machine!
This sign measurers 36 inches from front hoof to the farthest back hoof and is 26 1/2 inches tall from the ground to the highest wing point! If you have one of these, I hate to break it to you, but they are definitely phonies and are nothing more than decorator pieces!
This one will be permanently marked as such with an engraving on the back side! Hopefully others will do the same!
SPREAD THE WORD! These are PHONIES!

thanks for the update... something for everyone to keep in mind now that the show season has begun!

"modern metallurgy" That's big words for Old-Gas my friend!

Thanks for the information and education on what to look out for.

Thanks for the confirmation Kevin. I figured it was a repo at columbia BUT the hooks on back were decieving....
Glad you got to the bottom of it!!!

The brackets should have been the first clue.This is original and it is certainly NOT a crude cut by any means!

I would not have fell for it. Brackets would make it hang wrong angle.

KW WILL have the Only one Marked as such!

It would have hung at the wrong angle if the sign was used with the brackets being in the vertical position, but would have easily hung from those brackets, mounted in the correct position!
My point on all this is that there are probably a lot of repop signs that were cut out with a laser and if any of the edge is showing, it should be readily apparent!

Hawkike-- By crude cut, I meant that they had to have been die cut, because otherwise the cut would have been rough and crude using the technology available at that time, and that wasn't the case, as they were all smooth and perfect---HENCE, they must have been die cut!

Now we have technology to duplicate that with computer operated lasers!

Good info Kevin, sorry it didn't work out the way you hoped! Parts cut with a laser will typically have striations, or very fine lines on the edge of the cut perpendicular to the flat surface of the material. However, newer fiber lasers are touted to offer striation free cutting. It's getting tougher and tougher to determine what is what! Thanks for the info on this Pegasus.

[quote=K W FRITH]-HENCE, they must have been die cut!

AGREE.

Thanks for the data Kevin. Scott B.

Scott--Feel free to use the information and pictures in PCM.
I got a call from a fellow today that confirms that they were offered as new signs during the 90's in a for sale ad in Hemmings Motor news. Supposedly the guy selling them was the manufacturer and got in trouble for his efforts and stopped production of them.
Definitely a laser cut sign though!

Thanks Kevin. Good detective work!!

Thanks Kevin for the research. It confirms what many have thought. KZ made a great point as well.....Mobil would never have had the brackets placed so the sign hanger would have to "guess" at the proper angle. Position the brackets on an original sign level and it will hang properly.


Richard

Other than Failing to Permanently Date the item. The maker MIGHT have Intentionally placed the hangers in that position making it almost impossible to hang sign Correctly.

Great info on the horse Kevin! I work around a laser on a daily basis except for this week, vacation. When I go back I will take close up pics of the edges of different gauge metals cut from a laser. May come in handy for future reference. A skilled laser operator could also adjust the speed of the cut to obtain different variations on the edge. Also most pieces cut from a laser are left on the skeleton and removed by person other than the laser operator. By doing this each and every piece cut from our laser has a spot where it gets touched up by a soft pad to remove the nub.

Thanks for posting that painful discovery. That's a stand up guy that would post up a painful lesson like that.

Dick, you are less cynical than I. : )

Thanks for sharing. some times we want to believe that a piece is authentic and truth be told, modern technology can make it difficult to tell.

Great work Kevin. Very very interesting.

I saw the same Type of fake Pegasus sign on a recent trip to Arcadia in sourthern Florida. I made a call to 2 gassers and we came up with the same conclusion. FAKE! Great Idea to mark it so no one else gets stung.