Featured Jesse James Wanted Poster

So this is a little interesting. My husband and I purchased a home late last year from an elderly couple. Recently, while cleaning out the garage, we stumbled upon a wanted poster protected by a plastic cover taped to the inside portion of the roof. We have scoured all replicas we can find to compare and this one strikes different as it has a full border, the ink is splotchy in some areas, word spacing and overall feel. We watched a Jesse James documentary from the History channel and what we think is the same poster was shown. We think it’s the same because “Jesse James” is just ever so slanted as it was in the documentary. It can be found on YouTube. Could be fake but how it was found and everything stated above has us looking further. Any input is greatly appreciated!

 

That overall foxing almost certainly indicates that it's a reproduction.

Debora

 

Thank you for your reply

 

These go for 8$ on Ebay........... And yours seems to have a problem with the word "NOW" above the $25,000. It doesn't seem to "fit" in with the rest of the wording

 

Yes, the now was written in at some point. None of the $8.00 reproduction ones we have come across have the full border. Not arguing that it is definitely real.. just looking for answers or ideas. I appreciate your reply!

 

Right - the new ones don't - if stuck in the roof it may very well have been an older repro stuck up there to age correctly.
Good luck though....................

 

Thank you

 

Welcome to the forum BritNoe That is cool to find something hidden in the roof!
I have no idea of what size a real poster would be. What size is your poster? Here is one that sold in July 2013 for $5500.00. It is 22" x 27 1/2", the copies seem to be 11" x 14"
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/18330371_jesse-james-wanted-poster

 

Good tip, CX. (Off topic, as of 5 minutes ago, I'm back on the site!)

Checking the dimensions is the first thing to look into.

 

yippee, you made it back Lucille

 

Thank you for your reply and link! I’m finding all of this to be so interesting. I get the odds of it actually being the real deal is extremely slim but it’s so fun learning new things! I just took measurements and it’s much smaller coming in at 8 5/8 x 11 1/4 inches. Extremely odd measurement but I checked multiple times as did my husband. I just find it so strange that it’s presumably the same one as in the history channel documentary. I can’t find anything else like it and it’s driving me nuts haha!

 

When you say it was the same as the documentary, can you re-watch that part and see if they were holding a piece of a paper that was small, close to 8 1/2 by 11"? I think a genuine item if older would be pretty large, like the link above.

I agree, fun learning about these things. Best of luck!

 

Unfortunately I can’t get an idea of the size because it just scrolls across the screen. I was only able to get screenshots of what it looked like to compare (last three photos). The only reason we feel it’s possibly the same is because when comparing the two you can see splotching on the paper itself, the word spacing, it isn’t clean cut as the replicated pieces we’ve seen and the bottom writing “Signed St. Louis...” has a larger gap between that and the border as in the documentary whereas on all replicas we’ve come across it’s just a single underline that’s rather close to the writing. The History Channel very well could have shown an early replicated version or I have a replica off of that. All in all it’s a fun mystery!

 

Because these are always fakes, I know in my heart that this one is a fake... but the detail in the bleed of the ink is compelling.

Sadly, most reproductions are not advertised with particularly high resolution images, so maybe I'm just easily impressed.

 

The bleeding of the ink is what caught my eye! Also, the now written in has me scratching my head. Where did this come from?! Haha! It’s a cool find nonetheless and worth the share. Thank you for taking a look!

 

Here's another one that someone was inquiring about. The size was given as 13 3/4 H and 10 3/8 wide.

 

I saw that one while digging around the internet and it’s super cool! These replicas are made from something and I would love to see originals. They are just so hard to locate for comparison. I did a little research on the printing process and I’ll upload what I came across about paper sizes.

 

Fun fact for everyone! I contacted the Jesse James Museum in Missouri and while I have a replica from the 1950’s, she said the original didn’t have pictures on it!

 

I am with everyone else 99.999% are reproductions. But it could be a very old reproduction. I have a fun fact LOL My Parents own Belle Stars old property were the all used to hang out and where she lived.

 

The 1950s helps to explain the print. Glad you found out, even if it wasn't the most exciting news.