Highwaymen Harold Newton Forgery

Here we go again, eBay skulduggery at it's finest.

We don't know if the seller forged this signature, or if someone else did and the seller is (sort of) innocent of fraud.

Here's the seller and the disclaimer after a nice smokescreen copy/paste of factual information.

Interesting that the seller added a standard disclaimer.

Seller information

utmstudent (172)

100% Positive feedback

Item number 271112718669 listed 12.29, 2012

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HAROLD-NEWTON-1934-1994-FLORIDA-HIGHWAYMEN-OIL-PAINTING-/271112718669?pt=Art_Paintings&hash=item3f1f93c94d

Terms of Sale: Sold as described.

The paintings are sold as "attributed" or as in the "style of" the artist unless otherwise specified.

A Hair, unsigned pieces.

I stumbled on an old file that I had thought was lost the other day, and I saw things I hadn't seen in almost a decade.

I haven't seen much in the way of eBay skulduggery for a few weeks, but I want to share with you three pieces from this file by Alfred Hair which I sold back in 2004-2006 which he had left unsigned.

All three were standard size 24x36's on upson.
All three sold to other highwaymen dealers at a market discount because of it.
All three reappeared shortly thereafter on eBay as signed paintings.

This is not meant to be accusatory to any specific dealers, it simply states facts.
These three separate eBay sales were generated from Ft. Pierce, Vero and Arcadia.

Apparently Alfred would occasionally return from his grave and sign his unsigned paintings for these people. That's the only possible explanation.

Right?

Not to confuse things, but the two seascapes are similar but different, easily distinguished by comparing the clouds. I honestly don't remember which one was unsigned, but I think it was the darker one. 

The images I'm posting today are in their original unsigned state when they were in inventory, except for one of the seascapes which was in fact signed.