L'Imagerie Gallery - Debi (Debra) Jacobson (poster dealer)

2007.

I saw this poster advertised online by L'Imagerie Gallery and made enquiries about its condition, speaking to Debi Jacobson the owner of the gallery.

The poster was described as 'mint' & 'amazing' & 'simply incredible condition' with no flaws to speak of. I paid $3000 + shipping overseas for the poster and received it. I straight away took it to my poster restorer as he is very interested in all my purchases. Straight away he noticed all the problems shown in the images below (respray, repairs). We even found bits of tape used for masking the spray still stuck on the image! Not shown is the evidence also all the borders have also been sprayed, which is easily revealed using a loupe, and even with just the eye as the fold lines are almost entirely hidden by the paint, unlike in the image area. On the back of the linen were stains, some really dark, near black marks, that I worry may be growing and may go through and effect the actual poster.

Note, this poster is 3 sheet (1m x 2m) and is thus huge, and all flaws shown below are correspondingly big too, ie obvious.

As this was one of my first ever poster purchases, and definately my sole big ticket item. I had been told that poster dealers were by and large untrustworthy, and this poster would be near impossible to source a replacement, I wasn't going to pursue a replacement, especially as it had taken about 30 exhausting (hit your head on the wall) emails in correspondance to get this far. I advised Debi that I received it and the packaging was ok, specifically not mentioning the poster condition, until I thought about what to do or not to do. As it was clear to me I was ripped off by Debi and knowing it was going to be far to difficult to explain the condition and somehow replace it, I just said to myself, blah, stuff it, just move on...

Then 7 and a half months later I woke up at 4am thinking, shit, she ripped me off and is probably laughing at me, and I am still working to try to pay off this debt I borrowed for a mint poster which it was nothing of the sort. So I contacted her to explain the problem and she was not in the least interested. I offered to take the poster to any dealer or anyone she nominate in my city for her assessment, or talk to my restorer who had seen the poster the day I received it, but she was not interested. I heard how she was busy, and it is hard to run a business..., blah blah. Also that her business provides the very best service, but yet she was not interested to know how this happened. I said to her that this could only lead me to think one thing, that she knows what happened.

Sellers in my opinion have it too easy. They can identify an inexperienced buyer, make claims about a poster knowing that the odds are they won't be found out until later, if at all. Then claim you took too long to spot the con. All the more easy if the buyer never sees the poster in person prior to purchasing as they live on the other side of the planet like me.

If this was a small error and 7 and half months had elapsed, I would agree that it is probably not much point raising this. The fact that the flaws were obvious in the presales images supplied by her but not disclosed by her when asked about the condition, and her showing no concern or interest, this is where I find this to be unacceptable, and so this page was created. The presales image shows a dark mark, which turned out to be left over packaging tape (or whatever it is) used to mask the image during the respraying! Other flaws were confirmed once the poster was received.

I mentioned I was only seeking an explanation and was not asking for a refund or replacement, yet she was completely uninterested in providing an explanation. I'll keep it because of the pain it would be to deal with her again. The reason for asking her for the explanation was so I could feel ok about putting together this page, in warning others, and knowing I gave her the opportunity to respond to my concerns. Unfortunately I have still received no explanation (edit - and it is now 2010).

There were many things that should have rang alarm bells initially, including: almost all her posters described as Near Mint on the LAMP website - unlike other dealers there. Also, she having to ask her restorer about the condition of this poster, when even my eye, now, with a little bit of training/experience can spot these flaws as if they were shining beacons, and also, that she coudn't send me any detailed images of the poster - the best was a fuzzy 25 dpi, not any closeups. Most any Joe Bloggs on eBay do better than that.

Note, she is a paying L.A.M.P dealer. She had agreed to operate with honesty, and integrity. Well, Ed of L.A.M.P. offered no assistance.

Well, as you can see, I am very unhappy about my experience with Debi Jacobson of L'Imagerie Gallery, so I made this website because of this. When I think of Debi Jacobson of L'Imagerie Gallery, I think of a dishonest, lying thief.

Don't worry, it doesn't trouble me anymore! I feel content this page has now been created and I can share it with you. I have put this behind me and have moved on... :-) Happy poster collecting, but please be careful!

News:

2010 (March)... Debi Jacobson has just settled out of court with Jim Gresham for selling him an expensive fake poster.

Some of the areas on the poster having restoration are indicated by colored squares (it is obviously not a mint/near mint poster for which I had paid for).

Note the poster is rectangular, the bottom section above is chopped off as a result of my photography.

You can see from this image (a composite of photos) - the huge amount of respray all over the chest. You can see how the poster was originally printed by the grid like printing around the edges of this image, like in between the text, and the obvious spray elsewhere. The greyish white spot at extreme right was covered by plastic tape!, presumably as a left over from the respraying, which I have since removed.

Looking now at the photo of this poster Debi sent me during early discussions, I can now see that the dark tape on that spot was visible in it! (I would include the image here, but I don't want to do anything wrong such as infringing copyright on her image...) If Debi has lost her original image, I will happily email it to her.