Problematica: In Caverns Below

Problematica

In Caverns Below

Editor: Winston E. Engle.
Author: Stanton A. Coblentz.
Publisher: Thrilling Wonder LLC.
Publication date: 2009.
Series: Thrilling Wonder Stories Vintage Series, Volume 1.
Language: English.
ISBN-13: 978-0979671890.
Original Price: $11.95.
Size: 6 x 9 inches.

Front cover of paperback

Three of the interior illustrations

In Caverns Below contains four drawings not by Frank R. Paul. The cover drawing is also used as an interior illustration.

Problem:
Are the four drawings that accompany the three drawings by Frank R. Paul done by Virgil Finlay, or not?

Notes:
The problem was already raised - for a book project - in november 2009 on the World Famous Comics Forum, without a resolution. The specific question that was raised was whether or not the four illustrations in the Fall 1950 issue of Fantastic Story Quarterly that illustrate the story 'In Caverns Below' by Stanton A. Coblentz were done by Virgil Finlay. Reference is made to the illustrator Lawrence Sterne Stevens in the forum message itself. The book itself states that the four illustrations are by Virgil Finlay.

Observations:

The four illlustrations for Fantastic Story Quarterly, Fall 1950, are not mentioned in A Virgil Finlay Checklist by Gerry de la Ree, prepared with the aid of Virgil Finlay.
The four illustrations are not signed. Virgil Finlay signed almost all of his published art.
Lawrence Sterne Stevens was specifically requested to make art like Virgil Finlay for Famous Fantastic Mysteries in 1943.
More often than not, Lawrence Sterne Stevens did not sign his published art.
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database in 2011 lists the art as 'uncredited'.

Resolution:
The book states clearly that the four illustrations are by Virgil Finlay, and taken from Fantastic Story Quarterly, Fall 1950. Without additional information, the answer is left to the viewer.

References: