View our collection of AUTOGRAPHS:
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View our collection of AUTOGRAPHS:
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2 3
...A few thoughts about being
less than 100 per cent certain...
We
sell signed copies of books and provide a certificate of auhenticity with any
signed book we sell. We make an effort to determine how and when the book was
signed, by whom, the circumstances, etc., and we make an effort to compare points
of the signature with other known examples.
However,
we know this business well enough to say that you can never fully authenticate
a signature without the forensic sevices of a police lab. Anybody who says otherwise
is misguided or misleading in their certainty. Signed copies are bought with
a large degree of trust in the integrity of the seller.
Even
if you see a book being signed or look at a photo of it being signed, you can
never be 100 per cent positive that the book you are holding in your hand is
the signed copy in the photograph. For example, is there something distinctive
about the book, its binding or dustjacket that identifies it (a distinctive
tear or price tag or label might help flag the copy in the photo and the copy
in your hand). A photo of a mass-market hardcover being signed is not iron-clad
proof that the copy in your hand was that particular book.
In other words, photographic provenance of a book signing is not uncommon ... and is proof of a signature's authenticity, but only to a point.
Even with a provenance from someone saying
they were standing there when the author or artist signed the book, you can
honestly only be somewhat less than 100 per cent sure of its authenticity. At
that point you have to measure the credibility of the person or the bookseller
certifying it.
For this reason, it pays to have a relationship (social, business or professional) with your bookseller. In our experience buying and selling signed copies, we have been burned only once from an internet purchase, though we see the potential for harm done by people who make claims about the authenticity of dubious signatures on books of dubious value.
If you can achieve a high percentage of certainty, you should be able to state,
on your own authority, that a signature is genuine, but recognize that you will
never be 100 per cent sure.
My method is not easy, but it is an enjoyable
bit of detective work.
I take as many examples of a signature as I can gather and scan them into Photoshop.
I scan in the one I want to authenticate, and then overlay the others, one at
a time (with partial opacity) to look for as many matching points as possible
between the various signatures. You will find common points as clear as a bell
with most signatures. You will find elements that you can overlay onto the other
signatures and
get a perfect match. Even with a total scrawl (my signature, for example) you
can find commonality between the variations.
Another problem:
People sign differently from situation to situation, day to day, and they sign
their own names differently depending whether they are signing in ballpoint,
pen and ink, felt pen, etc., and whether they are signing an autograph in a
crowd in a hurry, signing a contract in a lawyer's office, signing a check at
a supermarket or signing their newly published book in a bookshop in a hurry
or that same book in their home study at their leisure.
In other words, expect to find dramatic differences in signatures.
One notable signature: The only authentic Marilyn Monroe autographs are considered to be those signed in red pen. All others are considered fake.
I had a signature by a singing artist on an album a couple years ago. The president
of a fan club told me categorically that what I had was not real. Period. I
overlaid the signature in Photoshop on top of several of the artist's signature
variations. There were so many common points I was 90 per cent sure it was genuine,
despite this expert's skepticism. She was so adamant about not being willing
to accept my signature that I began to suspect her of having an agenda. My
suspicion was that she wanted the album from me at a reduced price. I sold it
for my asking price to another collector.
Beware of "identical" or almost identical signatures (few authors
sign precisely the same way each time).
Inscriptions (a note by the author to a friend or colleague) are less commonly
forged because this type of forgery would involve the incorporation of not only
an author's writign style, elements (dates, friends, etc.) in common between
the author and the person receiving the signature. This would not entail merely
copying a signature, so it would be seldom seen on inexpensive items.
When you collect
your own examples of signatures, it is a good idea to date them. Signature variations
over time can create signatures that become unrecognizable as being from the
same person.
Signatures can vary from day to day, from hour to hour (when an author is seated
ina bookstore signing dozens or hundreds of copies), from emotional crisis to
emotional elation, from nickname to formal name, and can vary depending on the
author's health.
In other words, don't expect the authors' signature to be definitive.