We're an eBay affiliate and may be compensated on purchases made through clicks.
Authenticity is Everything
Help with autograph authentication
Hello everyone, I would like to first say there are some very knowledgeable folks in here, reading through a few pages of similar posts I was blown away with the level of expertise here. Secondly, yes my title with "Help" was certainly no accident ;)
A little background information.
Like many woman my age that lived through Beatle mania and continued to love the Beatles through all the decades right up to the present day have kept memorabilia for whatever reasons, mostly nostalgia. My Niece, whom is actually my age (my oldest sibling is old enough to be my father) was my best friend and we are both obsessed with The Beatles. At one point she befriended someone that worked at United Artist where she acquired these signed items and they have been with here ever since. Recently her health has failed her and she decided to give me all her Beatles memorabilia since she doesn't want her rotten kids to get them. Since going through many of the items we felt if the signatures are legit they need to be insured and properly enclosed for protection against time. Since we all know there are far too many fakes out there we don't want to waste the time and money if they are deemed fakes. I felt joining this very knowledgeable group would be a great first step into getting some answers. If the professionals here have reason to think any of them might be legit we would like to take the next steps to get them professionally authenticated, insured, and protected against time.
Here are just some of the autographs, if they appear to be legit it would be amazing to know what would be our next steps to having them professionally authenticated? Are there any members here that provide this service?
Thank you for taking the time to read all of this and helping, it's very much appreciated.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on
-
I’m really sorry to say this, but there’s nothing here that looks authentic to me.
-
Permalink Reply by spaceman on
-
Yes unfortunately none of the signatures posted were signed by any of The Beatles.
-
Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on
-
Same, sorry.
-
Permalink Reply by Bruce Juice on
-
These are deliberate forgeries with the intent to defraud / fool someone. I doubt someone at United Artists would risk their reputation by forging these. You may want to check on that story.
-
-
Yes, I agree, and when was this? That Lennon photo is 1975-77 no?
-
Permalink Reply by Jim Cushman on
-
The Lennon photo is from 1974...
-
Permalink Reply by Jim McFiver on
-
I agree, they're all forgeries. Unfortunately, most appear similar in style.
And, if you know Beatles history, it's extremely difficult to name anyone from United Artists who legitimately acquired any Beatles signatures - from the 1970's!
-
Permalink Reply by Nannalin on
-
Wow this is a real bummer. The worst part is I am almost certain she paid some money for the entire collection, how much I don't know but I do remember when she bought them maybe 20 years ago. Are there laws against forgers? Say if the person who sold them was able to be tracked down what sort of action could be taken? Or is it just buyer beware sort of thing?
On another note, may I ask some of the techniques used to determine what makes an autograph legit vs a forgery? I find this very interesting because when I was looking at legit signatures they looked pretty darn close to my eye but then again I have no idea what to look for. It's amazing the collective here is certain they are fakes so there must be a dead giveaway that my eye is missing that you all picked up on.
Thanks again so much, I'm glad I didn't waste my time and money to send them away to be further looked at. Any more information you wonderful people have to share with me about spotting fakes would be much appreciated for the future.
Thanks!
-
-
The biggest "tell" here is that none of them actually resemble the authentic thing.
-
-
"...Any more information you wonderful people have to share with me about spotting fakes would be much appreciated for the future..."
I wish it were that simple. It would take years to develop an eye and then to learn the Beatles well!
This hobby demands a LOT of time. Many of us here will agree.
-
-
All are forgeries...sorry!
-
-
A little more back story (which I know doesn't make them any less fake) my niece said that the person that worked at United Artist collected autographs from lots of musicians and movie stars, it was his private collection and when he passed away his wife got rid of all the autographs. Most likely a fake story but that's the story given.
There is absolutely no way I would ever be able to tell fake/real. I spent a lot of time last night and this morning collecting images of authentic signatures on the internet and composed a reference image in an image editing software. Within the software you can easily overlay a signature on top of the other and what makes this so difficult is all the "real" autographs were different from one another, like drastically different. When overlaying some of my signatures to some of the authentic ones some were almost identical. To me it is mind boggling just how different all these authenticated signatures are, there just seems to be on consistency with how they signed their names which makes this such a difficult task.
Anyway I got my answer, they appear to be fakes. I want to thank everyone for their expertise and time taken to help me with this. Although it was depressing to find out they are fakes it was still a very educational endeavor and I know more about Beatles autographs today than I did yesterday.
Thanks!!
Photos
Videos
Groups
© 2024 Created by Steve Cyrkin, Admin.
Powered by
Badges | Report an Issue | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service
