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How much does great provenance add to an autograph?

My collection is almost wholly based on great provenance. Does this greatly enhance the value of a collection?

Tags: autograph, autograph provenance, provenance

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Permalink Reply by alan horowitz on April 8, 2015 at 7:10am

As an example, I have a large collection of signed postcards all postmarked between 1948 - 1956, all sent to the same person and all sent from California. Most are postmarked from Studio City or Beverly Hills and surrounding towns. They are all signed by Hollywood actors and actresses and some sport stars involved in the movie industry at that time. They were sent to the niece of a hollywood grip(backstage labor) who was collecting autographs at that time. There are also accompanying postcards sent by the uncle saying who was on set that day and if he was able to get there autograph and also accompaning stories about them on set. The autographs have also been looked at by Steve Grad (psa) and he called it the nicest collection he's ever seen.

Another part of my collection is from a father and son autograph collecting team that started collecting in the 1940's and stopped in the early 1990's. They were well known in the autograph industry as they were autograph hounds and got most of their collection in person.(howard and Tom Grafton) and there collection was massive. I purchased most of their collection at a auction of their estate after Howard died with no living relatives. (I Spent over $50,000. and only bought around 20% of the total. I had most of the high priced items authenticated by either JSA or PSA and they all passed and Jimmy Spence used most of the collection to add to his examplars. A mixture of Hollywood, Sports, Military and space.

Everything in my collection is vintage and I only buy when I like the provenance.

Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Paul on April 7, 2015 at 2:07pm

I like provenance I have some great photos From the Beatles in 67 getting my album signed, also Nirvana. It paints a nice picture. Sometimes the vintage signed items are lost to history, but if you can pin point it, im in favour.

It enhances the value if its a landmark Beatles Ed Sullivan show set signed.

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Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on April 8, 2015 at 9:03am

You have a signed Beatles album with photos of the signing in 1967? Could you share these photos? I fully understand if you don't want to do that but maybe you could still add some details re the album and the occasion?

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Permalink Reply by Mike P on April 7, 2015 at 2:47pm

Personally, when obtaining autographs in person, I try to get as much physical proof as possible (video, photographs, receipts etc) so that a potential buyer will have no doubt whatsoever that the item(s) are authentic. It is difficult in certain situations to obtain proof, but I would say that provenance is very essential to any autograph collection.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Smith on April 7, 2015 at 3:08pm

Great topic. What about all the photo shopping etc that has been going on in the marketplace? Seems to me like there is a lot of that happening since the age of technology has become so easy for the bad guys. I like a good story but for me if I am on the fence with an autograph on an item I do not even consider the story. Anyone else feel the same on that?

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Permalink Reply by Mike T on April 7, 2015 at 3:20pm

Exactly, look at all these ebay sellers with "proof" photos and videos, heck even Anthony Nurse's Autograph Store tells you when and where his photos were signed. Doesn't mean anything, I'd almost rather not know so I can judge the autograph and the autograph alone.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on April 7, 2015 at 3:27pm

Agreed. I wouldn't want an autograph that doesn't stand up on its own--or at least make sense, with incredibly strong provenance. I have a Pacino that I paid a lot of money for that falls into the latter category. I know it's good, but I don't think it would pass PSA/DNA.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on April 7, 2015 at 3:31pm

Speaking of photoshopping photos, these are the ones we discovered from American Royal Arts in 2009:

http://live.autographmagazine.com/photo/albums/american-royal-arts-...

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Permalink Reply by Barry S on April 8, 2015 at 8:12am

Thanks Steve! Fun times. :-)

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Permalink Reply by wascher on April 8, 2015 at 8:43am

Reminds me of a certain someone up in Canada, who photo shopped his picture in with Michael Jackson, as well as signed albums in MJ's hands that really weren't there. Sad.

-w

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Permalink Reply by Mike P on April 8, 2015 at 12:01pm

Personally, I prefer to get video proof of my items being signed; so that the buyer can see the signature on the item as the signer creates the signature. If not possible, I usually attempt to get a picture of the person with the item in hand. I usually only go to signing events, and I always get plenty of pamphlets/receipts to add to the provenance of the item. But yes, photoshopping is definitely an issue with the capabilities of technology nowadays.