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James Stewart Autographs: Which are Genuine, Autopens or Forgeries?

Isn't this an Autopen signature?

Ebay auction

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 31, 2011 at 4:57pm

AND explain the difference?

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Bautista on March 31, 2011 at 6:43pm

I believe the first one is fake and the last two are real .

Attachments: No photo uploads here

fake.JPG, 66 KB
real.jpg, 32 KB
real q.jpg, 109 KB

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 31, 2011 at 6:48pm

What are you seeing?

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Bautista on March 31, 2011 at 7:03pm

I think the James Stewart autograph is not authentic on the first. He had a shakier autograph in life. The first one was signed later in his life but has a perfect autograph. Also the J , S , and t do not match up known authentic autographs.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 31, 2011 at 8:20pm

I agree the first is fake and the last is real based on signatures alone.

The middle one is questionable IMO.

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Permalink Reply by Anthony Bautista on March 31, 2011 at 8:51pm

I think the "tewa" match up perfectly with known authentic ones. I could be wrong , but there are a lot of good characteristics in the middle autograph.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on April 1, 2011 at 5:28am

It may very well be good, but the S formation is a little atypical. Not a condemnation, but I just didn't think it was a "no-doubter" like the last one. :-)

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on September 8, 2011 at 5:52am

Any dealer or authenticator should know to give this pose the twice over. This was the standard pose his office sent in later years and it often has the Autopen.

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Permalink Reply by Brick Hunter on September 10, 2011 at 3:57pm

I feel much more comfortable with signed documents/checks or earlier signatures (30's-70's/80's) when Stewart would attach the "S" to the "t" in Stewart with a cursive line. I don't like a great deal of these signed photos that pop up on eBay and elsewhere. James Stewart is right in that range where his autograph is worth just enough and he has passed away long enough ago to be forged heavily. His autograph was fairly simple as well and he'd add a lot of variation.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on September 10, 2011 at 6:58pm

Brick is correct in that there are a lot of Stewart forgeries. Be wary of too neat signatures, or those that look "intentionally sloppy." Also, Stewart signed fast. I like the signatures in black where you can see some streaking in the ink -- fast = good sign. Look for interaction between certain letters.