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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 28, 2017 at 10:26am

Interesting topic for discussion. :-)

In many ways I consider myself a purist.  I recoil at the thought of chopping up, altering or damaging historical documents / signed material. It really makes me angry sometimes to see these artifacts cut up and put inside of custom cards, etc. Or worse, when you see someone has cut up a letter and then sells it off on eBay literally word by word. 

That said, I think sometimes that notion can be taken too far. If it’s extremely common signed material with no historical significance, I can’t get really all that worked up about Someone tinkering with it.

A personal anecdote…  several years ago I removed a personalization from a James Stewart signed photo, and made the mistake of mentioning it during a discussion of washed personalizations on another chat board. One guy in particular really took me the task for removing the personalization from an item that I owned. It removed perfectly with no damage to the photo.

Instead of a piece inscribed to someone else who I don’t know and have no connection to, I was left with a beautifully signed James Stewart  photo that could be proudly displayed anywhere. I really didn’t see the harm in it. It’s not like I was removing Abraham Lincoln’s handwriting from something… We’re talking about a James Stewart signed item, which likely exist in the tens if not hundreds of thousands.

So in my view, it really comes down to judgment and motivation. Is it truly historical and rare? Is there any historical value in that which is being removed or altered? Is the motivation pure monetary gain, or is it to fit in someone’s collection better?

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