Bakker or Elvis?

Hello Elvis Community,

today, I have a very interesting question for you: What are the odds that this is a real Elvis autograph?

It has many of the "Bakker traits" discussed here before, like e.g.

a long dedication,
a little too smooth, lack of flow,
the edgy "P" pointing downwards,
the overly high "r"
the small "s",
giant "y" etc.

But the story of this very autograph obviously is as follows:

Dedication of Elvis Presley in his very first copy of the Kahlil Gibran book "The Prophet"
This book was received by Elvis in 1956. Later in 1961 Elvis gave this copy to Charlie Hodge complete with underlined passages , margin notes in over 20 pages and an inscription to Charlie.
Comes with impeccable provenance to include signed letter of provenance from Charlie Hodge and an additional hand signed letter from Elvis barber Homer M. Gilleland
Sold at Omega Auctions in 2013 (https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/omega-auction...)
Discussed on Elvisinfonet.com - please scroll down (http://www.elvisinfonet.com/index_march13.html)

Many thanks in advance for a fruitful discussion. I am looking forward to receiving your comments!

Kind regards & have a nice day

Markus

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on May 14, 2024 at 7:51pm

It doesn't look real to me but I'd get an online opinion from Roger Epperson. He's the top Elvis expert and the one who investigated and identified the forger known for the Hans Bakker forgeries. He flew to Europe to do it back in the 1990s.

His opinion is only $15: https://rogerepperson.com/

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Permalink Reply by Markus Fischer on May 15, 2024 at 3:06am

Hello Steve,

many thanks for your judgement and advice!

Consulting Roger certainly is a good option - I already asked him for quick opinions before.

This autograph may have some Bakker characteristics, but apparently there is solid proof of its authenticity...?! This just makes me very curious...

Will keep you in the loop!

Again many thanks & best regards
Markus

PS: And thanks a million times, Steve, for setting up and running such an awesome forum for autograph collectors!!! I highly appreciate it!

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Permalink Reply by michelle on May 15, 2024 at 8:39am

Hi Marcus. why not consult Rich Consola? He only autheticates Elvis sigs.

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Permalink Reply by Markus Fischer on May 16, 2024 at 5:54am

Hello Michelle,

thanks for your advice! I know of Rich's rich expertise ;-) I will see what I will do...

But as Thorsten stated (see below) I do not intend to buy this very autograph (as it is not for sale), but I thought I would learn from it. You know, it seems to be real - but it has some suspicious traits of the Bakkers discussed here.

Thus, I am very curious if the esteemed members in this forum know anything about it...

Anyhow, thanks again & best regards
Markus

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Permalink Reply by Thorsten Knublauch on May 15, 2024 at 3:28am

Hi Steve - as no one wants to buy this item and it is not for sale it is useless to pay someone for his opionion. Therefor a posting in this group.

It would be interesting if this item had been in discussion previously. I know that Roger says that several Bakker items were faked on very good documents and perhaps this one is one of them: it is a book that is known, it apparantly had a COA from Charlie Hodge etc..

Elvis dedicated this book to several friends over the years and a few are online from previous auctions. From what I saw they are from the later years and his signature looks completely different comparing to this for obvious reasons.

I personally wonder why Elvis signed this book with his full name to a personal friend from his army days and not just "Elvis" or "E.P.".

I agree that at least the signature looks extremly close to the well known fakes we call as "Bakkers". I wouldnt be surprised if "Bakker" used a well known item as a basis for one of his fakes - this suggest what Roger told over the years. If this item really would be authentic - then a lot of items called "Bakkers" could well be authentic as the style then would be a genuine Elvis style...

But I doubt that there is such authentic autograph in this style. I was fooled by Bakkers, Lamars and secretary autographs myself over the last decades but over the last months I dug deep into Elvis army days autographs to try to get a good feeling for "good or bad" but I realise that this is in parts even more difficult than Beatles autographs and some autographs remain "open for opinions in boths directions".

Therefor I hope that over the last 10 years this book had been discussed before and someone here remembers.

Does your posting suggests that it was not Bakker who did the forgeries in question but someone else?

Thorsten