Charlton Heston Secretarial Signature Study

 Hi:

At Steve Cyrkin's invitation, I'd like to call your attention to a signature study I've posted on my blog, Charlton Heston signature study by Steve Zarelli.

I believe I have identified the "tell" in Charlton Heston secretarial signatures, and if I am correct, the news is not good for most collectors. It appears that most  Heston signed photos are secretarially signed.

 

Here is a synopsis:

The Theory
Photographs and other memorabilia sent to Mr. Heston's office were signed by a secretary. However, Mr. Heston did authentically sign books through-the-mail.  

Real vs. Secretary
In authentic signatures, the R in "Charlton" is distinctly a lowercase "r" and less than half the height of the L. The first four letters are clearly "Char."

In secretarial signatures, the R looks much more like a lowercase "l" and is about the same height as the L. So, the first four letters appear to be "Chall."

I have attached two images to give you a small sampling.  

For more details and images, please visit my blog at the link below.

I'd love to hear your feedback and thoughts on this. I fully anticipate some resistance to the theory, because denial is always the first step. In fact, I would love to be proved wrong, because that would mean I wasn't sitting on a bunch of secretary signed photos!

By way of introduction, I have been collecting since the early 90s and I am the UACC Ethics Director.

I look forward to the discussion.

The Collecting Obsession

Regards,

Steve Zarelli

 

Tags: Charlton, Forgery, Heston, Secretary, authenticating, autograph, secretarial

Views: 26123

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 27, 2018 at 4:57pm

Yep. I got one of those, too. And the Alaska image. Here is a pic from the signing.

Permalink Reply by Todd Johnson on August 27, 2018 at 12:05am

My framed pieces took longer than expected but here’s my Heston piece in my favorite movie of his (and first horror type film seen on tv as kid).  I do like Will Smith’s movie version of the last man on earth, and have watched Vincent Price in his film.

Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on August 27, 2018 at 12:15am

Very cool. I love this film too. Soylent Green also. Nice framing job as well with the Omega.

Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on August 27, 2018 at 3:23am

Very nice!! Great looking display. 

Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on September 10, 2018 at 6:39am

Just a sad note that Mr. Heston's widow, Lydia Clarke Heston, passed away September 3 at age 95.

Permalink Reply by Greg on September 24, 2018 at 1:41pm

Just thought I’d throw another one out there...

I think this ones’ a little nicer than the last one I posted, but still with a messy ending...(I mean I’m still having a hard time trying to figure out the way the pen flowed to form the ‘esto’ part in Heston on the previous one?? )

Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on September 24, 2018 at 3:54pm

I think this one is good. 

Permalink Reply by Greg on February 6, 2019 at 7:29pm

Ok so here’s another...at first I thought it was a decent fake (as opposed to a secretarial) due to the lack of strong upstroke of the ‘h’ in Charlton, which I’ve never personally seen before in the genuine article (with just an oddly curved downstroke in this example , which I’ve only seen done a couple of times with the ‘Chall’ signatures)...a couple other motions in the signature don’t seem quite typical as well...but after looking at it for a while, now I’m leaning towards the fact it might be just a rushed in-person with yet another version of an authentic Heston! What do you guys think?

Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on February 7, 2019 at 6:35am

The "Hes" formation is atypical, but otherwise it has many positives and no secretarial indicators. On balance, I'd say positive outweigh atypical traits and it is likely authentic.

Permalink Reply by Greg on February 7, 2019 at 8:29am

Thanks Steve, that’s what I’m leaning towards as well. The lack of strong upstroke on the ‘h’ in Charlton is what really threw me at first though! Have you ever seen another example with that variation?

Permalink Reply by Herman Darvick on February 20, 2019 at 12:14pm

Thought you'd like to see an authentic Charlton Heston signature at age 28

Permalink Reply by Greg on May 1, 2019 at 7:44am

Love the properly formed 'H' on that one! I mean ALL the letters are clearly visible! Thanks for the very early example Herman!

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