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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

2 members like this

Attachments: No photo uploads here

Figure 1.jpg, 60 KB
Secretary 1.jpg, 37 KB

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 9, 2011 at 1:28pm

Yes. I wanted to alert folks to that discussion, sorry. Let's pick our up over there.

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 9, 2011 at 3:16pm

Travis, people much more knowledgeble than you in this genre seem to think otherwise. Read Rolf's blog on the LA In-Person opinion on who did the signing before you comment. While there have been dozens there is a pattern and it includes hundreds in the ones I have looked at across 3 different auction sites and this pattern jumps out at you - well most of us anyway. Am I happy about it... nope as I have some going back 10 years that are going back except for one in-person from a very very reliable source.

NOTHING'S BEEN PROVEN YET! - well three well established places don't think so and a number of us as well.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 9, 2011 at 4:51pm

Travis, you raise some valid points, and technically, you are correct. It is still a theory.

However, I think you are looking at it backwards. The onus of proof should really be on the people who claim they may be authentic. Are we supposed to assume something signed outside of our presence is authentic and have to prove otherwise? No, it's the other way around.

I've presented enough evidence to cast serious doubts on the authenticity of these items and I think the auction houses and JSA are correct in taking a conservative approach.

I've been actively researching this issue for almost 5 months. Viewing hundreds if not thousands of signed items and not once did I run across something that gave me the slightest doubt to the theory. Add that to Rolf's earlier work and plain old common sense, and you have a very strong case.

As I stated earlier, I would love to be proven wrong, but I don't think it's going to happen.

One more thought...

The problem with interviewing ex-employees, Mr's Heston's family, etc. is that they have incentive to not tell the truth. They want to protect the memory of their loved one and not disillusion fans.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 10, 2011 at 11:47am

Steve, I agree with you. The ones you thought were secretarial were so obviously different to me that I could tell within minutes of comparisons with known in-person signatures. It's not just the "ll"s and missing 'r', but the writing itself is more stylish and the "n" of Charlton usually sweeps back to connect with the crossbar of the 't'.

But more than that, as you and Rolf said, your study simply confirmed what he had published over a decade ago, that few in the US noticed.

Even though, as I said earlier, I think it's reasonable to give dealers and authenticators a month to come to their own conclusions on the Hestons, it was so obvious I could instantly tell mine was secretarial. I'm hoping the ones I sold are not, but some may be. I haven't had time yet to mount the archive drive to look at the COA images—I'll do it this weekend.

You and Rolf have done a great job showing proof they're secretarial. Let others who want to put the time and effort in providing convincing proof they are not.

To paraphrase what our friend Markus Brandes says, start with the assumption that an autograph is not genuine, and let it prove to you that it is.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Mysinger on March 10, 2011 at 9:23am

Anyone that thinks Michael Moore does anything honestly needs a certain kind of help that this board can not supply. That meeting between Moore and Heston was one of the sickest / saddest things ever witnessed.

Refunds are being given because the dealers ( as they stated ) want to ensure that people with concerns aren't left holding an autograph that they are not sure about. The dealers are not saying they agree or disagree fully, just that there is enough evidence there to protect their buyers.

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 10, 2011 at 2:36pm

well said, brandon - well said. Since some of us actually have these it's way too much of a coinkydink to believe that one day Heston forgot certain letters while in others and some in-persons it is very identifiable. while there will allways be exceptions, I believe that these top 3 are also saying there is alot more plausibility in this "theory".

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 9, 2011 at 5:11pm

In my web searches, I did find a few items I liked. ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 10, 2011 at 12:03pm

Steve,

It certainly isn't secretarial but I'd want someone good at authenticating Heston to opine on its authenticity.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 10, 2011 at 12:26pm

Rolf, Bob Jones, Steve Grad, Bill White, many others. But look at both signatures. I haven't and I'm not saying there's a problem here, but a quick comparison with authentic Hestons AND secretarials have left me with the opinion that this is a concern.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 10, 2011 at 12:25pm

I'm certain it's good. The one benefit of having a zillion Heston SPs floating around is that it was never a profitable use of a [good] forger's time. Forgeries do exist, but they are really bad and obvious.

Like the last copter out of Saigon, this SP left Autograph World for my house. :-)