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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 DB on November 27, 2011 at 9:47am

now that is funny. this seller claims he validated his heston against the Sanders 7th edition.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on November 27, 2011 at 9:53am

Well they're not in any 7th edition of Sanders I've ever seen. Send me the link please.

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Permalink Reply by DB on November 27, 2011 at 3:01pm

0 results found for 180756930726

thus, I suppose Sanders even when apparently falsely claimed doesn't save the seller.

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Permalink Reply by Lou reves on November 27, 2011 at 10:32am

The sixth edition has exemplars but no Heston in it, I am sorry Steve didnt mean this to sound like a question. I checked mine and he has no exemplar in it.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on November 27, 2011 at 10:34am

Louie,

I don't know and my copies are buried in storage. I'd be surprised if it didn't though.

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Permalink Reply by Brick Hunter on November 26, 2011 at 2:53pm

Another dose of reality. Somebody spent $175.95 on a "Chall" Heston.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Charlton-Heston-2009-Razor-Cut-Autograph-au...

I don't know why these razor cuts/leaf cuts/mystery cuts always sell for a premium. $175.95 is extremely overpriced. The fact that it's secretarial is just adding insult to injury.

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Permalink Reply by DB on November 26, 2011 at 4:29pm

WTH is Beckett doing in this space?

by Beckett and GUARANTEES AUTHENTICITY

a Disaster and this is what revenue pressures as Mike Baker of GAI once claimed can be the overriding factor!

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on November 27, 2011 at 8:27am

The "Mike Baker Legacy" and those thousands of Mantle, Williams, and DiMaggio forgeries with his name on those GAI certs. What a legacy to leave behind, Mr. Baker!!!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on November 27, 2011 at 9:03am

Sure hope he got paid enough to make it worth having his name and reputation destroyed forever.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on November 27, 2011 at 9:25am

@DB:

Beckett guarantees these? That's great news if so. Do they guarantee all their slabbed autographs?

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Permalink Reply by DB on November 28, 2011 at 8:11am

with the way things disappear on EBay I am glad i posted the picture; This listing (300619949685) has been removed, or this item is not available.

but in answer to your question which I find interesting (that implies the seller is completely misinformed on what the Beckett "seal" represets) is.

according to Beckett; "We do not authenticate those autographs, we simply encapsulate them. The card is authenticated by the manufacturer as stated on the back of the card"

Thus; 2008 Razor Cut Signature Encore Edition Hobby Box (1 Cut Signature of a Celebrity, Athlete or Famous Person Per Pack) is a problem as it would be the "mfg'er guaranteeing the authenticity and in this case did a terrible job.

Some should let Leaf know as they "authenticated" a secretarial.

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Permalink Reply by DB on November 28, 2011 at 12:41pm

ps. btw, I meant to say Brick, not I. Following up with a former partner of Razor Entertainment. It was unknown which TPA (as identified below) provided the authentication during that time period. My take however is that where there is one fopar there are bound to be others. The individual further stated that "Leaf is very cautious with all cuts we use".

"Unfortunately, this card was NOT made by our company. It was produced by Razor Entertainment (by whom I was employed/partner) in 2009. Leaf was only the manufacturer for this product line beginning in 2010.

From my memories of 2009, all cuts were authenticated by either JSA or PSA/DNA. I do know first hand that one of these two companies authenticated this signature back in 2008/2009."