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Elvis Letter Being Auctioned March 11: Is it Real?

Paul Fraser Collectibles puts out a great email newsletter every week on high-end collectibles of all types, from autographs to antiquities. Paul talks about what's been discovered, what's coming up for sale and what's sold around the world, and there's always a lot of fascinating and drool-worthy collectibles to read about. If you aren't a subscriber, I encourage you to sign up for it. It's free.

One of the pieces he talks about this week is an early Elvis Presley handwritten letter being offered by an auction house in Las Vegas on March 11. That's just two days from now.

The letter was supposedly written by Elvis in 1956 in response to a letter from a fan. I looked at the letter and I'm not comfortable with it, but I'm not an Elvis expert. So I'm posting it here to get opinions.

What do you think?

To make it clear, Paul Fraser is just reporting the news. He's not involved in the sale.

You can view the listing here.

Tags: antique, auction, casino, elvis, fan, handwritten, letter, presley, victorian

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 9, 2011 at 2:35pm

Greg, I am in awe.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 9, 2011 at 3:20pm

Here's a letter Elvis wrote while he was in the Army, which was 1958-60.

It's from Part I of Roger Epperson's 2-part feature on Elvis, which was the April/May 2007 issue of "Autograph Collector." Roger got the image from Rich Consola, so two of the top Elvis Presley autograph experts in the world authenticated it.

Click the image to enlarge.

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Permalink Reply by roger epperson on March 10, 2011 at 6:02am

In my opinion this is not even close to being authentic. It has to be some secretarial writing of some sort. I have never seen this writing before this letter though.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 10, 2011 at 2:23pm

This looks like the provenance letters offered with a Beatles-"signed" guitar and two acoustics with everyone from Elvis to Hendrix to Curt Cobain that Morales authenticated.

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Permalink Reply by E.B.G. on March 10, 2011 at 9:17pm

This has to be a secretary trying to make a young girl happy. I have been to Paul Fraser's history gallery in London. What a place!!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 10, 2011 at 9:34pm

I emailed the auction house, and the owner, Peter Sidlow, called me within hours. A nice guy, he thanked me and said he was comfortable with the authenticity and was going to auction it, as bidders know they're buying as-is.

I identified two states where the consignor probably lived, one being Florida, which he confirmed was where it came from. He said he was looking at the book mentioned in the write up that featured the piece.

In my opinion they are within their rights to sell the item and not even mention the controversy. But do I like it and think that it's right to do so? No, of course.

This is why it's so important to do your research before you bid...especially when the auction house does not specialize in autographs and have a stellar reputation.

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Permalink Reply by Chad B on March 31, 2011 at 1:06pm

So, does anyone know what it went for? It is a neat item but probably not in the hand of the King.

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Permalink Reply by Kyle M. on April 7, 2011 at 12:01am

Does anyone know what it sold for?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on April 7, 2011 at 12:04am

No. Or that it did sell, but it probably did.

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Permalink Reply by Peter C. on June 20, 2012 at 1:36pm

I have to add this here. I wrote some commentary about fake exhibition with Elvis´s items which is touring around Europe for few years already... Why Im using the word fake? Because it has definately fake concert costumes (copies made by B&K). That´s just for argumenting the word fake.

I would like to know what do you think about this item? It was described as probably the last letter that Elvis ever wrote, the name on the envelope is J. Burrows (and its known that he used this as private identity - for example at the hotels)... I hope that its possible to read it.