Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on February 24, 2023 at 11:40pm

I'm not so sure that the original poster was actually looking for opinions on the four examples he listed. The question was whether IAA were known to members of the forum. I think people certainly should care about who is selling and not deal with sellers with dubious reputations, or at least be especially careful when dealing with them.

Of the four examples listed, I would not risk my own money on any other than the Heston - assuming I was a Heston fan. I am no expert on Kelly and late Sinatra but the examples shown just don't smell right to me. The photos look like modern repros and the autographs themselves lack any life/character - just compare them to the Heston photo and autograph.

I do know about Hepburn. In my view the listed example is also highly questionable. The Hepburn looks slowly drawn and the individual letters look too neat and spaced out. I also wonder how often Hepburn and Peck appeared in public together. I doubt that someone would go to the effort of getting this repro photo signed by Hepburn and Peck separately with the same felt tip pen. I know that Hepburn and Peck did appear at a tribute event for Hepburn but by that time Hepburn was signing differently and Peck's autograph was tighter. As luck would have it, I have both their autographs from this event.

Hepburn

Peck (and others)

To wrap up, here is a Hepburn of mine from the same kind of period as the IAA example appears to be from:

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Permalink Reply by Federico De Gennaro on February 25, 2023 at 7:38am

Thank you Eva, you perfectly understood the reason of my post. And thanks for your thorough analysis of Hepburn signatures.

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Permalink Reply by Eddy on February 25, 2023 at 7:51am

Well done on presenting these Hepburn signatures, eva!

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Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on March 3, 2023 at 10:32pm

Etienne, I had an auction reminder yesterday which at least partly confirms what you said about Richard Davie's involvement at IAA Europe. He is not referred in the the mail and is not listed as one of the "Personnel" or "External Consultants and Collaborators" on the IAA Europe site. That said, he was referred to as being one of their specialists in a recent (November 2022) newspaper article about an Einstein item. 

I have to say that the biographies on the site do not exactly inspire confidence in the auction house's expertise as regards rock n' pop and C20 arts and entertainment. The management team don't seem to be experienced autograph specialists at all and the consultants only seem to be specialists in historical autographs. Here is a link:

 https://www.autographauctions.eu/About-Us/personnel

It will be interesting to see if Richard is the auctioneer again at the next auction.

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Permalink Reply by Eddy on March 4, 2023 at 8:10am

Hi eva -  Very interesting.  Doesn't exactly instill confidence!

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Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on March 14, 2023 at 10:58pm

Hi Eddy, Richard was at the rostrum yesterday so he must still be pretty heavily involved in IAA Europe. He'll be performing again today if you want to take a look. Getting through all those hundreds lots per day must take some stamina, especially as most of them are pretty so la la.   

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Permalink Reply by Eddy on March 15, 2023 at 6:51am

Well, good to know Richard is going strong.  I honestly always had good dealings with him when he was based in the U.K. and ran a straight purchase dealership.  

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Permalink Reply by Britfrog on March 15, 2023 at 6:58am

I had ACOA give a quick opinion on 3 signed photos that interested me (Monday's sale): Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman, Sean Connery and Timothy Dalton.  All 3 failed.

I didn't bid.

They had a great, vintage photo of Charlie Chaplin with a bold ink signature.  The ink looked very fresh and new for one which would have had to be at least 50 years' old (if he signed it at the end of his life).

I will give their entertainment autographs a wide berth.

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Permalink Reply by Eddy on March 15, 2023 at 7:16am

Those Chaplin photos also caught my eye....and I agree about the bold ink looking unnaturally fresh and rather off.

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