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Lou Costello Inscription and Signature

I'm curious to see what members might think of this album page with a Lou Costello inscription and signature. It was found in a book with other autographs from the 1940s. As has been discussed in other threads, Lou is rather scarce in authentic form as he used a secretary to sign for him in various formats.

This is quite beautiful handwriting in fountain pen. Other examples I have seen attributed to him have varied considerably.

Is a signed album page a more sure bet as far as authenticity as opposed to a photograph or a typed letter signed?

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on December 27, 2020 at 6:27pm

I think this is good.

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Permalink Reply by Eddy on December 27, 2020 at 8:00pm

I appreciate you taking a look at this, Eric. As I mentioned, this came out of an album from the early 40's. A friend has complete mid-1950's album which Lou signed in. The signatures in these separate albums are at least a decade apart and both undoubtedly from the same hand without much stylistic change.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on December 27, 2020 at 8:59pm

The second is much more typical.

And mine:

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Permalink Reply by Eddy on December 27, 2020 at 9:25pm

That's a nice one of Lou. In seeing yours, that brings up the question in my mind about the first one I shared. Is it too neat? I can see characteristics of the signature in yours. The "To Anne" page has extremely fine penmanship. That's why I had kind of wondered if it might have been a secretary signing for him.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on December 27, 2020 at 9:49pm

It may be.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on December 27, 2020 at 11:38pm

Etienne,

I think that the one you posted was signed by Lou. Autograph albums were rarely mailed to the celebrity to sign, so it's unlikely that an autograph in one would be secretarial.

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Permalink Reply by Eddy on December 28, 2020 at 9:00am

Thank you, Steve. That's what I had thought as well about autograph albums having not been mailed.

Here are two examples joint signed by Bud and Lou...one on another album page and one on a photograph. The way the "t" is crossed in each in Lou's surname is quite different. I've seen these variants of the crossed "t" changed up in other examples and have wondered if they were just two different ways that he signed his name or one or the other was a sign of a secretary.variants on other examples. This is a real "autograph nerd" question but I was wondering if either way of crossing the "t" is a sign of being secretarial or not.