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Authenticity is Everything
Mantle, Williams and DiMaggio: Authenticating Baseball Forger Favorites
While it would require far more than a single article to educate the autograph collector to detect Mantle, Williams and DiMaggio forgeries, there are some general as well as specific warning keys to these three autographs that may aid in detecting possible forgeries.
Genuine Mantle, Williams & DiMaggio signed photo provided by EAC Gallery.
Click to enlarge:
As a general rule, one of the first things I examine in an autograph is its feel – how it was written. When an individual signs his name there should be an easy, smooth flow to the signature. We’ve all signed our names countless times, and we don’t need to think about it. An item we offered in one of our past auctions was a sheet of paper signed several times by Joe Jackson. Jackson, who was almost completely illiterate, actually had to practice, in essence work at, writing his name prior to signing documents. Likewise, when a forger writes a signature, he or she is working at it and therefore upon close examination it’s often possible to detect such warning keys as a slowness of motion, stops and starts at inappropriate spots, and possibly even a shakiness in the writing. An invaluable aid to help detect these keys, taught to me by John Reznikoff of University Archives many years ago, is to turn the autograph upside down. When you view an autograph in an unnatural position these warning keys are often easier to detect.
In addition to such general warning keys there are specific warning keys, unique to an individual’s autograph, to keep an eye out for.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s Mickey Mantle stated on numerous occasions that he was blessed to be able to earn more money signing his name at one single weekend show than his father had earned in an entire year working as a coal miner. Because of this Mantle always felt his fans were deserving of a clear, elegant signature. In authentic Mickey Mantle autographs Mickey would always end the “y” in “Mickey” on an upswing, and because he would be quickly flowing through his signature, he therefore started the “M” in “Mantle” on a higher level or plane than he had started the “M” in “Mickey”. Most forgers, because they were “working” on writing Mantle’s signature, would pause after completing “Mickey” and begin anew in writing “Mantle”, therefore placing “Mantle” on more of a straight line with “Mickey”. If one places a ruler or sheet of paper straight across the item Mantle signed (not straight across the signature) all that appears below the ruler or paper of an authentic Mantle is the bottom portion of the “M” in “Mickey”. In the case of most forgeries the ruler or paper completely covers the entire signature. Another difficulty forgers have with Mantle’s signature was his unique way of looping the bottom portion of his “M”. Such curved lines were executed in one easy movement by Mantle, but are most often elongated by forgers who again are “working” the signature. Such slow, elongated forgeries are especially easy to recognize on baseballs as their curved surfaces only add to the forger’s difficulty.
In the case of Ted Williams autographs, with the exception of the capital “W” in Williams, Ted would consistently make the size of all the letters in his last time nearly the same exact size. Most telling is the “illia”, with the “l”s just ever so slightly taller than the “i”s, and the “a” as tall as the “l”s. Try as they may, most forgers simply can’t undo years of training and habit causing their “l”s to be significantly taller than their “i”s, and their “a” significantly shorter than their “l”s. Williams also connected the “W” in “Williams” to the “ed” in “Ted” with a swirl that gave forgers difficulty in replicating in the same, easy, flowing movement as appears in authentic examples. Also of interest, in addition to the many Williams intentional forgeries in existence, Williams revealed late in his life that during his playing days his signature on team signed balls was often a “clubhouse” example, not penned by him.
Regarding Joe DiMaggio’s autograph, problems for forgers begin with the first letter in Joe. Like the “M”s in Mantle’s autograph, the “J” in “Joe”, which appears as two loops, a larger loop on top and a smaller one below, were created by curved lines which are the hardest to duplicate without leaving telltale signs of slowness or inappropriate stops and starts. In addition, DiMaggio would pen his “J”s so that the lower loop would be written on top of (literally written over) the upper loop in two places. For some inexplicable reason, a significant percentage of DiMaggio forgeries flow in the opposite direction, with the upper loop covering the lower one. An inexpensive magnifier or jeweler’s loop will aid in viewing this detail. Finally, the general feel of an authentic DiMaggio autograph is often somewhat sloppy, in the sense that the spacing between letters is uneven, obviously much more so in his second name. Again due to the fact that forgers are working rather than simply signing, the spacing they place between each letter is far more uniform.
Finally, the age-old adage “experience is the best teacher” is indeed appropriate here. The building of as extensive a library of exemplars as possible, of both authentic and fake examples, would be of help to visualize these and additional warning keys, and tremendously assist in the detection of forgeries.
Tags: authenticate, baseball, dimaggio, fame, forgeries, forgers, genuine, hall, hof, joe, More…
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Steve on
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I originally posted this comment on May 10th:
I actually caught the B&J family members forgeing the Mantle, Dimaggio, Williams photo's. They were at a show here in Tempe Arizona (about 14 years ago) and one of the nephews was attending ASU. They had a bunch of Dimaggio stuff and claimed they had a contract with him. I was interested in the triple signed piece and they said they had one more at home and gave me the address to come by. When I got there, they all introduced themselves to me and said one of the brothers was getting the photo from the back room. They left me alone in the living room and I walked back to an open door and saw one of them signing the photo themselves. He didn't see me and brought it out as if he was looking for it. I then saw them at the National in Anaheim and they said they were sponsoring Dimaggio being there. They had a table set up and were selling Dimaggio 16x20's for $135 but he was charging $175 to sign at the show. Didn't make sense at all. If they truly had a contract with Dimaggio, then what better way to pass off your items as legit even if they are not!
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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on
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They or atleast Bill Rodman is still supplying that junk today. Selling crap to the other major auction that is now flooding the market with $30 Mantle's and $22 Dimaggio's.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on
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Who is Bill Rodman?
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One of the owners of the former B & J Collectibles.
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Permalink Reply by Lance on
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http://auction.steinersports.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?...
What do you think? Price was a steal and ball looks good to me.
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Looks okay to me, but I am not an expert on every signature there. That was a steal at $475. Wow. I'd pay that in a heartbeat.
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Nice win. I am envious. I guess I need to check out Steiner auctions. I always presumed their opening bid started at full retail and it only went up from there! LOL
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Exactly how I've always felt about Steiner prices.... but since many feel the same way nobody ends up bidding on their auctions and you can actually score a great deal once in a while.
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Permalink Reply by DB on
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just remember the disclosure:
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL AUCTION SALES ARE FINAL.
as many items are cosigned or from a "collection" and not necessarily the mainstay items that have the "steiner" good housekeeping seal of approval.
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I'm aware of that disclosure... I'm confident that Steiner would only put quality items (not fakes) up for auction as their name is on the auction site store front. If they ever auctioned off forged items their name would be dragged through the mud... Steiner Auctions are a safer bet then Ebay in my opinion anyway.
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