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Marilyn Monroe - real or not

I am going to an auction tomorrow and there is a lot of autographed photos including this signed photo. Now I am no expect on Miss Monroe and have scanned the web to see if I can find this photo. I have been unsuccessful so....Has anyone seen this signed photo before and if so, do you think this is a pre-print. Any help would be appreciated.

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Permalink Reply by Martin Slack on November 17, 2023 at 11:20am

Virtually all the photos I looked at have been removed from an album.

Most of them had some damage.

There were a lot of autopen signatures

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on November 17, 2023 at 9:28am

Letterpress halftone should sit on the stock and could be printed on any stock, so possible. And an isolated second color (like blue) could be used without altering the matrix pattern. A polychrome image (4 colors or more) would appear different.

Here is an example of the matrix of a monochromatic Letterpress halftone image on the left, and the OP on the right. This type of image is not of the greatest clarity, as the OP. In use from the 1880's until C. 1960 and used for postcards as well as many other things,

Click for full image:

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on November 17, 2023 at 9:41am

I think it is vintage and not as thick as cardstock from the type of creases and the images that have been shown.

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Permalink Reply by Martin Slack on November 17, 2023 at 10:01am

Well......if nothing else, it has got people debating...is it or isn't it !!

The only other thing I should have mentioned is.....I asked the staff at the auction house for a tape measure and they didn't have one.

The Monroe photo is bigger than a postcard...by around 1 inch Horizontal

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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on November 17, 2023 at 11:07am

Well, now that there is another with different placement we know what it is not.

Stamp or Autopen/mechanical. Both can have different placements.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on November 17, 2023 at 11:13am

Well that's something I wished you mentioned from the start! Those are virtually never signed and the blue would not have a dot pattern in most cases.