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Michael Jackson Signing Styles in Julien's Tompkins and Bush Sale

On December 2, Julien's Auctions is selling The Collection of Tompkins and Bush. The collection contains 465 lots of Michael Jackson memorabilia, 287 of them autographed.

Michael Bush and the late Dennis Tompkins were Michael Jackson's costume designers for 25 years, during Jackson's most successful period. They were the consignors of the signed Thriller jacket that Julien's sold for $1,800,000 in June 2011.

Almost all of the autographs in the Tompkins and Bush sale are a variation I'm not familiar with. I've only been looking at Jackson's autograph for a few years, though, and we have members here who have collected him for decades, so I'd appreciate your input and exemplars.

If you know Michael Jackson's autograph well, please look at a few images below from the auction and let me know what you think. Even better, browse the auction and upload any similar examples you have: http://www.julienslive.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/77/

Julien's is the world's premier auction house for Michael Jackson memorabilia, so they would know his autograph better than most of us. I'm just surprised I haven't seen this style before.

Thanks for your help.

Tags: 2012, Julien's, auction, michael jackson, tompkins and bush

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Veronica Shultz on December 31, 2012 at 3:41am

I know it would not be ethical. Since it wasn´t my intention to win this jacket my angry parent told me we have to sell the jacket and that was what we were going to do when it arrived. Now we can´t do that since everyone is saying the signature is fake. I don´t know if it´s a fake. It looks (on the pictures) really close to the ones I got directly from Michael, but I´m in now way an expert and I have no idea if it´s real or not, it´s probably not real. I have contacted the NBC guy with no result, I did that before Christmas.

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Permalink Reply by MJ-fan-1965 on December 31, 2012 at 3:50am

I pulled yours up again (lot 707) and yes Veronica, that is a very obvious classic Bush/Tompkins auction style signature (the first type we looked at). I feel so bad for you, but hang in there. Things are coming together nicely here and behind the scenes. It may take a bit but I do believe you'll get your money. Where are you located again? I'd suggest a certified letter to Juliens but if I remember correctly, I don't think your in the States. ?

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Permalink Reply by Veronica Shultz on December 31, 2012 at 4:50am

Thank you for those words :)

I´m in Sweden, we live here at the moment.

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Permalink Reply by MJ-fan-1965 on December 31, 2012 at 6:21am

I just tweeted Juliens asking them to respond to you (hopefully ppl will retweet me!!), I asked very politely. I found it rather interesting Juliens is following me on twitter. (I don't follow them, but I have tweeted them in the recent couple of weeks)

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on December 31, 2012 at 1:10pm

There is no helpful trade association that I'm aware of. Not for memorabilia that is. Maybe for auction houses.

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Permalink Reply by Luciana Camino on December 30, 2012 at 5:16pm

Amazing work... Thanks to give us more tools against to all who think that Bush is a saint!!!

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Permalink Reply by Luciana Camino on December 30, 2012 at 5:17pm

People will speak about this story til the last day of our planet... Thanks again!!!

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Permalink Reply by MJ-fan-1965 on December 31, 2012 at 6:02am

I don't know if its been brought up or not, as I don't remember it being said. But the auction of Bush Tompkins was on the anniversary of Tompkins death Dec 2nd. Ironic eh? Michael's thriller coat auction (Music Icons June 25,26, 2011) was sold on the anniversary of Michaels death. What a tribute!

What is everyone's thoughts as to why these articles were signed. I honestly think most of the items would have fetched big figures just by the provenance of Bush being there to witness the items. Why chicken scratch the stuff up? To keep it out of the hands of the Estate to prove it was "gifted"? So he could pay for his money pit?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on December 31, 2012 at 1:02pm

I'd like to keep the politics of the situation out of this. This site is about autograph and memorabilia authenticity, helping collectors and hopefully identifying the sources of forgeries. That's enough to cover! There are fan sites, like yours, for the other stuff.

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Permalink Reply by MJ-fan-1965 on December 31, 2012 at 2:34pm

I guess I was wondering if adding a sig really adds that much more money to an item? I don't' know much about memorabilia and collecting and values. Especially if there is already what we would all consider very very good provenance on the items already. I just don't know honestly.

I also was thinking about the two sets of sig styles in relating to the timing of Tompkins death. If that makes sense. I was looking thru the auctions for like the gazillionth time and looked up his death date and the relevance of Dbl L vs Bush auction style. I'm unsure if Wendy wrote down dates and such for the styles noted (she probably did because she's very efficient :) When was dbl L first introduced, when did it start to trickle off (Dec 2 2011? or shortly beforehand?) How big is the overlap of the sigs?

I probably should have added this to the first comment so it made sense as to why I was thinking about the death date. Sorry.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on December 31, 2012 at 6:18pm

Does an autograph add that much more to the value of an item? It depends on a lot of factors. The $180,000 Thriller letterman's jacket may not be worth that much less without it. But lot 617, 9 signed record albums, went for over $15,000. If the albums weren't signed you'd have a hard time getting $30 total.

I think that whoever signed them with the double L's realized late in the game that he'd been making a big mistake.