Authenticity is Everything
Question Re: Linda McCartney book - to cut or not to cut?
Hello, all! Since I greatly value the opinions of those in this forum, I was curious about everyone's opinion on this.
I just bought a signed Linda McCartney signed cookbook. I am sending along a picture of the signed book page here. I have a binder of pages with a collection of Beatles-related autographs and my first instinct is to cut this page out of the book to add to my binder. It could cut nicely to just about 8 x 10 size, which would include all the text on this page. The dustcover of the book is also not in mint condition.
My questions is, what do folks prefer in a case like this? Keeping the book in tact? Or cutting the autograph out to put in with the rest of a collection of photos and printed materials?
Thanks for your opinions!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo
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I would not.
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Green
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hahaha. Fair enough
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Permalink Reply by Jason H
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As someone who has cut autographs out of books many times, I only cut from tip in's or bookplates. Pages that were never in the original book which means the celebrity never held the book in hand.
A few years ago, I was very close to cutting a Bernie Taupin from a book on a regular page to pair with an Elton signature. I asked the same as you did on here and after a lot of advice, I left it alone. Wouldn't you know it, not long after, he ended up signing a ton of blank pages and bookplates to be added in to his newly released book. I'm glad I left my original autographed book untouched because I used a few new books as cut signatures and never felt guilty about it.
I have previously cut other signed books for my presidential collection to keep in a binder together. Nixon, Lyndon johnson, both Bush's and Carter. No regrets on those. If I want to admire my collection, I just grab the binder and flip through it. Ill never grab a book to admire one page and then put it back in storage. This has enhanced the pleasure of collecting for me. In a perfect world, I would find a flat signature to keep intact but in this case, the cheapest options, ones that don't exactly have true provenance because anyone can fake a signature in an unsigned book, but are good enough to compare to known good examples and figure they most likely came from the same source.. those were the only way I'd ever add certain presidents to my collection. I made a purchase knowing I was going to cut them.
I still have well over a hundred books signed in my collection and have certain regrets owning many. I'm not a reseller. I'd rather have a small footprint for the majority of my collection. It's so much more satisfying to flip through many autographs at once in a binder.
The choice is ultimately yours, but as someone who has done this myself, if I were you, I'd leave it in the book and try to find another Linda signature.
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Thanks for your amazingly thorough reply! Much appreciated. At a minimum, I am going to leave it in the book for now. Thanks again!
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+1 All. Ballroom might remind us of a certain authentic Ringo signature written about here, cut from his book, that would not be slabbed/certified.
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Permalink Reply by JK
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The added issue here is that the Linda M can't be cut to create a clean autograph, and the page makes it clear where it came from. To me, it would always appear as a damaged or pilfered book.
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Indeed.
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Permalink Reply by Michael O'Neill
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It’s obviously yours to do what you want with. But if you ever consider selling it or passing it on to someone, do not cut it. It will lose a tremendous amount of its value and collectibility.
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good point. thanks!
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