We are an eBay affiliate and may be compensated for clicks on links that result in purchases.

The Great American Blues Players Signature Study: Please Add Your Examples

Hello everyone,

I have been wanting to start a thread on this for a long time, and i figure now is as good of a time as any. I collect primary guitar players, and have been selling alot of them off recently, but one thing i continue to collect are the great old blues guitar players. Their is something about the Delta Blues traveling lifestyle that holds alot of wonder for me. These guys laid the foundation of modern music and they inspired many, if not most, of the musicians working today. Most think of Robert Johnson when they think of the great Blues players, but their are so so many others that deserve mention and tons of respect.

As anyone who has ever studied early blues signatures knows, they are incredibly difficult to authenticate or even find at times. You have guys like Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, BB King just to name a few whose signature examples can readily be found. But aside from a few key players, autographs from these guys are very hard to find. And when you find one, often you really have to trust your source or do some serious research. And even then you often cant find examples.

So i thought this would be a good thread that may help future collectors out with examples we think are authentic. Please post examples of blues signatures that you like and want to share. Guys like Buddy Guy and BB King probably dont need to be posted in mass b/c their signatures are so abundant, but dont hesitate if you would like to post some.

I hope this can turn into a good database, and really the only one of its kind on the net. I have many examples from many different sources and if someone doesnt want their picture posted just leave a comment and i will delete it.

I am going to start this off with Albert King. You can find Albert King signatures from time to time, and of the 3 King's, he is the next most available after BB. Alberts signatures are typically sloppy, shaky, and can take on a few forms. Albert often write "Love You" before his signature, and his typical signature takes the form of A. King. I have also seen variations including "A.B. King". King often would not write out King fully and the formation would flow from the K almost into the g. I have seen my fair share of forgeries with Albert, but his signature can be authenticated in most instances in my opinion. Here are some examples with sources:

This is one album i used to own and recently sold on RR Auction. It came from "Mr. Bebop", of Larrys Books and Autographs. He specializes in blues signatures and this was a great example of king.

These next images came from RR Auction

The Ace of Spades album is a nice example, and the rarer A.B. King signature. The middle cut display is more atypical. This one in my eyes can go either way but is probably good. The A looks typical but the King is a little more unusual. But he did do this from time to time in his shorter signature versions. The bottom example is a typical King signature.

2 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nate on September 17, 2014 at 10:07am

Hi Cliff,
Great autograph. My personal opinion is that this is spot-on. 'Bluesingly yours' was a favoured valediction for Memphis Slim, especially in the latter years (I have an album with an indentical inscription), and the style of the whole piece looks just right. This is a nice clean and clear signature.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nate on February 3, 2014 at 4:19am

Hi Carl,

Just seeing his autograph in your images, thought it would be great to see a section on Alex 'Rice' Miller or 'Sonny Boy Williamson II' to most (and I hope I've posted it in the right place?!?). Was he the best harpist to have recorded? I don't know, but he was superb and highly influential, especially for the British Blues explosion of the 60's. For value and rarity I'm not sure, maybe Carl you can advise? Here are some examples, including my own:

From google images:

As previously shown on this post (but worth showing again as it's a great set):

On an amazing signed album (how i wish this was mine!):

And recently sold on ebay (for a tidy amount):

Finally my example:

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carl Ryan on February 3, 2014 at 7:30pm

Hi Nate,

Thanks for posting your examples. You have got some amazing items there. I am getting ready to post some examples of Sonny Boy that i have here shortly. Hes a rare one too. And thats a beautiful sonny boy of yours as well.

Carl

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nate on December 12, 2014 at 3:56am

Here are a couple more Sonny Boy Williamson autographs. These are being added as they show a slightly more flamboyant style, especially to the 'B' in Boy:

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nate on January 14, 2015 at 5:59am

And here's one more Sonny Boy Williamson, a slightly strange autograph (initials only), with a lovely Howlin Wolf and Sunnyland Slim from RR Auctions:

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carl Ryan on March 4, 2014 at 4:15am

Hi Guys, I thought I would add a little more to the thread today. There are so many names, and getting time to put things together is scarce lately. But in honor of the amazing blues graphs being offered by RR Auction this month, I figured we could look at 2 very rare bluesmen, both of whom will be featured at RR. When you think about the key figures of the delta blues genre, Skip James is always on the list. Along with Son House, Skip James basically started the blues revival movement. Him and House were virtually “rediscovered” at the same time, which set the stage for blues to take the spotlight.

James, was a very technical and accurate guitarist who also could play the piano. James used the same tuning that Robert Johnson used (open D, and Johnson probably got this from James), which gave him a very deep sound. James combined that with fast, technical, and very accurate finger picking, to basically form his own blues genre. It seems to me that it was a hybrid of Chicago and Delta Blues in that, James’s singing style and mood was that of the delta, where as his guitar technique was more akin to the Chicago blues guitarists who were notably more technical. But that is just my opinion. James was an innovator though, and helped to redefine the blues as we know it. So many people were influenced by him, including Robert Johnson.

Skip autographs are ridiculously hard to find. And I mean HARD!! I have seen 3 before, which I will include. I happen to be lucky enough to own one, a cut signature with a bold signature example. It really is hard to price these things b/c so few come to market. I paid 350 for mine and think that was a fair price. Even for a cut, something this rare is very valuable. In this months RR auction, Larry (Mr. Bebop) has consigned a signed picture from James. This will command big dollars and I look forward to seeing what it ends at.

Although I cant put a price on it, or even what it should bring, I do expect it to go at or near 1000 dollars. If you are looking for a Skip signature, more than likely it will take you many years to locate one if ever. I just got lucky. But you should be expecting to pay at least 300 bucks, and that’s for a small cut. James had fairly good handwriting for his day, and his signature is very distinctive.

Here a some examples I believe are authentic:

Here is the one being offered this month from RR:

Here is an example sent to me by a friend who found it online that had been sold from a past auction:

And here is my example, which came from the collection of a German collector.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carl Ryan on March 4, 2014 at 4:33am

Next, I wanted to highlight another extraordinary bluesman and guitarist, Hound Dog Taylor. Taylor was a Chicago blues guitarist and singer who rose to fame playing the Maxwell Street markets. Taylor was profoundly influential to the blues genre for many reasons. One, was his distinct slide guitar playing, which featured heavy vibrato and very quick attacks. This helped to define the Chicago blues sound.

But I guess it can’t hurt when you have 6 fingers on your fretting hand. Im not sure if Taylor actually used his other finger to play with, but that could prove very advantageous to a guitarist. If it weren’t for Taylor, we also would not have Alligator Records today. And as any blues fan knows, Alligator is one of the biggest blues labels in the world. Alligator Records was formed to record Taylor, and then grew into an empire.

Taylor also influenced just about every Chicago blues guitarist, and was the key figure in the development of George Thorogood’s playing style. But like Skip James, Hound Dog died of cancer in his 60s. It truly is a shame, b/c both would have continued to influence the field to a huge extent.

Hound Dog autographs are ultra rare also. I have only ever seen 3, one of which I am lucky enough to own. Taylor seems to have been a good signer when asked, but not to many asked at that time in history, and the ones that are out there are highly coveted. They very very very rarely hit market, and when they do, they go for big money. They are rare enough, I don’t know what a price range realistically would be. I paid 150 for my signed cut, which was a good deal to me. RR is offering a signed photograph this month of Taylor, and I imagine it will go above 500 easy. I don’t think a Taylor autograph would crack 1000, but you never know on the right item. There are just so few out there.

Here are some examples I believe to be authentic:

Here is my signed cut that came from a German collector:

Here is one from google i think is authentic, although hard to see:

Here is the one being offered from RR this month:

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Cliff on March 25, 2014 at 1:08pm

This has been fantastic, thanks so much for these examples!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nate on June 6, 2014 at 3:12am

Hi Carl,

Here's my Hound Dog Taylor cut:

It's interesting to see the 2 different signature styles "Hound-Dog" and "H D".

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Nate on June 6, 2014 at 6:04am

Hi Carl,

I wanted to include another Blues giant who appeared in the recent RR Blues and Jazz auction: “Mississippi” Fred McDowell – the Father of the North Hill Country Blues. Born around 1904 he came to fame late in life with his first recording not taking place till 1959 (evidence that a number of Country Blues greats must have missed the 1920’s/1030’s recording net). His music has spawned a generation of Blues stars which includes most of the Fat Possum crew (R L Burnside and Junior Kimbrough etc). He was a master of the Slide guitar whose songs have been covered by the likes of Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, The White Stripes and Bonnie Raitt. Famous for his line ”I Do Not Play No Rock 'n' Roll” his music is seen as providing close links to the Blues African roots, Alan Lomax described him as “a bluesman quite the equal of Son House and Muddy Waters, but, musically speaking, their granddaddy.”

For a blues autograph collector Fred McDowell is seen as one of the hardest to obtain, he died relatively early (in 1972) and was one of those artists who had to ‘learn’ his signature (other artists who had to do this include Son House and Howlin Wolf), and due to this it apparently took him much longer than the average person to sign something (I have been told that on one occasion it took nearly 2 minutes to write just his first name). These things, along with his importance in the development of the Blues, has meant his autographs are highly prized and availability is near non-existent. As far as I am aware there have only ever been 2 solid examples available to the open market, both sold, as it happens, through RR auctions. The first came as part of a group lot back in early 2009 (which has been shown a few times in this post) and the other was in their latest music auction (part of the Larry Rafferty collection). With regards to value I suggest we can only really base this on the latest sale which I think was a reasonably fair $600 for a signed programme page photo. I would suggest, based on this, that a cut would possibly be around the $400 mark and something like an album would be $600 up. But due to the scarcity you kinda just take what you can. Carl – what are your thoughts on value?

One thing to be careful of with regards to Fred McDowell autographs is he signed in ‘childlike’ block capitals, so ‘good’ forgeries could be out there. As such it would be very important to trust your source and, if you can, have a great back story to the piece. The source of the latest one sold through RR is pretty impeccable (Larry Rafferty) and though I do not know the source of the group lot sold previously through RR, I would find it hard to think this one is also anything other than genuine (I am basing this, some would say dangerously, on the other items in this lot which look pretty spot-on to me and also by comparing it to the latest offering). Anyway, Christmas came early for me this year as I have been most fortunate to get my hands on an example. The background story to the piece is good – in short; the original owner got it signed in person after a concert during his tour of the UK back in 1969, I also believe this person is a good source due to his other provable stories of being involved with the 60’s blues scene.

So onto the images, firstly from the group lot sold in 2009 (see previously in this thread for all signatures):