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Permalink Reply by George Karr on April 7, 2014 at 3:06am

Some of the cards. Any opinions?

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Permalink Reply by Timothy on April 7, 2014 at 5:52am

Hard to tell... Looks like that this real authentic autograph. But Gagarin usually wrote something before you write the autograph, such as "Good luck!" or "Happiness!". So this can be facsimile signature, but it is unlikely. I guess it's real signature!

Tim

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on April 8, 2014 at 9:01am

Yuri Gagarin… the first human in space. An under-appreciated and undervalued autograph in my opinion.

Yuri Gagarin is also one of the most forged of any space traveler. In my opinion 75% or higher are not authentic. Gagarin died behind the iron curtain in 1968, but he traveled frequently and made appearances after his flight. From all accounts, he was a good signer while in crowds, so authentic material is not truly rare, but it is outweighed by the fakes.

One Russian dealer in particular has dumped thousands of mass-produced Gagarins on the market in the guise of “found collections” from fabricated Russian officials. The Russian dealer will send emails to autograph dealers offering lots of 10 or more at a time. Space specialist dealers know this fake style and don’t bite, but many generalist dealers have been fooled and frequently offer this fake style.

A previous poster commented that Gagarin often added generic salutations such as “Happiness” or “Good luck!” This is not accurate in my opinion. Forgeries often have generic sentiments added. Authentic examples rarely feature non-personalized sentiments. It was simply not the practice at the time. If Gagarin added a sentiment, it was almost always to a named individual… usually a party official or dignitary.

Getting to the postcard in question…

The signature at the bottom is a common preprint. The signature on the side appears to be real ink on paper, but would need an in-hand exam to be certain. Nothing glaringly obviously bad, but I am a bit concerned that the bottom of the second “a” looks as if it may have been gone over or filled in. It could just be an effect of the scanner and the image not being totally sharp. Also, is the signature on top of the creasing or was it creased after it was signed? I’d need to have it in hand before offering an opinion.

Steve Zarelli
Zarelli Space Authentication
www.SpaceLOA.com

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Permalink Reply by George Karr on April 8, 2014 at 10:11am

Thanks, Steve! I've been waiting for your reply. You are right, there are many Gagarin forgeries, but as you said he was a good signer- I've seen many authentic Gagarin autographs in Russia. But not from the dealers. This card I bought from a lady and she herself wasn't sure if it's real or not. I think the card was creased after it was signed- can't say for sure. 

I've studied Gagarin's autograph for a while- I think it his signature. The real problem to me, if is hand-signed or not. I can't understand what it is signed by: in my opinion, this is a pencil. But on the photo made by the seller the colour of the signature was like blue. Does the pencil colour change if you make the photo with the flashlight? I've seen that some autopen and stamps change colour. So, this is my main concern. Here's the photo made by the seller:

I'm going to send 2 items with Gagarin's autographs to you soon. I'm pretty sure, that the second one is authentic, but It's not so valuable without good LOA.

regards

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on April 8, 2014 at 11:00am

I can't understand what it is signed by: in my opinion, this is a pencil. 

Looks like fountain pen to me, but blurry image is not helping. Might be a slight adhesion issue due to the finished surface of the postcard or the ink flow was weak. Happy to help when/if you want an in-hand review.

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Permalink Reply by Timothy on December 22, 2015 at 10:27am

By the way, I know very important thing about autographs of Gagarin. Yuri Gagarin NEVER signed autographs in official documents (like passport, military ID, student ID, money and ect). Maybe it will be useful someone.

Here is copy of his authentic autograph (it's autograph not for sell). Gagarin wrote: "I'm sorry, but I can't put autograph in document". The man who got this autograph asked Gagarin to sign his student ID (because he had no paper or postcard). Gagarin rejected his request. After this Yuri gave him sheet from his own notebook (with autograph).

Many people wanted buy this autograph, but owner rejected all offers.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 23, 2015 at 6:16am

Very nice, Timothy. Thanks for sharing!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on April 9, 2014 at 6:46am

In my opinion, here is a good example of one of the mass-produced fake Yuri Gagarins I mentioned in my previous post. It has a non-personalized "Wishing success" sentiment. You will see this style on postcards, photos, postal covers, documents... just about any medium. In the past decade many hundreds, if not thousands, of these have filtered into the market. Unfortunately, In my view, the mass quantity of these forgeries has substantially suppressed the value of authentic Gagarins. 

In addition to a number of formation issues, this style often features the weak, watery blue fountain pen ink. 

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Permalink Reply by George Karr on April 9, 2014 at 8:05am

I see. But, actually, this is a pretty good forgery- I've seen much worse on Ebay... Most of all I don't like the second "a" in the signature- I always pay attention to this letter: it has some unique style in most cases. And I also pay attention to the way the signature goes after the first "a". Here's an authentic example of this style: it was signed to the captain of the fishing trawler Nikolay Sotnikiv. After Gagarin's flight- the team of the trawler decided to rename their ship to "Yuri Gagarin". Over "wishing success" it's written: "To trawler team".

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Permalink Reply by George Karr on July 5, 2014 at 5:02am

Need opinion on this one:

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on July 6, 2014 at 6:05pm

George... I'd like to see a larger, clearer image to be definitive, but my first reaction is that I have doubts. The "aray" formation looks off. 

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Permalink Reply by George Karr on July 7, 2014 at 2:29am

Yes, I also have doubts about it. This is not my book and I don't have a larger image- I just found the advertisment: one lady is selling it. She has only this autograph for sale and I asked her about the backgroud story and she hasn't responded yet. I think I would pass. In my opinion this autograph is too short for Yuri's and the ink seems to be fresh. And the whole formation is pretty strange.

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