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James Stewart - suspected forgery style alert

Over the past few months I have noted an explosion of this James Stewart signature style on eBay. It seems as if some sellers have an endless supply of these signatures and they all have the same unusual characteristics.

A sharp, "jerky" appearance
Letters smashed together with poor letter definition
Odd spacing between letters
Never personalized
Many of them do not appear to be on glossy photos... they are on cardstock prints

I have consulted with other experienced collectors and autograph industry professionals -- the consensus is these signatures are highly suspect.

Note this suspect style also appears on Harvey sketches. Click the graphic for full size.

Tags: James, Stewart, forgery

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Comment by Brick Hunter on July 14, 2012 at 7:38pm: Good idea to make a thread, Zip. Hopefully it will help anyone looking at purchasing or wondering if they should return one of these. They're selling like hot cakes right now on eBay. I figure I should post another forgery style. This one isn't as good, but they've been on eBay forever and ever and keep selling.

ONe can note the neat writing of "James", the little hook on the "S" in "Stewart" which often leads to a very similar swirl in the bottom of the "S"; that leads to a normal very normal "e" and then you've got a sharp "r" which looks more like an upside down "v" than Stewart's typical "r". Also the "t" in Stewart is always crossed and more normal looking than you'll usually see on authentic examples. This style of forgery is often, but certainly not limited to, items with inscriptions of "Best Wishes" as you can see in three of my examples below.

Suspected Forgery Style #2

Comment by Steve Zarelli on July 15, 2012 at 5:08am: Thanks, Brick.

The style you have highlighted has been around a long time and was sold in mass quantities by a number of dealers, including at least one that was expelled by the UACC for selling junk like this. A number of collectors and dealers suspected a source in the Midwest as the forger, but we could never prove it.