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Gustav Mahler … live ink or printed

I haven’t been on here for a while, but I’d like an opinion for my son. He’s in college with a double major (Finance/Music) and bought an estate sale lot of sheet music and books about composers. The previous owner was well connected in classical music. In one author signed book on Gustav Mahler was the card shown in the photographs. Is this live ink or was it printed?

Tags: Gustav, Mahler

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Permalink Reply by michelle on March 23, 2022 at 6:46am

I think it looks printed imo but see what others say, still a nice find though

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Permalink Reply by Drew Welch on March 23, 2022 at 8:03am

Thank you

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Permalink Reply by Drew Welch on March 23, 2022 at 8:02am

Here’s another photo of it helps

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Permalink Reply by Forgers Sump on March 23, 2022 at 9:11am

It's probably a print, but it's difficult to give a verdict by looking at a simple pic. Is the card supposed to be from the same time as the book's publication? If the book was published after 1911, the signature is possibly not real. HOWEVER it could be that Mahler signed the card before he died and the book's former owner put it between its pages. So, are there ink marks etched on the opposite side? If there, have no doubt, it's real.

It is also necessary to look at the signature with a magnifying glass, at least 10x. This way you could check if there is an ink "relief" on the paper, since a print does not leave that relief, but flushes with the surface.

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Permalink Reply by Drew Welch on March 23, 2022 at 9:27am

thanks for the detailed response. The book is from 1973, but the author wrote 4 books on Mahler and the inscription with the signature in this book indicates that the previous owner has a close association with the author. There are other loose photos in the books. Would a fountain pen result in relief between the ink and photo?

Thanks

Drew

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Permalink Reply by Forgers Sump on March 23, 2022 at 10:56am

Well, maybe. Anyway my non-native English had not find another word than relief when I tried to explain that with the right tools, you can detect a subtle pressure in real signatures that doesn't exist in printed ones.

BTW, sad to read what you've said about that watermark :(