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

Charlton Heston Secretarial Signature Study

Hi:

At Steve Cyrkin's invitation, I'd like to call your attention to a signature study I've posted on my blog, Charlton Heston signature study by Steve Zarelli.

I believe I have identified the "tell" in Charlton Heston secretarial signatures, and if I am correct, the news is not good for most collectors. It appears that most Heston signed photos are secretarially signed.

Here is a synopsis:

The Theory
Photographs and other memorabilia sent to Mr. Heston's office were signed by a secretary. However, Mr. Heston did authentically sign books through-the-mail.

Real vs. Secretary
In authentic signatures, the R in "Charlton" is distinctly a lowercase "r" and less than half the height of the L. The first four letters are clearly "Char."

In secretarial signatures, the R looks much more like a lowercase "l" and is about the same height as the L. So, the first four letters appear to be "Chall."

I have attached two images to give you a small sampling.

For more details and images, please visit my blog at the link below.

I'd love to hear your feedback and thoughts on this. I fully anticipate some resistance to the theory, because denial is always the first step. In fact, I would love to be proved wrong, because that would mean I wasn't sitting on a bunch of secretary signed photos!

By way of introduction, I have been collecting since the early 90s and I am the UACC Ethics Director.

I look forward to the discussion.

The Collecting Obsession

Regards,

Steve Zarelli

Tags: Charlton, Forgery, Heston, Secretary, authenticating, autograph, secretarial

2 members like this

Attachments: No photo uploads here

Figure 1.jpg, 60 KB
Secretary 1.jpg, 37 KB

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by DB on December 14, 2011 at 1:03pm

look up your invoice online under your account, then contact bob jones and request a refund or credit to a future purchase.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by remco van Elleswijk on December 14, 2011 at 1:05pm

you mean my picture?

its not ok?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by DB on December 14, 2011 at 1:10pm

that's correct - it is not okay. it is a classic TTM signed secretarial. Many dealers and "authenticators" were fooled as somehow the "secretarial" became a standard for an authentic signature. Might have had alot to do with Jan Schray's exemplar book (circa 1997) although there were other contributors and most likely the source is one of those.

AW reimbursed me for a secretarial I purchased years ago. Actually, I had them apply it to a recent "authentic" Heston that they had up a few weeks ago. Either way - your's is not authentic.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by remco van Elleswijk on December 14, 2011 at 1:17pm

oh no

i bought almost my entire collection from autograph world, i was told years ago by a couple of people that i could trust them.

i will look the invoice up and send them an email

how can i make sure the others are ok, without paying a lot of money.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by DB on December 14, 2011 at 1:30pm

one error of judgement does not mean the whole collection is bad. AW is better than most but they can and do make errors in judgements. Unlike many places they stand behind what they sell.

there are alot of secretarial and forgery threads throughout AMLive (it's a great resource) and you can start sifting thru them. I also consolidated a number of threads in a secretarial one as well. You can also start a thread asking for opinions on your AW Collection and see if there is anyone out here willing to opine on them.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by remco van Elleswijk on December 14, 2011 at 1:33pm

ok thank you

if i have the time i will

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by remco van Elleswijk on December 14, 2011 at 1:30pm

i also bought a photo lot from them, incl i photo from heston.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by DB on December 14, 2011 at 1:36pm

That Heston is not good as well. Again, read the threads and if you don't find helpful information START a NEW THread (this thread is just for Heston).

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by remco van Elleswijk on December 14, 2011 at 1:50pm

yes ok

i,m getting errors on both email accounts, jones and bardwell

known problem?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by DB on December 14, 2011 at 1:57pm

anything is possible with technology these days. If you are using this; jones@autographworld.com and getting an error then there might be something up on their end. If that's the case might need to wait a day or so and see if it straightens out.