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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

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 16, 2011 at 4:50am

I will contact this dealer. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 19, 2011 at 7:32am

Cyndi Thomson has removed the secretarial Hestons and thanked us for the heads-up.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on December 19, 2011 at 9:26am

A big thumbs up, Cyndi.

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Permalink Reply by EjsWurhl on December 19, 2011 at 9:33am

That's refreshing! Good job Cyndi!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 19, 2012 at 7:52pm

Since PSA/DNA and JSA don't decommission autographs, what if we maintained a database of ones where there's no reasonable doubt they are not authentic?

Not just Hestons, but anything where they clearly made a mistake?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 19, 2012 at 11:16pm

Yes

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Permalink Reply by DB on January 20, 2012 at 11:54am

actually, I believe they have and continue to do so but it is a long and arduous process.. didn't know about the quick opinion limitation... when did that go into effect?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 20, 2012 at 12:29pm

I'm not familiar with anyone having to use a TPA on all their listings if two pieces fail quick opinion over time. I don't believe that's the case, but maybe it is. But I have heard of eBay having someone's inventory checked out, after they get a number of listings of forgeries reported to them, and then telling that seller they need to use one of their approved authenticators.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on January 20, 2012 at 12:31pm

Mike,

I wouldn't expect eBay to pull a listing based on our determination that something certed is definitely not good. It would be a list that collectors could check.

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 16, 2012 at 5:49am

picked this one up from my pal "vanderhoven" in his unfallable way of thowing a "vanderGrenade" (a new term for you grant) on a UACC RD 304 & an Aftal dealer 075 selling some non-authentic hestons; The grenade portion in typical fashion is where it goes off track but the good news is he is a convert even if he can't openly speak of the "secret tells" he used to idenfity Heston. There is still hope for "the vanderhoven"!

http://www.rutlandautographs.co.uk/advanced_search_result.php?keywo...

a few have come down since but of the remaining 4 it would appear only one on a 3x5 index card appears authentic; with the other 3 remaining ones along these lines.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 16, 2012 at 5:55am

Has anyone contacted the dealer to raise awareness or has it been limited to "gotya" message board postings?

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 16, 2012 at 6:00am

I did but I can't speak for vandergrenades (gotyas).

Although I have to admit I would have thought by now the word would have gotten out to all UACC RDs. And if it had and they are still posting I wouldn't consider "gotya" as posting errors around here are commonplace.

p.s. VanderGrenade also cited some Hendricks as well but that is beyond the scope from my viewpoint but perhaps not others.