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Permalink Reply by Jason Arena on August 16, 2012 at 11:51pm

Bruce Lee would be a fantastic addition to any collection.

I'm no expert on his signature but as a kid I was pretty obsessed with Lee. There's a few things that stand out as a little odd to me based on what I remember reading.

The auction description mentions that the letter is dated to 1967 when Lee was working on the Green Hornet. Prior to his big break as Kato, he ran his own Kung Fu school in Oakland, authored a book, and offered private instruction to several actors (Steve McQueen, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) so he was a fairly well known person in Hollywood circles before the Green Hornet. What really suprises me about this piece is that it's written on a letterhead for a school that Bruce had no affiliation with. He was a University of Washington grad and considering he ran his own school I find it hard to believe that he didn't have his own stationery.

I'm also not a fan of that frame, it  looks cheap...I wouldn't put a piece valued at $72,000 in a frame like that.

I think it's a fake personally. The seller only has one other item for sale and it happens to be a Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay autographed championship belt for $101,000?!? If you look closely at the Ali piece, you can see the reflection of the room that the pic was taken in. Doesn't look like the type of place where a $100k piece of memorabilia would reside.

 

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Permalink Reply by J.Seah on August 17, 2012 at 6:15am

Hi David!!

IMO This piece is not authentic. It is from Antiquties in Las Vegas with a Drew Max COA. I would not touch it. Maybe Greig McArthur can give an opinion on this piece. He has a website on Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee autographs. Here is the link:

http://brandonleeautographs.info/

Here is my Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris autograph:

http://live.autographmagazine.com/photo/albums/year-of-the-dragon

You can make comparison from the above link. I agreed that he was here in 1967 and I don't remember him being affilated with Shanghai University. He was born and raised in Hong Kong and attended a Catholic High School. And he attended University of Washington. Everything on this handwriiten letter just does not add up.

If you search Antiquities, Toby and Drew Max on this forum you will be able to understand why I have doubt on this piece or anything that is sold by Antiquities with a Drew Max COA.

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Permalink Reply by David on August 17, 2012 at 7:54am

Thanks Jason & Seah!!!

Seah, very nice B.L. & C.N autographs!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on August 17, 2012 at 9:39am

Good idea. I'll send a message to Greig and ask him to comment.

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Permalink Reply by Greig on August 17, 2012 at 11:14am

Hello Steve, Thanks for the message. I have been that busy I have not had time to come on here in a while.

I personally don't believe this to be authentic either. I have spoken to Adam Andruiser over the last few months and they appears to be a lot of forgeries hitting the market many "coming with family" COA's.

Over the last months I have seen a few fake Authenticities from people such as Pheobe Lee (Bruce's Sister), Robert Lee, (Bruce's Brother) and also Taky Kimura.

Sadly these have been catching out a lot of collectors, I personally would stay clear. If anyone has any doubts please email me on the address below and I would be happy to help anyone out and give you my opinion.

autographsale@yahoo.co.uk

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on August 17, 2012 at 11:29am

Hi Greig,

Thanks for your quick input. Would you like to write a post about the forgeries with fake family COAs? It would be a real service to collectors!

Hope to see you around here more.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on August 17, 2012 at 11:41am

I moved this discussion to "Is This Autograph Real?"

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on August 17, 2012 at 1:00pm

I showed it to John Reznikoff, who says it's genuine. The debate continues!

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Permalink Reply by J.Seah on August 17, 2012 at 1:06pm

Interesting! ;)

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Permalink Reply by Bill Panagopulos on August 17, 2012 at 3:32pm

Now that is one fugly framing job. What happens in Vegas hopefully stays in Vegas!

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Permalink Reply by Bill Panagopulos on August 17, 2012 at 3:35pm

BTW - I've sold items to a broker of sorts whop has sold to Antiquities so I would not say that all of their material is bogus. Drew Max, on the other hand...

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