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Michael Jackson Signing Styles in Julien's Tompkins and Bush Sale

On December 2, Julien's Auctions is selling The Collection of Tompkins and Bush. The collection contains 465 lots of Michael Jackson memorabilia, 287 of them autographed.

Michael Bush and the late Dennis Tompkins were Michael Jackson's costume designers for 25 years, during Jackson's most successful period. They were the consignors of the signed Thriller jacket that Julien's sold for $1,800,000 in June 2011.

Almost all of the autographs in the Tompkins and Bush sale are a variation I'm not familiar with. I've only been looking at Jackson's autograph for a few years, though, and we have members here who have collected him for decades, so I'd appreciate your input and exemplars.

If you know Michael Jackson's autograph well, please look at a few images below from the auction and let me know what you think. Even better, browse the auction and upload any similar examples you have: http://www.julienslive.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/77/

Julien's is the world's premier auction house for Michael Jackson memorabilia, so they would know his autograph better than most of us. I'm just surprised I haven't seen this style before.

Thanks for your help.

Tags: 2012, Julien's, auction, michael jackson, tompkins and bush

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Caroline Maberly on December 17, 2012 at 3:54pm

thank you. steve is in rogers camp, and so am i.

This site may well have saved me from parting with hard earned money! This site has to keep going on exposing the answers to the questions!

Thank you all.

I might buy the jacket, but the only other one on ebay is 2700$ i'd go to 1000$

too high?

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Permalink Reply by Caroline Maberly on December 17, 2012 at 4:52pm

the seller has taken on board the thoughts expressed here. I hope you didnt mind me doing that. He has now listed an addendum that the sig is probably not real in his pinion and the opinion of the experts. Still stumped on how much it's worth though. Probably won't get the chance to bid as he says he is leaving it up so the watchers can see the essage, then taking it down unless he is contacted.

the jacket is cool!

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Permalink Reply by Helen on December 18, 2012 at 1:17pm

Here's MJJ collector's description and valuation of the dangerous tour jackets:

http://www.mjjcollectors.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&am...

I saw the likes of Bob Jones and Bill Bray wear them, but I don't know if similar ones were ever made for general retail after the tour.

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Permalink Reply by Charlotte Stanley on December 18, 2012 at 1:47pm

Hi Caroline,

I saw that jacket on E Bay. I dont think the signature is authentic but the picture is not very good. I have one of these jackets and they come available here and there on E Bay. Just be patient and you may find a bargain on one. I only paid around 250 for mine but on avg they are worth about 4-500. I wouldnt pay any more than that.

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Permalink Reply by Caroline Maberly on December 17, 2012 at 7:37pm

the provenace was that it was given from an executive for the BBC, who gave the charity loads of stuff, but beyond that, nothing, I think the seller really does not know, he has 100% feedback, has now, based on what messages have been going on, changed the listing to represent the current mood of my feedback so I'm inclined to believe him, and thus, what he got told re the provenance might be true, I'm pretty sure he hasn't lied to me. But what epperson said, and what steve has said... what should I pay for the jacket? I am so stumped... do they come up to auction often?

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Permalink Reply by Carl Ryan on December 17, 2012 at 8:30pm

Hi Caroline,

You may want to ask TeamMichael or Wendy what is the deal with the jacket itself. Their really isnt that much providence on the ebay listing. If it were me, i would be very suspicious as to if the jacket is even real. I dont know how many of these jackets were made, and by whom. A good question would be to find out the maker on the tag. If the maker is a common name, and one that didnt design jacksons wardrobe than i wouldnt even bother. The bigger Jackson fans would know, but its possible that these jackets were massed produced, and if so, it probably wouldnt be worth much at all. Nowhere close to 1000 dollars.

Another interesting thing, is that it appears to actually be signed twice, although i coudl be mistaken. Right in the middle of the patch on the back, it looks like their is an attempt at Michaels signature, although its hard to see at the distance. But it certainly looks like someone tried to sign Michaels name their too. Personally, unless this item can be traced to something one of a kind, i wouldnt even bother. The signatures are highly suspect, and if they are suspect, the whole auction probably is. The seller may have no idea, as is often the case, but i still would stay away and save my money for something else. But thats just my non expert opinion. But you might want to check out that center patch, i think their is a Jackson signature on it. Good luck though whatever you choose.

carl

Note the red marker in the patch. But maybe this has already been discussed and i just overlooked that part of the conversation.

The ink looks very similar to the ink on the jacket sleeve

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Permalink Reply by Caroline Maberly on December 17, 2012 at 9:12pm

Thank you carl, I greatly appreciate your opinion. I asked that of the seller too. he thinks it was an attempt at a sign too, that went wrong and thus the sig on the arm, he thinks this because it is in red aswell.

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Permalink Reply by Caroline Maberly on December 17, 2012 at 9:15pm

my hope was that Michael took the pen and tried to sign the embroidery, but the pen was no good for cotton, and so he switched it to the arm because it looked bad on the cotton. straws.... I clutch them.....

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Permalink Reply by Wendy Christine on December 18, 2012 at 5:55pm

Hi Caroline,

I just found your post here. I see the listing is no longer available anyway but here is my absolutely UNPROFESSIONAL opinion.. just that of a longtime researcher of Michael's signature as an advocate/fan.

The signed jacket in question from the eBay auction you listed is one of the jackets that were official merchandise from the Dangerous tour.

Here is a fan collector's site which lists the jacket (photos are a bit blurry): http://www.michaeljacksoncatalog.com/thirteen_2.html

As Carl so keenly observed, there is indeed a second attempt in red marker at a signature on the Dangerous patch/badge on back. That doesn't feel correct to me.

It seems to me I have seen this jacket on eBay before but I do not know for sure and I do not know who the seller might have been.

Either way, I am not loving the signature on the sleeve. The whole overall signature style, but especially the L and the J.

Hope this helped.. sorry I came in late on it.

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Permalink Reply by TeamMichael777 on December 17, 2012 at 3:50pm

FYI All the experts, contributors and Steve should be aware, the signature Bush used to sell a worthless "Tin Can" is registered trademark to Michael Jackson Estate,, The signatures with the star,, Its here if anyone wants to read it, We wrote a nice letter to John Branca to step up and clean this mess, but hes kind of saying "It wasn't me" So now we have stepped up with a second letter demanding he does what he is paid to do!!

2nd Open Letter to John G Branca(MJEstate Executor) Juliens/Bush Forgeries | http://teammichaeljackson.com/archives/7263#.UM-uubO7x60.twitter

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Permalink Reply by Helen on December 17, 2012 at 3:52pm

Oh very, very interesting! I've been wondering how the estate could allow the benchmark for MJ signature authentication to be moved by this flood of fakes on iconic clothing.

Great angle!