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Authenticity is Everything
An Elvis for sale by Graceland --but not real?
I was browsing on Ebay yesterday, looking around the upcoming Elvis memorabilia auction being conducted by Graceland under the auspices of their "Graceland Authenticated" appraisal service, and found this:
The inscription is on a 1975 tour promotional photo.
Here's the full listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Elvis-Presley-Signed-and-Inscribed-1975-Sou...
It's a good example of an Elvis signature --but not by Presley himself. It has numerous features indicative of a secretarial proxy signature... The smoother flow, the separation of the "P" from the "s", and the glaringly obvious large, loopy "y" at the end that almost appears like a fat, cursive "g".
Examples of proxies like this show up all the time, and are usually the result of an item that had been mailed to Graceland by a fan in hopes that Elvis could sign it, which he only periodically did, while the bulk of the requests were filled by his secretarial staff...This is more than clearly one of them. (Side note-- these items are not coming from Graceland's own collection, rather they're from private collectors who have arranged their listings to be part of the auction) And unfortunately, as years go by and these make it to market, it's also obvious many of the owners who obtained them have gone all this time actually thinking they got back a true Presley signature.
What I'm really puzzled by is how this slipped by the estate's own authenticators, especially given the fact that in this same auction there are numerous genuine samples that show how starkly different this one is; even a non-expert could pick this out ...yet here it is, being offered with a start bid of $1,500 and their estimate of value at $3,000 - $5,000.
Just putting this out there for thoughts, and to see if anyone knows who Graceland commissions to do their evaluations --it likely isn't Mr. Epperson or Mr. Consola --they'd laugh this off, I'm sure.
How sad is it that the people responsible for conserving Elvis' own estate would allow an error this clear to take place?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Patricia Cibiak on
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Lot#61 is the Army cap -- it still is listed on both the main auction site and EBay, however Lot#21 the "Million Dollar Quartet" guitar is showing "withdrawn" on the main site, but still listed at EBay . There is another guitar, Lot#147, supposedly signed by Elvis and Col.Parker that has not been pulled at all, but does look genuine overall to me.
As I said above, it appears whatever has been pulled from auction is delayed for some reason and still is visible on Ebay.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on
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Yes, they pulled both guitars.
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Permalink Reply by Paul on
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They wouldn't have had permanent marker back in those days to sign guitars. Then to have the 4 guys together and have numerous guitars signed. It's like having a guitar signed by 4 beatles.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Viola on
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Great news. Kudos to them for doing this.
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I am so impressed. You are right...they deserve kudos for what they've done.
Patricia, just because you have tons of exemplars doesn't mean that you know how to reliably tell what is real and what is not. Just as important as knowing what genuine autographs look like is knowing what forgeries can look like. You need to have a trained and experienced eye, and there's a lot of school of hard knocks training involved, too.
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Permalink Reply by Mark Roberts on
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GREAT work! It would have been a real shame and really hurt Graceland's image to sell a lot of these so called signed items.
Mark
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Permalink Reply by Timothy on
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In connection with the current situation at Graceland Auction I have question about one item from previous auction (The Auction At Graceland January 2015, lot #44). What do you think about this? History says, that this is checkbook from Mike L. Moon collection (friend of J.D. Sumner). This is looks like on Elvis's handwriting? I'm interested in opinions of people, who studied Elvis's handwriting. Maybe someone here can help me...
http://auction.graceland.com/elvis_presley_s_personal_checkbook_reg...
Thanks a lot!
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Permalink Reply by Upside on
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Nope not his writing.
In most cases though out Elvis's life he had people maintaining his checking account, which includes many checks signed on his behalf by Marty Lacker, Charle Hodge, Joe Esposito to name a few. Each signed Elvis's name like Elvis himself. Elvis rarely touched a check let alone a ledger.
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Thanks. I compared first stub #132 with letter to Nixon and found many similarities (little things, which could not knew Joe Esposito, Charlie Hodge, Marty Lacker or Sonny West, I mean tiny nuances of handwriting). But maybe you're right, I know that Elvis very rarely wrote in his life.
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I asked Larry Geller about it (Elvis's very close friend and his barber) and he said: "He always signed checks".
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No disrespect to Larry Geller, he is a nice guy and I have talked with him many times over the years, he is simply incorrect with his blanket statement. I also know the rest of the Memphis Mafia I consulted with Graceland archives when Greg Howell was archives director, I've been collecting Elvis personal memorabilia for 26 years, I can tell you Larry Geller is far from correct.
Elvis seldom carried around his checkbook let alone any type of ledger. He did have either Joe Esposito, Charlie hodge, Marty lacker, Alan fortes and even Richard Davis carry around a briefcase that contained checks jewelry and some personal photographs. Most of the Memphis Mafia including some of the secretaries a Graceland were extremely adept at signing elvis's signature with unbelievable accuracy. The majority of checks in the Graceland archives are not signed by Elvis Pressley. There's a huge distinction most of which is noted when you see the E A Presley signed checks.
I am not saying that Elvis "never signed checks". I am simply pointing out the fact that ledger photographed above is not Elvis's hand writing nor was it ever authenticated as Elvis's hand writing. I know Larry moon collection very well as a fellow collector and sad to say that some pieces in his collection were dubious and or not represented as what they actually are.
Most Elvis Presley checks on the market are not signed by elvis, and ledger filled out in his hand would extremly scarce at best. It's simply a sad fact but still a fact.
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