Autographs

[Dame Starry]

Originally Posted by Steve Crook That reminds me, I must get my book collection valued for the insurance. A lot of them were only printed in one edition so they're de facto first editions. Quite a few are also quite rare and some are also signed by appropriate people. Steve

...and what was your address again?

DS x.

[CaptainWaggett]

Originally Posted by Steve Crook Some book dealers don't like to see anything stuck in or written in a book. I don't like stuck in autographs or photos, but I don't mind "signed in person" autographs, especially when they're dedicated to me and dated I also don't mind things like the name of the original owner of a second hand book, especially when that's dated and if it's got a greeting to show it was given as a present. It gives the book a nice feeling of the history of it and something about previous owners. That reminds me, I must get my book collection valued for the insurance. A lot of them were only printed in one edition so they're de facto first editions. Quite a few are also quite rare and some are also signed by appropriate people. Steve

But as has been established, unless you have a photo of a Very Famous Person signing your book, it doesn't really add anything to the value...

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by Dame Starry ...and what was your address again? DS x.

True, I shouldn't advertise my treasures

Steve

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by CaptainWaggett But as has been established, unless you have a photo of a Very Famous Person signing your book, it doesn't really add anything to the value...

Also true, I'll have to see if the valuer puts a different value on the signed ones where I have signed and unsigned copies of the same book in the same condition. I won't be selling any of them so their value doesn't really matter much to me. It's just that the insurance company insisted on me getting a valuation.

Steve

[CaptainWaggett]

My understanding is that signed copies are mostly less valuable if they are dedicated to a person unless there's some special connection between the two to interest collectors ('Dear Emeric, love Michael'). AS Byatt wrote a grumpy article recently about how she could spot dealers because they wanted a non-personalised signature and she resented making profits for them. Just as Patrick Stewart won't sign Star Trek stuff when he's at the stage door.Though presumably Byatt could have sold the books herself if she felt strongly about it!

[christoph404]

Many performers charge for autographs now, especially at the "Star Wars" conventions where I read kids were paying £8 to £10 pounds for signatures of less well known performers. Alec Guiness was famous for refusing point blank to sign anything as Obi Wan and sent many a tearfull 9 year old packing! I personnaly would never ask someone for an autograph unless they were at a book signing , I can wholly understand why a famous person or celebrity might get a bit brisk and cheesed off with autograph hunters looking for a signature, especially if you are trying to negotiate the supermarket checkout or have a quite lunch or dinner in a restaurant with your partner.I think some people forget that the famous are human and have a life beyond their public personna. The artist Picasso was once confronted by a small child at his restaurant table asking for an autograph and "cartoon" on a napkin. The child had been sent there by his mother who was at a table at the other end of the restaurant. Picasso dutifully obliged by drawing one of his typical cubist sketches and completed the work with his signature. The very happy little boy rushed back to his mother to eagerly show her the drawing which Picasso had done not on the napkin but on the childs tummy! Very clever.

[Windthrop]

Originally Posted by CaptainWaggett But as has been established, unless you have a photo of a Very Famous Person signing your book, it doesn't really add anything to the value...

It is certainly a difficult area - I do a little dealing in second-hand books and avoid signed copies because the market has been saturated (particularly since ebay) with fakes and it is so easy to get stung. Copies have been sold with a cut-out copy of the writers autograph glued into the title page - makes the book worthless ! In the early days of ebay I noticed autographed pictures of Sir Laurence Harvey, Sir David Niven and even Sir Trevor Howard for sale More alarmingly some silly buggers were actually buying them

[Gazza]

Michael Caine was filming an autobiographical documentary in our street in the late 60s. Mum got him to sign a bit of paper for 'my boy Gazza who's at the same school you went to, Michael'.

I promptly sold it to a teacher at school for ten bob

[samkydd]

Originally Posted by CaptainWaggett It's an odd way to make a living though - forging Jenny Agutter's autograph. I have to say I can almost admire the person who has the patience to build up a reputation starting with say second division footballers and working his way up over the years to Garbos and Salingers.

I've only got five autographs; Ian Wallace, Bert Weedon, June Whitfield, Rodney Marsh and Terry Venables. I know they're genuine because I was there at the time, which is the point of getting autographs I think. Buying one doesn't seem the same somehow as it's totally meaningless!

[Windthrop]

There is the famous story of Billy Wilder being asked for his autograph in triplicate and when asking why being told that three of his was worth one Spielberg

[CaptainWaggett]

The theatrical bookshop in Cecil Court (off Charing Cross Road) used to display two signed Kenneth Williams photographs which were clearly in completely different handwriting. It made me a little suspicious of the hat allegedly worn by Anton Walbrook in La Ronde which they also had in the window.

A friend and I were recently at the theatre when we saw Helen 'Gail Tilsey' Worth and Paula 'Man About the House' Wilcox out for an evening together. We did have a copy of the recent Look-In annual with us so their signatures would have been really cool but after a heated debate we decided to let them enjoy Othello in peace.

(As an aside, on a previous visit to the same theatre to see Ian McKellen in a show, we saw the same Helen Worth with Michael 'Colin from Eastenders' Cashman so it's great to see harmony between rival soaps).

[Frank63]

Nowt to do with film stars I know but.................

I got Stanley Mathews autograph in the 1950's when nobody even dreamt of 'fake' autographs. Life was so much simpler then.

[Windthrop]

Originally Posted by Frank63 Nowt to do with film stars I know but................. I got Stanley Mathews autograph in the 1950's when nobody even dreamt of 'fake' autographs. Life was so much simpler then.

I wouldn't be so sure. An old cylinder recording of Oscar Wilde was found to be a fake and that was from the early part of the last century.

[penfold]

Indeed, the 20's and thirties are notorious for having secretaries faking their employer's signatures for the punters...

[CaptainWaggett]

Originally Posted by Windthrop I wouldn't be so sure. An old cylinder recording of Oscar Wilde was found to be a fake and that was from the early part of the last century.

Really? That one where's he's doing a verse of the Ballad of Reading Gaol? I never knew that.