For certain collectors (and I am one of them), few things will enhance a book鈥檚 value more than having the author hold the book in his hand and sign it, especially if you witness the signing and have it inscribed to you personally. Unfortunately, for most collectors, unless you are willing to settle for just the release of your favorite authors鈥?new books, you are stuck with the secondary market, with all its pitfalls and prevalent fraud. With this in mind, I thought I鈥檇 share a few tidbits of information on the subject I have learned along the way.
If you want to be certain that your signed book is genuine, you have three options:Buy a signed limited edition, which is guaranteed by the publisher.Pay to have the signature authenticated (a little less certain).Buy the book directly from the person who witnessed the signing or, more risky, from someone who can trace the book back to the original signing (provenance).
As the first two of these can be quite expensive, and the third depends upon a trust factor, most collectors pretty much have to rely on their own judgment.
Let鈥檚 start with a truism that can help you identify the obvious fakes. Being human and subject to human frailties, it is almost impossible for anybody to sign their name exactly the same way, so real signatures will vary from book to book. At a large signing, due to fatigue, a signature at the end may have little in common with one at the beginning. An author鈥檚 signature will also change over time, due to age, vanity, expediency, or any number of other factors. Two examples come to mind. Scott Turow鈥檚 signature, which was at least partially legible before 鈥楶resumed Innocent鈥?made him famous, has degenerated into a scrawl which has caused more than one dealer to describe it as 鈥榠nitialed by the author.鈥?nbsp; At the other end of the spectrum, Jasper Fforde started signing his books as 鈥楯ASPER鈥?(all uppercase letters). As the volume of signings increased with the popularity of his books, he decided that the uppercase signature was too time-consuming and made a conscious effort to change it, experimenting with several different versions until he settled on the one he uses now. As a result, many dealers promote the original uppercase signature as 鈥榤ore valuable.鈥?nbsp; Perhaps this may be a self-fulfilling prophecy鈥?/P>
Knowing that no two 鈥榬eal鈥?author signatures are identical can help you immediately identify the two most common 鈥榝akes鈥? the pre-printed signature, which has been with us for decades, and the autopen signature which is relatively new. Most collectors and dealers are familiar with the more widely known pre-printed signatures such as Twain and Alcott, but how many know about Barbara Bush鈥檚 book 鈥楳emoirs鈥?or Rush Limbaugh鈥檚 鈥楽ee I Told You So?鈥?nbsp; By comparing the signatures in just two of the same books, it is easy to see that they are absolutely identical in all respects, even to the placement on the page. If you are technologically literate, you can 鈥榗apture鈥?the signature in a graphics program and overlay them, or at least display them side-by-side. The same is true of autopen signatures. Because they are made by a mechanical device, they are identical, although page placement may vary (the same page may not be used or the book may not be placed in the same position during the 鈥榮igning鈥?. Be especially aware of books with labels stuck on the dustjacket saying, 鈥榓utographed copy,鈥?which appear in bookstores which did not hold an author signing (not to be confused with legitimate signings at a store which has the author sign extra copies for sale later). These are often signed by autopen and are primarily used on popular books for which the author doesn鈥檛 have the time or the inclination to hold a signing. A prime example here is Hillary Clinton鈥檚 鈥業t Takes a Village.鈥?nbsp; As she was First Lady at the time of publication, it was not considered 鈥榩olitically correct鈥?for her to have any book signings (although she did sign a few at public and private appearances). How, then, did several thousand 鈥榮igned鈥?copies appear on the shelves of bookstores? You guessed it -- an autopen. And not just one; it has been reported by people who follow these things that three separate autopens were used to produce the volume needed, each one just a little different. I, myself, have found multiple copies of each of the three (and only three so far).
This brings us to the most insidious of the fakes - the 鈥榣ight box wizard.鈥?nbsp; The concept is simple - it鈥檚 called 鈥榯racing鈥?(and you鈥檝e probably done it yourself for less sinister purposes). Construct a small box with a strong light inside and a piece of glass or Plexiglas on one side. Find an authentic signature by your author of choice and place it on the glass. Now open the book to the selected page and location, place it over the signature and turn on the light. Carefully trace the signature, now clearly visible through the book page and voila -- a perfect 鈥榝latsigned鈥?book! If you are very thorough, you can even trace a short inscription, making the signature look even more legitimate (the favorite is 鈥楤est wishes鈥?. As these 鈥榮ignatures鈥?are made by a human hand, with attendant variations, it is a little more difficult (but not impossible) to identify them. Since most crooks are greedy, it is unlikely that they made only one copy of a valuable signature, which explains the proliferation of J.K. Rowling and Stephen King 鈥榮ignatures.鈥?nbsp; Therefore, you can often find more than one book by the same author being offered by these crooked dealers. While the lines in the signature may vary slightly, the size will not. Both the vertical and horizontal size will be exactly the same since it was traced from the same original. Also, being traced, the size and slant of each letter will be pretty much the same and the crossed t鈥檚 and dotted i鈥檚 will be in the same place. Look for 鈥榳avy鈥?lines and starts and stops (identified by a portion of a line not quite aligning with another or a heavier ink concentration in the middle of a line).
While not 100%, the above will help eliminate the more common 鈥榝akes鈥?in your collection (or dealer stock). The real problem is the forgery by a very competent forger. Most amateurs (or crooked idiots) produce a signature which is almost immediately identified as a forgery by even relatively inexperienced collectors and dealers, and can often be identified by the wavy lines and starts and stops referenced above. The expert forger has been known to fool even the most experienced authenticators, and remains a problem. Fortunately, most forgers who have taken the time to produce such an expert forgery are not going to waste that time and effort on -- to them -- 鈥榯rivial鈥?books. On the plus side, if the forgery is that good, chances are you鈥檒l never know it anyway.
So, if your signed copy by your favorite author passes the above tests and it鈥檚 not in the higher end of the collectible market, the chances are very good that it is real.
Copyright 2004, 2005 by Keith Wease
Orignal From: Collecting signed books
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen