Collecting Autographs

Autograph collecting has a reputation, not wholly undeserved, for valuing the name above the object. The serious end of the field does the opposite. A signature is the least informative thing a notable person can leave behind; a letter in which they say something worth reading is a document.

The categories

The trade uses a settled shorthand, and it is worth knowing.

ALS — autograph letter signed: written and signed entirely in the subject's hand. This is the standard against which other material is measured.

LS — letter signed: the text in another hand or typed, the signature autograph.

ADS and DS — autograph document signed, and document signed, applying the same distinction to documents rather than letters.

AMs — autograph manuscript, a text in the subject's hand, unsigned.

Signature or cut signature — a signature alone, frequently excised from a longer document. Cut signatures are the least valuable form and, where the excision has destroyed a document, are regrettable.

Inscribed and signed — a book or photograph carrying a presentation inscription. The value depends heavily on the recipient.

What makes one example better than another

Content is decisive. A letter in which a scientist describes an experiment, a writer discusses a work in progress, or a statesman reasons through a decision is a historical document. A letter declining a dinner invitation is a signature with a date attached.

The recipient matters: correspondence between two notable figures interests collectors of both.

Date matters. Material from the period of a subject's principal achievement outranks late-life courtesies.

Condition and completeness: the integral address leaf, the postal markings, the original envelope all add. Silking, laying down and trimming subtract.

Scarcity of the hand: some figures signed constantly, others rarely. Ubiquity depresses value regardless of eminence.

Authenticity

This is the field's central difficulty, and it should be approached soberly.

Secretarial signatures are signatures written by a member of staff, often with the subject's knowledge, and they are common among heads of state, military commanders and film studios. Autopens — mechanical signing devices — have been in wide use since the mid-twentieth century, and produce identical signatures detectable by overlay. Facsimiles printed on letterhead deceive many collectors. And forgery has attended the field for as long as it has existed, with some historical forgers so skilful that their work has entered institutional collections.

A specialist assesses the ink and whether it sits on the paper as a pen would leave it; the paper and any watermark, checked against the purported date; the letterhead and its period of use; the flow and pressure of the writing, since forgery is drawn rather than written; the content, checked against known chronology; and the provenance.

We do not offer certificates of authenticity, and we treat certificates issued by others as evidence to be weighed rather than accepted. Where an attribution is not secure, the catalogue says so.

Practical advice

Buy from sources that describe material precisely and stand behind the description. Read the catalogue wording closely: "signed" and "bearing a signature" are not the same claim. Prefer letters to signatures, and content to fame. Keep the envelope, the accompanying papers and the earlier catalogue description, because in twenty years those constitute the provenance.

Above all, be sceptical of any item that seems inexpensive for what it purports to be. In a field this well studied, genuine bargains in famous names are rare, and the explanation is usually the obvious one.