Gracie autograph

It's ok. No problem.
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I recently acquired (gift from my father in law)a document signed by both King George VI and Queen Mary which turned out to be rubber-stamped signatures. The dealer showed me how to tell. Would not be surprised if someone with an authentic autograph or photo of autograph has made rubber stamps of various famous figures.

Kyrila
 
As I said in my post above yours, it was a gift from my father-in-law. The article is a framed honorary commission from King George VI to an American officer, Colonel Robert George Howie of the US Army. The date is 18 September, 1946. Apparently the colonel performed some act during WWII on behalf of the British Empire and was given this document in recognition of his service. Since the document has rubber-stamped signatures of both King George VI and Queen Mary, it appears these were handed out to many servicemen. My father-in-law is a Lt. Colonel (retired) and he knew of my interest in history and presented it to me on our last visit to their home.

Kind regards
Kyrila
 
Hi, I saw and read with great interest your posts on the Titanic board about the Gracie signed book- Several months ago I paid $1050.00 for a blank postal card signed by Capt. Smith from the same seller. (not the same one you pictured in the posts) I of course asked all sorts of questions while the auction was still running- I basically got the same types of replies as you did- How Frank is a huge Titanic expert, has all these original items, etc etc. The signature I bought from him has written with a typewriter underneath "November 22, 1892- Master S.S. Britannic"- This does check out- but it of course is not the same Britannic that sank in WWI.

When I showed it to a dealer friend of mine, he clued me in that the postal card itself was first manufactured in 1911- which made me wonder about the date on the front. Frank said that the date probably meant something to the original owner- maybe they were on the Britannic on that day?- Then like you, he sent me a scan of an original document signed my Smith to re-assure me of the authenticity.
My dealer friend knows Helen Sanders, who with her late husband authored the Sanders Autograph Price Guide books you may have heard of- I'm still waiting to hear back from her- I really want her to take a look at it for me. I hate to be skeptical about something like this (Cause damn- it feels pretty good to say that you have a signature of the Titanic's Captain) but some of the other historical signatures hes sold just dont look right. I'm no expert (I'm just a "kid" of 27!!) but if this one's a fake it's a pretty good one.

Anyway, I don't mean to ramble on- I wanted to share my story with you. If you happen to have instant messenger, I have the one and my name there is Yeah I know thats pretty lame-

What other Titanic related signatures do you have? Im afraid the only other I have are a few things signed by Millvina Dean.

Good luck w/ your collection!

Darren Clossin
 
[user] will not be making payment
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After reading what I have. At least I have been able to bring it to people's attention to be careful of this guy. He has received some emails... hmmmmmm. No comment.

,
How are you making out with payment sending....?
I wanted to ask you are you a Kid...? A young Guy..?
Don't mind me asking, but I received a few emails from people that you must have talked to about my item on line and they refered to you as a kid or somone very young person.
If so, that would explain the fast "Negative" Feedback leaving to me. Most eBayer's, or guys who have been doing this a long time, do not leave "Negative" feedback very often to not.
Anyway, I need to know how fast payment is going to take to arrive to me.
What is the status..?
Regards,
Frank
 
I took the feed-back off Frank, and you should be happy I don't put it back
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U should know if you are a Titanic expert that George Behe comes on here from time to time. And he is the 'royal one' of all things Titanic...... And has given royal advice. This has been an honour. Next time I buy anything I will seek out the royal advice from his holiness again
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Hi, Miles.

Bless you, my child. :)

In truth, though, I only offered you a personal opinion based on my rather nebulous 'gut feeling.' (Speaking of which, my gut *has* gotten to be pretty big lately.) :) However, please bear in mind that I have no way to determine if my opinion is accurate or not.

Steve Santini was absolutely correct when he said that autograph authentication is a very specialized area of expertise, and I make no claim to be an expert in that field. (All I can do is compare a *known* passenger autograph with a 'possible' passenger autograph and offer my personal opinion on the physical similiarity or non-similarity between the two.)

Having said that (and after having read some of the above comments about the seller in question), I confess that I'm even less confident about my expressed opinion now than I was a couple of days ago.

The old axiom "Let the buyer beware" is just as true today as it was in Roman times.

All my best,

George
 
Changing the subject btw I hope your Titanic stuff turns out to be ok. George Behe guessed the Gracie book was 'probably' ok. But the cast of doubt is now there. I understand he has to be careful with what he says. Anyway he gave good advice and I'm thankful he took the time to help me.

Finding out you have been sold a Smith autograph by the same seller and reading about your experience of him I am glad I stopped payment for this book.

I had not heard of Steve Santini before but I understand he is another respected expert. I think he also took the time to look at the autographs - so again that is very much appreciated.

I don't want anymore dealing with this Ebay seller. In-fact as I write this he has just sent me another email
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Anyways I hope your Smith autograph dose turn out to be ok, but it is sounding like he 'maybe' has these signatures for a penny a dozen ! ! ! But then I don't know for sure. I can only go by the personal opinion of George Behe or Steve Santini - and that is good enough for me, although I suppose to really give a good/fair judgement they would have to see the real thing rather than a scan. But at least a scan is better than nothing.

And hey - I'm sure you can get some better stuff on Ebay
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[This message was originally posted to another topic. I moved it here, where it belongs. MAB]
 
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