Which Alan Shepard signature is authentic?
/One -- or maybe more than one -- of the Alan Shepard signatures below is authentic. Can you pick out the real one or ones?
I'll let it run for a while and announce the answer soon!
US Air Force Band Holiday Flash Mob
/Another holiday music flash mob from the US Air Force Band at the Air & Space Museum. The Christmas classics against the backdrop of the space shuttle and Apollo capsule is inspirational and rousing. Enjoy!
Be wary of traced over signatures
/There are many tricks in the forger's handbook, and a traced over signature is one of them.
Here is how it works.
- The forger gets a high resolution digital image of an authentically signed photo.
- Make a photo print of the authentically signed photo.
- Then, trace over the printed signature on the photo with a marker to give it the appearance of real ink of the photo.
This practice can be deceptive, but often you can see signs of hesitation or slowness as the forger is careful to cover the printed signature. In some cases, you can still see traces of the printed signature peeking out where the forger failed to completely cover the printed signature.
Here is an example of a print of an authentically signed photo that appears to have been traced over with Sharpie. The arrows point to areas where the forger did not completely cover the printed signature.
Arrows indicate areas where you can see hints of a printed signature below the traced signature that was added.
Jim Irwin, Apollo 15 signed NASA lithograph
/Jim Irwin was a generous signer, and despite his untimely death in 1991, remains an autograph in very good supply. In many cases you can obtain an authentic Irwin for $35 - $50 on a postal cover. However, he is far less common on other poses including the NASA lithograph below.
RR Auction Fall 2014 Space & Aviation Auction→
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Rare Apollo 1 Crew Signed Photo
RR Auction's Fall 2014 Space & Aviation Auction has begun and runs through Thursday November 20. Check it out for 599 lots of signed space and aviation items, flown artifacts and other cool relics of the space race!
As the space authenticator for RR Auction, I review all autographed items for their bi-annual Space & Aviation Auctions as well as all the space material for their monthly auctions.
Zarelli Space Authentication presents: Virgil "Gus" Grissom Signature Study→
/Steve Zarelli Space Authentication is pleased to present an online signature study focusing on Virgil "Gus" Grissom.
I have included a number of verified signature exemplars that span the short period Gus Grissom was signing autographs, as well as Autopens, secretarials, pre-prints and suspected forgeries.
In my estimation, Grissom is in the top five risky autographs of flown astronauts. Hopefully, you'll enjoy the study and it is of value to the community.
As always, comments and feedback are welcome and thank you for your support!
Harrison Schmitt: Increasing value and increasing risk of forgeries
/It's been about 10 years since Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17, conducted a paid signing at NovaSpace, and he hasn't responded to mail requests either.
For many years, Schmitt would answer his mail. Before he stopped, he would sign once a year, usually around the holiday season. In December, you would hear reports of a sudden flurry of through-the-mail successes. Looks like Harrison Schmitt is working his way through the stack from this year was the conventional wisdom.
Harrison Schmitt signed NASA lithograph, early 1970s.
In the past few years, prices for Harrison Schmitt signed photos have skyrocketed. You can expect to pay $400 and up for unpersonalized examples. Prime examples on NASA glossies or lithos with nice inscriptions can fetch $600 or more.
In my estimation, you have a new generation of collectors in the past decade that were not around when he was signing freely through the mail. This influx of collectors have to pay for signed items on the secondary market... something prior generations of space collectors did not have to do.
With this increase in price comes a higher risk of relatively skilled fakes. In the past several months, I have seen several examples of somewhat deceptive forgeries... the likes of which we have not seen previously.
As always, do your homework, caveat emptor and have fun collecting!
Charles Conrad on the moon signed photo
/Charles "Pete" Conrad (1930-1999) signed photo on the lunar surface. Pete Conrad was a good signer and participated in commercial signings... although the scale was a lot less in the nineties than it is today. For whatever reason, signed poses from the lunar surface are much less common than other more traditional portrait poses.
Playground relics of the space race in Schenectady, NY
/Last Saturday we were in Schenectady's Central Park for a charity walk. As we neared the finish line, the kids spotted a playground -- an irresistible magnet. So we let them run wild on the playground... and I was astounded by what I saw. It was like taking a time capsule back 40 years.
Space capsule monkey bars with slide in Schenectady, NY's Central Park.
They still had the same playground equipment that I remember as a kid in the 70s! It has been repainted since, but it brought back grade school memories of visiting the park with my grandparents and climbing on the same space-themed monkey bars as they looked on. I'm sure they were not new when I was playing on them 40 years ago, so my guess is they date to the mid 1960s.
Lunar lander?
This goes to show you how ingrained the space race was in our culture in the 1960s and 70s. It also goes to show you the quality of construction at the time. These things are as sturdy today as they were back then!
What kid wouldn't want to ride a missile?
Forrest Petersen, X-15 Pilot autographed postal cover
/Forrest Petersen (1922 - 1990) flew five flights on the X-15. He served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and retired as a Navy Vice Admiral.
James W. Zollickoffer (1925-2007) whose address label appears on this postal cover had quite a military career himself. Zollickoffer served in the Marine Corps in World War II and Korea.