Fitz Fulton was a hero test pilot, a patriot and a good friend to autograph collectors. He will be sorely missed. To read more about his amazing career, check out The Greatest Test Pilot You've Never Heard Of.
Fitz Fulton with the XB-70
Donn Eisele (1930 - 1987) had one spaceflight -- the command module pilot on Apollo 7. Like some of the earlier crews, there was not a wide variety of photographs available and Eisele never had a formal white space suit portrait. So, collectors seeking signed photos typically settle for the signed business suit pose.
Eisele's earlier signatures tend to be small and neat, while his later signatures are often large, loose and wild.
Donn Eisele signed business suit portrait
Expect to pay $200 and up for an Eisele personalized photo, and significantly more for an un-personalized example. On occasion, training poses of Eisele in his space suit come to market and they can fetch a steep premium depending on the quality of the pose. For collectors on a budget, Donn Eisele signed checks are in abundance and can be purchased for around $25 on eBay and elsewhere.
Eisele autopens are common, and obviously, forgeries exist; however, in my experience I have not encountered a high number of Eisele forgeries.
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!
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!
There are many tricks in the forger's handbook, and a traced over signature is one of them.
Here is how it works.
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 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.
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.
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!
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 "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.
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