Fake Autographs

Ouch, beware a set of fake signatures which went up for auction lately via a seller in Germany. But don’t blame the seller! Back in 1971 he wrote to the band’s office in Newman Street and asked for their signatures (autograph collecting was massive in Germany then, and is still very popular – we have had hundreds of usually blank postcards sent our way requesting them over the years).
The seller was really chuffed when a little postcard arrived back, signed by the band, along with a typed letter from their secretary thanking him for his interest. He put the set (and letter – both taped to his copy of In Rock) up for sale for just over £100.

The only problem is that (as many will spot) these are clear fakes. Which means that back in the early 70s, the management were busy having one or more of their secretaries signing these cards for fans. Tonny Steenhagen had a bit more of a search about for us, and to his surprise found more bad fakes out there.
So, while we were aware that certainly The Beatles had people doing this, it’s the first time we’ve seen Purple scammed. The only bonus is that at least the Purple ones are obviously fake, whereas with The Beatles it’s often quite hard to tell.
For what it’s worth, going from top to bottom here, the first set is the poorest fake of all. Card two; the Glover one might be real, but the others are again clear forgeries. The third was thought to be real and sort of looks good in places, but when you compare it to the others, you’ll notice it’s again signed in exactly the same position on the card as the others, which raises doubts in my mind. I have a set of signatures from 1971 done to me personally and they don’t look much like these.
Anyhow, what we’re saying it there are likely to be a lot of these still out there, so please be careful. Even fans at the time were clearly duped. Not everything is so obvious as the Last Concert In Japan LP we once saw offered, with a ‘genuine’ Tommy Bolin signature on it…