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Posted By: barrysloate

While this is not exactly a forgery, at Sotheby's last auction there was one of these autographed cards with a cut of Alexander Cartwright. Interestingly, a few years ago I handled some documents that came from the Cartwright family that were family trees written in Cartwright's hand listing generations of aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. When I saw the cut I recognized that is was from one of those documents. I went back to my photocopies and determined that it was not a signature at all, but Cartwright merely listing the name of a descendent sharing the same name. While it was in fact in his hand, it was not his signature. The way one signs a check is not the same way one would write his name when say filling out a form. I pointed it out to the higher-ups that this was not a signature and even brought my photocopy with me to prove my point. As you might imagine, it fell on deaf ears and the piece I believe sold for five figures. Is that an autograph? I think not.