Antiquities of California....

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by RichardSimon

David - my reply was meant to be caustic.

I know, so was mine. I get a kick out of going all "matter of fact" in situations like that...It's just part of my sense of humor. Honestly though, it doesn't quite come across as well on the internet..

[Brendan]

Their website is interesting. They sell their "autographs" on there too. Seems strange how they don't have any closeup photos...

Drives me nuts how these places keep on running while selling blatant forgeries.

[btcarfagno]

Whomever did that John Hancock must have been drunk. I mean, to say that isn't even close is a masterpiece of understatement. Wow. Just wow.

Tom C

[sayhey24]

I agree with Tom -- even for someone like me who isn't an autograph expert, that John Hancock looks hilarious.

Greg

[RichardSimon]

Could this place be the West Coast branch of a famed auction house?

[steve B]

The only reason the Hancock has any credibility at all -and it's almost certainly not his but his secretaries- is that those documents were very common. They were used for land grants, appointments, proclamations.. Darn near any situation that the government wanted to give out a big showy document. The secretary probably signed hundreds a week, handwriting the details (Joe jones is a fine fellow having been master of the will bucket for 20 years)The actual government official would only sign ones that were truly important, Like promotions to General or cabinet positions or something of that nature.

The signature is in the right place, and the parchment or paper used is very hard to get ink out of. So finding an original and removing a signature of little importance is just too much work for a forger. There's enough old unwritten on paper around that a hand written reciept fragment would be much easier.
Of course, land grants are often under a hundred, and a governors proclamation or something of that sort probably less.

Steve B

[RichardSimon]

Where is Eliot Ness when you really need him??