Shoeless Joe Jackson Auto- Fake?

[SteveS]

I don't think it can be said with absolute certainty either way without knowing for sure that the ink has been on the photo since 1911. If that can be shown, it would be very convincing to me, as I doubt anyone would be signing his name back then so similarly to his actual signature that we'd be debating it 110 years later. That "E" is very distinctive, and even his wife didn't do it that way when she signed for him. But no matter what, I don't believe that he wrote the "Alexandria 1911."

[Jobu]

I don't think there is anyone who is stating that he also wrote Alexandria.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Jobu

I don't think there is anyone who is stating that he also wrote Alexandria.

Right, but if they are the same hand as some experts have opined, that of course rules out Jackson.

[Lorewalker]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Right, but if they are the same hand as some experts have opined, that of course rules out Jackson.

Hasn't the hobby deteriorated enough that the authentication on this one will be golden until the end of time? Seems there is always at least two buyers whose desire to own things far exceeds the desire to be certain the item is genuine.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Lorewalker

Hasn't the hobby deteriorated enough that the authentication on this one will be golden until the end of time? Seems there is always at least two buyers whose desire to own things far exceeds the desire to be certain the item is genuine.

Yeah that's the power of third party authentication. It at least shifts the burden of proof back to the party claiming inauthentic.

[Jobu]

Being written by the same person would certainly rule out ol Joe. What handwriting expert has made this claim?

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Right, but if they are the same hand as some experts have opined, that of course rules out Jackson.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Ron Keurajian, the author of two volumes of “Baseball Hall of Fame Autographs: A Reference Guide” that also include signature analyses of players from the 1919 Chicago White Sox, said that there are “no genuine signed images of Jackson in existence.”

In its auction listing, Christie’s said the Jackson autograph is “the lone surviving example of any type.”

Keurajian said he was skeptical about the photograph’s authenticity.

“Here’s a guy who was illiterate, but he can write ‘Alexandria’ on the photograph?” Keurajian told Cox Media Group via telephone on Thursday night. “And for those who believe Frank Smith wrote ‘Alexandria’ on the photo, so, he wrote it in the same hand as Jackson’s? That seems highly unlikely.”

[Peter_Spaeth]

And from Thomas Saunders here, who obviously knows a great deal.


5. It seems very likely that the same hand wrote everything on that photo and Jackson 100% could not have done that.

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

And from Thomas Saunders here, who obviously knows a great deal.


5. It seems very likely that the same hand wrote everything on that photo and Jackson 100% could not have done that.

If they were done by the same hand, my best guess would be Joe's wife. She could've replicated Joe's signature, and the "n" in "Alexandria" looks a lot like the "n" on the 1919 contract she signed for Joe. Not to mention, the odd "e" seen in both Joe's authentic and wife-reproduced sigs, and "Alexandria."