Thoughts on These Mantle Autographs

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Posted By: john

David-i have used his services and have never noticed where the sample came from. In no way has 15% been removed. probably his legal disclaimer to CYA. He passes no opinion on autographs. I'll tell you some specific examples of how his testing helped me:

1. Was offered dozens of Mantle signed Bobby Brown baseballs. Excellent provenance. Sampled some and PSA passed them. Tested the ink. Came back as ballpoint ink from 2002. Mantle dead in 1995.

2. Christy Mathewson signed photo. It came from a very reputable dealer. Ink analysis came back as Parker ink produced post 1960. The Mathewson sig. had all the politically correct coa's.

3. Babe Ruth signed bat from the December Mastro auction. I paid 105,000 for the Jimmy Donahughe Babe Ruth signed game bat. It was signed by Ruth and dated Christmas Day 1924. Spence had stated in his LOA that the bats inscription was traced over. As the buyer, I wanted to know if the ink was traced over by Ruth or at a later date. I had the pleasure of meeting the family of Jimmy Donahughe at the December live event. They were of the opinion that the signature would not have been traced by their father. Other faded signed items in the collection had not been traced. The ink analysis discovered that the two inks, both the lighter inscription and the bolder overlaying "traced" signature, were the same inks. 1920's Watermans ink. This told me that Ruth signed the bat, didn't like the light inscription and went back over it with the same pen, probably reloaded with ink. had this anlysis been reported with the auction, I imagine my 105,000 winning bid would have jumped to 150,000 at least. The word "traced" hurt the sale. I love the bat!

The above examples are just a small sampling of Dr. Lyters work and how his expertise has told me the true story.