Does anyone own a Harry Wright Autograph

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Posted By: Jim Clarke

Just wondering if someone could post a photo of a Harry Wright auto? Thx JC

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Posted By: Steve M.

This might help


The Wright signatures proffered come from the Sports Collector Digest Baseball Autograph Handbook by Mark Allen Baker. First Edition, page 270. I should have given credit in my original post.

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

Maybe it's just me, but they do not look like they were signed by the same person.

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Posted By: ramram

those two leave me scratching my head a little. There's enough subtle differences to make me wonder if they're both his autos.

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Posted By: Daniel Bretta

The 'W' is started with a loop going over on one and going under on the other...I know that some people can drastically change how they sign their name through the years, but that just seems really odd to me that someone would do that.

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Posted By: ramram

Especially look where the "ri" meet in his last name.

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Posted By: jay behrens

those aren't even close to being the signed by the same person.

Jay

I've just reached Upper Lower Class. I am now officially a babe magnet for poor chicks.

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Posted By: Richard Simon

Those are not Harry Wright's signatures.

--

I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
Unknown author
--
We made a promise. We swore we'd always remember.
No retreat baby, no surrender.
The Boss

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Posted By: Marc S.

but I do not house it in this city, and do not presently have a scan to share. Since it is a full contract written by him [on Phillies letterhead], it gives a broad range of his writing characteristics

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Posted By: Steve M.

The Wright signatures proffered come from the Sports Collector Digest Baseball Autograph Handbook by Mark Allen Baker. First Edition, page 270. I should have given credit in my post.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Harry Wright's signature is among the easiest to find of 19th century HOFers. Not only was he a prolific letter writer, but the nine known season scorebooks that have circulated in the hobby contain some 150 examples, albeit small and in pencil. With one of the books recently destroyed by some greedy individual who didn't care a lick about its historical significance, and sections of it showing up regularly in several of the recent major auctions, it's not difficult to find a genuine example to use for comparison.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Likely if you look through past Mastro (notice I didn't say MastroNet, as I'm hip to the scene) auction catalogs you will find a Harry Wright example or three. I have a bunch of old Mike Gutierrez Auction catalogs I will check those today.

Apparently Wright varied his signature style, as according the the Upper Deck card I saw he sometimes spelled his name 'Henrietta Dandridge.'

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Posted By: barrysloate

The signatures in the scorebooks differ slightly from those on letters and documents because Wright only had a very tiny space above the line "scorer" to enter his name so those may seem a bit truncated. The ink signatures on the many documents he signed are somewhat bolder.

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Posted By: DJ

I don't get SCD (haven't seen an issue in like ten years) but was going on a plane for vacation and picked it up at the newstand a few weeks ago and saw the latest Coach's Corner Sports Auction.

A Harry Wright just concluded and brought in a whopping $800!, about $2,200 off it's listed retail according to the auction description!

http://www.myccsa.com/piclot.asp?lot=19

They also sold a Jack Chesbro cut for $978, a Mickey Welch single signed baseball for $2,464 and a Jim O'Rourke cut for $788. Also, a three-by-five hand signed by our new Pope was able to command a hefty $55!

If you missed out on these once-in-a-lifetime signatures, I bet you can simply wait until next month as the good news is that Coach's Corner auctions aren't like Mastro Auctions or Lelands, they occur monthly!

Check out this Walter Johnson single signed baseball which brought in $1,745! More than $6,000 of it's estimate!

http://www.myccsa.com/piclot.asp?lot=7



DJ

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Posted By: Jim Clarke

Autographs have always scared me! Unless you get it in person, there is noway you can actually know you got the real McCoy, no matter who certifies it. You better really know your autographs if you collect them. I bet there are at least 50 people in the country who can sign Babe Ruth's name better than he did and probally fool most of the verifiers. I think most the market agrees with that as most of the time autographs on baseball cards generally do not realize as high of a price as a card without an autograph on it. The only way I would collect autographs is to buy team balls or programs with the entire team on there... Much harder to dupilicate an entire team.... Thanks for the PICS Steve.... JC

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Posted By: Richard Simon

I can assure you that there are NOT 50 people in the country who can sign Babe Ruth's name bettr than he did.
There are forgers who are bad, there are forgers who are very bad, there are forgers who are very good. Just as in any "job". Most are not that good.
There are very, very few who are very good.
But they are out there.
Here are two bad forgeries from a bad forger.
--

I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
Unknown author
--
We made a promise. We swore we'd always remember.
No retreat baby, no surrender.
The Boss
--

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

Richard: Is there any easy way (without spoiling the item) to date the ink on a Babe Ruth autograph, since obviously it would have to be at least 58 years old??

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Posted By: Anonymous

I was more active in autographs when I first started collecting in the 1960s. Now the only autographs I'll buy are contracts and documents.

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Posted By: Josh Evans

Here is a real Harry Wright. Not a great cut (as cuts go) it brought a little over $2000 in our December 2004 auction. Harry Wright is "retatively" not that tough, mainly because of the scorebooks.

Our home page has a good search function. There’s auctions loaded in there going back at least six years. Just make sure you click “Search All Auctions.”

Josh

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Posted By: Richard Simon

Answer to Hal - ink testing does create minor damage to the item and it is very expensive.
It is the only way to date ink though.


Richard Simon

I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
Unknown author
--
We made a promise. We swore we'd always remember.
No retreat baby, no surrender.
The Boss

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Ink testing is something that would be done in court cases (contested wills,
forgery, etc), and not for a collectable signatures. To test the ink, at least
a few very small portions of the ink has to be removed and it won't be put back.

To test the ink in a lab they seprate and the substances/chemicals in the ink and can
then often determine the age of the ink. I bet at least a few board members have done
chromoetography in a chemistry course or for work. This is the standard method to separate
apart the substances ink for identification and dating.

The FBI has large databases of what substances were used in ink and when and where.
Most pen manufacturers supply data to the FBI, so scientists can often determine the
date and brand of pen used.

There are non-destructive tests to look at inks, including using an infrared viewer.
I have an infred viewer, but it mostly sits in a drawer.