A Bird Signature?????????
Don-Lucky, if you are out there, we need you. Or any other autograph experts. I was just perusing eBay on this lovely but chilly Sunday morning in the beautiful Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts and I came upon this listing: Rare Signed By Charlie Parker + Coleman Hawkins 1947 Norman Granz #6 78-RPM Set. And when you open this listing there, indeed, are signatures bearing the names Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins. They are clearly signed with the same pen at the same time. The question is: Do they seem legitimate? I’m not expert enough to know. The reality is, I think, for the seller and any potential buyer, it would be very difficult to authenticate something signed before Bird died in 1955 if it hasn’t been authenticated already. Plus, this is not a program from the JATP at which they were both in attendance, but a pair of signatures on the record, which came out many months later. So, someone would have brought this record to a concert or club where both Bird and Hawk were at the same time, and would have gotten them both to cooperate for an autograph signing. I don’t have the expertise of Don-Lucky, but color me skeptical. In any case, the seller has an asking price of more than $2,400 and the auction closes later today. My guess is that even if the signatures were fully authenticated, that would still be a price beyond market value, although, I have to admit, if the signatures were authenticated, it would be an item of interest to me personally. A real Bird autograph, actually signed by Bird. Yeah, I could enjoy having that in my collection.
Following up on some of the jazz vinyl auctions we were watching on eBay. Here are a few from the Jazz Record Center auction
Lee Morgan, Candy, Blue Note 1590. Original pressing, M- or VG++ for both the record and the cover. Final price $3,839
Lee Morgan, Indeed!. Blue Note 1538. Original pressing. Probably M- for the record and VG++ for the cover. Starting price at $2,000 and did not sell.
Lee Morgan, City Lights, Blue Note 1575. Deep groove, West 63rd Street pressing. Probably M- for both the record and the cover. Final price $1,600.
Lee Morgan Sextet, Blue Note 1541. Lexington Avenue pressing. Probably VG++ for the record and M- for the cover. Looked new in the pictures. Final price $2,682.69.
Lee Morgan, Lee-Way, Blue Note 4034. Original West 63rd Street pressing, review copy. Probably M- condition for both the record and the cover. May VG++ for the cover, depending upon the anality of the buyer. Final price $1,160.
This is one I was watching that also did not sell: Charlie Parker, For Collectors Only, Alternate Masters, Volume 2, Dial 905. This one looked VG for the record and the cover. Opening bid price was $900 and the buy-it-now price was $1,170. This is another Bird Item I would like to have in my collection. Someday, if the price is right . . .
…You know I am always lurking in the shadows of the Jazz Collective somewhere Al !!! Sometimes it just takes a bit longer to lure me out of hiding on the weekends 🙂 That being said, thanks for the heads up on this one.
As a starting point, being an autograph collector for over four decades, I have become jaded and typically question the authenticity of every autograph on eBay, as forgery is epidemic these days. I honestly don’t even waste my time buying them anymore unless I can trace the lineage beyond a reasonable doubt. At first glance, this example has red flags all over it. For instance, did you know Charlie was left-handed? (I suspect most of you probably did.) He certainly didn’t write cursive script that often, and typically any printed examples would have a slightly vertical bias. Both forgeries, I mean “autographs,” were clearly signed with the same writing instrument, and the bleedout seen on the cardboard record sleeve is not uncommon; however, there is a significant overprinted channel to them in this photo. It appears to be very smooth and consistent, which makes me question if someone had poorly traced it with a ballpoint pen at some point. It is important to note that the ballpoint pen didn’t make its mark on the United States until Oct. 29, 1945, when Gimbels sold them for $12.50 each. An astronomical sum at the time, and far out of reach for the average consumer. Widespread adoption of an affordable variant would not be on the market until well after Charlie’s passing, but I digress. There are a few other eccentricities to this one that I won’t get into, but in my humble opinion, this one is a hard PASS, unfortunately.