Booth signature for sale

[Dave Taylor]

Personally, I believe it is Wilkes' signature. It could be a forgery, of course, but it matches others I've seen of Booth. I'm not sure why we're thinking it's Junius' since the enlarged image clearly shows J. W. Booth: http://dyn3.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=pa...t.chain%5D

[J. Beckert]

I agree, Jim. It looks very suspect to me. Most collectors are also very wary of anything clipped.

[Dave Taylor]

Ok. After consulting some of my Booth signature files, I concede that the signature for sale was not written by Booth. Since it appears to be a clipping from a legal document, it is probably just some theatre clerk's transcription of a contract with Booth.

The most telling thing showing that this was not written by John Wilkes' Booth is how the crossbar of the "t" is formed. Booth did not lift his pen to cross his t's, rather he looped around to continue the signature as one motion.

[NJREB1863]

Dave, you've convinced me. Not JWB.

[Jim Garrett]

Eric Martin, ranger at Ford's Theatre is a descendant of John Hartwell Cocke, a founding father of Virginia. The family has retained all of his correspondences with other founding fathers such as Thos. Jefferson, George Washington George Mason and James Madison. However sometime back in the 1930s, his father's maiden aunts clipped all the signatures!

[J. Beckert]

Robert Todd Lincoln had a habit of doing that with Lincoln's signatures. Apparently he was besieged with requests and if he did comply, it was usually with a clipped signature. I'm guessing due to his intense desire to safeguard the family's privacy.

One came up for auction a few years back and luckily it included the young boy's letter of request and RTL's letter of reply. I believe it was in the early 1920's and RTL stated it was one of the "very few" he had left. That's pretty neat when you think about it. Writing Lincoln's son and getting Lincoln's signature from him in the mail.

[Eva Elisabeth]

Ok. After consulting some of my Booth signature files, I concede that the signature for sale was not written by Booth. Since it appears to be a clipping from a legal document, it is probably just some theatre clerk's transcription of a contract with Booth.

The most telling thing showing that this was not written by John Wilkes' Booth is how the crossbar of the "t" is formed. Booth did not lift his pen to cross his t's, rather he looped around to continue the signature as one motion.

The upper part of "W" looks totally different, too. The first writer "changed direction" in a bow, whereas Booth did it straightly, creating spikes.

[L Verge]

After five days of gray, gloomy, and rainy skies in Southern Maryland, I got so bored that I scrolled through the auction catalog that contains this Booth signature. More interesting to me were a series of letters from a Pheebe Clark, who was residing with her husband in a rooming house in D.C. during the assassination and post-assassination chaos. She describes all buildings, even the "Negro shantys," being draped in mourning; a soldier being shot for saying that Lincoln should have been killed a year earlier, mention of another woman being in the President's Box with Mrs. Lincoln and Clara Harris, etc.

One letter is from her husband, William, and he mentions how sick Mrs. Surratt is and how she is expected to die. One of the letters gives a description of the security around the Arsenal. Check out pages 82-83 in the auction catalog.

[NJREB1863]

The signature just sold for $6,875.00. There were 6 bidders.

[L Verge]

Was it still sold as being that of JWB?

[NJREB1863]

Was it still sold as being that of JWB?

Yes, from the listing Laurie:

John Wilkes Booth Clipped Signature with Accompanying Carte de Visite. The signature, "J. W. Booth," measures 3.25" x 1" (sight). With a 2" x 3" carte de visite of Booth bearing a Case & Geichell, Boston, backstamp. Matted together to an overall size of 7" x 5".

[L Verge]

Well, just my personal opinion, but I bet the buyer will be surprised when they go to sell it as a JWB signature.

[NJREB1863]

Looking beyond the "JWB" signature just sold and looking at the words written above the signature, those words appear to be in the same hand as the signature and read "by my hand and". If you look at the a's, in the words "hand" and "and" they are both open on the top. Compare those a's to the "a" in the word "lady" in the authenticated signature below that Dave posted, the "a" is closed and looks nothing like the open "a". I find it hard to believe that HA wouldn't have an "expert" on staff to authenticate this signature, but I now DO believe it looks suspicious at best after looking at it a few dozen times or so!

[Gene C]

A lot of money to pay to have a questionable signature of J Wilkes Booth.

[Jim Garrett]

John Wilkes Booth's signatures is one of the most collectable. About twenty years ago a Booth signed check written on Jay Cooke of New York went for $25,000. I was purported that this account could have been his Secret Service slush fund. Roger Powell, a ranger at Ford's saw a JWB go for $35,000 two years ago.

An authentic JWB is very hard to come by.