Aelfwine wrote:

Both are wrong, and clumsily wrong.

That's the bizarre thing - it is like they didn't even TRY to do a good job. Certainly not an expert attempt at forgery.

They are clumsy forgeries, makes me think they signed a lot of books and that more of these 'efforts' will turn up on the market in time.

I have received the reply from the bookstore and it tells me the following:

I reached out to the Tolkien Charitable Trust in 2009. They provided address to mail book for signature. e was a very old man at that time. I received it back about 6 months later signed. Would you like me to provide you with a Certificate of Authenticity stating provenance?

What do you think?

That "very old man" was signing the S&G Super Deluxe just fine in 2009. That signature is 100% fake, so is the story.

I think the same, also I don't know, because he had to send it to the Tolkien Charitable Trust. Most likely, you will start the procedures with abebooks to request the return of the book. I honestly do not believe the version and I have seen other later signatures in much better condition. Besides Alan Lee, was he also very old?

rrodriguezgarcia wrote:

I reached out to the Tolkien Charitable Trust in 2009. They provided address to mail book for signature. e was a very old man at that time. I received it back about 6 months later signed. Would you like me to provide you with a Certificate of Authenticity stating provenance?

• Christopher's valid signatures look nothing like the one in the book in question
  
• I have never heard that the Tolkien Trust would allow random people to send them books, to send on to Christopher for him to sign - there would be a lot more signed books in circulation if this were true
  
• A Certificate of Authenticity is a piece of paper with printer ink on it, nothing more
  

rrodriguezgarcia wrote:

I think the same, also I don't know, because he had to send it to the Tolkien Charitable Trust. Most likely, you will start the procedures with abebooks to request the return of the book. I honestly do not believe the version and I have seen other later signatures in much better condition. Besides Alan Lee, was he also very old?

Alan Lee is going strong still (so not past tense). ? His signatures do not look shaky at all like in this book in question. There are so, so many examples of his (valid) signatures available online, none of which look like this book.

Urulókë wrote:

Alan Lee is going strong still (so not past tense). ? His signatures do not look shaky at all like in this book in question. There are so, so many examples of his (valid) signatures available online, none of which look like this book.

The AL sig is simply horrid. One can see how slow the 'faker' has written Alan by the wavy shake. This has not been done by a 'professional' forger.

Tell them you cannot accept their story as being true and that the signature has been identified as a fake by several people, including one who knew Christopher Tolkien very well. Request a refund based on the item not being as described. Get Abe involved if there is any issue with the return. Use a tracked service to return it. And do it right away.

Sorry, I didn't realise this item had actually been bought. Yeh, return at once.

I saw NO indication of shaky hands in any letter Christopher ever sent to me, let alone as far back as 2009. From what he told me, his chief physical issue in his final years was lameness and untrustworthy legs (and even there, we see him able to walk with a cane at the Aubusson tapestry exhibit); he never once mentioned or indicated to me any issue with his hands.