Has anyone heard back from Bloomsbury or found out anything else about the other Tolkien items circulating around with similar signatures? I've been watching the Bloomsbury listing on eBay and someone bid on the item. What a shame it would be to see someone pay a lot of money for this item.

Josh

Christina and I haven't had a reply from Bloomsbury. Trotter, were you able to go see them? I'm not sure whose responsibility this is: Bloomsbury are acting as agent for the seller, and eBay are only a conduit for Bloomsbury to attract bids. Let the buyer beware! Though a sale at auction of a forgery must reflect badly on the auctioneer, especially if there has been warning of possible fraud.

Wayne

No, I was unable to go on Thursday or Friday.

I have also emailed Rupert Powell (the Managing Director of Bloomsbury Auctions) a dossier showing the problems with this item. This will be hand delivered on Monday and I will ask for a receipt that it has been received. I encourage others to email Rupert ([email protected]).

I also note from Bloomsbury's terms and conditions the following so any potential buyer has recourse

9. (a) Notwithstanding any other terms of these conditions, if within fourteen days of the sale the Auctioneer has received from the buyer of any lot notice in writing that in his view the lot is a deliberate forgery and within fourteen days after such notification the buyer returns the same to the Auctioneer in the same condition as at the time of the sale and satisfies the Auctioneer that considered in the light of the entry in the catalogue the lot is a deliberate forgery then the sale of the lot will be rescinded and the purchase price of the same refunded. "A deliberate forgery" means a lot made with intention to deceive.

Just had this email from Bloomsbury Auctions

"Thank you for your enquiry. We have now had a chance to reassess the Tolkien item and as there seem to be some question marks over it, we have decided to withdraw the item. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Best wishes

Simon Luterbacher"

Just received a reply from David Miller, he, after reading all the arguments and seeing the bloomsbury letter also believes the three items are connected and has removed the two items from abebooks. He will now contact the person who he bought them from and will try to help in finding out where the items come from.

He must be very dissapointed. i'm happy I did not buy when I was offered them, still did not find anything back on that in my mail box so far.

That's a tough break for David Miller, but it's good to see he is doing absolutely the right thing and taking these off the market (not that I would have expected any different - I bought a book off him a couple of years ago and he seemed like a nice bloke).

I guess one of the problems with the trading of signatures/autographs is that they really are so fakable. Not necessarily easily faked well, but it's far from impossible to do so. I think what is really odd about these items is that the signatures were done relatively well, but the typing and transcription (from the original sources) were done so poorly. I almost think that it was a double-bluff on the part of the forger.

I often wonder what the percentage of real signatures versus fakes are out there, and I've come to the conclusion that it probably isn't nearly as low as we would like it to be.

So I guess I'll be sticking to my unsigned books!

If Bloomsbury has, in fact, withdrawn the letter, why is it still listed on eBay: http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/ws/e ... ewitem=&item=170269890214

It is good to hear that David Miller pulled those other items; it is unfortunate that he purchased them, nonetheless.

Josh

Bloomsbury have stated that they can't cancel the Ebay auction or remove the entry from there web site, for 'technical reasons' but it will register as not being sold.

For completeness I have checked Bloomsbury's website

246. Tolkien (J.R.R., author and philologist … Typed Letter signed to a female ?member of … (details)
estimate: £300 – £400

unsold

The Bloomsbury listing on eBay shows that the auction ended with a bid of GBP150, but 0 bidders and 0 bids. It's a poor system that can't, for technological reasons, withdraw an item before the sale, or at least add a note stating that there are questions of authenticity. Since this piece no doubt will endure in Web archives, one can only hope that future researchers also come across our exchange about it.

Wayne