Another Christopher signature?

Clumsy fake.

Horrible!

I agree - but it's not easy to see at this resolution. Another thing is; the signature is not arbitrary - it seems to have been made by someone who has seen pictures of CT's sig; for example, the C in Christopher is larger than the rest of the lettering, and the p and h appear to be formed closely to the way that CT does. As does the capital T - though that isn't so easy for me to make out. It's things like this which make me wonder if a signature database might not be a good idea..

At present there's only 20 minutes to go (more or less) - and the bidding's up to £199.

All I know is I wouldn't bid on that book--picture too small, price too high, signature appears suspect. Enough said.

Looked bad to me too. Put the image here for posterity (and moved the topic to the Signatures forum so it will be easier to find down the line.)

Now that it is a bit late, I should be able to have some time to write the "2008 in review" post.

The seller clearly references (A recently advertised signed Simarillion on ebay sold for in excess of £300! so with this in mind I am starting at a low price.) the item (I think) they copied this from i.e. the David Miller bought US Silmarillion (discussed in another thread); which did indeed sell for >£300.

They (the US Silmarillion, and US BoLTs previously mentioned) were both dated '26th July 1987', when Christopher was in the US at (that) Tolkien conference. This seller seems to have modelled the format on this: To ____, [next line] Christopher Tolkien, [next line] suitable date. In this case (wisely?) not specifying a precise date; & also changing the month and year for good measure! (and dreaming up the imaginative 'Dave' as well!)

The story (I have owned this book for about 15 years and purchased it from an old work colleague who once met Christopher Tolkien in connection with work and eventually plucked up the courage to ask him to sign his books. An amazing result as I understand he does not now sign many books at all.) is long; but (crucially) vague.

Why are they selling? A reluctant sale but in these times finances are needed elsewhere. £324 sound good enough!? I think that will do nicely...

BH