WHAT do Hitler, Marilyn Monroe and the Sex Pistols have in common? Their autographs are among the most valuable in the world, alongside those of the crew of Apollo 11, Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson, Albert Einstein, Harry Houdini, Bruce Lee and the Beatles.
Philography, the practice of collecting autographs, is an industry worth €780m in America and more than €200m in Britain. In Ireland, too, the market is no longer the sole preserve of bars that have covered their walls with rugby, football and GAA memorabilia.
“While the main interest would probably be from people who want to give genuine autographs as gifts, we are definitely also seeing a lot of interest from investors,” said Michael McMahon, the co-owner of Famous Memorabilia, a store that has just opened in Dublin.
“There is everything here from autographed soccer pennants to a signed poster of the Beatles’ 1964 tour of America, which would set you back nearly €20,000.”
The shop sources its material from a reputable dealer in Britain, but most of its content is targeted towards meeting the demands of an Irish audience.
“Sport makes up 60% of our stock,” said McMahon. “We have definitely backed away from things like cricket, which wouldn’t have much of a following here. There is also a lot of interest in movie celebrities and rock stars.”
The store’s signed photographs and other goods tend to bear the names of international rather than local celebrities. The company says independent surveys show that the top 100 autographs rose in value by more than 140% between 1997 and 2002 and can therefore present good investment opportunities as well as giving collectors the personal satisfaction derived from owning something historic.
Spending money on autographs can be risky, however, particularly for the unwary amateur. In 2003, the FBI in America estimated that half of all such items were forgeries — even many of those accompanied by so-called certificates of authenticity. It has also been estimated that at least 75% of Premiership autographs on sale on eBay at any one time are fakes.
“I would advise anybody interested in investing in collectibles of any kind to gather items that interest them, and out of that will come knowledge,” said Peter Geoffroy, founder of the Dublin-based www.collectiblescorner.net, which specialises in Irish memorabilia. “I have lost count of the number of times I have been approached by somebody who has bought a signed jersey at an auction and who thinks it is worth at least what he paid for it. But these things aren’t worth much because they aren’t that hard to come by.”
As with any collectible, scarcity and demand dictate the value of a particular piece. As a rule of thumb, the value will be determined by who has written it, what it has been written on and the condition of the item.
The right signature on the right book, for example, will multiply its value. Eamonn De Burca, the owner of De Burca Rare Books in Dublin, was at an auction in New York three months ago when a first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses valued at between €30,000 and €35,000 sold for €160,000. Last week, an unsigned copy sold for €43,500 at Sotheby’s.
“Joyce is very much in vogue and very collectible as a result,” said De Burca. “First editions of his work would be expensive anyway, but the signature would make it far more valuable. Anything signed is so sought-after by modern collectors that they are willing to pay practically any price for it.”
De Burca says business has never been busier, and autographs add value to any item. For example, he is asking €1,275 for a 1913 bank draft signed by the veteran republican Thomas J Clarke, one of the executed leaders of the 1916 rebellion.
“Tom Clarke’s signature is the rarest of all the 1916 leaders, partly because he was not a literary man, but also because he spent much of his adult life in jail,” said De Burca. “The other 1916 leaders insisted that his should be the first name signed to the proclamation, in tribute to his personal history and as a mark of continuity with the Fenian tradition.”
When it comes to autographs, an early death, in particular, adds credibility to the term “limited edition” — it helps to have burnt out quickly rather than faded away, having left thousands of signatures behind. For example, Michael Collins’s signature is worth many times that of Eamon de Valera.
“De Valera is one of the more commonly collected autographs in Ireland, but because he lived to a good age and spent 50 years in public life signing things, his signature is not terribly valuable,” said De Burca.
However, he points out that before 1925, de Valera signed his first name with two Ns, so this would make his earlier signatures more valuable than later ones. Similarly, an authentic autograph by Cassius Clay would be far more valuable than one signed by the boxer as Muhammad Ali, even though he now reputedly charges up to €500 for his signature, knowing that items signed by him can fetch many times that amount.
Among the main problems for would-be collectors is sorting out the genuine from the fake. Autographs of some historic figures, celebrities, sports stars and rock icons can be worth a small fortune, but be aware that some stars use other people or machines to sign for them, and those scribblings are not worth much.
At the height of their fame, for example, the Beatles hired autograph writers to pen their “official” signatures, in order to meet the huge demand from fans. John F Kennedy, the US president, used a device known as an autopen machine to churn out thousands of autographs for his admirers. A real Kennedy signature is worth about €5,000 today to anybody lucky enough to have it.
One way of accessing the memorabilia market without taking the risk of parting with your hard-earned cash on a piece of worthless tat would be to take a punt on the long- established Stanley Gibbons “collectible tangible asset contracts”, which guarantee minimum fixed-rate returns of between 4% and 6% a year.
At the end of the contract term, the investor can choose to retain the items, sell them privately, auction them or roll over the contract. The minimum investment is £5,000 (€7,222), to include quality higher-value rarities that are known to be in short supply.
This, however, will not buy you an autograph by William Shakespeare, long regarded as the most expensive of all time. An unsigned first folio edition of his plays fetched more than €4m last week but there are only six authenticated examples of his signature in the world, and all are owned by institutions. If one ever came up at auction, it would probably fetch well over €5m.
Nor has a single handwritten manuscript by the playwright ever been uncovered, but if you find one in your attic, it would fetch €50m or more.
