Terry Pratchett Signature - Fake?

[Frank]

Hi,

I am proposing to buy a signed first edition of a discworld book. The book was published in 1991. I have a picture of the signature as below, but am a bit suspicious that it is fake.

Can anyone help?



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[Dotsie]

Hi Frank

I don't think it looks real. I don't have enough signed copies to know how much his sig has changed, but it doesn't look much like the one I have (signed in 2000 I think), and that was signed in front of me.

The thickness of the pen lines makes it look like someone has drawn this quite slowly. The sig in my book has uniform thickness!

Lots of people on here have more experience in TP's sigs, I'm sure you'll hear more.

ETA I've looked at my second signed book, signed 7 years after the first, and the sigs have changed hugely. So now I don't know - sorry!

[Frank]

The thickness of the pen lines makes it look like someone has drawn this quite slowly. The sig in my book has uniform thickness!

That's what I thought, the signature isn't fluid enough to be drawn in a few movements as you would a signature.

Thanks, anyone else got any thoughts?

[poohcarrot]

Hi Frank

I have approx 30 TP signatures ranging from Pyramids to this year.

I think the signature looks a bit iffy.

To me that signature does not look like a 1991 signature. It looks a lot later that that.

My motto is if you think it's false, it probably is false.

Which book do you want to buy?
How much do you want to pay for it?

[Tonyblack]

It definitely looks dodgy to me. It's possible that it was a 1991 book that was signed much more recently, but there's very little fluidity to the signature. The vertical lines also look odd.

I think Pooh is right - if in doubt - don't buy it.

This is what Terry signature looks like:



That's from PJSM Prints.

[Who's Wee Dug]

It would be helpful if you can provide more info is it from a bookdealer, ebay, or from a private sale, or something like Amazon or Abe and what book title it was as Terry was writing two a year then as I have all the early signatures at the time except one I can check which one he was using then. As such that sig looks suspect.

[Jan Van Quirm]

The thickness of the pen lines makes it look like someone has drawn this quite slowly. The sig in my book has uniform thickness!

No experience of Pterry's siggie but some of forgeries. Depending on the type of pen used it is highly unusual for the pen strokes to be totally uniform especially if a pencil, trad ink pen or even a bog standard biro is used. Rollerballs perhaps may have uniformity, but even then you generally see 'pressure' areas. Digital and rubber 'hand-signature' stamps generally are uniform naturally.

So from that PoV your sig is someone's signature. However, I agree that it does look 'drawn' rather than scrawled - especially the bottom curl of the 'T' and at the top of the 'P' and the 3 cross strokes at the end also look too 'studied'. All of the distinct characters curves have a 'coloured' technique (I'm assuming this is an upsized image you've posted) and don't look at all fluid or practiced. So yeah - very likely a fake.

And welcome to the forum Frank

[kakaze]

It looks fake to me too.

My signed book is 4 months old. Based on it, and the image provided by Tony, it seems that Terry goes right with the bottom of his "T".

Also, the "S" shape, between the T and the P is too short. It's taller in Tony's and, in mine, is actually continuous from the top of the "T".

The loop between the "T" and the "P" is too small (in mine it's practically a circle).

The very bottom of both Tony and my signatures is very flat, but yours is not.

Finally, the three little vertical lines look funny to me. I've only got 2, though Tony's has 3, so maybe it's just my imagination.

[Who's Wee Dug]

No there sometime only two downstrokes instead of three I was lucky enough to have Terry sign some books for end of last month. .

[Frank]

Thanks for all the comments and help, i'm not going to buy the book. It's so annoying that people nowadays just want to con you out of money!

[Sjoerd3000]

Welcome to the site Frank

[poohcarrot]

Thanks for all the comments and help, i'm not going to buy the book. It's so annoying that people nowadays just want to con you out of money!

I totally agree Frank, it's terrible!

Oh, by the way, our advice isn't free, so please pm your credit card number to me, and I'll make sure the correct fees are deducted.

[Who's Wee Dug]

Thanks for all the comments and help, i'm not going to buy the book. It's so annoying that people nowadays just want to con you out of money!

Which one was it you wanted Frank I know some good honest book sellers.

[Cheery]

Thanks for all the comments and help, i'm not going to buy the book. It's so annoying that people nowadays just want to con you out of money!

I totally agree Frank, it's terrible!

Oh, by the way, our advice isn't free, so please pm your credit card number to me, and I'll make sure the correct fees are deducted.

you can't leave it, can you?

[chris.ph]

i thought it looked pretty good when i signed it ooopppsss