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Topic: Value of personalized Gus Grissom autograph?
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Duce0714
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posted 01-21-2012 06:31 PM
   
I recently came upon an old photo album that belonged to a USAF test pilot from the 50's and 60's era, Ollie Patrick Arquilla from Wright Patterson AFB, Dayton. He was tragically killed in an aircraft accident, late 60's I think. The album is full of interesting pics, some containing autographs. One of which is a personalized, autographed, picture from Gus Grissom. Does anyone know what something like this would be worth? |
benfairfax
Member Posts: 199
From: NSW Australia
Registered: Jan 2011
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posted 01-21-2012 08:43 PM
Best to put a scan of it up here. The value differs wildly on the quality, photo etc. A personalized business suit litho sold on Farthest Reaches for $1895. |
Duce0714
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posted 01-22-2012 04:05 PM
 
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capoetc
Member Posts: 2169
From: McKinney TX (USA)
Registered: Aug 2005
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posted 01-23-2012 07:28 AM
Really nice, and not really personalized since it was written to "an old fighter jock" and not to "Fred", or something like that.I think it may be more valuable when kept within the context of the entire collection. You might consider consigning the entire lot with the Grissom autograph as the centerpeice of the lot, unless of course there are a bunch of other valuable autographs in the lot as well. I would think the Grissom would be closer to the value of an uninscribed item -- with no particular name on it, some collectors would view it as a bonus that it has additional writing from Gus. |
Gilbert
Member Posts: 1328
From: Carrollton, GA USA
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted 01-23-2012 02:12 PM
That is an extremely desirable Grissom piece. |
Duce0714
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posted 01-23-2012 02:26 PM
Thanks. There are many other autographed pics from his fighter pilot friends. Here are a few more pics from the photo album. Also included an unsigned pic. of Ollie and the newspaper article depicting his death.  
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Duce0714
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posted 01-23-2012 06:14 PM
 
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capoetc
Member Posts: 2169
From: McKinney TX (USA)
Registered: Aug 2005
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posted 01-24-2012 08:50 AM
Nice collection ... I think it would do well at auction as a set, with due advertising given to the Grissom piece as the centerpiece of the collection.Beware if you receive offers via e-mail from folks offering you what seems like a lot of money for the Grissom. You will almost certainly do better consigning to an auction. |
Steve Zarelli
Member Posts: 731
From: Upstate New York, USA
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 01-24-2012 10:39 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Gilbert:
That is an extremely desirable Grissom piece.
Ditto.
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Duce0714
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posted 01-24-2012 01:12 PM
Many thanks too all who replied. I hope you all enjoyed the photos, there are many more. I have begun doing some research on Olliy in hopes of maybe posting a Wikipedia article about him in his honor. I am quite surprised how little info I have found on him on the internet. Thanks again, The search continues. (Gus isn't going anywhere. He and I have been together a long time.) |
benfairfax
Member Posts: 199
From: NSW Australia
Registered: Jan 2011
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posted 01-28-2012 05:07 AM
There is an uninscribed version of this in this months RR Auction. Already over $300. |
Duce0714
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posted 01-28-2012 01:01 PM
Thanks. Do you have a link to it? I would like to see it for comparison. I didn't realize until I saw it on Yahoo, that yesterday was the 45th anniversary of the accident... |
dtemple
Member Posts: 729
From: Longview, Texas, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 01-28-2012 05:46 PM
A little checking on the web resulted in finding the date of Lt. Col. Arquilla's fatal accident.. Sept. 4, 1966. That's a great collection of photos by the way. |
benfairfax
Member Posts: 199
From: NSW Australia
Registered: Jan 2011
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posted 01-28-2012 10:39 PM
Here is the link. The Apollo 1 fire was on Jan 27th 1967. Terrible shame, but probably saved a lot of others. |
Duce0714
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posted 01-29-2012 03:58 PM
Thanks for the info. I copied the signature from the auction photo and put it next to the one I have for comparison. |
Greenacres
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posted 05-01-2012 10:43 AM
Here's the front and back of a similar photo I have had since my US penfriend sent it to me in the 60s - so I'm happy about the provenance; i.e. it was sent before fakes were necessary! Interesting that this one is signed just 'Gus'. The signature is in blue ballpoint and doesn't seem done by machine as the slight indentation of it is visible on the surface of the photo.  
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mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 05-01-2012 11:45 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Greenacres:
Here's the front and back of a similar photo I have had since my US penfriend sent it to me in the 60s - so I'm happy about the provenance; i.e. it was sent before fakes were necessary! Interesting that this one is signed just 'Gus'.
Sorry to break the bad news to you, but that signature doesn't appear to be a genuine Gus Grissom signature. While there was not a lucrative market for forgeries in the 60s as there is today, that doesn't mean that there was no need for "fakes" to help fill in the demand for autographs. Secretarial signatures and autopens (both of which can leave indentations, by the way) were commonly used to help fill in the demand for signatures, which often exceeded the amount of time that these guys had available to sign. (Keep in mind they were active astronauts who were often too busy with training to sign autograph requests.) The signature here isn't an autopen, so it's likely either a secretarial or is simply a forgery. The deception was likely meant to be harmless...and for all we know, your penfriend may have genuinely believed the signature was the real deal. |
Greenacres
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posted 05-02-2012 10:15 AM
I neglected to say that the reason for her annotation on the back was that he visited her school and signed photographs for the pupils. |
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