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Author Topic:   R&R Enterprises May 2009 auction
Michael
Member

Posts: 309
From: Brooklyn New York
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 05-09-2009 10:16 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Michael   Click Here to Email Michael     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This has an ink stamped signature of Alan Shepard. Nobody would have seen that but Scott Cornish. Has anybody seen this before? Scott, if you read this, you are good, but I always said that.

MarylandSpace
Member

Posts: 1336
From:
Registered: Aug 2002

posted 05-09-2009 10:38 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for MarylandSpace   Click Here to Email MarylandSpace     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I wonder if the bidders read the description carefully. I didn't first time.

gliderpilotuk
Member

Posts: 3398
From: London, UK
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 05-09-2009 12:54 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for gliderpilotuk   Click Here to Email gliderpilotuk     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Michael:
Nobody would have seen that but Scott Cornish.
Or could it just have been that the consignor identified it as such to the auction house? Or maybe its description in a previous auction?

Ken Havekotte
Member

Posts: 2915
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 05-09-2009 05:49 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ken Havekotte   Click Here to Email Ken Havekotte     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
America's first spaceman used an early rubber stamp impression of his signature, but rarely on one of the 1959 Mercury 7 group shots as this.

More common was his usage of a pre-printed signature version throughout the early 1960s, and in 1987, the Mercury Seven Foundation (now the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation) started to use an "Alan Shepard" rubber stamp imprint mostly for signed outgoing letters and routine office purposes.

I don't think hardly anyone was aware of the later-version rubber stamp until I saw one that was actually used on a letter to me, which later on, while in his office was shown to me.

Throughout the 1980/90s the admiral's office manager would even "sign" autograph requests for her boss. After an informal meeting with her in 1996, she told me she would no longer provide secretarial signatures for his autograph fan mail and would return most requests unsigned.

mikelarson
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Posts: 293
From: Port Washington, NY
Registered: Jan 2005

posted 05-09-2009 09:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for mikelarson   Click Here to Email mikelarson     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Given the similarities in ink and position and style of the signatures on these photos I always assumed that almost all of this particular photo were signed together as a group early on in the program. I have seen a few variations with different pens used, but they all still look like they were signed together at the same time.

So I would agree that having the Shepard stamp on this photo while he rest of the signatures are genuine is very rare.

On a related note, NASA also produced a glossy version of this photo with pre-printed signatures, though it's very easy to tell the difference between a pre-printed one and the real thing.

Ken Havekotte
Member

Posts: 2915
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001

posted 05-09-2009 09:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ken Havekotte   Click Here to Email Ken Havekotte     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Mike--True, NASA did release a similar version of the exact same photo after the MR-3/4 flights had flown with printed autographs. There is even another photograph of the Mercury 7, also snapped at Langley Field, that is a different group gathering with printed signatures of all 7.

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