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Author
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Topic: FS: Armstrong signed WSS, 1970 USC program
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stsmithva Member Posts: 1933 From: Fairfax, VA, USA Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 08-12-2014 07:19 AM
I have for sale two fine Neil Armstrong autographed items. I'll be including many informative links and pictures, so it will take me a few posts to describe them both.An official NASA lithograph of Neil Armstrong in his white space suit (often simply called "a WSS") is a highly desirable collectible. The uninscribed ones are rarer and usually sell for at least $4000. However, many collectors appreciate the extra help in authentication that the handwriting of an inscription provides. I am offering for sale a Neil Armstrong signed WSS in excellent condition. The inscription includes "Best Wishes", and the personalization is a nicely brief six letters long. If you are reading this, you probably know that Armstrong signed many items over the years, especially these WSSs, with a kind of blue marker. An article about Armstrong's autograph in the Houston Chronicle describes the consequence: "In the 1970s and 1980s, Armstrong signed in blue ink many of the autograph requests that were sent to his office. The ink is now beginning to fade, prompting fears that many authentic Armstrong autographs will literally disappear in the coming years..." You can find several cS discussions of this problem over the years. This article shows one of these WSSs with a faded blue signature. I mention this because this WSS is signed with particularly bold, black ink. It is one of the clearest, darkest Neil Armstrong autographs I have seen. Inscribed (personalized) WSSs can reach prices of $1737. This one would be priced up there, but a previous owner affixed it to archival matte board – the thin, hard board that photo mattes for framing are made of. He did this to prevent bends and wrinkles, and that did work. Still, it's not an ideal thing to do to a signed item, so this wonderful signed WSS litho can be yours for $1400. In 1970, Neil Armstrong received a Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Southern California. This was not an honorary degree – Armstrong had started his graduate studies more than ten years before, as a NACA test pilot. (USC had a night school at Edwards Air Force Base.) The USC professors accepted a paper he wrote about certain aspects of the Apollo program rather than having him finish the thesis on hypersonic flight simulations he had started before moving to Houston in 1962. On April 19, Armstrong received an alumni achievement award from USC. (This might have set a record for shortest time between becoming an alum and receiving an alumni achievement award!) Here is a program from that event, signed on that day by Armstrong next to his name at the bottom. It comes with a Steve Zarelli Letter of Authentication. Armstrong was still with NASA in 1970, but resigned in August of 1971 to become a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Receiving the master's from USC made possible this start to a career after NASA. (He was still apparently the university's only full professor who didn't have a doctorate, but according to Hansen's First Man, a UC spokesman pointed out that "We don't have any others that have been on the Moon, either." Simple uninscribed index cards signed by Armstrong are selling for prices like $1383, $1303, and $1256 (just this year so far). (Armstrong delivered a well-received commencement address at USC in 2005, and there is statue of him on campus.) |
stsmithva Member Posts: 1933 From: Fairfax, VA, USA Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 09-09-2014 09:23 PM
New price on the Armstrong WSS litho with that excellent dark signature: $1200. |
Wehaveliftoff Member Posts: 2343 From: Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 09-21-2014 10:51 PM
Mine looks nearly as great as the day I got mine, just keep it out of the light and tucked away, still looks awesome! |
stsmithva Member Posts: 1933 From: Fairfax, VA, USA Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 09-22-2014 07:38 PM
You're lucky - as Steve Zarelli and others have written, Armstrong apparently often used a water-based ink that evaporates off the surface of photos, whether or not they are exposed to light. |
Steve Zarelli Member Posts: 731 From: Upstate New York, USA Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 09-22-2014 09:47 PM
I'm no chemist, but I presume blue ink Armstrong signed lithos would have stabilized by now. Obviously UV would continue to fade any signature, but I think that the fading due to the weak water based pigment would mostly occur earlier in the life cycle, and at this point you would be lift with a stable ink signature.Has anyone noticed continued fading of properly stored blue ink lithos? |
schnappsicle Member Posts: 396 From: Houston, TX, USA Registered: Jan 2012
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posted 09-23-2014 05:16 AM
This has more to do with my Jim Irwin signed lithos than Armstrong's. I don't know what kind of pen Irwin used, but I remember it was a black one. I say "remember" because all but two of the Irwin signed lithos I received back in the early 70's have almost completely faded. He sent me about 10 of them. The reason I bring this up is because the photos were kept in their original envelopes and never displayed. Maybe it was the envelopes that did in the signatures.As I said, I'm not sure what caused the signatures to fade. All I know is, I only collect metallic (signed in silver or gold) autographs now. With regard to the Armstrong being offered. I would love to have it if my daughter wasn't getting married in 6 weeks. Collecting really is all about the timing of things. |
Chariot412 Member Posts: 156 From: Lockport, NY, 14094 Registered: Jun 2011
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posted 09-23-2014 10:23 AM
One more thing to consider: The only Armstrong I have is actually signed in pencil. While I originally questioned it, I'm told, as far as autographs surviving the test of time, it's a great medium. |
stsmithva Member Posts: 1933 From: Fairfax, VA, USA Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 11-16-2014 07:59 AM
I'll lower the price on the signed Armstrong litho portrait one more time, to $1150, with me paying for insured domestic shipping.Since I posted it for sale, identical lithos with much lighter signatures have sold at auction for higher prices - including $1375 and $2000 this month alone. And the $2000 one was glued to a larger, brown piece of cardboard, as opposed to the same-sized white piece of artist's posterboard that this one is attached to! | |
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