That's a tough break for David Miller, but it's good to see he is doing absolutely the right thing and taking these off the market (not that I would have expected any different - I bought a book off him a couple of years ago and he seemed like a nice bloke).

I guess one of the problems with the trading of signatures/autographs is that they really are so fakable. Not necessarily easily faked well, but it's far from impossible to do so. I think what is really odd about these items is that the signatures were done relatively well, but the typing and transcription (from the original sources) were done so poorly. I almost think that it was a double-bluff on the part of the forger.

I often wonder what the percentage of real signatures versus fakes are out there, and I've come to the conclusion that it probably isn't nearly as low as we would like it to be.

So I guess I'll be sticking to my unsigned books!

If Bloomsbury has, in fact, withdrawn the letter, why is it still listed on eBay: http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/ws/e ... ewitem=&item=170269890214

It is good to hear that David Miller pulled those other items; it is unfortunate that he purchased them, nonetheless.

Josh

Bloomsbury have stated that they can't cancel the Ebay auction or remove the entry from there web site, for 'technical reasons' but it will register as not being sold.

For completeness I have checked Bloomsbury's website

246. Tolkien (J.R.R., author and philologist … Typed Letter signed to a female ?member of … (details)
estimate: £300 – £400

unsold

The Bloomsbury listing on eBay shows that the auction ended with a bid of GBP150, but 0 bidders and 0 bids. It's a poor system that can't, for technological reasons, withdraw an item before the sale, or at least add a note stating that there are questions of authenticity. Since this piece no doubt will endure in Web archives, one can only hope that future researchers also come across our exchange about it.

Wayne