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Fake or real autograph of Christopher Tolkien

6 Jun, 2025
2025-6-6 6:13:17 PM UTC

I just acquired a first edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from 1975. There is a gift dedication from a Christopher. Could anyone say if this is from Christopher T or not? I understand that it is a long shot but the little doodles around the signature made me curious.

5702_68432fbd5339a.jpg 2992X2992 px
6 Jun, 2025
2025-6-6 6:51:47 PM UTC
I'm sorry, but that is not Christopher Tolkien's signature.
6 Jun, 2025
2025-6-6 10:22:23 PM UTC

Trotter wrote:

I'm sorry, but that is not Christopher Tolkien's signature.

Agreed, not his handwriting. And I would add that the key to any of these signatures is provenance. Without it they have to be doubted.
17 Jul, 2025 (edited)
2025-7-17 5:33:11 PM UTC
Pretty questionable signature, although the "C" does look familiar

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17 Jul, 2025
2025-7-17 5:38:54 PM UTC

SamwiseTheBrave wrote:

Pretty questionable signature, although the "C" does look familiar

This has already been discussed here:

https://www.tolkienguide.com/modules/n ... t_id=62571#forumpost62571
17 Jul, 2025
2025-7-17 6:38:58 PM UTC
Unsure how the seller thought we meant this

While there is no formal provenance for the signature, it has been examined by Tolkien experts and collectors, with many of them believing in its authenticity as a genuine dedication from Christopher Tolkien. We encourage you to review the provided images and make your own assessment.
17 Jul, 2025
2025-7-17 7:11:57 PM UTC

andrewferguson(trotter) wrote:

Unsure how the seller thought we meant this

While there is no formal provenance for the signature, it has been examined by Tolkien experts and collectors, with many of them believing in its authenticity as a genuine dedication from Christopher Tolkien. We encourage you to review the provided images and make your own assessment.

I thought the exact same thing, but then ended up stumbling across a sequence of comments in the Facebook group where there were a number of opinions in favour of this being CT's signature. I suspect the seller might be relying on those comments (though the description given is still somewhat disongenuous).
18 Jul, 2025
2025-7-18 6:22:44 AM UTC
The seller is being disingenuous. The discussion on FB ended up on ‘can’t say it definitively isn’t’, IIRC. I don’t think it was much more positive than that. The discussion here was flat out ‘Nope’.

To me, there were some aspects that looked a bit similar and some that looked quite wrong.

With no evidence ‘for’, except for a common first name and wishful thinking, the seller is pushing his luck here, IMHO..

18 Jul, 2025
2025-7-18 12:52:33 PM UTC
Yes, The late Stu is correct.

I just went and searched for the conversation in that FB group(which is hard to do) and found it. The conversation was much more mixed, but none could definitively say.

I still personally think that it looks nothing like Christopher's hand writing.
22 Jul, 2025
2025-7-22 4:16:34 PM UTC
Here's another obvious fake:

"J.R.R. Tolkien – Pictures – First Edition 1979 – SIGNED by Christopher Tolkien"
£1,750.00

"SIGNED ‘Chris Tolkien’ to the foreward [sic] page … exceptionally scarce signed."

https://johnatkinsonbooks.co.uk/book/j ... d-by-christopher-tolkien/

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