Authenticating The Autographs

Would you please let me know the top professional service for authenticating the autographs in U.S. and Great Britain .

I appreciate your kind help .

 

It probably depends somewhat on whose signature you're looking to authenticate. We assume there are authentication services that tend to specialize in specific groups of signatories -- literary, artistic, political, historical, show biz, &c'. JSA (James Spence Authentication) began certifying autographs of sports figures, but has expanded into authenticating signatures by (or purported to be by) almost anyone in any sphere of activity. From what we've read over the years, they're the most prominent autograph authentication service in the States.
https://www.spenceloa.com/aboutjsa
Note that this not an endorsement -- we've also heard many stories about JSA certifying forgeries as authentic, and rejecting authentic signatures as not convincing.

 

Well that doesn't sound good.

 

True, cluttered, but authentication is a tough gig. It's easy to spot a poor forgery, but an expert one, not so much. What really hurts is having authentic signatures rejected as "not authentic." Anyone's autograph changes drastically with the varying conditions of how rushed it is, the writing surface, the writing implement, and certainly the signer's age and health. Was the signer young and vigorous and sitting at a well-lit desk, using a quality pen to carefully inscribe one book or photograph for a friend? Was another autograph by the same person done when the signer was elderly and shaky or ill or drunk, standing outside under a streetlight in the rain, using a balky ballpoint to hurriedly sign multiple items for a crowd of fans? What does the authenticator have at hand as the standard comparison? Our own sigs today are all but unrecognizably different from how they were fifty, or thirty, or even ten years ago.