Django signature for sale?

Charlie Ayers

I saw this on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/DJANGO-REINHARDT-AU ... 3efc4256cc

Do you think it's real? No financial interest on my part.

klaatu

For that amount of money, you could buy a very nice Selmer.

Jazzaferri

Pretty nice hand for a guy who didn't learn to write until early 20's

I think I would want some pretty solid provenance.

Elliot

Does it come with a cyanide pill for when they get it appraised?

crookedpinky

...don't forget the seller is offering free postage, so that's a bargain then. It seems a bit odd that the seller also offers to help any serious buyers with authenitcation - why not inlcude it or at least confirm they already have it.

There are also some photographs of Djangos signature from books and they bear no relation to the one on offer. If I rememebr rightly it was Grapelli who taught Django to sign his name but I think the story goes that Django became bored and learned to write his name more like a picture. I seem to remember seeing a letter wrtitten by Django - in French - but it was written in capital letters and very bad French at that. The signature on offer seems more like that of a person who's been able to write for a long time and has developed a distinctive longhand script.

As far as I know Djang never learned to speak English - so where does the phrase "from one guitarist to another" come from ? Django himself ? I think not.

This reminds me of the memorabilia shops in Vegas which sell guitars etc. signed by such luminaries as John Lennon, Hendrix etc. The only problem is that they appear on guitars which were not around at the time these guys were alive and they all seem to be written with the same magic marker...

Mabe I'mjust becoming cynical in ly old age but Caveat emptor...

Shawn

I think crookedpinky pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one. This looks nothing like any Django signature I've ever seen, and looks much more like the pen stroke of someone completely in control of their ability to write. In fact, if you look at the purposed signature the pressure points (where the person pushes down harder when writing) are in the completely wrong places...just look around the "n" in "Reinhardt". From what I also remember when Stephane was teaching Django to write, Django wouldn't usually spell out his first name, instead opting for "D. Reinhardt", and only rarely using the full spelling, with most cases showing a capitalized "DJANGO" instead.

If this autograph actually is from the purported time period, then I would make the suggestion that Django may have had one of his many stand-in doubles, as it were, sign this for him. Anyone from Nin Nin, Sarane Ferret, Oscar Aleman, Baro, or even Delaunay himself might have signed this. In light of this, I highly doubt this signature is the work of Django as there was little fluidity in his signature. Django's confirmed signatures show a very heavy handed writer who wasn't sure in his abilities to perform such a task and who took great care and pride to make sure his signature look the best he could muster...the piece offered on ebay has neither of these attributes.

Teddy Dupont

This is clearly not Django's signature.

Bones

If this is really a fake should someone notify Ebay before someone gets ripped off?

Teddy Dupont

Bones wrote:

If this is really a fake should someone notify Ebay before someone gets ripped off?

Perhaps anyone who is prepared to pay this amount for a signature, even Django's, has more money than sense and probably deserves to get ripped off. 8) In any case, no-one with any knowledge of the subject, and these are presumably the only people interested, would be fooled. It is not even a good fake.