Wonderful discovery

[Sam Yerardi]

I collect woodworking books, especially anything to do with period furniture. Among the many authors I collect (Gottshall, Lynch, etc.) one of my all-time heroes is Andy Marlow. Someone I would have liked to have met. He wrote several very popular furniture making books and some articles for Fine Woodworking. He passed away many years ago. I'm one book away from having all the books he wrote but last night I recieved a copy of 'The Cabinetmaker's Treasury'. Bought it off of ebay. You never really know what you're going to get until it shows up but I got a wonderful surprise when I opened the book. Marlow had signed the book back 1961 and left a little message. It's just a signature, but it was a wonderful surprise.

[Paul Fitzgerald]

Most excellent! Unexpected surprises are some of the best.

Paul

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Glad someone got a signed copy that means something to them. Congrats.

[Ben Cadotte]

Congrats on the bonus with the book.

But I would warn that fake autographs / signatures are all over the place on eBay. Probably not so much with older woodworking books. But forgers love eBay. Some people will do anything to turn a penny into a buck on eBay.

[Lloyd McKinlay]

like the book was promoted as a signed copy. The op didn't know it was signed until he opened it.

[Sam Yerardi]

As far as it being a fake signature, I thought about that and it could be. But I went back and looked at the ebay listing and the seller doesn't mention that it is signed or autographed. The book is actually fairly expensive $35 or more) but I lucked out and got it for $15. Either they didn't know about it (there was a small, very old Christmas card about 2.5"x2.5" taped over top of it that had a separate message on it to the reader of the book - someone got it for someone as a gift) or they did and didn't want to claim it was the real thing. I would think to increase it's value they would have at least mentioned the possibility that it was real.

In any case, real or not, it made me smile and dream a bit.

[Ben Cadotte]

like the book was promoted as a signed copy. The op didn't know it was signed until he opened it.

I bet not either, thats why I added woodworking books probably not so much the case.

As far as it being a fake signature, I thought about that and it could be. But I went back and looked at the ebay listing and the seller doesn't mention that it is signed or autographed. The book is actually fairly expensive $35 or more) but I lucked out and got it for $15. Either they didn't know about it (there was a small, very old Christmas card about 2.5"x2.5" taped over top of it that had a separate message on it to the reader of the book - someone got it for someone as a gift) or they did and didn't want to claim it was the real thing. I would think to increase it's value they would have at least mentioned the possibility that it was real.

In any case, real or not, it made me smile and dream a bit.

If they didn't mention it they were not trying to increase the value a signature would have made. They probably didn't even know it was under the card.

[Sam Yerardi]

As much as an icon that Marlow was, I know it would have pushed the value up well past $35 very easily if it had been mentioned.