Found this Enzo Ferrari signed postcard, can anyone tell if it's real?

Hi there, I posted this about a year ago and didn't get much of a response about it so I thought I'd try again. I bought a Ferrari book a couple of years ago and found an autographed thank you postcard inside of it. The ink color looks a little off, but the signature looks right so I'm not sure if it is autopen or not.

Here are some pics: Enzo Ferrari Card - Imgur
and a close up: http://i.imgur.com/4usRozb.jpg?1

What do you guys think?

 

Well, the wild typewriter (lack of) register leads me to say "real"!!!!!

 

I hope so. While it's really cool I just don't have any place to keep it... I will probably try to sell it if I find someone who wants it!

 

I'm very interested! Send me a pm please

 

Its real as the purple ink would fade to look like this, envelope is also correct.

 

Note also the interesting level of detail in the Cavallino rampante....that's interesting!!

Thanks for posting...

 

Enzo Ferrari didn't use autopen. There are brochures with his signature printed inside, but he didn't autopen cards.
There are cards with the message "multi auguri" or similar printed in purple ink, but they were printed without the signature. Only the message was printed, and the signature added later by hand.
Nathan

 

Enzo usually had Brenda type his letters and he would sign them. Enzo would usually write or type his own greeting cards and such. Interestingly, I bought a signed Enzo letter to Jerry Englebert many years ago and Enzo signed it, but also made a typographical correction in the purple ink!

 

I have a letter from Enzo when I wrote to him moaning about not getting an F40. He replied and secured me one and whilst I don't have that car any more I do have the letter and the envelope and signature are very similar. I call it genuine. Great find.

 

Gosh that card just screams awesomeness.

Amazing what a powerful presence Enzo was, it emanates even from stationary.

I'd love to know what that font is... Looks a little like Futura...

 

It is interesting that you mention this. I have dealt with quite a few Enzo Ferrari signed items and have noticed that this particular and quite distinctive typeset is unique to items from the mid-1970s. I assume that what is now a rather obscure daisy wheel typewriter was used over that period of a few years.

 

This one's on Ebay at the moment - Enzo Ferrari Signature with COA | eBay - what do you think? Genuine or not?
Nathan

 

The signature does not look genuine to me.

 

A very bad fake, I would say.

 

I have no plans to bid on it... Among other things, Enzo was not known for being particularly receptive to signing scraps of paper or albums and the like filled with signatures of all and sundry.

 

I think fake.

 

IBM Selectric, they came with various typeset balls, and the jumping and spinning of that piece is a VERY good guess as the why the vertical registry looks like that...

Very good theory!!

Those type writers had two ribbons, a white one for corrections, but as the post above notes, you would have to manually fix the typos if the white ribbon ran out before the black one, they came packaged together in a cassette about the size of a VHS tape.


EDIT: No, come to think of it, they came packaged in a Kit, you could change the white tape, on orange wheels, apart from the black, but you often ran out of "one or the other"....

 

Two words - Pawn Stars.

 

You have all confirmed my original thoughts. It doesn't look like Enzo's signature, and I have never seen him sign 'grazie' - it's always 'ringraziamento', the more formal version. i.e 'thank you', not 'thanks'.
Nathan

 

Hi Nathan- I have some correspondence between Enzo Ferrari and Franco Zagari in which informal terms like "grazie" and "tuo" are used. Like most Italians, he seemed to abide by a pretty clear cut distinction. Friends and closer acquaintances were addressed familiarly, while strangers or casual associations were addressed formally. What I find to be truly determinate for signed items is what I would call surrounding details. Ferrari stationary, print typesets, post franking stamps, linguistic patterns, etc. follow clear patterns and would be more difficult to fake than a simple signature. In the absence of these corroborating details, I stay away.

 

I try to take the same approach, but it doesn't always work. I recently bought a factory postcard of Gilles Villeneuve which was signed on the back, but I was able to compare it with the same postcard from another collection and although the typed date was different the signature was identical. They were both printed signatures. I'll be pointing this out in my new book about the factory postcards which I'm working on at the moment. So even in the right context always exercise care.
Nathan

 

So true. I think it was Tom Shaughnessy who once mentioned here "never say never or always with anything Ferrari". Words to live by, but from my perspective, also part of the appeal.

 

Refering to the use of "Grazie ..:". Do you think the autographs on these two cards are original? For your comments many thanks in advance.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I have several Ferrari Autographs, with my first one on a brochure with a yellow background so the signature come out greenish. its on a 1983 factory brochure - I've had many "so called" Ferraristas tell me it was autopen, but then showed it to a long term Ferrari Dealer who knew Enzo personally and he states "oh that's a real one" then asked if I asked for an autographed picture? which I did.

Apparently in his older age, he would spend several hours a day signing cards, and letters, and that is why you see so many late Ferrari autographs.

I have two books that he sigend and one was for Lee Gaug at Goodyear in 85 and it says Grazie

 

I got this prize from the FCA a few years back which is a signed cheque by both Luigi Chinetti and Enzo Ferrari.

I have now decided to part ways with it. I'm not really a collector of memorabilia and I'm no longer a big fan of the FCA so I figured why not get some money out of it?

It's up on eBay right now and I was told by the FCA that its value was approximately 2000$. I'm asking 1500$, what do you guys think? Is it too much?

The point for my post is not to advertise the item but to get some feedback on its value and if it's rare or not. I'm not desperate to sell it but want to price it correctly.