AUTOGRAPHS

Does anyone know about vintage Autograph books?

I have an old Autograph book from the year 1881 and it’s filled with best wishes, art, poems, date’s and locations so much more. Its really great! It has a signatures from a senator. It was in written in long hand with a fountain pen some pages in pencil. Does anyone know if Autograph books can be worth a lot of money? Are there many collectors out there? Or how I can do research on the people who wrote in this book because I am very curious! We’ve had this book for over 20 years now and its nagging me to know more. Any information would be of help to me Thanks!

What you should do is to show it to someone who is an authority on such things — Antiques Roadshow would be a possibility if you should ever happen to be in an area where they were taping a show. You might also consider taking it to a library or museum. Considering its date, it might be valuable as an example of an era in American history. Then, too, if there were to be several or more autographs of famous people, those would enhance the book’s value. I don’t know whether you’ve heard of provenance, but that is a situation where you possess other items related to the autograph book or where you have proof of the original owner or access to some of the history of it. If you do know whose book it was originally, that would be helpful. You really do need to have it evaluated by someone accredited to do so. It is surely worth something to someone, how much and to whom could be determined by an authority. Good luck!

Vintage Autograph baseball cards