Audrey Lipton of NYC gives us her thoughts on signatures.
Hi Alan,

Recent correspondence about the significance/value of signed/unsigned pieces of Carder Steuben evoke recollections of various stages in my collecting experience. Although many fine dealers attempted to convince me otherwise, when I was a new collector and had no deep background or knowledge, signatures gave me a feeling of confidence that what I was buying was genuine. Only with time and the opportunity to see a lot of Carder glass, engage in many hours of discussions with Carder experts and incalculable hours and hours of reading research materials (including Gardner and Dimitroff), did I begin to trust my own observations. One can’t make accurate assessments about anything without having the foundation of knowledge and experience that creates confidence. For a variety of reasons, signed pieces of art are usually inherently more valuable than unsigned pieces by the same artists. So it is understandable that signatures ought give one the confidence that what one is buying is the real thing. Since we know that this is not always the case with Carder Steuben glass, avoiding fakes is a factor of due
diligence. At some major auction house previews I have seen Carder pieces that were signed “L.C.T.” being sold as Tiffany. When I was a relatively new collector visiting the shop of a well known glass dealer I coveted a pair of prong vases. One was signed and the other wasn’t. This dealer had just spent the previous year trying to teach me that signatures didn’t matter. So when I asked if I could buy just one vase and he agreed I was delighted until he told me the prices and announced that the signed one would be $250.00 more than the unsigned one! In short, as collectors we make up our minds and open our checkbooks in accordance with our own values and budgets with our passion for this wonderful glass the final determinant.

The next e-mail will continue with a backlog of comments on auction houses.