From Marshall Ketchum
I would not necessarily consider a forged signature reducing the value of a genuine piece of Steuben. A few years ago Bob Rockwell ordered some 6303 stems from someone in NYC. When he got them he discovered that some of the pieces had forged signatures along side genuine signatures. Why someone would do that is beyond comprehension. Anyway, when I heard about them from Bobby I hurried down to the store to get one but the only piece he had left was one with a genuine signature. I would have loved to have had one with both signatures and would have paid a small premium to get it. I would not consider a reasonably well done forgery to be nearly as detrimental as a chip. At one time the Rockwell Museum was considering making a collection of pieces with forged signatures. As far as I know that was never started. I know that I have several genuine pieces with forged signatures and one is a rather rare tumbler in Special Green. It makes little difference to me
if the piece is signed or if it has a forged signature as long as the forgery doesn’t disturb the piece too much. If someone has made a very poor Carder signature on a piece that really detracts from the piece I would think twice. The real job of each one of us is to take the time to study the glass so that we can recognize it without needing to depend on signatures. A Steuben signature on a piece of glass is worthless, by itself, for authentication.

I might add that my primary email is mdketchum@yahoo.com

Then Lon Knickerbocker of Dansville, NY
Good evening Alan,

In reading your response to Gordon Hancock’s question about forged signatures, I’m going to have to disagree with two of your statements. First you say, with the exception of calcite lined pieces ” most all aurene is signed “. I believe this is very untrue, Of the last 10 pieces of aurene I have purchased, 5 were unsigned. I believe this would be quite typical if most collectors actually purchased unsigned aurene items, most collectors unless quite advanced want their aurene signed due to the lack of confidence in unsigned items. I recently took 4 unsigned items to Bobby Rockwell to verify, not only did he verify the items, he suggested this was quite typical. In addition to the items originally unsigned, many of the Aurene pieces that are signed have been signed by engravers etc.. I would see nothing wrong with this practice if the piece was in fact Steuben and a collector was keeping the item. If your going to get a piece of aurene signed and attempt to sell, you should inform potential customers the piece is authentic but the signature has been done at a later time

Secondly, you suggest, most other Steuben is only occasionally signed with an incised mark. This is also untrue, sometimes complete dinner sets are signed, or complete sets of goblets are signed etc.

Most Tuesday’s a group of 6-8 Steuben collectors get together at 94 west antiques in Corning. I try to attend this group get together when I’m available, it’s informal and a good ” bull ” session. I was in Corning about 4 weeks ago attending one of the sessions and had some items I had recently picked up, hawkeye Bill Mehlenbacher in looking at these items found both a Verre de Soie piece signed with a fleur de lis and a green jade item also was signed, neither of which I had seen when I purchased. I have found that many pieces are signed, sometimes very difficult to see or very faintly marked. The best way to find signatures is to shine a flashlight or blacklight on the base of pieces and you will be pleasantly surprised how many more signed pieces you will have. My wife Debbie is constantly finding signatures that I miss, quite often using the flashlight method. If I had to estimate I would say originally about 60-70% 0f aurene was signed and eliminating a few items such as lamp bases made for other companies, flower block items, architectural items, about 50-60% of other items were signed

This is only my opinion and experience and I would enjoy other members input.

Lon Knickerbocker