Verification for Lance Alworth | Item # 1798
Title: Autograph Authentication – Lance Alworth
Confidence Grade: C
Overview
This report provides a forensic signature analysis of a blue ink autograph appearing on a vintage football card featuring Lance Alworth. The signature is inscribed along with contextual embellishments — including “HOF 78,” “#19,” and “Bambi” — all appearing to be written in the same ink and style, likely contemporaneous. The analysis focuses on the primary “Lance Alworth” signature for authorship purposes. Upon examination, both mechanization risk and especially writer identity fidelity raise material concerns, triggering the Wrong-Hand Veto.
Forensic Ink and Substrate Evaluation
- Ink Characteristics: The signature and embellishments appear to be written in standard blue felt-tip or ballpoint ink. Immediate analysis under pseudo–10× magnification shows adequate penetration into the card’s semi-gloss substrate, suggesting a genuinely handwritten application rather than reproduction.
- Stroke Integrity:
- Ink flow is continuous and reasonably smooth across textured regions.
- No evidence of uniform mechanical line pressure, skipping, robotic precision, or digital replication.
- Pressure Indicators: Minor substrate gloss deformation inline with pen pressure observed, especially in terminal strokes.
➡️ Conclusion: No reproduction or mechanical copying elements are present. Signature is naturally handwritten.
Individual Signature Analysis
“Lance” Section:
- The “L” is a high-vault looped construction lacking the slant, compression, and hook-round execution seen in known genuine specimens from Alworth.
- Internal letters “a-n-c-e” display flattened, overdeliberate curvature inconsistent with rapid athletic cursive seen in authentic examples.
- The spacing between the letters appears excessive, suggesting either tremor control or hesitation due to uncertainty rather than fluency.
“Alworth” Section:
- Significant deviation in overall structure.
- The “A” is aggressively peaked and disjoint rather than rounded and naturally joined into the “l”.
- The “l-w” connection is loosely rendered without the embedded sock-loop hallmark found in genuine Alworth autographs.
- Letterforms “o-r-t-h” become increasingly malformed and angular, with decreasing baseline adherence — suggestive of adaptive, rather than muscle-memorized, motor patterns.
Collective Signature Analysis
- Macro-flow lacks the confident slant and forward movement seen in authenticated live-sign autographs from Lance Alworth.
- The overall composition appears staged — written either overly large or with artificial emphasis for presentation value.
- The three added inscriptions (“HOF 78,” “#19,” and “Bambi”) demonstrate similar stroke character and ink behavior. Their casual orientation offsets the main signature’s stylization — further stressing inconsistency between practiced versus improvised motor planning.
Red Flags
Class A — Structural Identity Failures
- Incorrect Capital “L” Construction
- Highly flourished, rounded “L” bears minimal similarity to the historically narrower, hard-slant loop from real exemplars.
- Broken Letterform Logic in “Alworth” Tail
- Disconnection between “w” and terminal letters produces an unnatural rhythm breakdown, contrary to known signature motion profiles.
These are mutually independent construction breakdowns involving different stroke mechanisms: entrance stroke vs. mid-body consistency.
✅ Two Class A red flags warranting a C-rating (if veto had not already been triggered)
Class B — Contextual Concerns
- Decorative insertion of nickname “Bambi” suggests stylistic representation over genuine self-signature intent.
- Lack of certified provenance or session-control imagery.
- Card condition and ink timing are mismatched; signature appears much more recent than card vintage, increasing uncertainty window.
Market Comparison and Similar Item Sales
⚠️ Verified comparative exemplars were not provided in-session and cannot be fabricated.
General market history suggests that Lance Alworth was a prolific signer, frequently participating in sanctioned sports memorabilia signings. Still, due to the tight signature field and absence of documented matchprint, this cannot be leveraged to override structural errors.
Final Assessment
Though the ink is naturally applied and no reproduction was detected, the wrong-hand veto is triggered due to macro-structure, style, and stroke fidelity contradictions. The signature bears the hallmarks of natural handwriting by the wrong person — an inherently high-risk forgery modality.
Coupled with two distinct Class A structural failures and absence of corroborative stylistic fidelity, the item fails to meet authenticity standards.
Confidence Grade: C
(Likely Not Authentic — Wrong-Hand Forgery)
Submitted Image:
