10 June 2012

'A' Is for Alekhine's Autograph

For this fortnight's edition of Top eBay Chess Items by Price, all of the auctions on my short list were autographs. At the top of the list was an item described as 'Alekhine's letter from La Regence, 3 pages, February 6th 1922 with original envelope'. It received two bids and sold for US $2550.

Considerably less expensive was 'Bobby Fischer SIGNED Russian magazine, Framed • Signed in blue ink on a Russian magazine. Housed in wooden oak frame with glass cover.' It sold for US $725, in an unspecified manner, perhaps 'Buy-It-Now'. In the past I've seen many similar Fischer items, usually unframed and often unsold. I suspect they came from the 11th World Champion's famous storage locker. I've posted about it in the past, the last time in Fischer Loot Again at Auction. The latest autograph was at the top of a June 1964 issue of Shakmatny Bulletin.

Last on my short list was '100% Original score sheet of chess USSR Tournament played in 1970 year, from the game Karpov - Korchnoi , played in Dec 7, 1970'. It sold for US $517, after receiving five bids from two bidders. The game, won by Korchnoi, was played at the 38th USSR Championship at Riga, also won by Korchnoi.

The item I chose for this post is pictured below. Its title was 'Chess autographs tournament Bled 1931', and it sold for US $2437 after nine bids from three bidders; starting price $900.


The short description said only,

You are bidding on an authentic card of the Bled 1931 chess tournament, with the 14 autographs of all the participants. More info about the tournament on: Bled 1931 chess tournament.

The seller later added,

You are bidding on an authentic card of the Bled 1931 chess tournament, with 14 or 15? autographs of the participants. Asztalos I could not find but Hans Kmoch is also there.

The second thumbnail from the left shows the back of the card, while the remaining thumbnails show details of the signatures. Alekhine's autograph is discernible in the fourth thumbnail : the largest of the signatures, sloping upwards, starting 'AA'.

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