Salvador Dali, (1904-1989). Is he still signing?
Have you ever been on a cruise? For years, no matter which cruise line you have been on, you should have noticed each cruise ship holds an art auction. On a recent cruise, I interviewed a woman on the Enchanted Princess, which was a long transatlantic cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Rome. She advised me that they are presently having art auctions on 115 cruises a week on all the cruise lines. Since I knew Salvador Dali quite well my interest was in his works. I’ve been on 47 cruises and have been following his items being auctioned off for many years.
Over the years, I personally obtained hundreds of autographs from Dali.
In person he was very generous with his autograph. The bookstore inside his hotel, The Saint Regis, always had signed copies of Dali’s books for sale. Usually after lunch, he would go to the store and sign several copies. This went on for years. Like anyone else, Dali had good and bad days signing autographs. However, once you are familiar with his signature you will discover his patterns.
Many autograph collectors are familiar with his autograph When signing books, First Day Covers, prints and occasionally signing photographs his autograph is pretty consistent. One major change in his signature is when he gets carried away and personally signs a copy of one of his books and adds a quick sketch. See illustration below.
For years I have been watching the auctions on cruise vessels. When it comes to signed prints these were being offered hand signed by Dali. The signatures are exhibited below. There were four signed prints being sold at this action. The first two had similar signatures, see below.
In all my years spent with the Master, I have never seen this style of signature anywhere else other than on these cruise line auctions. Every auction for decades is held by the same auction company. Matter of fact the following signatures are from other cruises bearing the nearly identical signature. I call them the “teepee signature!”
There is no doubt in my mind that the signatures illustrated above are by the same hand.
They are all so similar it appears they are either being signed by a machine or by…………?
By the way, on this same cruise, two more prints, claimed to be signed by Dali are illustrated below.
I asked the sales woman if she can see that the above two signatures seem to be signed by the same hand. Her response was “he must have signed these two at a different time.”
Next question I asked was if you believe the above two signatures are signed by the same hand, then how can you believe the first two prints illustrated at the beginning are by the same hand as these? No response! My last question is how can you put up the four prints with the two different Dali signatures? Anyone can plainly see the four prints were signed by two very different people. Her response was the same: “He signed them at two different times.”
Do the math, 115 cruises a week multiplied by a minimum of four signed Dali’s equals 460 Dali’s with these exact style signatures being offered each week. Times this by years. That’s thousands upon thousands of Dali prints that have been auctioned over a few decades.
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