The Jayne Mansfield Page: Your Guide to Jayne Mansfield Autograph Collecting

Once you've familiarised yourself enough with Jayne Mansfield's writing patterns like I have you can easily spot an authentic autograph from a secretarial or the dreaded fakes and forgeries. Jayne signed a lot of autographs through out her life. She never turned anyone down when it came to obtaining her autograph. She was every bit the professional when it came to handling the admiration of her fans. Because of this authentic Jayne Mansfield autographs are not hard to come by and they can also be relatively cheap to obtain. I myself now have several of her autographs, handwritten letters, signed documents etc. And every one of them I have gotten for very affordable prices ( I have never paid more than $100 for one autographed item. I once purchased a lot of signed items for $200 but that included 5 autographed documents/items.) Most of my Jayne Mansfield autographed items I got for $50 - $80. I was once extremely lucky to get myself a two page handwritten letter for GBP-50 pounds. When buying a Jayne Mansfield autograph auction sites like eBay are the best to get a bargain but you have to be careful because not all the autographs listed on eBay are the real deal. Auction houses who specialise in autographs like RR Auction usually sell for around $200 - $250 for an autograph which I personally would only spend that much on an autograph if the photo it was signed on was an extremely rare and unique photo or if the inscription was quite lengthy or personal. A plain signed autograph saying 'Best Wishes Jayne Mansfield' or 'Affectionately Jayne Mansfield' for $200 is just too common and pricey for me. I have obviously gotten used to the bargain prices. With that said there are also some very expensive Buy it Now prices for autographs on eBay but those never sell. The sellers originally purchased them from auctions held by autograph auction specialists (like RR Auction or Icollector) for around the $200 mark and then try and sell them for $800 or more, good heavens there are a few who try and sell them into the thousands, they NEVER EVER sell.

Secretarial Signatures
A secretarial signature is what a fan would receive when writing to Fox Studios asking for a Jayne Mansfield photo to be signed. A team of Fox employees signed signatures for all of the studio's biggest stars. The secretarial signatures for Jayne were usually much smaller and thinner than her own personal handwriting. In later years when Jayne was not affiliated with Fox her secretarial signatures were signed by her own staff like Ray Strait, Ted Siffo and even eldest daughter Jayne Marie would sign on behalf of her mother, these secretarial's are quite messy looking. Jayne would receive thousands of fan mail daily requesting for her autograph, on top of that Jayne was a very busy woman so it is understandable that she (and all other stars for that matter) did not have the time to read and reply to every piece of fan mail personally. Most sellers who list a secretarial signature of Jayne's do not even realise that they are selling a secretarial and not an authentic Jayne sig so you really have to be careful with these. Luckily they are very easy to spot. Signed letterheads are most often secretarial as well.

Authentic Autographs
Jayne was always out and about, travelling her home country and the world. Everywhere she went she would meet thousands of her fans and when asked for an autograph Jayne would always happily oblige. These autographs from fans and passer bys are the most common authentic Jayne autographs you will find today. Quite often when buying one of these on eBay you are in fact buying it straight from the person who obtained it from Jayne or their family member. It is always great to hear the story of how they came to get it as well. Jayne would also often sign autographs for business owners she came across, so if she dinned in their restaurant or shopped in side their store she would sign them an autograph and if she loved the place enough she would continue to correspond with them, send them Christmas cards and updates on when she would be visiting next. Co workers and crew members from the set of her movies would also get the pleasure of hearing from Jayne via letters and Christmas cards.

Fakes and Forgeries
Autographs that fall under this category are always a cinch to spot. Luckily they never look anything like the real deal. People may even try to trace Jayne's signature but there is no copying it. When you get a good eye for it you will know right away when you see a fake. Not too many of these pop up that often thankfully.The most often occurrence I have seen of these are from sellers in Germany who sell them on old postcards.

Now it is time for the examples, I will try to use items that are currently for sale for my examples.

This autograph is in fact a secretarial signature from the Fox days.
The secretarial signature was smaller and never as flowy
or bubbly as Jayne's own handwriting

Fox secretarial

A signed Gentlemen Prefer Blondes program
for sale on eBay at the moment
This is 100% authentic and amazingly enough
this is the second time it has been listed.
It did not sell the first time for $50. Unreal.