Rare Royal Family signatures head up local online auction
The Queen does not give autographs. Nor does any other member of the Royal Family.
“The reason they give is they don’t want people to be able to forge their signatures,” said Brian Grant Duff, of All Nations Stamp and Coin in Vancouver. “You can’t normally get genuine signatures of the royals, unless they’re on a Christmas card or letter they sent you as a personal friend, or (from them) signing a guestbook.”
This can make royal signatures quite valuable, particularly given the hype over the recent royal wedding. Saturday, Grant Duff will find out just how valuable when he auctions off signatures from the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Princess Anne and Prince Andrew in his weekly online sale.
The royal autographs are in a guest register from a dinner in Yellowknife on July 9, 1970, when the Queen visited the Northwest Territories to mark its centenary.
The dinner was thrown by the commissioner of the Northwest Territories, Stuart Hodgson. Hodgson died in 2015, and his family has consigned the 24-page register to the All Nations auction.
The Queen signed the register Elizabeth R, and underlined her name. She may have signed Philip’s name in the register as well — photos from the visit show that his right arm was in a sling when he visited Yellowknife.
“If you look at the handwriting it’s the same, so I’m assuming it’s the Queen signing for herself and Philip,” said Grant Duff.
Apparently one of the benefits of being a British royal is that you don’t have to sign your last name. Charles and Anne both signed with their first names, as well as the ever-present underline.
Andrew wasn’t at the 1970 dinner, but Hodgson got him to sign the book on July 28, 1977. His name is underlined as well.
“I thought that was interesting,” said Grant Duff. “I think that’s just how they sign. We’re the royals, this is who we are.”
There are lots of other signatures in the guestbook. “We found Jean Chretien’s signature, and (governor general) Roland Michener and his wife’s signatures,” he said. “They get their own page, which I thought was appropriate for the Queen’s representative. But we could not find Pierre Trudeau’s signature. He was certainly there, he was in photos (of the event), but it’s possible he didn’t sign it.”
The lot also comes with 24 press photos from the Queen’s visit to the Northwest Territories, both in colour and black and white.
Hodgson was a Vancouver labour leader who was appointed commissioner of the Northwest Territories in 1967. Up to that point, the giant but sparsely populated region had been governed from Ottawa.
Hodgson was a popular figure in the north: the Inuit nicknamed him Umingmak, which means muskox. He became friends with Prince Charles, who invited him to his 1981 wedding to Lady Diana. (He couldn’t attend.)
Hodgson was commissioner until 1979, overseeing dramatic changes in the North. He returned to B.C., where he ran B.C. Ferries and then B.C. Transit in the 1980s.
Grant Duff conservatively estimated the royal signatures at $500. A half-dozen people had placed bids by Thursday, driving the price up to $715. The online auction will be held Saturday at noon, with the royal signatures the first lot.