One of the Most Amazing Autograph Collections of All Time
Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:44 pm
ONE of the world's biggest autograph collections, that reads like a Who's Who of the 20th Century, is up for sale.
It was amassed by grocery driver Tommy Scullion who spent his entire life collecting over 40,000 signatures of the rich and famous.
It includes Popes, presidents, royalty, criminals and Nobel prize winners and is expected to go for more than £50,000.
The collection includes some rareties such as civil rights legend Martin Luther King and traitor Kim Philby in Russia.
There's one from Pablo Picasso, complete with an artistic flourish, and a POEM signed by the Kray twins.
Others include terrorist Carlos the Jackal, OJ Simpson, Pope John Paul II and his predecessor John Paul I, supergroup Abba and Spanish dictator Franco.
Notorious murderer Charles Manson's autograph is in the collection alongside philosopher Albert Schweitzer, Robert Kennedy, T. S. Eliot and Edward Duke of Windsor.
Tommy got the signatures by penning flattering letters in perfect handwriting to the celebrities and a surprising number wrote back.
He was an avid reader of current affairs and made lists of people in the news he wanted to contact.
Tommy was one of ten children and spent his life in the family home in the northern Irish village of Broughshane in County Antrim.
He never married and spent his spare time writing to people of note, averaging about 25 letters a week.
He left school at 14 but taught himself calligraphy to impress those he wrote to - and many commented on his style.
He was known as a charming man and after bumping into Grace Kelly and her husband Prince Rainier III of Monaco on holiday continued to get Christmas cards from them each year.
Tommy died in 1996 at the age of 72 from MRSA in hospital - but continued being sent autographs after his death, including that of South African president Thabo Mbeki.
He kept his collection in boxes and only made half-hearted attempts to catalogue them.
Now his family is putting them up for auction and they plan to use the money to erect a small museum in the village dedicated to his memory.
His brother Wilson said: "There were ten of us and Tommy was the one who never left home.
"He worked as a grocery driver and never drank or smoked.
"He knew everyone and enjoyed speaking to people and he would give out advice.
"He played golf off scatch and spent his money on travelling. He also read a great deal. He bought every magazine and newspaper.
"On Sundays when we'd be coming home from church, he'd buy every newspaper on the stand. Then he'd list people in them that he wanted to write to and then try and find addresses.
"He started writing to people when he left school at the age of 15 during the war.
"He taught himself calligraphy and that impressed people and he would flatter their egos. If you stroke someone's ego well enough it's amazing what you can get.
"He was also very persistent and would write over and over again to people. Some replied years after he had written to them.
"He would also try and get autographs of people in their different capacities.
"For example, he would get an Archbishop's signature and then would get it again if they became a Cardinal.
"He would also get the autographs of every person involved in an event - he got all the Watergate people - not just Nixon.
"And he didn't just get OJ Simpson but all the solicitors for the prosecution and the defence."
Richard Davie, from International Autograph Auctions Ltd, is selling the autograph collection as 400 lots at the The Radisson Edwardian Hotel at Heathrow Airport on July 12.
He said: "It's a spectacular collection, one of the finest-ever put together and it spans over 50 years.
"He didn't go for the obvious people, but those who he noted by reading current affairs magazines.
"There are lots of photographs and some letters he received and many are on special cards he sent out to get the people to sign."
The collection ended up being sold for 63,000 pounds. Over 100,000 US dollars.
It was amassed by grocery driver Tommy Scullion who spent his entire life collecting over 40,000 signatures of the rich and famous.
It includes Popes, presidents, royalty, criminals and Nobel prize winners and is expected to go for more than £50,000.
The collection includes some rareties such as civil rights legend Martin Luther King and traitor Kim Philby in Russia.
There's one from Pablo Picasso, complete with an artistic flourish, and a POEM signed by the Kray twins.
Others include terrorist Carlos the Jackal, OJ Simpson, Pope John Paul II and his predecessor John Paul I, supergroup Abba and Spanish dictator Franco.
Notorious murderer Charles Manson's autograph is in the collection alongside philosopher Albert Schweitzer, Robert Kennedy, T. S. Eliot and Edward Duke of Windsor.
Tommy got the signatures by penning flattering letters in perfect handwriting to the celebrities and a surprising number wrote back.
He was an avid reader of current affairs and made lists of people in the news he wanted to contact.
Tommy was one of ten children and spent his life in the family home in the northern Irish village of Broughshane in County Antrim.
He never married and spent his spare time writing to people of note, averaging about 25 letters a week.
He left school at 14 but taught himself calligraphy to impress those he wrote to - and many commented on his style.
He was known as a charming man and after bumping into Grace Kelly and her husband Prince Rainier III of Monaco on holiday continued to get Christmas cards from them each year.
Tommy died in 1996 at the age of 72 from MRSA in hospital - but continued being sent autographs after his death, including that of South African president Thabo Mbeki.
He kept his collection in boxes and only made half-hearted attempts to catalogue them.
Now his family is putting them up for auction and they plan to use the money to erect a small museum in the village dedicated to his memory.
His brother Wilson said: "There were ten of us and Tommy was the one who never left home.
"He worked as a grocery driver and never drank or smoked.
"He knew everyone and enjoyed speaking to people and he would give out advice.
"He played golf off scatch and spent his money on travelling. He also read a great deal. He bought every magazine and newspaper.
"On Sundays when we'd be coming home from church, he'd buy every newspaper on the stand. Then he'd list people in them that he wanted to write to and then try and find addresses.
"He started writing to people when he left school at the age of 15 during the war.
"He taught himself calligraphy and that impressed people and he would flatter their egos. If you stroke someone's ego well enough it's amazing what you can get.
"He was also very persistent and would write over and over again to people. Some replied years after he had written to them.
"He would also try and get autographs of people in their different capacities.
"For example, he would get an Archbishop's signature and then would get it again if they became a Cardinal.
"He would also get the autographs of every person involved in an event - he got all the Watergate people - not just Nixon.
"And he didn't just get OJ Simpson but all the solicitors for the prosecution and the defence."
Richard Davie, from International Autograph Auctions Ltd, is selling the autograph collection as 400 lots at the The Radisson Edwardian Hotel at Heathrow Airport on July 12.
He said: "It's a spectacular collection, one of the finest-ever put together and it spans over 50 years.
"He didn't go for the obvious people, but those who he noted by reading current affairs magazines.
"There are lots of photographs and some letters he received and many are on special cards he sent out to get the people to sign."
The collection ended up being sold for 63,000 pounds. Over 100,000 US dollars.
