Forger Spring

With some pride, the New York Public Library last week announced that it had just received as a gift an arrant forgery to add to its notable collection of autographs. The document, purporting to be a brief letter in the handwriting of Benjamin Franklin, was gladly accepted by the library, for, according to Manhattan Autograph Expert Thomas F. Madigan, it was a fine specimen of the handiwork of Robert Spring, one of the most notorious autograph forgers in U. S. history. While hundreds of unwitting collectors have cabinets filled with Robert Spring autographs, wiseacres are willing to pay large sums for the few letters to which that rascal signed his real name.

Born in England in 1813, Robert Spring arrived in Philadelphia about 1858 to open a bookshop. Not until he had a chance to sell a small but genuine collection of early U. S. autographs did he prosper. Discovering his own ability at copying hand-writings, he started in a small way by putting the signatures of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin (his favorite characters) on the fly leaves of old books. As his skill grew, so did his audacity. To make detection more difficult, most of the Spring forgeries were sent to England and Canada for sale and circulation. Because Britain was still sentimentally fond of the Confederate States, Forger Spring invented a new character, a respectable maiden lady known as Miss Fanny Jackson, only daughter of General '"Stonewall" Jackson. For years Miss Fanny's precarious finances induced her to part with a great flood of letters and manuscripts belonging to her father and Forger Spring had to work like a beaver to keep up with the demand.

The Spring George Washingtons were less imaginative. One short note was his specialty. It read:

"Permission is granted to Mr. Ryerson, with his negro man, Dick, to pass and repass the picket at Ramapo. Go. Washington."

Whether General Washington ever issued such a pass to Mr. Ryerson and his man Dick, history does not say. Robert Spring issued enough of them to keep Mr. Ryerson and the blackamoor shuttling back & forth past the Ramapo picket for years.

Spring was also fond of forging Washington bank checks which he sold abroad for $10 each. To his special clients he sometimes made presents of bogus Martin Luthers. Repeatedly arrested for his knavery, Robert Spring died in poverty, left sharp-eyed experts the difficult task of detecting his forgeries from the originals.

If Robert Spring was the most expert of autograph forgers, the most blatant was a French contemporary named Vrain Lucas. Within eight years he produced and sold no less than 27,000 autograph manuscripts including a polite little note from Judas Iscariot to Mary Magdalene. His greatest mistake: composing a letter from Cleopatra to Julius Caesar in modern French.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.