The sig­na­ture on a  fan­tas­tic auto­graphed pho­to of Win­ston Churchill at Chartwell, which a friend framed and kept on his wall and hid from the light, has fad­ed to noth­ing­ness. Even ambi­ent room light will fade ancient inks, and there is noth­ing to be done.

Back when I was senior edi­tor at Auto­mo­bile Quar­ter­ly, I res­cued a won­der­ful big 3×2-foot pho­to of the great Grand Prix cham­pi­on René Drey­fus (the world’s last great French­man), and his Type 35 Bugat­ti, from the dust­bin and brought it over to Le Chante­clair, his won­der­ful French restau­rant on 49th Street, Man­hat­tan, for him to inscribe to me. Then I framed and hung it. Over the years the sig­na­ture fad­ed to noth­ing­ness, and recent­ly I “restored” it by retrac­ing the inscrip­tion with a fine-point felt tip. How­ev­er, that was Drey­fus, not Churchill, any­body can tell I’ve doc­tored it, and  I don’t rec­om­mend this for Churchill autographs….