Vibracobra23

Vibracobra23, 16 hours ago

and was published by Gebrüder Wehrli of Kilchberg/Bendlikon in the Canton of Zürich. It was sent on 19th August 1904 from Territet by Montreux and reads: "Have arrived at Territet (12:30). We saw Fritz [?] at the station and he has told us of a Hotel at Montreux, where we are going. My cold has come on again worst luck but it will be better soon. Arrive Lucern on Tuesday (probably). H.G. Wells" The card is addressed to Mrs Wells, Hotel Beatus, Merligen, Lake of Thun. 2/11

Vibracobra23, 16 hours ago

I did an image search for samples of H.G. Wells' handwriting and although there were similarities, there were some discrepancies. Wells usually signed his name with an "ε" rather than an "e". I did find a few examples with the "e" though. See the two examples below, plus one with the regular signature. Clearly the amount of space available for writing the message was small, some 8½ x 2cms, so that would necessitate an adaptation to the normal style of writing in order to fit it all in. 3/11

A less common form of H.G. Wells' signature, featuring the e written as a regular e. This was written by Wells in his own copy of a collection of Robert Browning's poetry and is dated September 21st, 1894.
A further example of the less common form of H.G. Wells' signature, also featuring the e written as a regular e. This was written by Wells on a note stuck to the front page of a 1st edition of The Time Machine given to Arthur Exley, dated October 16th, 1941.

Vibracobra23, 16 hours ago

The postcard itself is the standard size for that period, 5½ inches by 3½ inches or 14cms by 9cms. I also thought it odd that he would sign it "H.G. Wells" on a postcard to his wife, but maybe that was something that he did. That's why the expert's opinion was going to be helpful. I knew that Wells had written about Lucerne and had clearly spent time there in the 1900s. I also tracked down a book, 'The Correspondence of H.G. Wells: Volume 2, 1904-1918', and on pp.42-43 there is... 4/11

Vibracobra23, 16 hours ago

a letter from H.G. Wells to Miss Beatrice Webb, dated the 29th of August 1904 wherein he mentions that they had just come back from Switzerland after being there nearly 3 weeks. The card was sent to Merligen which was also a known haunt of authors and artists at that period. So, the pieces seemed to fit to some degree. The Treasurer of the H.G. Wells Society passed on this information and the scans to the expert and I awaited the reply. Yesterday, I received an email from the Treasurer. 5/11

Vibracobra23, 16 hours ago

The expert agreed that it would be odd for H.G. Wells to actually sign "H.G. Wells" on something seemingly written to his wife and that although no correspondence to his wife was available for study from that period, he usually signed "HG", "Dadda" or "Bins". The expert stated that a forger would, of course, write "H.G. Wells". The expert also agreed that H.G. Wells did indeed seem to have confirmed that he was in Switzerland at that time and that his presence in Montreux was a possibility. 6/11

Vibracobra23, 16 hours ago

The expert also stated that the signature didn't seem to be written with the same pen as the message. Overall, the expert's opinion was that it could be authentic, but wasn't prepared to state that any authenticity could be verified. Naturally, I was slightly disappointed. Not because postcards written by H.G. Wells tend to fetch over £1000 (even though money is tight these days), but moreso because it would be great to have something that the author had actually written in his own hand. 7/11

Vibracobra23, 16 hours ago

Anyway, as the question hadn't been entirely settled, I decided to do a final image search for samples of H.G. Wells' handwriting. The H on the signature, as well as in the word Hotel in the message is quite distinctive, with a loop in the lower half. I thought that it might be possible to track down other examples, if any exist. So, I trawled through dozens of images of his letters and manuscripts and eventually found an image of a signature (see below) which was strikingly similar. 8/11

Vibracobra23, 16 hours ago

Then it all clicked into place. I found another contemporary H.G. Wells, an artist, who lived in Woking at the same time that H.G. Wells was also in Woking, where he was writing The War of the Worlds. In fact, they both lived on Maybury Road, Woking, at the same time. And, they were both called Herbert George Wells. The author was born in Bromley in September 1866; the artist was born in Camberwell with the birth registered in September 1867. It seems that they were both also... 9/11

Vibracobra23, 16 hours ago

on holiday in Switzerland at the same time. It appears as though the artist did indeed sign his name H.G. Wells on the card, which probably was sent to his wife. It seems to me to be an exact match. So, the postcard is not a forgery, but was written by an artist with the same name. That both men had exactly the same full name, both lived in Woking at the same time and even lived on the same road, and also, apparently, were both in Switzerland at the same time is a very great coincidence. 10/11

Vibracobra23, 16 hours ago

It's no wonder that it tripped me up on my initial investigation. What are the chances? I find that this back story has every bit as much value as any monetary amount the card might have fetched had it been written by the author. No doubt it would make an interesting article one day. Details of H.G. Wells, the lesser-known artist (see below for his photo), can be found at https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/people/artists/herbert-george-wells/ where I originally spotted the signature. THE END. 11/11

Vibracobra23, 16 hours ago

@venite Yes, I think they were.

Vibracobra23, 15 hours ago

@morgrugyn Thanks! It's always worth looking into them where possible.

Vibracobra23, 14 hours ago

@einarwh It definitely has echoes of something he might have written. Quite odd. And the Treasurer and expert at the H.G. Wells Society were also unaware of this other parallel H.G. Wells.

Vibracobra23, 13 hours ago

@jzakotnik Aye, quite bizarre!

Vibracobra23, 13 hours ago

@theplaguedoc There are. I also just saw that the classic MGM film of The Time Machine was released on this day in 1960.