# John Owen 1st Edition, 1650....looking for signature confirmation for "John Brown"



## Constantlyreforming (Jul 14, 2011)

Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

So, I recently purchased a 1st Edition of John Owen’s Death of Death in the Death of Christ from 1650. It is completely unbound, and I will be doing some work to put a nice cover on it. The text is in phenomenal shape for it being an unbound copy. It includes the Vindication of Mr. Owens as a part of the book as well, also a first edition. 

I purchased this from New Zealand from a small shop that specializes in antiquarian books. Anyhow, I was able to talk them down just a bit. My question is this…
The top of the title page, above the title, has a signature of “John Brown”. Now, there are several famous John Browns out there….the most famous to us likely being John Brown of Haddington, who lived during the mid to late 1700s. Then, there was the famous John Brown, the abolishionist, who lived during the mid 1800s. There was also another theologian, a Puritan, named John Brown of Wamphray, who lived in the late 1600s. Now, it is definitely not the signature of John Brown the abolishionist, as there are several examples of this online, and the signature looks nothing like it.

That leaves the other two as possibilities…it could be theirs, or, an anonymous John Brown. I contacted a few Puritan book dealers, so far to no avail. Any thoughts? From my years of collecting, I can tell you that the signature is definitely prior to 1800, based on the ink, style and size of signature. In addition, it looks as though it may be from after 1700 based on the size of the pen used.
What do you think? Is anyone familiar with these signatures? If anyone could point me in the right direction I would highly appreciate it! See the pictures below.

Thanks in Christ,

Ethan


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## N. Eshelman (Jul 14, 2011)

Probably one of the most common names of the time. You will have to find someone who specializes in autographs and try to match this one with one of the famous JBs. 

Look at the disambiguation page from Wiki: John Brown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## NaphtaliPress (Jul 14, 2011)

NLS has some manuscripts by one or two John Browns that you might see if they would check or maybe you could hire a researcher to check. However, one is Brown of Wamphray and if you think it is for sure post 1700 then that rules him out (d.1685).
*WebVoyage*


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## Constantlyreforming (Jul 14, 2011)

I'm not an expert by any means, so it could be. What is NLS? I am not familiar...


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## NaphtaliPress (Jul 14, 2011)

Follow the link; NLS=National Library of Scotland.


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## MW (Jul 14, 2011)

John Brown of Haddington's signature is in the front matter of Mackenzie's biography. Comparing it with the signature you have provided there are numerous similarities in the shaping and joining of the letters.


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## Notthemama1984 (Jul 14, 2011)

armourbearer said:


> John Brown of Haddington's signature is in the front matter of Mackenzie's biography. Comparing it with the signature you have provided there are numerous similarities in the shaping and joining of the letters.



The plot thickens......


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## Phil D. (Jul 14, 2011)

Here's a picture of John Brown of Haddington's signature.


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## Constantlyreforming (Jul 15, 2011)

Hmmmm

And the crazy thing is that it's spellt the exact same way....


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## JennyG (Jul 15, 2011)

the "John" is very similar, but the B seems to have been done differently...one continuous line in the undoubted J B of H signature, but in yours it looks like two separate pen strokes. That can't be conclusive though - I don't always do my J the same way.
It's quite a thrilling copy to own whoever it belonged to!


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## Constantlyreforming (Jul 15, 2011)

To me, I just don't see it. Although my signature changes as time passes. I also sign my name different on a check or letter than I do in my books.


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## JennyG (Jul 15, 2011)

Constantlyreforming said:


> To me, I just don't see it. Although my signature changes as time passes. I also sign my name different on a check or letter than I do in my books.



what do you mean you don't see?


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## Constantlyreforming (Jul 15, 2011)

okay, instead of writing in my new book, I decided just to crop pictures for comparisons' sake. I will say, the spacing of the letters, sizing, etc...is all very similar....just that first J....that's what gets me....

but then again, my signature is different whether I sign or just write it nicely.


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## JennyG (Jul 15, 2011)

actually all copperplate-style handwriting looks similar to me. I sometimes wonder how a couple of centuries ago anyone was even able to distinguish between two hands. I'm sure there wasn't anything like the variety that exists since on the whole schools stopped bothering with it.


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## py3ak (Jul 17, 2011)

These two look very dissimilar to me. The J and the B are quite distinct, in the one case being rounded and graceful and in the other being spikier and a little careless, and formed in quite a different way. The pen begins in different places, so it's not just a question of greater care in one case than in the other, it's a whole different approach to making the letter. The "w" is also quite different, as is the "r". The only point of similarity seems to be to be the "oh" and the final "n". Unless you have some reason for picking John Brown of Haddington as the signer of your book it doesn't seem like the signature points in that direction.


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## PuritanCovenanter (Jul 17, 2011)

I was thinking the same thing Ruben. My signature varies like this depending on what I am signing.


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