Glossary
In autograph-auction catalogues the following abbreviations are used to help describe the type of letter or document that is being offered for sale.
- AD: Autograph Document (hand-written by the person to be collected, but not signed)
- ADS: Autograph Document Signed (written and signed by same individual)
- AL: Autograph Letter (hand-written by the person to be collected, but not signed)
- ALS: Autograph Letter Signed (hand-written and signed by same individual)
- AMs: Autograph Manuscript (hand-written; such as the draft of a play, research paper or music sheet)
- AMsS: Autograph Manuscript Signed (hand-written and signed by same individual)
- AMusQs: Autograph Musical Quotation Signed (hand-written and signed by same individual)
- AN: Autograph Note (no salutation or closing, usually shorter than a letter)
- ANS: Autograph Note Signed (hand-written and signed by same individual)
- AQS: Autograph Quote Signed (hand-written and signed by same individual; poem verse, sentence, or bar-of-music)
- DS: Document signed (printed, or while hand-written by another, is signed by individual sought to be collected)
- LS: Letter Signed (hand-written by someone else, but signed by the individual sought to be collected, frequently handwritten by secretaries before the advent of the typewriter)
- PS: Photograph Signed or Postcard Signed
- SP: Signed Photograph
- TLS: Typed Letter Signed
- TNS: Typed Note Signed
- folio: A printer's sheet of paper folded once to make two leaves, double quarto size or larger.
- octavo(8vo): A manuscript page about six-by-nine inches. (Originally determined by folding a printer's sheet of paper to form eight leaves.)
- quarto(4to): A manuscript page of about nine and one-half by twelve inches. (Originally determined by folding a printer's sheet of paper twice to form four leaves.)
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