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Hello my aunt has The Secret of the Unicorn, Casterman 1952, English, hard cover. Signed by Hergé 11.10.1956, when he sailed with my grandfather, who was the captain of the ship.

Hergé also send my grandfather 3 Christmas cards, they are there with the book. All in good condition.
Does anybody have an idea of the value?
Cheers, mag7nus

Wow! What a family heirloom! Lucky you! The book itself is already quite rare, so adding a signature to it will undoubtedly make it even more collectible.

However, as you also have the story of your grandfather's trip with Hergé and the cards, you have a further layer of value to consider (it might be seen as not just valuable but historic also).

In which case, I think that a valuation given here could be no more than wholly speculative.
To get an accurate and informed idea of the value of the collection, I think that you should probably approach one of the auction-houses which hold specialist sales of Hergé-related materials, such as luinivierge2010 has linked to here, and get them to appraise the items.
If you can get them to document your story, and perhaps have it authenticated by Studios Hergé or Moulinsart, it will doubtless exceed any figure we could guess at here.
When I say "authenticate" here, by the way, I am in no way suggesting that your story is not totally true; I just mean that you could end up with a letter from Hergé's estate which backs-up what your family already know, and which would therefore make a guarantee of the status of the items.
This would make them easier to sell or insure at a figure which truly reflects their importance.
Should you take the route of having the items looked at professionally, please do let us know what happens.

Hello jock123 thanks for all. I will let you know what happens.
Cheers, mag7nus

I'm guessing this might be the same signed copy that's referred to in this thread of three years ago:

https://www.tintinologist.org/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=2&t opic=1976

If that's the case, I'm guessing that Pieter, the author of that thread, may be a sibling or cousin of yours. Unless this is a completely different book given to a completely different sea captain!

I see that none of us had much idea of the book and cards' value back then either, other than feeling they must be worth a lot! As Jock says, it could be good to show them to experts or archivists at Moulinsart.

Hello Balthazar, thanks but no Pieter is not related to me.

My grandfather was Vagn Laerkesen, Captain of the ship M/S Samos, a small exclusive passenger ship with room for only 12 passengers.

My grandfather had as far as we knew, only one son, and his name was not Pieter.

Hergé apparently liked sailing.....Maybe every second sailor relative has a signed copy.....

Hello Mag7nus. Thanks for the clarification and apologies for my completely erroneous guesswork!

It was the fact that in both cases Hergé presented the same Casterman English version of the same book that led me to wrongly guess that you might be talking about the same sea captain grandfather as Pieter.
But thinking about it, if Hergé wanted to present anyone who read English better than French with an English Tintin book in the mid-1950s, his choice would have been limited to this Casterman edition of Unicorn or its sequel, Red Rackham's Treasure.
Plus the maritime theme of this book would have made it a good choice for a sailor. So maybe it's not such a coincidence that he presented the same book to two different sea captains.

And he certainly liked drawing boats and ships accurately. I think I read that in the course of his research, he befriended various shipping experts and model boat makers, as well as making actual sea trips.

It would be a lovely surreal, Tintinesque scene for you to turn up at an auction house to get your family's book valued, only to find a crowd of 300 elderly bearded sea captains each clutching an identical signed copy of The Secret of 'The Unicorn'! But it seems unlikely that Hergé sailed on that many ships, so I'm sure your family's copy is still a valuable rarity.

Of course, if Hergé was really getting into the sprit of his own book, he'd have presented just three identical copies of Unicorn to three different sea captains and written the three personal inscriptions so that when all three title pages are held up to the light together, a cryptic message is revealed, leading to a stash of hidden treasure.
We now know of two of the books, so if we can just trace that third signed copy before someone kidnaps us and locks us in a cellar. . .

Well, mag7nus - some FANTASTIC gems there, and I'm sure the longer you hold on to them, the more valuable they become.

If you want a very rough idea of how much these may be worth, have a look at some of the lots in this catalogue: http://www.tintin.com/tintin/actus/actus/001066/Piasa_fr.pdf

Hello Balthazar haha yes that would be a wonderfull scene with the old sea captains, isn't it a blessing with a guy like Hergé to boost ones imagination....I hope that at least some of our children will become as fascinated as we are. I had so far no luck in making my son interested.

No need for apologies, no offense taken. Yes maybe we should start looking around for a third copy of the book, maybe there really is a secret hidden somewhere....? Ohoy all old salty sea captains....

Hello Abdullah, thanks for the information. The catalogue is interesting but the more I think of it, the more I think we should keep the book. Money and numbers suddenly seems insignificant compared to the book and the story behind it......

cheers, mag7nus

I agree, it is nice to think it is worth something in monetary terms, but it is priceless in terms of your family.
I'd still recommend getting in touch with Moulinsart, the Studio or someone at the Museum, to let them know about it, and the story, as it all adds to the data about Hergé.