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The story is that the Beatles and Cassius Clay signed two boxing gloves, February 18th, 1964, when they met. One glove was auctioned some time ago. The other is with a memorabilia store I visited a few days ago. I had never heard of this item, and have a picture. The signatures of the Beatles look very good! Of course, signing on a boxing glove has got to pose some problems for an authenticator. Has anyone heard of these gloves? What is the opinion of our experts? I asked for provenance. Owner will only say it was obtained in a "collection" and the store (which is well known) will give COA and guarantee. They will not say who obtained the autographs or the circumstances. The glove is being sold, authenticated by a "well known" authenticator we all know. What I find interesting, is that the signatures look very good, and seem to compare very well with the Beatles autographs from around 1964.
Tags: art of music, beatles-cassius, boxing, clay, glove, signed
There are at least three known gloves like this.
Another one is below.
At least one top authority believes they are not authentic.
The photo you linked to is now gone. Do you have a copy?
Let me clarify my previous post on these gloves.
I was not commenting on the Clay signature. Only the Beatles. Although it strikes me that if the Beatles signatures are not good, the Clay signature seems unlikely to be legitimate.
A top authority...someone respected universally by board regulars...believes the Beatles signatures are NOT authentic. I'm not using the person's name because I don't have the authority to do so. This person's archives include both gloves pictured here, as well as a third. All 3 deemed NOT authentic.
In no way do I intend to cast aspersions on anyone else. People are entitled to their honest opinions. Also, please note the assessment I'm citing has nothing to do with who owns he gloves or who is selling them.
I am saying they look fake, and gave several valid reasons why. I think they were printed on the glove in some way.
These are my concerns about the glove:
1) The 'P' of Paul is formed with two open vertical strokes and there's a stroke from the P to the 'a'. Paul wrote his P more stick-like back then, generally with one vertical stroke and a second one for the loop, and the 'a' generally wasn't joined until the later 1960s.
2) The 'J' of John has the wrong curve to the vertical stroke, and the stroke to the left leading to the cross bar at top is just as thick as the rest of the letter. When John started with that stroke, it was wispy.
3) The autographs are all about the same thickness and there are no skips or light strokes. Those are warning signs for autographs signed on a piece of paper under perfect conditions. These are signed on the uneven surface of a boxing glove.
4) The glove is well worn and broken in, with a lot of surface finish missing. It looks like a 50 year-old boxing glove, easily. Yet the autographs miraculously survive bold and skip-free even where the finish is missing. Even if the glove was already that well worn, more finish would have likely chipped off from aging over time. It doesn't seem likely they'd all sign such a beaten up glove though, does it?
5) Heritage is auctioning a pair of gloves they say that Clay wore in his February 1964 Liston fight, and this signed glove is not the same kind. You can tell from the color and the stitching. Here are pics of the pair they're selling:
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