We are an eBay affiliate and may be compensated for clicks on links that result in purchases.

John Lennon Signature Study 1970-1980

There was a recent discussion of a Lennon signature claimed to be from his appearance at radio station WFIL's Helping Hands Marathon in May, 1975. This prompted a suggestion that we should have a signature study of Lennon's sometimes difficult to authenticate post-Beatles signature. Some examples from this period are highly abbreviated.

I'd like to start by focusing on that May 1975 signing appearance with exemplars that are believed to be from that 3-day period. What would be particularly helpful would be examples from catalogs that go back a ways.

Here are a couple of WFIL signatures from Meet the Beatles For Real, one of which includes a doodle.

Here's a group of check signatures from 1970, sorted by date - April 8, June 3 (2), July 7, October 14, November 12 (3).

A few more from 1970:

Here are all of the examples I've seen that are known to be from 1973:

The abbreviated 1980 signature on copies of the Double Fantasy LP:

Tags: 1970s, Beatles, John, Lennon, WFIL

10 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Orzeck78 on August 4, 2017 at 8:10pm

Is the Antiquities one above considered to be real? It seems to be similar to some of the others in the thread. Perhaps it could be possible that someone only had a newspaper in hand as an item for John to sign on that day? Thanks.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on August 4, 2017 at 8:46pm

There's a discussion about it here:

http://live.autographmagazine.com/forum/topics/john-lennon-1975-aut...

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Paul on August 4, 2017 at 8:52pm

We know its not real!! I just wanted to compare the forgery style with a few others here.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Orzeck78 on August 4, 2017 at 8:12pm

http://www.iconicauctions.com/The_Beatles__John_Lennon_Signed__Let_...

I also keep re-looking at this Iconic one too, that sold almost 1 week ago from WFiL.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Paul on August 5, 2017 at 1:33am

Im not sold on the Let it be. Whats other people opinions?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on August 5, 2017 at 6:38am

I think the market gave its verdict on this one. $6.5 k (probably ca. $5k before buyer's premium) for a Let It Be "signed" so clearly by John seems way too low.

I would never claim to be an expert on Lennon but doesn't this autograph look rather too clean and regular - especially the last part of Lennon?

Perry's letter (dated February 2017) seems to suggest that the item was re-sold very quickly after it was bought from him. Anyone know what he originally asked for it?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on August 4, 2017 at 8:39pm

Excellent Presentation! Thank you. Much needed and now here for all.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Paul on August 4, 2017 at 11:14pm

75.

Attachments: No photo uploads here

Screenshot_20170805-161227.png, 464 KB

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Paul on August 4, 2017 at 11:24pm

75 white album photo.

Attachments: No photo uploads here

Screenshot_20170805-162223.png, 1.4 MB

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Paul on August 4, 2017 at 11:35pm

76 shaved fish card.

Attachments: No photo uploads here

Screenshot_20170805-163404.png, 813 KB

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on August 5, 2017 at 7:30am

Ballroom has made a fantastic start to this study. The variety of those WFL signatures is quite remarkable.

I wonder if it would be useful to build on Ballroom's analysis by identifying "peak" periods of Lennon signatures and setting up a separate thread for each. After a few months the results could then be consolidated into a summary thread with the most typical "likely genuine" and "typical fake" examples per period and the number of "likely genuine" examples per period (the latter being similar to the Beatles census threads). Genuine signatures and likely fakes from the "off peak" periods would also have to be added of course.

For me the peaks seem to have been:

1. 1970 (cheques and contracts)

2. 1971 Grapefruit signing London (anything similar in US?)

3. WFL 1975

4. Double Fantasy 1980

No doubt I'm missing a lot here and I guess there is also quite a lot of material signed between these peaks.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on August 6, 2017 at 6:06pm

Thank you for leading this study, Ballroom! You posted many excellent examples to start.

The Lennon checks are great pieces to study. Compare the "nnon" of Lennon on those signatures to some of the autographs members were debating in earlier discussions, where the "nnon" is evenly spaced with finely-pointed high points. Serious areas of concern are appearing already.