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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

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Permalink Reply by Paul on August 28, 2017 at 6:02pm

I just picked uo a heap of examplars, to help out.
Earth to ballroom.

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Permalink Reply by Doyle Rules on July 10, 2018 at 2:55pm

I found this page while doing a search for the Helping hand event in 1975. I was 7 and was at the event with my parents, met John Lennon and got his autograph. My mother put the autograph away for safe keeping and I hadn't seen it for over 40 years until she passed and we were sorting her stuff. I was so excited, words cant even express! I sent it off to PSA with express processing, at a cost of almost $300 but it was worth it to have the top authentication company put their Blessing on it so when I'm gone, my kids have the proof that it was authentic. I was completely shocked when It was returned "Questionable Authenticity" which is how they word it so they don't have to refund a portion of the fee. I stood in front of this man, he took my $1 donation, signed my piece of paper, patted me on the head and said "There you go Lad" and moved on. The autograph did not leave my sight until my mom put it away for safe keeping. I can't say that I'm too upset with PSA, if they scrutinized an autograph that I know for 100% certainty to be authentic, then the rest of the PSA autos I have were probably held under the same scrutiny.

What do I do now? My Auto is very similar to the others in this post from the same event, I was considering JSA since they have authenticated other autographs from this event that are also similar to the ones shown here. Any Feedback is appreciated.

Attachments: No photo uploads here

john lennon.jpeg, 27 KB

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Permalink Reply by Joe W. on July 10, 2018 at 3:45pm

Sometimes these services get it wrong. Why not post it in the "Authenticity Opinions" Forum and see what others think about it. Perhaps get a different service to authenticate it if it checks out. There are other good options still out there.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Cushman on July 10, 2018 at 3:50pm

It looks OK to me...

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on July 10, 2018 at 4:34pm

It isn't clearly authentic like some of the examples in the OP, but it has good traits and I don't see anything that would point to it not being authentic. It should have at least received an "inconclusive" but, like you said, that would have resulted in a refund of the authentication fee.

You might want to try to get a price quote from Tracks UK.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on July 10, 2018 at 4:35pm

I agree with Jim that your autograph looks genuine. It's an abbreviated mid-70s and later style, as you can see in Ballroom's original post. I'm surprised that they got it wrong.

Call their customer service and see about getting it reconsidered. I don't know their procedures. I'm not a fan of express services for this very reason. These companies have small authenticating staffs and may not have the best person on site when yours arrives.

I'm also not a big fan of show signings for the same reason, especially busy shows. Whether they call it good or bad, they're more likely to get it wrong.

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Permalink Reply by KarlKeaton on July 11, 2018 at 5:41am

I’m as sure it’s genuine as I could be. I can understand your frustration.

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on July 10, 2018 at 5:21pm

I hope you have better luck than I did. PSA failed my Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck signed Yardbirds promo card that JSA, Tracks UK, Roger Epperson, and an authenticator from Bonhams all believe to be authentic. They wouldn't provide any specifics as to why it failed, but they offered to reconsider it if I paid the authentication fee again.