John Lennon Can you identify the real vs highly likely forged?

Hi all - I’d like to begin my series of discussion topics on things to look for to identify authentic signatures vs highly questionable ones that are likely forgeries.
Im providing two sets of examples for signed John Lennon ‘In His Own Write’ autographs.

The first set is John Lennon and his first wife Cynthia Lennon. Two different matching ink colors shown on each. One came with provenance. The other did not.
We have example A and example B. I have added these letters and circled them in black ink to identify the two.

The next set are three examples of John Lennon alone in the same color ink on all.
Again, only one has provenance. These again are labeled by me in black circled ink as A2, B2 & C2.

So A & B are the John Lennon/Cynthia Lennon sets

whilst A2-C2 are the solo John Lennon signatures.

Ironically, the two set examples all sold approximately one year from each other. The authentic one in each set sold for the lowest amount in both set examples and all 5 were sold at the same “place”.

which ones do you think are authentic ?
Only one in each set has provenance associated.
None of these were sold with evident COAs (meaning any authentication documents were not disclosed before sale or referenced - authenticity assumed in each case).

eBay was not the source though I’m sure these have been resold there for much higher prices probably a few times.

Let me know your thoughts on these please!

Tags: John, Lennon

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on October 7, 2024 at 8:29pm

I’ve seen A and B2 before, both of which have been authenticated and are authentic IMO. I’ve always suspected that he signed “John Lenn” in the first example, and someone else added the “ON” portion.

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Permalink Reply by Penny Fields on October 8, 2024 at 2:53pm

Evidence suggests that A was created to replicate B. I’ll break that down at the end. B is the authentic verifiable set as Eva pointed out with Bramfield’s signature on it as well.

However B2 has no provenance and I will break this down below. It is not the verifiable authentic example. :)

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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on October 8, 2024 at 3:34pm

That’s interesting. FYI, A was authenticated by Frank Caiazzo and B2 by PSA/DNA.

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Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on October 7, 2024 at 10:42pm

If I were you Penny Fields, I would post this discussion just once and in the Beatles section of the Music category. Personally, I would also give my opinion first and explain my reasoning once others have contributed.

I'm by no means a true expert but:

A - the "on" would put me off buying this one but the rest of it looks OK

B - doesn't look like a totally typical John Lennon so I wouldn't want it but with the Brambell autograph being there it probably is real.

A2 - too atypical for me (particularly the "o" in John).

B2 - OK.

C2 - not for me as too flat and elongated.