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

0 members like this

Attachments: No photo uploads here

IMG_1420.jpeg, 77 KB
IMG_1410.jpeg, 145 KB
IMG_1417.jpeg, 125 KB

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Penny Fields on October 8, 2024 at 3:04pm

B is correct on the second set with provenance and includs Bramwell’s signature also as Eva pointed out. (Apologies for writing Bramfield above as that was autocorrect due to a contact of mine).

Everyone shared consensus on the second set but B2 is not the correct example with verified provenance.

so it’s down to A2 or A3.

Before I break down these sets I hope you will look and these two contenders closely and see if you can spot the anomaly in one and the marker in the other.

I will come back to provide details if there are any more comments if not I will edit this post to provide those! Thanks everyone I really appreciate your participation!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by spaceman on October 8, 2024 at 5:02pm

A2 is genuine.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Penny Fields on October 9, 2024 at 9:22am

That is correct! Very strange example isn’t it? To Fiona as in Beatles photographer Fiona Adams. I will come back and break these down but the correct veritable with provenance signatures are B in the first set and A2 in the second set!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by a pug called eva on October 9, 2024 at 10:02pm

Generally, I really like rushed signatures but this one (A2) is so spidery that I'm not sure I'd want to pay much for it even with the cast-iron provenance. At first I thought it was really atypical but the more I look at it the more typical traits I can see. Maybe the provenance is affecting my perception. Does it say "love from"?