GUEST: Well, I brought in a copy of my John Lennon, first edition, In His Own Write, which he autographed for me.
APPRAISER: Wow, so you've met the Beatles?
GUEST: I've met all the Beatles, yes, ma'am. I was president of one of the many fan clubs in New York City. So all of my kids gave me things to bring to John and Paul and George and Ringo. I was living their dream.
APPRAISER: So you actually visited Beatles in their homes?
GUEST: And they invited me in. They were so gracious. But in the process of going to all the Beatles' homes and bringing them presents, I was sitting in Paul's garden. And I was taking out things that my friends had given to give to Paul, and I had the book. And he said, "Oh, let me read something for you." At those days, I carried a tape recorder, and so Paul's reading one of John's poems into my tape recorder.
APPRAISER: So this book is the book that's in this photo?
GUEST: That's in this photo, yes, ma'am.
APPRAISER: And Paul McCartney gave you a private reading of John Lennon's book.
GUEST: Yes ma’am.
APPRAISER: In his garden.
GUEST: I planned well.
APPRAISER: Well, I'm going to show the really special thing about the book is the fact that John signed it to you here inside the cover. And it's a nice, bold, clean signature from that time period. And I think the obvious is they're probably among the most faked signatures on the market. I mean more people have faked the Beatles' signatures than anyone else. They also have the problem that many of their managers would sign for them.
GUEST: I’ve heard that before.
APPRAISER: They would each sign for each other. Oftentimes you'll see a set, and people will say, "Oh, well, that's John signing for Paul." But it doesn't get much more direct, and the provenance of your story and having the photos to back it up. This is about as good as it can get with a signature. One of the other great things about the photograph is that you took this photo.
GUEST: I took the photo.
APPRAISER: Which ultimately means that you own the rights to this photograph. And it's obviously never been published. Just having a photo of Paul that's not commonly known, if you were to sell that print, you would probably get at least $100 to $150 of it for a candid photograph. Generally, a signed book by John Lennon, and In His Own Write or one of the other editions sells anywhere in the $2,000-$3,000 market. Because you have the story to back it up, and because this is photographed, and you have the provenance sealed up as tight as it could be, this book, the auction estimate would be around $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST: That is really great.
APPRAISER: And at auction, who knows? I mean, I think people could be turned on by your story and many of the photos you have that go behind it that take it far beyond that. I mean, it's just the perfect story you could possibly hope for to have a signed piece by them.
GUEST: Oh that is cool. Thank you so much, Laura.
