A baseball signed by all four Beatles at their final show is up for sale at auction this month.
The Spalding ball was signed by George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966.
Beatles fans will recognise that as the date and location of the final Beatles concert.
The baseball was signed for Mike Murphy, an employee of the San Francisco Giants, who used the stadium until 1999. A Paul McCartney concert was an appropriate final event before the stadium’s demolition in 2015.
John Lennon’s signature over a Spalding logo on the baseball.
The provenance of this ball is very good. Murphy passed it to his sister, who sold it to a collector, Terry Flores.
The Ringo Starr signature has had some professional preservation work and the ball has spent most of its life protected from light. It is sold with a letter from Terry Flores, and a certificate of authenticity from a specialist Beatles memorabilia house.
The ball is for sale in a Music Icons auction on February 27. It carries an estimate of $50,000 –
$70,000.
The sale also includes a Dolly Parton costume, Taylor Swift guitar, and a gown worn by Madonna in the Material World video.
The Beatles are still the music world’s most collected artists.
Signatures are valuable in their own right, group signatures more than single ones, but context can add another level to their attraction. This ball, linked to one of the most famous moments in Beatles history (“That’s it, then. I’m not a Beatle anymore,” George Harrison said after the show) is a wonderfully vivid memento.
