Lot 102

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Description:

Kerouac Jack

 

Kerouac Wedding Ring From His Last Marriage to Stella, The Third Time is a Charm!

 

14k gold wedding band, displaying the 14k mark on the interior edge. The band of thick gold is .75" in diameter. Accompanied by the decorative plastic case which housed the wedding ring. The plastic case is 1.5" in diameter, and comes with the original box. The verso of the box has "Jack's Wedding" penned in block letters.

 

Provenance: The piece will be accompanied by an estate certification signed by John Shen-Sampas, executor of the Kerouac Estate. John Shen-Sampas is the son of John Sampas, who was the brother-in-law of Jack Kerouac, and the brother of Stella Kerouac, Jack's wife.

 

This highly sentimental piece would become Kerouac’s last token of love. He had been married twice before, with this being his third. In the fall of 1966, Jack’s mother had a stroke, and, on November 18, with the third time being the charm, Kerouac married his childhood sweetheart from Lowell, Stella Sampas, who was the sister of his high school friend John Sebastian Sampas. This wedding band would be last time Jack married, and comes directly from the Kerouac estate. Due to the size of the ring, we originally presumed it was worn by Stella , however we are now under the current belief that indeed this was Jack’s wedding ring, and due to his alcoholism and his excessive weight, the ring did not fit. This would be supported by the fact that found within the ring box was a small circular piece of gold which appears that the intent was to wear the ring on a necklace around his neck, and supported by the inscription on the box written by John Sampas, his brother in-law, which says “JACK’S WEDDING”.

 

In an extensive search of photographs from that period of Jack’s life we do not see any images of him wearing the ring on his hand, leaving it either to have remained in the box, or with the attempt to wear it on a necklace. The item is being sold as a Kerouac owned wedding ring and we will let the buyer decide whether it is Jack’s or Stella’s.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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Shipping

We do our own in-house worldwide shipping!

Applicable shipping and handling charges will be added to the invoice. We offer several shipping options, and remain one of the few auction houses who proudly provides professional in-house shipping as an option to our clients. All items will ship with signature required, and full insurance. Most items are sent via Federal Express, with P. O. Box addresses being sent through USPS. We insure through Berkley Asset Protection with rates of $.70 per $100 of value, among the lowest insurance rates in the industry. Our shipping department cameras document every package, both outgoing and incoming, for maximum security. In addition, we compare our shipping and handling rates against those of other auction houses, to ensure that our charges are among the lowest in the trade.

Upon winning your item(s), you will receive an invoice with our in-house shipping and handling fees included. ***We will ship to the address as it appears on your invoice, unless you inform us otherwise, immediately upon your receipt of invoice***

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $99 $10
$100 $299 $20
$300 $499 $25
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $2,999 $200
$3,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 + $5,000