This ineffable piece of boxing/criminal history can be yours for a price. Place your bid now before it?s too late?
The market for memorabilia shows no signs of slowing down. The past is the past and the future is now, but what was meaningful once is meaningful again, especially to those who recognize value where none once existed.
Take for example a handful of photographs going up for auction in England. Among them is a photo of three much-loved characters representative of the intersection of boxing and crime.
One photo in particularly noteworthy as it shows Reggie and Ronnie Kray, two gangsters from the East End of London who embodied, in some quarters, the crossover appeal of hoodlums, posing with British, Commonwealth, and European heavyweight champion Henry Cooper for an aftershave ad.
Well-dressed and well-coiffed if not well-educated, the identical twin brothers are dwarfed by Cooper, and unlike Our ?Enry, The Krays look as ill at ease as if they were posing for a mug shot.
The Krays ended badly, one in prison and one in a hospital for the criminally insane, but don?t let facts stand in the way of your owning this boxing-related keepsake.
When handwraps and jockstraps have monetary value above and beyond their original intent, a black and white photo of Henry Cooper with Reggie and Ronnie Kray is, if not invaluable, certainly desirable, especially for those with one foot in boxing and other in a victim?s teeth.
The photo and others like it will go under the hammer early next month at Stacey?s Auctioneers in Rayleigh, Essex, just days ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Krays? arrest on May 8, 1968.
This ineffable piece of boxing/criminal history can be yours for a price.
