so we were about to redo an old Empire dresser and noticed this boxer painted not in the bottom but ON the bottom (underneath) the drawer... is this anyone famous?
Can you make out any of what's painted on the round patch on his shorts? The waistband appears to have the typical EVERLAST name on it, but that by itself doesn't help much.
Man, this is the most interesting find!! Please keep us posted if you find get new clues. I wonder if a boxing aficionado would recognize something about the appearance or stance or the patch... does anybody have Rocky's cell number? But seriously, that is such a cool item; I would probably go to a local Gold's Gym or write a local TV or newspaper sports person. Couldn't hurt. This guy is a boxing history expert who writes for a variety of papers, etc. Randy Roberts, rroberts@purdue.edu Good luck!
In doing some searches, I now wonder whether it might be Sugar Ray Robinson? I notice the boxer in the painting has a sort of "widow's peak" where the center front of his hair comes down into a point. Robinson had a bit of that as well. It is not extremely pronounced in Robinson's hairline, but more so than in other boxer photos I'm seeing online. https://www.google.com/search?q=sug...VFw-SCh3knQ7n#tbm=isch&q="sugar+ray+robinson"
Thanks everybody for your input. I think this is so cool. I have a friend who says antiques can be "haunted". This picture really freaked her out! LOL. I think when we rehab the dresser I will definitely leave the painting on the bottom of the drawer. Who knows the history behind it.
This makes me feel like secretly painting strange things on the bottoms of furniture in my house so that someday somebody will get to find it. Really it does. Back to the topic... Jacqueline, if you don't mind, I would like to make a copy of your picture and email it to that boxing guy (above), just to see what he thinks?
outstanding! would love to know if anything comes of it...AND if you do paint anything on random furniture I'd love to see it!
Hi Jacqueline, I played with your picture in Photoshop a little bit just to see if I could brighten it up a bit....not a lot of help, but as my hubby walked by and he thought maybe Joe Lewis too. But also, you said an Empire dresser, and if the paint seemed to be that old, or nearly, try looking up Henry Armstrong....he was a pretty famous boxer in his time....and had somewhat of a 'widow's peak' to boot!! It IS intriguing!!!! Good luck with it and I hope someone re-posts with an identification!!! Sue
Well, Mr. Roberts replied most graciously that he was unable to recognize anything helpful in that painting. I thanked him and said I was still happy to hear from him since his lack of recognition reassured me that it was not some long-lost iconic treasure! Oh, well.
Pardon my excessive posting, please, but he wrote back to add that the overall stance, trunks, and hand-wraps suggest to him that it's 1920s-30s...
Despite the input (including mine) to the contrary, I still wonder about his ethnicity... Black? Latino? Tan Anglo? His hair is so light... and his eyes could be hazel. Too bad we can't put him on a milk carton...
