Fab four times price for Beatles drumskin
Friday, 11 July 2008 10:48The iconic bass drum skin used on the front cover of The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has sold at auction for €670,000.
Auction house Christie's had estimated that the hand-painted skin would sell for around €185,000 but it sold for almost four times that.
John Lennon's hand-written lyrics for Give Peace A Chance also surpassed their top estimate of €375,000 - the hammer went down at €527,000.
The words were intended as a lyric sheet for Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1969 Bed-In for Peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada, but Lennon gave them to fan Gail Renard and asked her to rewrite them in a larger format so everyone could join in.
A pair of the Beatles star's tinted prescription sunglasses, which he wore for the cover of the Apple Records single Mind Games, sold for €50,000.
The Rock and Pop Memorabilia sale at the London auction house raised more than €1.8m.
A rare recording of the Jimi Hendrix Experience performing at the Woburn Music Festival, at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, in July 1968 sold for €60,000.
A 1966 Marshall amplifier used by Hendrix in concert between 1967 and 1969 sold for €31,000 and a pair his stripy flared trousers made €25,000.
A 1967 Gibson guitar which had been owned by The Who's Pete Townshend sold for €40,000.
The sale included memorabilia from acts from Ella Fitzgerald to Madonna. Sale prices include buyer's premium.
