A prized guitar used by John Lennon and George Harrison in recording sessions for seminal The Beatles albums: "Help!" and "Rubber Soul," has recently been rediscovered after being lost to some attic for the last five decades.
Now, it is heading for the auction block in a sale organized by Julien's Auctions this coming May 29 and 30 in New York.
The long-lost instrument is estimated to sell between $600,000 and $800,000, but the auctioneers believe it could set a new record for the highest-selling Beatles guitar sold by the house.
(Photo : Harry Benson/Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The John Lennon Guitar That Sat in an Attic for 50 Years
According to the auction house's press release of the upcoming sale, the guitar is called the Framus "Hootenanny" 5/024 12. It was a 12-string acoustic guitar manufactured by the company's Bubenruth, Bavaria factory in the former parts of the 1960s.
Lennon got his hands on this particular "Hootenanny" back in the tail-end of 1964, appearing in the 1965 "Help!" recording sessions where photographs of Lennon and Harrison using it were taken.
The case the model came with from the store it was bought at can also be seen in the pictures. "Fifth Beatle" and producer George Martin's handwritten notes regarding the sessions said the same "Hootenanny" was used by Lennon and Harrison for "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away."
By the end of 1965, Lennon gifted the guitar to Gordon Waller of the pop duo Peter & Gordon, whom the Beatle had been songwriting for alongside McCartney.
Later on, the guitar would again change hands from Waller to his manager, who in turn stored it in his home's attic, where it would gather dust for just about half a century.
After being tipped off by the family who had unknowingly kept the instrument, Julien's Auctions co-founder and executive director Darren Julien flew to the UK to verify the authenticity of the guitar.
Employing the help of Beatles Gear expert Andy Babiuk, the auction house was able to confirm that this particular "Hootenanny" was indeed the one used by Lennon. The auction house added that the defining features were distinctive markings, which were cross-referenced with the photos.
See what Julien and fellow executive director Martin Nolan have to say about the lost guitar's story in the video right below.
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