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All you need is money to see the world through Lennon's eyes

Charlie Bain
Thursday 22 August 1996 23:02 BST
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A broken pair of John Lennon's glasses which were rescued by an office-worker from a dustbin, fetched over pounds 2,000 in an auction of rock memorabilia yesterday.

The 1960s pair of Oliver Goldsmith spectacles were accidentally broken by Lennon, who threw them in the bin in disgust at the offices of his record company Apple Corps, where they were found and rescued by an employee.

The glasses are among a revealing collection of rock 'n' roll memorabilia which went under the auctioneer's hammer at Bonham's in Chelsea, London.

A white gaberdine suit with red-suede trim worn by Elvis Presley during the early Seventies fetched pounds 4,830, and an early draft of a song by the legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix, scribbled on a sheet of hotel stationery, sold for more than pounds 10,000.

The hand-written lyrics to "Ain't No Telling", composed in the autumn of 1966 while Hendrix was staying at a hotel in Hyde Park, London, went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando, Florida, for pounds 10,925, almost pounds 1,000 over its expected price.

The songsheet was among 24 lots put up for auction by Hendrix's ex-girlfriend, Kathy Etchington, who lived with the guitarist for three years in the late-Sixties, and who was said to be the inspiration for the hit "Foxy Lady". As a 20-year-old originally from Derby, she gave up her job as a hairdresser, in London, to live with Hendrix.

Among the other items to be sold was a black-lacquer and mother-of-pearl box belonging to Hendrix which was sold to an anonymous Australian buyer, bidding by phone, for pounds 5,060.

A favourite iron cross worn by the guitarist fetched pounds 4,600, and a blue- glass necklace, given to him by the Sixties singer Janis Joplin, was sold for pounds 2,875.

The Hard Rock Cafe also bought an oriental prayer rug and a Bokhara woven rug which which was once a permanent fixture in the bedroom of the couple's flat in Mayfair.

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