George Harrison guitar bought for £58 as a teenager could fetch more than £750,000 at auction in USA
A guitar bought by a teenaged George Harrison is expected to fetch more than £750,000 at auction.
He bought the Futurama electric guitar for just £58 when he was a 16-year-old apprentice electrician in Liverpool, paying it off in 44 instalments.
The Beatle-to-be had to get his mum to sign the hire purchase agreement at Frank Hessy's music shop in Liverpool.
But it's been a long and winding road since then and it could bring in more than $1 million, or £753,000, when it goes under the hammer in the capital of country music, Nashville, next month.
Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien's Auctions, said: "We know he played this guitar in over 324 shows at the Cavern and numerous times in Hamburg in Germany in 1960 and 1961.
"We're estimating, conservatively, $600,000 to $800,000 but I think it should sell for more than a million."
No stranger to Fab Four memorabilia, the auction house sold John Lennon's Hootenanny acoustic guitar for $3 million, or £2.3 million, earlier this year and has previously sold an acoustic guitar of Lennon's for $2.4 million(£1.8 million).
Harrison's Futurama guitar is being sold by a collector who bought it in 2019, but the instrument almost had a different owner when it was offered in a competition for Beatles fans in Beats Instrumental magazine in 1964.
The competition was won by an AJ Thompson, who lived in Saltdean near Brighton, East Sussex, but, when offered the chance to have money instead of the guitar he took the cash.
Mr Nolan said added: "He probably took about £100 at most, because that would be the intrinsic value of the guitar at the time.
"He probably took his friends and family out for a nice evening and a good dinner and some drinks and then went on with his life. If only... Would've, could've, should've!"
Beatles memorabilia is among the most popular of the celebrity items which go up for sale, Mr Nolan said: "They take centre-stage time and time again. You would mention Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and The Beatles, and The Beatles may be number one in that listing. They're so collectable, they're recognised all over the world."
The guitar will be on display at The Beatles Story museum in Liverpool for the next two weeks before being whisked off to Tennessee, where it will be up for grabs in the Played, Worn & Torn sale from November 20-22 at The Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum in Nashville.