Musical Instruments & Memorabilia

Spectacles belonging to poet WB Yeats (1865-1939) sold in his native Ireland for €10,000 yesterday (November 14), 20 times their lower estimate, in the second and final auction of the artistic Yeats family’s effects.

50 years on and Hendrix still rocks – Hansons Auctioneers has sold a note, written on the back of a packet of guitar strings in 1967, for £5700.

Omega Auctions withdrew the sale of an original score for the 1966 Beatles' classic Eleanor Rigby ahead of its auction earlier this month due to a family dispute over ownership.

A rare concert poster from a 1965 tour by ‘The Rolling Stones’ has been snapped up by a collector after a bidding battle at Bushey Auctions in Hertfordshire.

The value of musical instruments outpaced the investment in classic cars and fine art last year, according to a survey by a private bank.

The original score for The Beatles' song Eleanor Rigby is being offered at an auction in Warrington with an estimate of £15,000-25,000. The document, handwritten in pencil, is signed by producer George Martin and Paul McCartney.

An auction of a banjolele at Hansons Auctioneers will be music to the ears of George Formby fans later this month.

A grand piano commissioned by George IV for the Brighton Pavilion in 1821 is to make its way home after a local museum won the bidding at auction.

A rare violin made in 1684 by Antonio Stradivari sold for £1.6m at a recent sale at London specialists Ingles & Hayday, the third highest price ever achieved at auction for an instrument by the great Italian luthier.

Conservation and restoration firm Plowden & Smith has won a new contract to help the University of Edinburgh renovate Scotland’s oldest concert hall.

A musical manuscript at the centre of a row over whether it was handwritten by Ludwig van Beethoven or a copyist has failed to sell at an auction at Sotheby’s.