Musical Instruments & Memorabilia

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.

A violin made from one of Winston Churchill’s cigar boxes was one of the starring lots at Ingles & Hayday October 25 auction.

A limited edition photo of two members of The Beatles and a new signed monograph by the photographer who took it are part of a 107-lot timed charity auction that closes on November 6.

A London-based musician’s equipment, including an antique violin, has been stolen and she is calling on the trade to help her find it.

The Osbourne family have snapped up Black Sabbath memorabilia ahead of a planned auction in Sheffield.

A cello by Giovanni Grancino made in Milan in c.1710 was one of a number of ‘attic finds’ that led Brompton’s latest musical instruments auction.

One of the main attractions at Piano Auctions’ upcoming quarterly auction at the Conway Hall in London on June 23 is this Steinway with celebrity status.

A Steinway grand piano sold for a double-estimate £95,000 on February 24 when Christie’s King Street held a £3m, 146-lot sale of items from the former Queen Anne’s Gate home of musician Sting and his wife Trudie Styler.

Florence’s longstanding Antiques Fair, the ‘Biennale Internationale dell’ Antiquariato di Firenze’, opens next week in the city’s 17th century Palazzo Corsini, running from September 26 to October 4.