A collection of John Lennon’s possessions have been sold in an auction in Liverpool recently. The most interesting was his toilet which raised far more money than had been expected.
The reason for the interest in this item was not only because it was a very beautiful porcelain lavatory with lovely dark blue painting on the ceramic, inside and out, but it also had an interesting story behind it.
It seems that the loo was used in John Lennon’s house from 1969 to 1972 when he lived in Berkshire, Tittenhurst Park. However, he changed the toilet while he was there, during a refurbishment of the property and gave it to a builder. He told the man to use it as a plant pot or something like that and the pretty pan would certainly have made a lovely feature in a garden. The builder held on to it and it was left in his garden shed for about 40 years until he recently died.
The toilet was only expected to reach £1000 at the auction but in fact made £9,500 with bids coming from abroad as well as from the UK. It was sold to a private buyer from overseas in the end.
The sale was at the Paul McCartney Auditorium at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts which was part of the 33rd Beatles Convention in Liverpool.
There were other items of interest in the auction too including one of Lennons rarest albums and a harmonica belonging to Julian Lennon which had also been given to the builder as apparently the boy had been driving his father mad with it. The item was bought by a private buyer who indicated that he may lend it to a museum in Liverpool. There was also an unused concert ticket for a performance on the Royal Iris Ferry that took place in 1968. Most items sold for several thousand pounds.