John Lennon's personal copy of the Beatles' 'Butcher Cover' album is coming to auction.
The album, which features dismembered dolls, pieces of meat and the Fab Four dressed in butcher's overalls, caused a furore when released in 1966.
Lennon swapped the album for a rare bootleg recording
Lennon gave the signed prototype to a young Beatles fan in 1971 in exchange for a copy of a rare bootleg of Beatles live recordings.
The album had previously resided on the wall of Lennon's Dakota Building apartment in New York.
It's now expected to sell for more than $100,000 at Heritage Auctions on November 11.
A rare sealed version of the album sold for $125,000 at Heritage in 2016.
The image was never meant to be seen on an album. It came from Robert Whittaker's 1966 photoshoot: A Somnambulant Adventure.
The Beatles had planned to use it as a publicity stunt, but Capitol executives decided it would be the perfect fit for the greatest hits record, Yesterday & Today – the band's 11th studio release in the US.
The move was unpopular with many journalists and DJs, who threatened to boycott the album unless a new cover was produced.
The majority of the 750,000 copies were quickly recalled and pasted over with a less contentious photo, but a handful of "first state" copies made it into circulation.
This example is further enhanced by the later addition of Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr's signatures.
Heritage comments: "Labeling this unique, rare, and desirable Beatles item as 'World Class' is not hyperbole. If anything, it does not do it justice.
"We don't feel the need to emphasize further the importance of this piece to the Beatle collector, or the Art collector, or the Pop Culture collector, or the Record collector. Don't let this one pass you by!"
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