Another week, another Beatles auction. In what is traditionally the 'quiet period' for auctions (July through August) it appears that collectors just can't get enough of the Fab Four.
And next Saturday's auction at the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts will be no ordinary sale, offering collectors the chance to get "closer" to their hero John Lennon than ever before...
Among the 295 lots is an especially unique offering: Lennon's porcelain toilet, used by the singer until 1971 in his home of Tittenhurst Park, Berkshire.
 The censored front cover of Lennon |
The Please Please Me and Imagine singer's personal pot will carry an estimate of £1,000 when it goes under the hammer, next Saturday.
Meanwhile, other lots in the sale will include a rare, mono-sound copy of Lennon's 1968 Two Virgins LP recorded with wife Yoko Ono (whose signature also happens to be very collectible). It carries a pre-sale estimate of £2,500.
Previously, the talisman worn by Lennon on the LP's cover was sold to a private collector for $528,000 in 2008.
Collectors will also have a chance to bid on a black and white photograph of Paul McCartney outside his home, taken of the singer when he was in his early-20s.
And, strangely enough, this isn't the first legendary toilet to emerge on the memorabilia markets in the past fortnight.
Auction website eBay is currently offering bidders a chance to acquire a "J.D. Salinger PERSONALLY OWNED & USED Toilet Commode," which has 12 days left before it closes.
The toilet is being sold with an authenticating letter by Joan Littlefield, who is the new owner of the famously-reclusive The Catcher in the Rye author's house.
With its condition described as "used" on eBay, the vintage toilet from 1962 is dated under the lid and carries an optimistic Buy It Now price of $1,000,000.
 What would Holden Caulfield have made of this? J D Salinger's toilet |
It has so far attracted five offers of undisclosed amounts from collectors apparently eager to flush their money into an unusual investment.
Salinger died of natural causes on January 27, 2010, at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. He had refused to speak to the press since 1980.
Consequently, Salinger is one of the world's rarest autographs - one of which, on a signed letter, Paul Fraser Collectibles had the privilege of selling earlier this year.
Also in 1980, John Lennon was murdered outside his New York home by Mark David Chapman. Chapman claimed that Salinger's 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye was a major influence behind his crime.
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