The Top Five... Items of John Lennon memorabilia

John Lennon remains the #4 highest earning deceased celebrity. Here's a look at his collectibles...

#5 The famous banned "Butcher cover", signed by Lennon

The Beatles' Yesterday and Today LP originally featured a sleeve depicting the Fab Four wearing doctors coats, covered in entrails, meat and decapitated baby dolls. Unsurprisingly, the "Butcher Cover" was banned, and original LP pressings and sleeves are today highly collectible.

Lennon wears his Talisman necklace on the censored Two Virgins LP sleeve

A printer's proof of the infamous butcher cover upon which John Lennon wrote, "here's the famous banned butcher cover. You can sell it for $11 million dollars" auctioned, surely enough, with an $11m price tag. It remained unsold.

More realistically, in December 2005, Heritage Auction Galleries sold a sealed "first state" copy of the album at auction in Dallas for $39,000.

#4, John Lennon's talisman necklace

The necklace was worn by Lennon on the notorious cover of his 1968 album with Yoko Ono, Two Virgins. It was sold to a private collector in 2008 for $528,000.

The LP - Lennon's collaborative debut with his artist wife, Ono - is famous for its avant garde content featuring the ex-Beatle experimenting with various instruments and sound effects over tape loops.

Later editions of the album obscured the album cover's controversial depiction of John and Yoko naked, protecting their modesty beneath a brown paper bag.

#3, Gibson SG guitar played by George Harrison and John Lennon

The classic Gibson guitar was played by Harrison on the Beatles' Revolver album, and by Lennon on the White Album. It sold to an anonymous bidder at Christie's for $567,500.

The infamous 1966 'Butcher cover' priced $11m (according to John Lennon)

#2, John Lennon's Steinway piano

Pop singer George Michael placed the winning bid for the piano on which Lennon wrote his song Imagine, in 2000, for $2.1m.

#1, John Lennon's hand painted Rolls Royce Phantom V

The car was sold by Sotheby's to Canadian businessman Jim Pattison in 1985 for $2.23m.

Lennon had his matt black overall Rolls Royce repainted with 'psychedelic' scrolls and flowers by J.P. Fallon Limited, a coachworks company located in Chertsey, Surrey.

He also had the rear seat modified to convert to a double bed, and installed a custom interior/exterior sound system with a 'loud hailer' along with a Sony television and portable refrigerator.

There are a number of other John Lennon and Beatles autographs currently on the market and avaiable to collectors which you can view here.

Recent and related articles

· The world's 10 most valuable autographs| 6 April 2010

· The ongoing legacy of John Lennon| 29 December 2009

· Lennon Mercedes bought after decade-long hunt| 29 December 2009

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