Ringo Goes Under (Maxwell’s Silver) Hammer
Ringo Starr and his wife Barbara Bach are putting a vast collection of personal items up for auction next week, for Bach’s Lotus Foundation charity. No fewer than 1,300 lots will go under the hammer, many of them sure to be mouthwateringly attractive for any Beatles collector, including the set of Yellow Submarine chairs you see above, given to Starr by his friend and All-Starr Band-mate Joe Walsh.
The auction will be conducted by entertainment memorabilia specialists Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills next week, with a public preview on Monday (30 November) before the official event on 3-5 December. a collection that includes art, antiques, jewellery, clothing, musical instruments and much more.
Another prized item will be Ringo’s personal test pressing of The Beatles’ self-titled 1968 LP that became known as The White Album, which is the very first pressing of the disc, numbered 0000001. Julien’s estimate that it could go for up to $60,000.
Many of the items in the sale come from Rydinghurst, the 200-acre, 17th century Jacobean estate that Starr and Bach sold earlier this year, and others from their apartment in Monaco, which has also now been sold. There will also be great excitement about the sale of this Yellow Submarine jukebox, one of only 100 that were made. Starr’s Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl drumkit, which he used for nearly every early Beatles performance in the UK, is another lot, as is a Mercedes that Ringo bought from George Harrison.
Auctioneer Darren Julien tells the Los Angeles Times: “It’s been an extremely emotional process for both Ringo and Barbara, especially because they’re such private people. They want to preserve the history, of course, but at what point do you just have too much stuff? It becomes a problem for most of us.”
See more about the collection here, and at Julien’s Auctions website.
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