A guitar owned by Jimi Hendrix has sold for more than £200,000 at auction, years after he bought it for 25 dollars.
The Epiphone acoustic became the musician’s longest-owned guitar after he bought it second-hand just over 65 years ago.
Experts at Bonhams Entertainment Department sold the guitar, which Jimi kept at his London home for three years before handing it over to Blue Mink guitarist Alan Parker, for twice it’s estimated value of around £100,000 at an auction of classic celebrity memorabilia on Thursday.
After letting it go for a total of £209,000, Bonhams boss Katherine Schofield said: “Hendrix is among the greatest instrumentalists in the history of rock, making this Epiphone acoustic the pinnacle for any guitar collector.”
Other lots at the sale included the Cloud Guitar belonging to late singer Prince, which sold for £87,500, more than triple it’s lowest estimate of £25,000.
Meanwhile, a Gibson Les Paul Special Double Cutaway signed by BB King, estimated at £3,500, sold for £22,500, while a watercolour and pencil sketch of Audrey Hepburn in her role as Holly Golightly in the film Breakfast At Tiffany’s sold for £35,000, after it was estimated at £10,000.
A 1973 album cover signed by the late David Bowie broke a world record for any of his autographed album covers, breaking its estimated £1,000 – £5,000 and selling for £7,000. The inscription on the Aladdin Sane cover read: “For Julie, much love, David Bowie x.”
The sale of the silk jacket donned by Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards for the London Palladium in 1967 also broke the world record for an item of clothing worn by a band member, selling for £35,000 after it was handed down to the vendors’ parents by Keith himself.
