John Lennon's Tie Auctioned Off For Approximately $5,600 In Liverpool

The following article is provided by Rolling Stone.

By Miriam Coleman

A tie that once belonged to John Lennon sold for £3,627 (around $5,600) at an auction in Liverpool this weekend. The Liverpool Echo reports that Lennon had given the black knitted tie in 1962 to a young fan who regularly attended the Beatles' lunchtime sessions at the city's legendary Cavern Club.

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"The Beatles were recording some numbers and I was sitting on the edge of the stage holding the microphone stand," said Joyce McWilliams, who was 15 years old at the time. "It was very hot in the club and John asked me to lend him a handkerchief to mop his brow with. He handed it back to me, and loosened his tie when I said: 'I thought you were going to give me your tie,' and he just handed it to me."

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McWilliams was devastated to learn that her mother had washed the handkerchief soon afterwards, but she held on to the tie. The now-retired civil servant found the garment again, along with some signed postcards, when she was cleaning out her house and decided to sell the items at the memorabilia auction held annually at Liverpool's Beatles Shop for the past 22 years.

LINK: Rolling Stone’s List of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time: John Lennon

"Every year we think that the quality and number of rare items offered for auction must decrease and we are always proved wrong," said Stephen Bailey, who has managed the shop for 20 years. "It is amazing – people just keep coming into the shop month after month with the most unusual rare items."

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