The earliest known letter written by Beatles star John Lennon is expected to sell for more than £30,000 at auction.
The letter, written in the early 1950s by an 11-year-old Lennon, is up for grabs in an auction hosted by TracksAuction.com this month.
The late Beatle put pen to paper in this thank-you note to express gratitude for his Christmas presents his aunt Harriet gave him that year.
He wrote: “Dear Harrie, Thank you for the book that you sent to me for Christmas and for the towel with my name on it. And I think it is the best towel I’ve ever seen.”
“The book that you sent to me is a very interesting one. I am at the bottom of page 18 at the moment.”
He adds: “Thank you for the red jumper that you sent to me. I hope you have a happy new year. Love from John x.”
The letter being auctioned belonged to John Lennon’s cousin, David Birch, and is accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Mr Birch, which reads: ‘To whom it may concern, this is to confirm that the enclosed ‘Dear Harrie’ thank you letter was written by my cousin, John Lennon, to my mother, Harriet Birch. I estimate the date to be Christmas 1950’.
Spokesperson for TracksAuction.com, Paul Wane, told JMU Journalism: “We think the letter is an incredible piece of John Lennon history. It’s amazing that something like this should have been kept for so many years. It reveals John to be polite and well-mannered, it also confirms that he was an avid reader. We have already had a great deal of interest.”
The auction contains around 300 lots of Beatles and music memorabilia, including the address book from the Cavern Club, a collection of records that were previously owned by Lennon, a rare early unreleased Rolling Stones recording and more.
Online bidding begins at 4pm on Thursday March 24th and ends on Sunday April 3rd.