This past week Julien’s Auctions’ The Beatles in Liverpool featured over 300 collectibles from the Fab Four. The showpiece turned out to be John Lennon's personal copy of The Beatles Yesterday And Today. The original cover released in June of 1966 depicted the band in butchers smocks surrounded by doll parts and raw meat. McCartney once said it was their "statement on the Vietnam War". Many found this image too controversial for the time and a new cover was quickly pressed. However Capitol Records printed about 750,000 copies of Yesterday and Today with the infamous 'butcher cover'. BUt it has been increasingly difficult to find one of these.
This recent auction sale was made even more rare in that it was autographed by Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and featured a back cover sketch drawn by Lennon. The sale price of $234,000 makes it a World record for a "Butcher Cover" and the third highest-selling vinyl album of all time.
In this Rolling Stone article, Darren Julien, CEO/President of Julien’s Auctions, went on to say
“The market is still developing so we anticipate in the next five years this same record could bring $500,000 plus.”
Here's a list of some other notable memorabilia from the auction: a baseball signed by all four Beatles at their final U.S. live performance at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park ($75,000), a poster from Liverpool Airport announcing the “Visit of The Beatles” on July 10, 1964 signed by all four Beatles ($41,700) and an acoustic guitar with custom decoration signed by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Buddy Holly ($54,200).
via rollingstone.com
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