Lennon tie fetches over £3,000 at Beatles sale

The black knitted tie was discovered by retired civil servant Joyce McWilliams, 66, who found it, with some rare signed postcards, when she was clearing out her house.

Mrs McWilliams, who was handed the tie by Lennon himself at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, got £3,627 for the item which was one of hundreds of lots which went up for auction on Saturday.

Mrs McWilliams obtained the tie and some autographed photographs in 1962 when she was a 15-year-old trainee comptometer (key-driven calculator) operator, and used to attend the lunchtime sessions at Liverpool’s famous Cavern Club.

Mrs McWilliams walked into the Beatles Shop, in Mathew Street in the heart of the Cavern Club quarter, with five rare autographed photographs of the Beatles, wondering if they were valuable after she found them while clearing out her Wirral home.

Her collection included a photograph of The Beatles with Pete Best, signed on the reverse by five Beatles “with lots of love” and 29 kisses “from The Beatles”.

It is a rare set of autographs as it includes both Ringo Starr and Pete Best. It was bought for £6,435.

Another lot – The British Isles by Thomas Pickles which is signed twice by John Lennon in 1956 while at Quarry Bank School - fetched £8,658.