NOVEMBER 21, 2003 – An acoustic guitar on which the late Beatle George Harrison learned to play fetched £276,000 at an auction sale at London’s Hard Rock Cafe by auctioneers Cooper Owen.In one account, Harrison bought this “Beginner’s Guitar,” a 1956 Rosetti 276 – Egmond 105 which was made in Holland by Egmond and distributed by Rosetti, from a schoolmate with £3 he’d gotten from his Mother. In another account, his dad got it for £2.50. The original advertisement for the guitar called it “the cheapest Model in our range” at four pounds, seven shillings and six pence. While trying to adjust the action, George accidentally unscrewed the neck from the body, but after a few weeks in the cupboard, the Egmond was rescued by fellow guitar neophyte Peter Harrison, who mended his brother’s instrument. Harrison was taught the guitar by his father’s friend Len Houghton in weekly lessons.Harrison made his show business debut with this guitar the following year at the Speke British Legion Club, where The Rebels, a skiffle group formed by the Harrisons and three mates, played their one and only gig. This guitar (minus its machine heads) was first auctioned off in London during the mid 1980s, and thanks to its anonymous British owner was on loan to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland from 1995 to 2002. In 2003 this little Egmond, now worth an estimated $800,000, went on display at the Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool.Harrison, who died in 2001, recalled it as “a real cheapo, horrible little guitar but it was OK at the time.”Other items auctioned included a Fender Stratocaster guitar given by Harrison to Spike Milligan which fetched £17,250, and a signed invitation to the post-première celebrations for the Beatles film “A Hard Days Night,” which went for £17,250. The invite had been sent to Harrison’s friend, the actor Victor Spinetti. John Lennon had written on the invite: John Lennon writing: “To Victor a chip off the old potato John Lennon.”
