WOKING.- Beatlemania is as strong as ever, showing that when a real rarity comes up for sale, the bidders pile in. And so it proved in Ewbank’s Entertainment & Memorabilia Premier Live Auction on May 30 when the portrait of John Lennon by Fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe was consigned with an estimate of £3,000-5,000. The final price? A premium-inclusive £19,500.

The portrait had a wonderful provenance, having been consigned by the son of the man to whom Lennon gave it in the late 1960s when he lived at Kenwood, his home in St George’s Hill, Weybridge.

The highly stylized portrait by the tragic Sutcliffe, who died aged 21, could be seen on the wall in a 1967 photograph of John Lennon lying on the sofa in the sunroom at Kenwood.

Analysis of the image consigned for the May 30 auction showed how it was and exact fit for the painting in the photo.

Stuart Sutcliffe was a Scottish painter and musician best known as the original bass guitarist of the Beatles and he and Lennon are credited with inventing the band name.

At the time Sutcliffe was performing with The Beatles in Hamburg, he met photographer Astrid Kirchherr. After leaving The Beatles, he enrolled in the Hamburg College of Art, studying under Eduardo Paolozzi. Sutcliffe died in Germany in 1962.

Inscribed J to the left of the sitter’s neck in the portrait, it carried a printed label on the reverse of the frame which reads Bernard E. Clark, The Boat House Gallery, Walton On Thames, Surrey.

Bernard Clark was Director of Photography for Cave Photographic Studios based in Cobham, Weybridge and Addlestone, Surrey in the late 1960s. They provided photographic equipment to The Beatles.

Bernard and his wife became friends with the band, especially John Lennon and Ringo Starr, who both lived locally in St George’s Hill, Weybridge at this time.

The Clarks forged a close relationship with Ringo Starr and were regular visitors to John and Cynthia Lennon’s Kenwood home. It was during one of Bernard’s visits to Kenwood, when Yoko Ono was present, that John Lennon gifted this artwork to him after he had prevented Lennon from completely tearing it up in a frustrated moment.

The vendor remembers as a child, attending Zak Starkey’s birthday parties and on occasions being driven to school in the psychedelic Rolls Royce by John Lennon’s chauffeur, Les Anthony.

£11,000 for letters and gifts from George Harrison to his childhood friend

George Harrison also made his mark in the sale, a large collection of letters, photos, vinyl and ephemera belonging to his long-term friend Jennifer Brewer taking £11,050 against hopes of £3,000-5,000.

The pair had met as teenagers on holiday in Budleigh Salterton, Devon, in 1956 and stayed in touch throughout the early 1960s, getting back in touch 25 years later.

The lot included a handwritten Christmas card to Jenny from George in 1988, which read: “Sharon [Jenny’s daughter] sent me a photo of us when we were in Devon back in about 1852, we looked pretty cool! It is strange that I came to live in Henley on Thames after writing to you when you lived there I didn’t have a clue where it was at that time. I have to go away to Roy Orbison’s funeral this week so I’m sending you a tape of some music I did with him (and others) earlier this year, I hope that you enjoy it and your family aren’t into Heavy Metal or something!-(BROS!!) . . . are your parents still alive? Mine are not) if they are say Hi love from George Harrison.”

£10,400 for original Frankenstein poster artwork from the doyen of horror films

Original poster artwork owned by film critic and the doyen of celluloid terror, Alan Frank (1937-2023), Author of The Horror Film Handbook and Horror Movies, Monsters and Vampires, he also collected memorabilia, none better than an original piece of poster artwork for the 1967 Hammer Horror Frankenstein Created Woman, starring Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein. The mixed media on board was the original prototype artwork created for the British Quad and Double Bill posters by arguably the most celebrated film poster artist of the 20th century, Tom Chantrell (1916-2001), who also designed the iconic posters for Star Wars.

The imagery, shown below, is a close match to the British Quad Poster, the difference being that the artwork only shows one branched tree on the left slope and, importantly, the Quad poster shows the girl clothed.

It had been thought that this original artwork had not survived. Offered here with its corresponding transparency at £3,000-5,000, it sold for £10,400.