Post by fourthousandholes on Jul 17, 2007 10:26:02 GMT -5
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19796465/?GT1=10150
Lennon glasses could fetch $1.5 million
Iconic specs are being auctioned on a British Web site
Updated: 6:52 p.m. ET July 16, 2007
LOS ANGELES - A pair of round, gold-rimmed sunglasses worn by Beatle John Lennon
that set a fashion trend have come up for auction at a British Web site with bidding
said to be as high as $1.5 million.
The glasses, put up for bid late last week at Web site 991.com, belonged to Japanese
television producer Junishi Yore who was a translator for the Beatles in 1966.
Yore’s account of the glasses’ authenticity is on the Web site.
Several media reports said the bidding was frenzied, with prices rising into the millions,
but 991.com sales marketing director John Warner declined to confirm a figure saying the auction
was secret. Bidding is set to end on July 31.
“I think it’s fair to say this has created a bit of a stir,” said Warner about
the auction of Lennon’s glasses.
The glasses come with Yore’s handwritten note saying he got them when the Beatle
was on tour in Japan. Lennon befriended Yore and before the two parted, they exchanged gifts.
Lennon gave Yore his glasses, and Yore gave Lennon copper cups.
Lennon was often photographed in his round, wire-rimmed glasses, and the image
became iconic for young men and women of his generation who adopted the same look.
When Lennon was murdered outside his New York apartment in 1980, Yore pushed the lenses
from the sunglasses in accordance with a Japanese tradition that calls for the glass to be
displaced so that the soul can see in the afterlife.
Lennon glasses could fetch $1.5 million
Iconic specs are being auctioned on a British Web site
Updated: 6:52 p.m. ET July 16, 2007
LOS ANGELES - A pair of round, gold-rimmed sunglasses worn by Beatle John Lennon
that set a fashion trend have come up for auction at a British Web site with bidding
said to be as high as $1.5 million.
The glasses, put up for bid late last week at Web site 991.com, belonged to Japanese
television producer Junishi Yore who was a translator for the Beatles in 1966.
Yore’s account of the glasses’ authenticity is on the Web site.
Several media reports said the bidding was frenzied, with prices rising into the millions,
but 991.com sales marketing director John Warner declined to confirm a figure saying the auction
was secret. Bidding is set to end on July 31.
“I think it’s fair to say this has created a bit of a stir,” said Warner about
the auction of Lennon’s glasses.
The glasses come with Yore’s handwritten note saying he got them when the Beatle
was on tour in Japan. Lennon befriended Yore and before the two parted, they exchanged gifts.
Lennon gave Yore his glasses, and Yore gave Lennon copper cups.
Lennon was often photographed in his round, wire-rimmed glasses, and the image
became iconic for young men and women of his generation who adopted the same look.
When Lennon was murdered outside his New York apartment in 1980, Yore pushed the lenses
from the sunglasses in accordance with a Japanese tradition that calls for the glass to be
displaced so that the soul can see in the afterlife.