The ‘world’s rarest Beatles album’ is up for sale

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A copy of a rare Beatles album once owned by John Lennon, complete with hand-drawn sketches, is expected to sell for more than $200,000 at auction next month.

The early edition of Yesterday And Today features an infamous photo of the group dressed as butchers, and remains one of the only copies in existence.

Lennon gave it to Beatles collector Dave Morrell in 1972 in return for memorabilia and bootleg material.

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The message states ‘To Dave, from John Lennon’, alongside a date of December 7 1971.

Gary Shrum, the director of music memorabilia at Heritage Auctions, told the Daily Mail: ‘The term world class is probably a bit over-used in describing collectibles, however, labeling this unique, rare, and desirable Beatles item as world class is not hyperbole.

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‘This piece is rare because one it’s the butcher cover that was withdrawn and never sold on the market after the second day. It’s John Lennon’s personal copy, it’s a prototype that had a blank back, which John did artwork on the back of.

‘Plus it’s a stereo copy which was the rarest of the butcher covers, because only a few stereo copies got out when they were for sale.

‘So this is a brilliant piece for any Beatles collector or rock and roll collector that likes to collect the history of music.’

The December 2017 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – with Robert Plant on the cover. Plant and his band have also compiled our free CD, which includes tracks by Bert Jansch, Daniel Lanois, Patty Griffin, Thee Oh Sees and more. Elsewhere in the issue, we remember Tom Petty and there are new interviews with REM, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bootsy Collins, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Ronnie Spector. We review Morrissey, Sharon Jones, Mavis Staples, Hüsker Dü, Tim Buckley and Talk Talk and much more.

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