A low-numbered copy of the White Album, owned and given away by Beatle George Harrison has made £10,000 at auction.
In 1968 The Beatles released a double album bearing just their name and a number.
The minimalist cover, by pop artist Richard Hamilton, gave it its popular name, The White Album.
And the numbers give some copies enormous value.
Copies of the first release of the album were sequentially numbered.
The Beatles themselves were given the first four. Ringo Starr’s copy, 0000001, was auctioned in 2015 for $790,000.
Number 0000005, the first albums sold to the public realised over £19,000 on eBay in 2008.
George Harrison, pictured in 1974, gave the record to a friend of his wife, Pattie.
This copy was numbered 0000012 and had been the property of George Harrison and his wife Pattie.
They gave it to a friend.
A letter from that friend provided with the record says: “There was a low number copy of the White Album that they’d brought round to the flat one day and when I spoke to George on the phone I mentioned I had it, he said – ‘keep it, it’s yours’.”
It was sold at an online sale that ended on Monday, by Tracks.
Ringo’s White Album is the most valuable released record, but the most treasured slab of vinyl was the single copy of Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin that auctioned for $2 million in 2015.
Bob Dylan followed the Clan by producing a unique copy of Blowin’ in the Wind that was auctioned for $1.8 million in 2022.
Jack White reportedly bought the Starr White Album, and also snagged a test pressing of Elvis’ My Happiness, the King’s first recording, for $300,000 in 2015.
A copy of Double Fantasy signed by John Lennon for Mark Chapman, the man who would kill him hours later, has been listed for sale for $1.5 million.
Some other released Beatles albums can be very valuable. Their 1966 American album, Yesterday and Today, was slated to hit shops with a controversial cover showing the band apparently dismembering dolls. The so-called Butcher’s Sleeve was quickly withdrawn. A new, politer image was pasted over copies that had been released. A sealed copy of the stereo version of this release made $125,000 in 2016.
