Auction News

Lennon’s lost weekend specs head for auction 

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2025-10-02
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John Lennon tinted glasses worn during his Lost Weekend period in 1973 and 1974
Image courtesy of PropStore Auction.

John Lennon struggled to see without his glasses, and sometimes with them during his Lost Weekend period. A pair of tinted spectacles worn during that 18-month separation from Yoko Ono is for sale later this month with a £300,000 top estimate.

In 1973, Lennon split from Yoko Ono, who he married in 1969. He began a relationship with his personal assistant May Pang.

During this time he reengaged with his son, Julian, former bandmate Paul McCartney, and despite some high-profile public high-jinks also produced some of his best-loved work, recording Walls and Bridges and the Rock ‘n’ Roll album.

The glasses are for sale at PropStore Auction’s Music Memorabilia Live Auction on October 23. 

They are in Lennon’s trademark style: round, wire-framed glasses that he adopted after wearing them in costume as Musketeer Gripweed in his 1966 movie How I Won the War.  

Harry Nilsson and John Lennon being thrown out of the Troubadour Club, Los Angeles.

Harry Nilsson, left, and Lennon being shown the door at an LA club. Lennon lost these glasses in the fray. Image courtesy of PropStore Auction.

PropStore say: “Glasses are one of the most coveted Lennon-associated items by both fans and music memorabilia collectors.”

These glasses were on Lennon’s face when he and Harry Nilsson (whose record John was producing) were thrown out of a Smothers Brothers show at the Troubadour Club, Los Angeles. 

They didn’t stay there. In the pushing and shoving that Lennon and Nilsson’s heckling triggered, John lost his eye wear and they ended up with Tommy Smothers’ wife. 

The tinted glasses have been linked to a number of other Lennon appearances, including the self-taken photograph on the cover of the Mind Games single. 

They were sold in 1987 at a Sotheby’s sale in New York, and again in 2008 by Christie’s. 

In 2019, a pair of Lennon glasses realised $184,000 (£137,000). Last year, a pair of tinted glasses given to a fan at Abbey Road made £40,000 at a British auction. 

The Lost Weekend glasses are listed with an estimate range of £150,000 to £300,000, an opening bid of £75,000 is requested.

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