Hand-written letter from Beatles guitarist George Harrison sells for more than £6,000

The letter of apology was written by George Harrison after two autograph-hunting schoolgirls, Claire and Melanie, got an unfriendly reception when they turned up on the doorstep of his home, and is part of a cache of early Beatles memorabilia that turned up out of the blue during a house clearance in the town.

The find chronicles a tiff in which the Beatle found himself entangled soon after moving into Kinfauns, the bungalow that he had bought on the historic Claremont Park Estate at Esher in Surrey in 1964.

At the time, the estate’s big house, an 18th century former Royal mansion, was then a private girl’s school and two pupils – Claire and Melanie – arrived unannounced on Harrison’s doorstep.

The girls got a frosty reception from the woman who answered the door, who then phoned the school to make a complaint.

But then George Harrison’s handwritten letter to the mother of Claire Braham, one of the schoolgirls involved, explained that it was a daily help who had phoned the school and that he had known nothing about it until the following day.

He asked Mrs Braham to tell Claire that he was sorry, and sent her an autograph and that ‘John’ had now signed Melanie’s book and she was welcome to call round the following week to collect it.

When the schoolgirl did call, she not only got her book, but an autographed photograph – and George posed with her for a photo.

James Laverack of Louth auctioneers John Taylors said: “Melanie died recently and it was during the clearance of her home in Louth that the extraordinary little cache of Beatles memorabilia was discovered – George Harrison’s letter, the envelope in which it was sent, the autographed photograph, and the snap of the Beatle and the schoolgirl at Kinfauns.

“She had treasured the mementos for 59 years, almost certainly unaware of their value on the modern international collector market.”

The collection went under the hammer in an auction at the Old Wool Mart saleroom in Louth yesterday (Tuesday), with a pre-sale estimate of £2,500-£3,000.

But the letter, envelope, and signed photo of George Harrison were sold for a staggering £6,100 at auction, more than double the estimate.

It attracted interest from all over the country and more than a dozen people actually got involved in the bidding, not only in the auction room itself but also on the phone and online internet, and the final bidding war was a straight fight between two internet bidders.

The successful bidder was an anonymous private collector from somewhere in the UK.

James said: "The market for Beatles memorabilia is extraordinarily strong. This is was quite early - with a very interesting story attached. It wasn't just an autographed photograph."