John Lennon's Infamous 'Lost Weekend' Sunglasses Are Up for Grabs
Beatles fanatics have the chance to see the world as John Lennon did. A pair of his tinted, circular Windsor Glasses are heading for auction at Propstore in October and have been given an upper estimate of £300,000 ($402,000).
Lennon wore the pair of American Optical gilt framed glasses from 1973 to early 1974, a turbulent period of the musician’s life that he would later call his “lost weekend.” He was drinking heavily, partying in public, and on a break from Yoko Ono.
The story of the glasses echoes this rambunctiousness. In 1974, Lennon was watching the Smothers Brothers at the Troubadour Club in Los Angeles with his friend and fellow musician Harry Nilsson when the pair began heckling the rock comedy duo. Soon a fight erupted. Before being thrown out, Lennon lost his glasses in the ruckus and they were picked up by the wife of Tommy Smothers. As the story goes, the Smothers brought the glasses to an afterparty at the house of the actor Peter Lawford and the guests spent the rest of the evening donning Lennon’s eyewear.
“Lennon is fondly remembered as a pioneering musician and a strong advocate for peace, and during his career one accessory became his trademark: his circular glasses,” the auction house wrote in a statement.
Lennon first wore Windsor glasses as part of his costume for his role of Musketeer Gripweed in How I Won the War (1967), Richard Lester’s comedy that critiques the British military, monarchy, and class system. He never looked back and the round glasses remain an indelible feature of Lennon’s icon.
The “lost weekend” glasses have appeared twice before at auction. First at Sotheby’s in 1978, where they were given an estimate of $4,000 before selling for an undisclosed price, and second at Christie’s in 2008 where they sold for $78,000. In 2019, a pair of sunglasses that Lennon left on back seat of a car sold at Sotheby’s for $184,000.
The glasses are one of several Beatles-related lots in the Propstore’s Music Memorabilia Live Auction. Most intriguing is a scrap of fabric that Lennon used to protect himself from the Spanish sun during the filming of Lester’s film. He called it his “Shroud of Tourin,” a spoof on the controversial Shroud of Turin that claims to hold the blood and image of Jesus Christ. Lennon covered it with doodles in pencil. In one, he depicts himself wearing two pairs of glasses and a Batman symbol on his chest. In another, he sticks a cross on top of a hill and pairs it with the word “Elvis.” The shroud is signed and dated and has been given an estimate of £25,000 to £50,000 ($33,500 to $67,000).
Source: Richard Whiddington/news.artnet.com
