Iconic guitar once played by The Beatles George Harrison set to fetch £400,000 at auction

The Australian-made Maton Mastersound MS-500 is one of more than 500 guitars and rock’n’rock memorabilia to go under the hammer, including a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses owned by Harrison.

George Harrison, who died in 2001, was loaned the instrument while his regular guitar was being repaired, continued to use the guitar for several performances and was last photographed with it at The Beatles final performance at The Cavern Club on August 3 1963.

The iconic instrument, which was bought by Dave Berry and The Cruisers guitarist Roy Barber, will be sold by a UK private collected and auctioned on September 12 at Gardiner Houlgate auctions in Corsham, Wiltshire.

Auctioneer, Luke Hobbs said: “This guitar is something very special- a direct link to the early days of Beatlemania and those era-defining gigs at The Cavern Club. Just touching it makes your fingers tingle.

“We’re expecting interest from right around the world. It’s very rare for one of George Harrison’s guitars to come up for auction.

“In this case we have excellent provenance including letters and photographs. The guitar is also documented in books about The Beatles.”

After Barber’s death in 2000, the guitar remained in storage for several decades, until it was exhibited at The Beatles Story museum in Liverpool and was auctioned in New York in 2015 for 485,000 US dollars.

One of Harrison’s sunglasses are also being auctioned, a specially customised pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses from the late 1970s to early 1980s, and are expected to fetch over £3000.

In July this year, Sir Paul McCartney played a secret gig at a replica of The Cavern Club, which was demolished in the 1970s.

The Beatles performed an astonishing 292 times at The Cavern Club between 1961 and 1963, until the fame and crowd outgrew the club’s capacity.