Rare Beatles Items With Huge Valuations (Even Paul McCartney Wallpaper!) | Antiques Roadshow UK

Gracious. I hope that pleases you. Wow, that's absolutely wonderful. Gosh, gosh, that is amazing. It's the first album that The Beatles made, which is rare in its own right, but that is fantastic, because unlike most of the signatures that I see, these are actually right. Now, are you Geraldine? No, I'm Colleen. My dad was a policeman, and he was a sergeant, and he used to protect The Beatles when they were at Finsbury Park Astoria, so he got to know them very well, and he asked them to sign it for us. It's fantastic. It's valuable. It's going to be worth something in the region of £1,000 to £1,500. Good grief! It's very, very good, rare, and desirable. Well done. The kids pay, don't they? Definitely not. It's a good dusty box with the saying The Beatles on it. Yeah, I took it out of the loft yesterday for the first time in 25 years. Oh, no. And it's got the original price tag, £6.11. And what's inside? Oh, fantastic. Look at that. A complete set of Beatles glasses. Now, did you go and buy those when you were a kid? No, my nan bought them for me when I was 64 and I was 10. Were you a big fan? Yes, yeah, I've always been a big fan. So they've stayed in here, and they've never been used? I actually use George Harrison. And why George? Because I didn't like George at the time. And a glass of orange squash ever, too. But none of the others have ever been used. Poor George. Yeah. They're the most terrible portraits I think I've ever seen. They're just grim. But you set your heart on this, did you? Or was it a surprise? No, it was a surprise. Brilliant. She used to buy me the Beatles weekly and the Beatles monthly as well. And she bought me these. No, it's a great little set. Brilliant condition, in its original box. We're going to be talking about £100 or more. From 1611, it's a little bit different. It's not bad. So are you still a fan? Yes, yes. Always will be. These are great. And I would, even though you may not like George Harrison, try not to drink them. Oh, no, I did try some. Good. Oh, look at that. That takes me back. I think I would have given anything to have Beatles wallpaper on my wall. Now, were you the lucky boy who had Beatles wallpaper on his wall? Nearly. Hang on, hang on. Who had the lucky escape? Your wall? Well, it was my wall. This should have been on the wall. Why isn't it? We moved. Before it could be put up? Before it could be put up, yes. And ever since then, you've kept it, just in case you found a room that would fit. I didn't know. I didn't know Mum had kept it. Oh, no. When she died and we were clearing the house out, we found it in the back of the cupboard. The things Mothers keep. A roll of old wallpaper, just in case young Ray ever fancies his wall, papered in Beatles paper, she kept it. You see, she was thinking of you. Yes. Well, frivolity apart, Beatles wallpaper is now valuable, provided it is from the 60s, which of course this is. I can't imagine what it would have looked like up. Probably dreadful. Yeah, probably. You know, it would have given you probably a headache just looking at it. The extraordinary thing is that I saw that a roll of Beatles wallpaper had been sold at auction recently for over £150. So, I think your mother probably did know best. Yes, I think she did. The Beatles show, that warms the heart to see those signatures. Now, it says to Biddy, love from George Harrison. Are you that woman? I am. Tell me what you remember of that evening. Well, it was 1963. Yeah. I was sweet 16. I went to the Beatles concert. Here in Scarborough? At the Futurist, yes. It was a marvellous night. We had to queue for ages to get in. I sat five rows from the front. I couldn't hear them for screaming. Yeah. But I got their autographs due to my mother. How was that? Well, she was an usherette. It was her second job that she took in the evening. Yeah. And she asked an ambulance driver to get me the autographs. And he actually signed it. George Harrison, my... Well, he was my favourite. Oh, was he? He was. He was the one who actually said to Biddy? Yes. He must have known. I don't know how he knew. Unless my mother said, please get Biddy's autograph. I couldn't. I was in seventh heaven for the rest of the concert. Well, not only is it a great memory, but it's also valuable. Right. Because there are lots of people out there who are desperate for a signed, an early signed... But what about the Biddy? Doesn't really matter. No. People would change their names. Yeah. I did it. And value, I would put it at around £1,500. It's a great object. And, well, as you say, a window on the past, but also something for the future. It is, yes. Thanks very much for bringing it. Thank you. Right. What we've got here is a very young looking Ringo and John Lennon. You know, I used to have a jacket like that. Now, did you take these snapshots? I didn't. A friend of mine took them. A friend of yours took them? Where are you? Where are these taken? Great Yarmouth. Went on holiday to Great Yarmouth. Four friends. And what year? Can you remember? 1963. July 1963. Miss George. Right. That's got to be you. That's me. That's you. Yes, definitely. With the bouffant. Absolutely. Those were the days. What's the story? What was the circumstance behind you meeting them? Well, we knew a girl who was working in Great Yarmouth and she said, I know where the Beatles are staying. But the previous evening we'd been to see the Beatles in concert and we'd been screaming like mad. You had? And so we were so excited when we knew where they were staying. We went and sat in the lounge and they came downstairs and sat with us. This was the following day? The following day, absolutely. Was that the car they used? That was the car they went away in. Right. Yes. Excellent stuff. But we asked if we could have their photographs. So your friend took these snapshots? Yes, my friend took them. 1960? 1963. Yes. Oh, I think that's absolutely brilliant. Now there's three of you presumably. Yes. You're in the middle. My friend will be taking my photographs. With a very young Paul McCartney. Absolutely. Yes. Oh, look at that. Yes. Look at that. Very casual. I was on that photograph, but I cut it off because it didn't look very good. All right. So in addition to the photographs, you've got a little album here. Yes. With something even more special in it, in a way. Now, it says my trip on here. Yes. It said a little diary, is it? Yes. And you kept notes about what you did, where you went, etc. Where we went, what we did. And somewhere. There we are. Here we go. Yes. To Chris. To Chris, with love from John Lennon. With love from John Lennon. Chris, love from Paul McCartney. And George Harrison. And is that Ringo Starr down below? That's right, yes. So you've got all four. Yes. Excellent. Well, that's very nice indeed. I don't know whether you're aware, but there are a lot of, shall we say, copies of autographs, Beatles autographs, on the market. It's a well-known fact that they were often done by the roadies, by the people around the Beatles, simply to keep the fans away. There was so much demand for autographs, they couldn't do them all themselves. So they often got the roadies to sign them. So it's very, very important, as far as value is concerned, to know the history. Without a history, they often failed to make even a few hundred pounds in auction. But with a genuine history such as yours, I'd be quite confident in getting the better part of 5,000 pounds in auction. Gracious. I hope that pleases you. That's absolutely wonderful. Well, we get very excited when we see one set of Beatles signatures. But you've got two sets of Beatles signatures. Tell me, how do you come to have them? When I was 15 and a half, my mother came up and said, quick, get changed. And we went up to the Town Hall in Birmingham. And my friend, her father, was the electrician at Birmingham Town Hall. He was doing the sound checks and everything for the Beatles. June the 4th, 1963. Well, of course, it was just the start of the height of their fame, wasn't it? Yes, yes. And you actually met them? Gerry and the Pacemakers were sort of on the one side, and the Beatles were on the other. And they were doing their sound checks. And then Gerry said to John, how about we have a water pistol fight? Right. So we were racing around the Town Hall, squirting one another with water. So you had a water fight with the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers? Yes. My goodness, this must have been a dream come true for a 15-year-old schoolgirl. Absolutely fabulous. Did you see them sign these books, and why have you got two? Well, my sister got her autographed book as well as my own. I think these four signatures, they're all perfectly correct. And as you can see, you've got John Lennon on the top there, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison. But this one, if you compare them, I think the George, Paul and Ringo Starr are okay. But John Lennon, that is not his signature, is it? I think one of the others must have scrawled that for him. Well, very commonly they did sign each other's names, of course they did. And the thing about Beatles' signatures as well is actually having the provenance for them, and knowing exactly where they came from, and you've got obviously a first-hand account of them being signed. But what a fantastic story as well. Yes, it was absolutely fabulous. Obviously, if you're a real Beatles fan and you collect signatures, you are going to want the whole four. So I think we've got three here, and they're on two pages. So you're probably, for this one, price-wise, would be around £8,000 to £1,200 for the three signatures. But the fact that you've got the four here, you've got the story, they're all on the one sheet as well, which is really, really helpful. I would think that, at auction, you're probably looking at a minimum, really, of £2,000 to £3,000 these days. Gosh, gosh, that is amazing.