Ringo StarrAs reported last week in The Music, David Gilmour’s 1969 Fender Stratocaster, aka “Black Strat” set a new record at auction of the super-memorabilia collection of US billionaire Jim Isray.
An unnamed buyer snapped it up for US$14.6 million at a Christie’s Auction House in New York, no doubt more enthused by the fact the instrument had featured on six Pink Floyd albums between 1970 and 1983, including The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall.
This was not the first time “Black Strat” made a name for itself for its value. It was sold by Christie’s in 2019 for $3.975 million and set a new benchmark for artist-owned electric guitars.
The late Jim Isray, who died in his sleep in May 2025, made his $4.8 billion fortune as owner of the Indianapolis Colts NFL team, who were Super Bowl champions in 2006.
His collection included Bob Dylan’s 1965 Newport Folk Festival guitar, John Lennon’s Paperback Writer Gretsch guitar, and Les Paul’s “Black Beauty”.
After The Beatles turned down an offer to reunite for a show, Isray made it his mission to assemble as many instruments by the four members “to unite them” that way.
One of his acquisitions, Paul McCartney’s Yamaha BB-1200 bass guitar, was a milestone at the time for the auction price of a bass guitar.
His bid of $471,900 eclipsed the $384,000 paid in 2020 for one owned by The Rolling Stones’ Bill Wyman.
We look at five instruments that set record prices in their day.
Eric Clapton’s ‘Blackie’ Fender Stratocaster
Sold: $959,500 in 2004
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In 1970, Eric Clapton was browsing in the back room of Sho-Bud Guitar Shop in Nashville when he was startled to come across a rack of three vintage Stratocasters guitars from the 1950s.
Clapton recalled: "They were so out of fashion you could pick up a perfectly genuine Strat for two hundred or three hundred dollars – even less! So I bought all of them."
He took pickups from one, scratchplate from another and neck from the third and customised Blackie, the name after its black V-shaped body.
He played it live for the first time on January 13, 1973, at the famous concert at London’s Rainbow Theatre. The Who’s Pete Townshend organised with famous friends to entice Clapton back to live work after a period of being a recluse due to a number of addiction issues.
“Blackie” was part of his life for 12 years as his main guitar, a signature sound of blues-rock on hits such as Cocaine, Wonderful Tonight, and Lay Down Sally, and best featured on the made-in-Japan live album Just One Night (1980).
Eventually with constant use, “Blackie” got banged about and finally retired. In 2004 Clapton put it up for auction to raise money for The Crossroads Centre Antigua, the drug and alcohol treatment facility he founded in 1997.
It went under the hammer at Christie's and was picked up by the Guitar Center. The $959,500 sum was a world achievement for the highest price paid for a guitar at that time.
In his autobiography, the guitarist said of their parting, "It was hard. We had travelled a lot of miles together."
Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E Acoustic Guitar
Sold: $6 million in 2020
The Martin D-18E was common with folkies such as David Crosby, Gordon Lightfoot, and Clarence White. Kurt Cobain’s was made in 1959 and battered, and he dubbed it “Grandpa”.
It is best remembered for his use on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged In New York set in 1993. Cobain had a strong sense of how he wanted it to look, with flowers and candles. The show’s producer said, “So you want it to look like a funeral?” and Kurt responded, “Yes!”
Five months later, Cobain was found dead. That created an emotional connection with the buyer, Australian businessman Peter Freedman (Røde Microphones), with the $6 million paid making it the most expensive guitar then.
Meantime, the olive green cardigan Kurt wore on Unplugged – just to emphasise that Nirvana may have become massive but still wearing a thrift shop item to emphasise their grunge roots – sold for $500,000 in October 2019.
The Piano From Casablanca
Sold: $3.4 million in 2014
In all the mind games, bitterness and redemption in the 1942 World War II romance movie Casablanca, the heart and soul came from the singer Dooley Wilson’s character Sam and the piano he is seen playing.
It was made in 1927 by the picture studio, coloured golden yellow, with an intricate design of Moroccan green and gold. It only had 58 keys instead of the full 88.
The emotion comes from As Time Goes By, the song that marked the love affair between Ingrid Bergman’s character Ilsa Lund and Humphrey Bogart’s Rick before everything soured.
There were two myths about the piano. Firstly Wilson was a singer, not a pianist. So the ivories were tickled off-camera by one Elliot Carpenter.
The other is that when Ilsa saw Sam for the first time in Rick’s Café Americain, it is commonly thought she asked him to play As Times Go By saying “Play it again, Sam.” In fact, her request was “Play it once, Sam. For old time's sake.”
When the piano went to auction 72 years later in New York, people were genuinely stunned that it went for $3.4 million to an anonymous buyer.
It reflected the importance of its role in a beautifully-crafted big-screener which still resonates and wins awards today.
There was a second piano in the movie, used during a Paris flashback scene. That sold for $602,500 at Sotheby’s in December 2012.
Ringo Starr’s Ludwig ‘Black Pearl’ Drums
Sold: $2.1 million in 2015
In 1963, just as Beatlemania was starting to hit the shore, Ringo Starr liked the idea of owning an American drum kit, by Ludwig, because it was cooler.
But import taxes and shipping costs put its price at twice as much, and The Beatles had no money then. He used local makes Premier and Ajax instead.
However, their new manager Brian Epstein came to the rescue. He went to Drum City store in London and got him a deal, insisting, “These boys are going to be so huge.”
On May 12, 1963, Ringo picked up the Ludwig for $380. He liked that it was a simple three-piece set-up, and small enough (20” bass drum) “so I wouldn't be hidden back there.”
It was used between May 1963 and February 1964, at 200 concerts and on 180 recording sessions including for Can't Buy Me Love, She Loves You, All My Loving, and I Want To Hold Your Hand.
When ‘Black Pearl’ went to auction in 2015 for $2.1 million, Christie’s hailed it the most expensive drum kit of all time.
This same kit also was in last week’s Isray auction. It briefly retained its “most expensive” tag, but later in the auction, a drumhead forming part of Starr’s second Ludwig kit went for just under $2.9 million.
John Lennon’s Sgt. Peppers Piano
Sold: $3.24 Million in 2026
John Lennon’s upright piano made by the famous English company John Broadwood & Sons, went into the Isray auction tipped to go for between $400,000 and $600,000.
But it stormed in at $3,247,000, setting a record for the highest auction price ever paid for any Beatles-related object, said Christie's.
John Broadwood and Sons was founded in 1728. Some of history’s greatest composers – Mozart, Haydn, Chopin, Beethoven, and Liszt – used its instruments.
Lennon’s Cottage Upright was made in 1872 and is numbered on the wooden frame 41142.
He bought it in 1966, and installed it into his 1913 home Kenwood in Weybridge, Surrey. Here he wrote some of his classics from 1967’s seminal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
A year later, the Beatles founder had begun a relationship with Yoko Ono. In the subsequent divorce from first wife Cynthia, he lost Kenwood, and he and Ono bought Tittenhurst Park in the Berkshire countryside.
It’s where the final Beatles photo session took place (August 22, 1969) and used on the front and back covers of the Hey Jude compilation album.
The piano also went to Tittenhurst Park. But Lennon gave it away to a friend two years later. John affixed a plaque to it:
“On this piano was written: A Day In The Life, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Good Morning, Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite, and many others. John Lennon. 1971."
There was another piano at Kenwood, a 1907 Bechstein Concert Grand, on which Lennon and McCartney wrote Yesterday and Help. John got two Dutch artists to paint psychedelic designs on it. It ended up in George Harrison’s Friar Park estate and valued in 2014 at £50,000 (US$66, 297.68)
Another famous Lennon piano, the Steinway upright on which he penned Imagine, went for auction in 2000. The Gallaghers of Oasis, and George Michael were among the bidders. The Wham! star got it for £1.45 million (US$1.92 million), because he wanted to ensure the iconic piece of memorabilia stayed in the UK.
It went on a charity tour called The Imagine Piano Peace Project, and has been on display at Strawberry Field in Liverpool since 2020.
