Sept 29, 2015: Beatles – Brian Epstein Contract Sold at Auction

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The Beatles’ 1962 contract with Brian Epstein

Sotheby’s “Rock & Pop” auction in 2015 offered a significant piece of rock history. Among the over 100 items for bid on September 29 in London, U.K. was the first and only management contract signed by the four Beatles with Brian Epstein in 1962. The highly unique item sold for £365,000 to an anonymous buyer. The sale price was at the lower end of the estimate of £300,000 – £500,000.

The contract had been signed only days before the release of the band’s first single. The Sotheby’s listing described it thusly:

mimeographed typescript contract between “Nems Enterprises Limited…The Manager” and John Winston Lennon, George Harrison, James Paul McCartney, and Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) (“The Artists”), and also Harold Hargreaves Harrison and James McCartney, fathers of George and Paul respectively, agreeing to “appoint the Manager to act as such Manager throughout the world … for a period of 5 years from the 1st day of October 1962”, signed by Brian Epstein as company Director and Clive Epstein as company Secretary, then signed by all other parties including all four Beatles, witnessed by Epstein’s secretary Beryl Adams, signed variously in blue ink, blue and black ballpoint (Lennon making two attempts having first begun his signature in the wrong place), each of signatures accompanied by a red wax seal, 8 pages, folio, with red ruled margins and ten shilling stamp, 1 October 1962; bound together with a supplementary agreement “pursuant to the within Agreement…whereby it is jointly and severally agreed…that the proviso to Clause 1 of the within agreement shall be deleted” (and this clause struck through in the main contract in pencil), again signed by Brian and Clive Epstein, Lennon, Harrison, McCartney, Starkey and the two fathers, 4 pages, folio, 22 January 1963; in a blue wrapper docketed by the solicitors’ office on the lower cover (“Dated this 1st day of October 1962. Nems Enterprises Limited and “The Beatles” | Agreement | Silverman, Livermore & Co., Solicitors, Liverpool”), stab-stitched with green ribbon, each page with vertical fold down centre, wrappers worn at extremities.

The largest collection of items in the auction was from the late Jack Bruce, best known as bassist, singer and songwriter for Cream, one of classic rock’s first supergroups.

Also in the sale were a Fender Stratocaster guitar owned by Eric Clapton (£45,000), handwritten manuscript notes and drafts from Bob Dylan and autographed handwritten lyrics by Bruce Springsteen for “Jungleland” (£16,250).

Clapton’s Fender (Photo: Sothebys)

The Jack Bruce lots – selected for auction before his passing – included stage clothes, a number of bass guitars (including his prized custom-made Warwick fretless thumb bass) and other instruments (including a Mellotron and Hammond B-3 organ with Leslie speaker cabinet) as well as autographed lyric manuscripts). Other Beatles items were included, as were some John and Yoko memorabilia, and a George Harrison shirt worn in the band’s Cavern Club days.

Check out the full list of offerings here.