Provenance Matters - Clapton Guitar Sales

A few days ago I posted on Bonhams upcoming sale of guitars and amps owned by Eric Clapton.  The sale concluded the other day in NY, and the results, not surprisingly were very strong. The pre sale releases showed reasonable price expectations, on what was thought to be a collection of lower quality items.  The pre sale estimate for the offering of 75 guitars and 55 amps was in the range of $400,000 to $600,000.  The sale totaled nearly four times the pre sale estimate at $2.2 million, and like two earlier Clapton sale, with all 138 lots selling.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the sale can be used as a guideline for value premiums due to provenance.  It should be an easy task to find similar (if non custom) guitears and amps and then compare the values of the Clapton owned guitars to those without provenance or interesting histories.

Bloomberg reported on the Bonhams sale

Clapton fans, dealers and collectors pushed the prices for most pieces far above their estimates. Every one of the auction’s 138 lots sold.

“It just shows you the strength of feeling that people have for Eric Clapton,” said Carey Wallace of the U.K.-based firm Wallace & Hodgson, which organized the auction. “I am blown away.”

A 2008 Martin acoustic guitar on which Clapton played the song “Motherless Child” sold for $70,760, way over its presale estimate of $3,000 to $5,000.
A 1920s mandolin-banjo with a presale estimate of $300 to $500 sold for $3,904. A gold sales award for the album “Me and Mr. Johnson,” estimated at $600 to $900, fetched $39,040.

A pair of 1997 Fender Twin amplifiers, used by Clapton on his Legends tour in Europe that year, fetched $42,700, compared with the estimated $9,000 to $12,000.

To read the Bloomberg article, click HERE.

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