Beatles: John Lennon’s Personally Owned and Worn Round-Wire Eyeglasses (Beatles Press Secretary Tony Barrow Provenance)

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This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/2/2023

Offered here are a rare pair of John’s Lennon’s personally owned and worn round-wire eyeglasses. The silver toned, classic spectacles, feature a timelessly simple saddle bridge, and are housed in the original brown case, labeled “Optal.” In very good, used condition. Lennon gifted these to Tony Barrow, the Beatles' first Press Officer hired by manager Brian Epstein, who worked with band from 1962 to 1968. It was Barrow who coined the phrase "The Fab Four," by using it in an early press release for the band. Accompanied by a letter of provenance from Tony Barrow himself, which reads in part: “I, Anthony F. J. Barrow, confirm that John Lennon gave me this pair of glasses in [the] late 1960s. John wore the glasses and later gave them to me…the glasses have been in my possession since.”

Though Lennon shied away from wearing glasses early in his career, being self-conscious of his appearance, it’s ironic as his bespectacled look was destined to be one of his most memorable fashion choices. His thin round-wire eye wear, just like this pair, would come to be known as “Lennon glasses” and personified his anti-war hippie fashion of the 1960s. An iconic piece of Beatles history, supported by impeccable provenance from the Fab Four’s own Press Officer.