An Antiques Roadshow guest was left shocked as the true value of a set of house numbers belonging to John Lennon was revealed.
The guest had brought the house numbers in for expert Raj Bisram to look at on the BBC One show, and he was left stunned when it was revealed that the two numbers could easily make a huge four figure sum at auction. The numbers had been adorned on a house previously owned by the Beatles star, with the first buyers not knowing the true value of them.
The second buyer, meanwhile, saw the value in them and handed them down to his nephew. The Lennon family had lived there in the 1960s, before the house was bought by a couple who stayed there for a couple of months. It was then purchased by the guest's uncle.
As expert Raj joked, "So what do we have here? Are these your lottery numbers?" the guest was quick to explain what they really were. "No, not lottery numbers. This is the number to John Lennon's childhood home."
He went on to add: "In 1965 when John Lennon... well the Lennon family decided to sell their home, a couple bought in and they moved in for a couple of months, then sold it and moved on.
"And the next couple that bought it, they didn't tell them that it was John Lennon's house. So they moved in, were having breakfast one morning, opened the curtains and there were five people in their garden taking photographs."
He revealed that it was only then the new couple realised the significance of the home, and quickly prompted to remove the numbers on the house, knowing they could be worth a fortune.
"That was when they realised they lived in John Lennon's house, they didn't like The Beatles very much and they lived there for about 36 years, chasing people out of their garden," he explained.
"But the interesting thing about that story for me was that the person who lived there was my uncle."
It was then that Raj revealed just how much they could be worth - especially to a Beatles memorabilia collector.
"I think if that was put into a specialist Beatles sale, this would make £5,000 to £8,000, easily. It could double that, it really could double that, so I think this is a great, great little piece of Beatles memorabilia," he said.
He left the crowd in shock with the valuation, as he remarked to the guest: "Fantastic, thank you for bringing it in."
