John Lennon's Toilet to Be Auctioned

John Lennon's toilet is among the highlights in a set of Beatles memorabilia set to go under the hammer this week.

Yet it is not Lennon's toilet bowl that is attracting record levels of interest at the 33rd annual Beatles Convention in Liverpool, the Daily Telegraph reports. More sought-after is a mono version of the 'Two Virgins' album that Lennon recorded with Yoko Ono -- that is expected to fetch at least £2,500 ($3,900).

While a stereo edition of the 1968 album was available in shops, fans had to write to the label to buy the rare mono copy. The exact number of these special versions sold is unknown, though experts reckon it is probably only a "couple of hundred."

The loo, meanwhile, hails from Tittenhurst Park, Lennon's Berkshire home between 1969 and 1972. The owner told builder John Hancock to keep the porcelain bowl and "use it as a plant pot" after he installed a new one. Hancock stored it in a shed until he recently passed away.

Now the toilet has an estimated value of between £750 and £1,000, though auction organiser Stephen Bailey reckons the mono album is the one to watch. "The stereo version sold relatively few copies at a time when any one of the Beatles could easily have shifted hundreds of thousands of records," he said. ''It must be one of the rarest Beatles solo albums to come up for auction.''