A brass Yale key to Sir Paul McCartney’s childhood home has been sold for £6,100 at auction. The item was bought by a private collector via UK auctioneers Dominic Winter, significantly exceeding its pre-sale estimate of £2,000 to £3,000.
The house at 20 Forthlin Road in Liverpool was Sir Paul McCartney's family home from 1955 until late 1963. It is where he learned various instruments and wrote songs with John Lennon.
The key came into the possession of 13-year-old Beatles fan Kathleen Salt in 1965 after she wrote to the then-occupant, Ashley Jones. Mr Jones sent her the key, believing it could have been Sir Paul’s.
In the same auction, four Beatles autographs, each inscribed to “Kathy”, were sold for £5,124 to a private collector in the UK. These autographs were obtained by Kathleen Salt's father, Frank Duffy, who worked for the band’s security team during their first American tour in 1964.