Unusual Christmas gifts for pop culture addicts

Wouldn’t it be good to give something a little bit different this Christmas? If you know someone who would appreciate finding a Beatles record player or Elvis’s helmet under the Christmas tree, take a look at our selection from the upcoming Christie's Pop Culture auction…

Every two years, Christie’s celebrates pop culture with a very special sale, when Nicolette Tomkinson and her team at the British auction house gather a diverse collection of memorabilia linked to the great names of show business. This year, on 16 December in London, 116 prominent lots go on sale. 

Beatles to go...

These days, organising a picnic in Hyde Park is easy: the salad comes from Pret A Manger and the background music is provided by a Bluetooth link between your phone and speaker. Even though these portable speakers produce stunning sound quality, it somehow doesn’t convey the greatest sense of style. It’s certainly no match for a decent picnic basket and a 1964 portable Beatles record player. Lift the lid of the turntable and you find George, Ringo, John and Paul singing away. If you’d prefer to hang a Beatle on the wall, however, you might be more interested in Lot 35: the black and white photo from 1965 shows a mischievous John Lennon with a flower over his right eye.

The biker King's crown

Elvis Presley fans are sure to find a special keepsake in the auction catalogue. The ‘King’ had a great love of motorcycles and bought several Harleys, and this blue metal flake helmet is accompanied by a letter from his secretary and cousin, Patsy Presley Geranen, confirming it did, indeed, belong to Elvis and that “It was used a lot during the mid to late sixties when he was back into his motorcycle mood”.

The Godfather papers and other oddities 

There are people who only need to see a film once to be able to recite the complete script. If you’re not one of them, however, you might be interested in the original (first, second and third draft) screenplays of the famous 1972 Mafia saga, ‘The Godfather’. There are plenty of handwritten annotations on the drafts that make them even more fascinating. The three script books have been brought to London so that potential bidders can see them for themselves. Finally, and perhaps very suitable for Christmas, given the glitter and sparkle, is the rhinestone-encrusted bike that Elton John used on stage as a part of his ‘Bicycle John’ costume, during his 1974 American tour.  

 If you can’t find the right collector’s item in this auction, why not try browsing in the Classic Driver Market for something even more extraordinary?