BB King playing a black Gibson ES-345 prototype that changed into one of numerous guitars he called Lucille (Richard Drew/AP)
By Emily Wagster Pettus, Associated Press
September 24 2019 2:04 AM
A guitar given to BB King for his 80th birthday has bought for 280,000 US bucks (£224,000) at an public sale of objects from the blues legend’s property.
Julien’s Auctions says King often used the black Gibson ES-345 prototype that turned into one in every of several guitars he called Lucille.
A spokeswoman for the public sale house, Mozell Miley-Bailey, said the client wanted to remain nameless.
Before the auction, Julien’s predicted the guitar’s value at eighty,000 to one hundred,000 bucks. The headstock has “BB King eighty” and a crown inlaid with mom-of-pearl, and the guitar is autographed at the returned.
£224,000 How an awful lot a BB King guitar bought for at an public sale
The Gibson business enterprise gave King the guitar as a present.
Early in his career, King ran returned right into a burning nightclub to rescue his guitar, and he later discovered the fireplace commenced when guys have been fighting over a woman named Lucille.
King stated he in no way met the woman however commenced naming his guitars Lucille as a reminder to by no means again endanger his very own lifestyles.
The auction of extra than 550 objects from King’s estate took place in Los Angeles on Saturday, some days after what would had been his 94th birthday.
The 15-time Grammy winner become 89 when he died in 2015 in Las Vegas. He is buried next to the BB King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in the small metropolis of Indianola, Mississippi, near the community in which he grew up picking cotton within the Delta flatlands.
The auction residence stated the estate sale brought in 1.3 million dollars. It covered awards, pix, King’s passports, bags, jewellery, garb, audio gadget and different guitars.
A ring that King wore in pics bought for sixteen,250 greenbacks. It is 18-karat gold and has “BB” encrusted with 22 diamonds , and its preliminary expected price became 6,000 to 8,000 dollars.
A series of King’s seventy eight rpm blues records sold for fifty one,2 hundred dollars, after an anticipated cost of 500 to 700 dollars.