A piano of Elvis Presley will go under the hammer at an auction of the rock'n roll legend's memorabilia this month and is expected to fetch over a million dollars.
The White Knabe Grand Piano, as featured in the legendary singer's music room at Graceland from 1957 to 1969, is the centrepiece of Heritage Auctions' Signature Elvis Memorabilia sale on August 14 in Memphis.
"This elegant musical instrument, so well-loved and played by Elvis, is presented with wonderful provenance back to the 1930s, not to mention that it was an emotionally-charged prized possession of the King himself," says Doug Norwine, director of Music and Entertainment Auctions at Heritage.
The Knabe piano, besides being owned by Elvis for more than a decade, is a storied set of keys that occupied the position as the house piano in Ellis Auditorium in Memphis, from the early 1930s through 1957, when Elvis himself bought it and had it refurbished in white, the auctioneers said.
{{/usCountry}}The Knabe piano, besides being owned by Elvis for more than a decade, is a storied set of keys that occupied the position as the house piano in Ellis Auditorium in Memphis, from the early 1930s through 1957, when Elvis himself bought it and had it refurbished in white, the auctioneers said.
{{/usCountry}}Another premier and personal lot of the auction is an Elvis handwritten and signed four-page letter written to his then-girlfriend Anita Wood in 1958, just after Elvis entered the army, estimated at $75,000.
"This letter was penned just six weeks after Private Presley arrived in Germany," said Norwine.
"Elvis reveals himself to be more the typical lonely soldier missing his girlfriend back home than the nation's number one entertainment attraction".
The 1976 Triumph TR-6 Convertible that Elvis gifted to Ginger Alden, his main lady at the time of his death, is also included in the auction with an estimate of over $70,000.
A pair Elvis' custom gold-framed sunglasses, made in West Germany by Neostyle, with tinted lenses and 14k gold "TCB" lightning bolt logos at the temples, customized for Presley by his personal optician, Dennis Roberts, during the early 1970s, is expected to bring $20,000, while Elvis' 0.22 Harrington and Richardson revolver, purchased at Tiny's Gun Shop in Palm Springs, is estimated at $8,000.