Merseyside, UK - A Victorian closet pan removed by John Lennon from Tittenhurst Park, Berkshire, between 1969 and 1972, sold for £9,500 (est £800) at an annual Beatles memorabilia auction in Liverpool to an unknown overseas private buyer, according to Lennon expert and auction organiser Stephen Bailey.
Lennon gave the WC pan to John Hancock, his building foreman, when the toilet was replaced with two new gold-plated 'Him' and 'Them' fittings. Lennon subsequently sold the house to Ringo, who in the late 1980s sold it to a sheikh from Abu Dhabi. Hancock's son-in-law consigned the loo pan to the auction.
Sharpe Brothers & Co Ltd: The WC pan was a 'Rilcote' made c1895 by Sharpe Brothers of Swadlincote near Burton on Trent. Thomas Sharpe started the business in 1821 as a yellow-ware manufacturer and died in 1838. In 1846 Sharpe Brothers & Co is listed in Bagshaw's 1846 Repton & Gresley Directory as earthenware manufacturers, as was Edmund Sharpe, who took over the firm and in 1855 patented a successful improvement of the flushing rim for WC pans, establishing Swadlincote as a world leader in the manufacture of sanitaryware for the next 100 years. A Sharpe's water closet was regarded as a status symbol in Russia.
Rilcote was still being listed as a trade name for Sharpe's water closets in 1927, and Sharpe Brothers pottery finally closed in 1967.
The firm produced ironstone cane, yellow ware, buff drab, fire-proof, Rockingham, mottled, black lustre pottery, salt-glaze as well as cane, white and blue-printed earthenware sanitary goods. The mark of 'T. Sharpe' was replaced later by 'S B & Co' within a wreath and the words 'Sharpe's Patent' above.
Sharpe Brothers & Co Ltd is still trading, although it is now a property company, although there is still possesses an archive of old books, catalogues and ledgers. The Sharpe's Pottery Heritage and Arts Trust Ltd acquired a 125 year lease on the Sharpe's Pottery buildings and site which it opened as a museum, heritage and arts centre on 18 January 2003.
