Drawings and writings by famed Beatle John Lennon have flown off a New York auction bloc, with some fetching four to five times their estimated worth.
Sotheby's - which held the sale - had described the often very simple ink sketches and manuscripts as "the most extensive collection of John Lennon's original artwork, autograph manuscripts and corrected typescripts ever to come to auction."
And that appeared to motivate moneyed buyers, who snapped up the 89 lots on offer in just two hours.
Estimated to be worth $US850,000 ($A919,700) to $US1.2 million, the pieces ended up pulling in $US2.899 million - including 25 per cent in buyer fees, an amount not included in value estimates - putting a smile on auctioneer Benjamin Doller's face as he set down the hammer after the sale of the last lot.
The items comprise the original material that appeared in two books by Lennon - In His Own Write, published 50 years ago this year, and A Spaniard in the Works that hit the best-seller lists in 1965.
They came from the private collection of London publisher Tom Maschler, creator of the Booker prize.
The most expensive lot - a nine-page, handwritten manuscript titled The Singular Experience of Miss Anne Duffield with an estimated worth of $US50,000 to $US70,000 - went for $US209,000, fees included.
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