2025 – Christie’s (London) Auction of Jeff Beck’s Guitars, etc, 1-22-25

On April 30, 2017 - Uncategorized

…………………………………………(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on January 30, 2025)

I had read about this auction somewhere and thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to be a part of that if I could afford it.” But I found another way to do that (or rather, it found me)…..via a lovely email I received on November 19 from a woman named Amelia Walker:

Dear Mr Leafe

Christie’s is delighted to be holding an auction of the late Jeff Beck’s guitars and amps in London, to be held on 22 January 2025.

In the course of researching Jeff’s guitars, I have come across your amazing photograph of him (below – I think from the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ in 1980) from the liner booklet which accompanied his 1991 compilation Beckology. We would love to reproduce this photo in our catalogue .

Please can you let me know whether you would be open to us using the below photo. It would be wonderful if you were able to share a high resolution version of your photo.

I very much look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Amelia Walker

Director, Specialist Head of Private & Iconic Collections, EMEA

CHRISTIE’S

8 Ki‌ng St‌reet
Lo‌ndon S‌W1Y 6‌QT

Here’s the photo that accompanied the email:

I wasn’t aware of this usage in Beckology! I guess I can “thank” my former agency……..they were supposed to get me copies of any usage that they sold on my behalf. I hope I was at least paid for it.

Well, maybe now I will be, thanks to this sharp-eyed Christie’s Director and Head of Private Icons & Collections.

I readily agreed to contribute to their auction catalog.

Meanwhile, I’ve gotta find me a copy of that booklet! That would be a nice thing to have.

There are lots of copies of the 3-CD Beckology for sale on eBay, but most of them are asking between $50 and $125!

I just want the booklet. After extensive searching, I found ONE guy who was selling ONLY the booklet for $15…………sold!

Here it is (sideways):

(Looks like Jeff “signed” the headstock.)

…..and the photo credits of its contents (I’m in there somewhere):

This is the Beckology “guitar case” that holds the 3 CDs and the booklet:

And here’s everything:

(but I already had what I needed)

SO……………I was asked if I had shots of certain other Beck guitars. I sent in what I had and one of those shots was selected. It was of the same guitar from the same show!

But it was a more “rock star guitarist” image, as opposed to the already-selected one that Amelia said looked like he was using a pogo stick – a great description. (I took that one step further and labeled the Stratocaster a “PogoStickcaster”. Can you imagine seeing that name on the headstock?)

Not only did I find the two images to be complementary, but then noticed that they were actually consecutive photos – #3 and #4 on the contact sheet:

I sent in hi-res versions of both and also included a third one with the two images combined (which I thought was a more powerful look), but I got the feeling that the usages would be separate…………fine by me.

I was happy to hear that they would be sending me a copy of the catalog. Before that happened, I found Christie’s online version of the catalog (now deleted) – and it had a nice surprise:

Yes!! They combined them!

I wasn’t sure when my catalog would arrive, but I got another nice surprise when it was delivered right ON auction day, thanks to Christie’s Cataloguer and Sale Coordinator (Private & Iconic Collections), Venetia Jolly.

Amazing timing, Venetia! Thank you!

Lastly, I have to insert here one of the other shots I sent in because it was my favorite Jeff Beck shot – not only because he was looking right at me, posing like a bathing beauty while wearing a Star Trek t-shirt, but also because this 1976 shot was taken at Bergen Community College in Paramus, NJ, where I was a faculty member, running the Physical Science labs (Chemistry, Physics, etc.) for the night classes.

The director of Student Activities was deluged with lists of available music acts from booking agents……….and sometimes didn’t know one act from another, but he DID know of my involvement in the music scene, so he’d read the lists to me.

“So-and-So, So-and-So, Blah, Blah, jeff beck, Blah, Blah, Blah…………”

“JEFF BECK? YOU CAN GET JEFF BECK TO PLAY HERE? OMIGOD, GET HIM!!”

So we got him! And here’s my favorite Jeff Beck photo ever! And I took it at BCC…………my finest moment in academia! (Finally! The chemistry degree does me some good where it matters!)

(Amelia – the next time you have a Jeff Beck Guitars auction, I nominate this shot for the cover!)

THE CATALOG (Ooops! Sorry, Amelia and Venetia………..CATALOGUE)

Normally, I’d recommend that all Beck fans get the catalog – it’s quite thorough – but it’s also quite sold-out (BTW – the 40 pounds price = $50).

Fortunately, I now have one and took a picture of the front cover:

……and here’s my page:

Of course, I made it too small to read so I could insert this one with the larger (and clearer) last-half paragraph:

You may have noticed a discrepancy in the dates under the picture and in that paragraph. The picture one (7 October 1980) is correct.

LINKS

One guitar (Oxblood) sold for $1.33 MILLION dollars! Read all about it:

https://www.christies.com/lot/gibson-incorporated-kalamazoo-michigan-1954-and-later-6520001

Don’t believe that number? Stick the pounds number in here:

https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=GBP&To=USD

In the Christie’s display room, Amelia Walker and Kerry Keane (Specialist Consultant, Musical Instruments) discuss three of Jeff’s primo guitars, including a Gibson and a Fender (you now have some familiarity with the latter instrument) in this YouTube video (for some reason, I particularly enjoyed Amelia’s story at the 3:00 mark about “wear” on the Fender in 1980):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlt5ZKuRDw4

Watch the whole auction (if you’ve got 7 hours to kill):