Full set of Abbey Road photos to be auctioned

No. 5 as a print. Photograph: Bloomsbury Auctions

A full set of the six photos Iain Macmillan took of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road plus one of the street sign for the back cover of the album will be sold at Bloomsbury’s photographs and photobooks sale on 21 November and has an estimate of £50,000-70,000, The Guardian reports. According to the article, Sarah Wheeler, head of photography at Bloomsbury Auctions has told the newspaper that “They are incredibly rare”. “I’ve spoken to other music dealers and no one has been able to find a complete set on the market for at least 10 years.”

So I guess she didn’t bother to google this. As regular readers of this blog will remember, Snap Galleries in Piccadilly Arcade, London held an exhibition called “Beatles And Bystanders” in 2011, and sold original prints signed by Iain Macmillan in their shop at the time. Their exhibition ended on July 8, 2011 and not long after, in May 2012, a single print from the collection was sold by Bloomsbury Auctions for £16,000!

Ten years ago, back in 2004, original prints of the Abbey Road photos signed by Iain Macmillan were going for £2,100 a piece, according to an article in The Independent at the time. The price was supplied by Snap Galleries owner, Guy White, who told the newspaper that “prices are never going to go down.” I guess he was on the money. The photographer, Iain Macmillan passed away on 8 May 2006.

Source: The Guardian