A porcelain lavatory which John Lennon told a builder to use as a "plant pot" has fetched £9,500 – nearly 10 times its guide price – at an auction today.
The loo was used by the music legend when he lived at Tittenhurst Park in Berkshire between 1969 and 1972.
Lennon told builder John Hancock to keep it and "use it as a plant pot", after he installed a new one.
The toilet was stored in a shed at Mr Hancock's home for 40 years until he died recently.
It was expected to fetch only £1,000 at the auction at the 33rd annual Beatles Convention in Liverpool today. But an overseas investor forked out £9,500 for it.
Auction organiser and Beatles expert Stephen Bailey said: "It is unbelievable. We had bids coming in from all over the place but it went to a private overseas buyer."
The loo was among the highlights of the auction of Beatles memorabilia.
Also up for grabs was a rare mono-sound copy of Two Virgins, which Lennon recorded with wife Yoko Ono. It was expected to fetch at least £2,500.
When the LP was released in November 1968, it was sold in brown paper bags as the sleeve controversially featured a naked picture of the famous couple.
A limited release of 5,000 stereo versions of the album were available in shops, but fans had to write to the record label to purchase a mono copy of the record.
The exact number of mono copies sold is unknown. However, organisers say it is likely to be as few as a "couple of hundred".