The Beatles: The Original Hessy's Hire Purchase/Instalment Ledger For Stuart Sutcliffe's Hofner Bass Guitar, 1960, double-sided, dated 21/1/60 made out to Stuart Sutcliffe 9, Percy St. Liverpool 8, listing employer as Lpool College of Art Hope St Lpool and employment as Art Student, detailing goods supplied as Hofner Bass Gtr. Brunette + case Gtr. 1566 S/N 199 Model 333, financial details including total cash price of £50 8 shillings and hire purchase price of £59 15 shillings, with payments received by Hessy's from 19th January 1960 to 10th April 1962, a note dated 16/2/62 reading Mrs Sutcliffe 'phoned and spoke to Mr Hessy very rudely that we would get paid 5/- weekly, and annotated W/O 12/9/63, Footnotes: For many aspiring young musicians emerging from the UK skiffle/rock 'n' roll boom in the late 1950s and early 1960s, hire purchase (or, as it was colloquially known, the 'never-never') was the only way to own an instrument. Hessy's in Liverpool was a leading retailer who supplied guitars and other equipment to many of the local bands, offering them the option of hire purchase. In January 1960, John Lennon persuaded his good friend Stuart Sutcliffe to buy a bass guitar using money Stuart had recently received from the sale of one of his paintings in an exhibition at Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery. With the £90 he had earned he could have bought the guitar outright but chose the hire purchase scheme, with a deposit of £15 and committing to a series of weekly payments. His tenure as the bass player with the Beatles lasted just under a year however when, in December 1960, he decided to stay on in Hamburg with his German girlfriend instead of returning to Liverpool as the rest of the Beatles had done so. After his death in April 1962, the bass guitar remained in Germany until, in August 1986, it appeared in a London auction and was bought by the Hard Rock Cafe for £10,450. The guitar and ledger are illustrated pps. 30-31, Beatles Gear, Andy Babiuk, Backbeat Books, Revised Edition, 2002. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing