A placard written by John Lennon for his famous bed-in for peace, alongside Yoko Ono, also doubled its valuation, selling for £73,250.

And song sheets from the Imagine album, with hand-written notes by Lennon, sold for £25,000, again twice the estimate.

Other Beatles lots selling at the South Kensington auction house included a signed 1953 photograph of Paul McCartney as a child, along with classmates from Joseph William Primary School, which sold for £3,500, and personal correspondence from Lennon and George Harrison, together with Beatles posters from the 1960s.

They brought the total raised at the auction to over £325,000 for Beatles items alone, nearly half the value of the 158 lots.

Famous guitars including a Stratocaster owned by Jimi Hendrix and a Stratophone owned by Rolling Stone Brian Jones were also sold on the day.

Neil Roberts said: “The success of numerous John Lennon lots, including the Montreal bed-in for peace placard and his original drawings, demonstrated the continued appeal of this iconic figure.”