Charity shop donated guitars fetch £12,000 at auction

Presley played a Gibson J-45 in the 1958 film King Creole

A collection of rare guitars anonymously donated to a charity shop, including two favoured by Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan, have fetched more than £12,000 at auction.

The six valuable guitars and an amp were donated to the Oxfam shop in Witney towards the end of last year.

Having been assessed by shop volunteers, the guitars were quickly identified as being potentially very valuable and went up for auction last week, where they raised £12,660.

Among those sold was a Gibson Custom Shop Banner 1942 J-45 acoustic guitar, which was a personal favourite of Elvis Presley.

It sold for £2,200, whilst a Martin D-28 acoustic guitar - favoured by artists like Dylan and Neil Young - fetched £3,400.

The Gibson J-45 fetched £2,200

Explaining how he and his fellow Witney volunteers received the donation, Chris Meadows said: "Near the end of last year, a chap came in and asked if we took in guitars as donations."

"I don't know anything about guitars, but I remember seeing the cases and thinking they looked valuable – not knowing quite how valuable they were."

Mr Meadows said he and his fellow volunteers researched the collection and "pretty quickly realised how special" the guitars were.

"The very generous gentleman who donated them must have known they were very valuable, and knew what kind of money they might be able to help make for Oxfam," he added.

A Martin D-28 acoustic guitar was also donated

The collection, which was sold at Ewbank's auction house in Woking, Surrey, also included a Gibson ES 335 electric guitar and a Gretsch White Falcon G6136-55VS electric guitar.

John Silke, Ewbank's Music Valuer, said each one of the guitars would be "high on any guitar players' dream list".

"Instruments of this quality and condition don't come in every day so this was a very special and generous donation. It is fantastic that they have been able to raise so much money for Oxfam," he said.