A guitar that belonged to John Lennon and which the music legend used in the recording sessions for The Beatles' 1966 hit "Paperback Writer" will be up for auction in November, according to The Telegraph.

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Lennon's Gretsch 6120 is projected to fetch between $640,000 and $960,000 during a concluding live auction at Le Meridien, Piccadilly, London on November 23. Online bidding for the guitar will begin on November 14.

The guitar has had only two owners - Lennon and his younger cousin, David Birch, who received the Gretsch from Lennon when he visited the music icon at his home in Weybridge, Surrey in November 1967. Birch, who was then putting together his own band with friends, said he asked Lennon if he had any guitar he would be willing to give him.

"I was just cheeky enough to ask John for one his spare guitars," he said. "I had my eye on a blue Fender Stratocaster that was lying in the studio but John suggested the Gretsch and gave it to me as we were talking," he continued.

Birch's mother, Harriet, was a younger sister of Lennon's mother, Julia. When Lennon was staying with his Aunt Mimi, he lived near Birch's family.

The Gretsch belonged to Lennon's guitar collection which he stored in his music room at the top of his Surrey house, says The Mirror. According to TracksAuction.com, the guitar is one of the most significant of Lennon's instruments to be made available in the market.

Lennon's Gretsch has a few peculiarities to it, particularly the two "idiosyncratic" markings in the wood grain on the guitar's back, The Mirror notes. Additionally, wood grains on the headstock of the guitar are visible in a few close-up shots of the recording sessions.

The auction in November will feature more than 100 Beatles memorabilia, among them a copy of the Sgt. Pepper album signed by all four members. It will also include the banjo played by Rod Davis in The Quarrymen, Lennon's original group. 

TagsJohn Lennon, Gretsch 6210, The Beatles