Here is your chance to own this one of a kind and extremely rare piece of music memorabilia -- a Ringo Starr and Sir Paul McCartney signed and restored piano!
The piano is painted with Beatles themed artwork including portraits of the band and names of Beatles’ songs and songs from The Beatles’ solo work. Both McCartney and Starr have signed the piano on the upper front board. Starr inscribed “Peace and Love/ Ringo” and McCartney inscribed “Cheers Paul McCartney ’14.” An image of The Beatles performing is also painted across the piano’s upper front board. In the group portrait the band appears as they did in the early 1960s. The piano is additionally painted with a foliate design in red and off-white against a black ground.
Ringo Starr signed the piano on October 17, 2014 before his performance at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. Paul McCartney signed the piano on October 28, 2014 before performing at the KFC Yum Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Photographs of Starr signing the piano and two certificates of authenticity accompany this lot – one certificate from McCartney’s record label, the other from Starr’s public relations agency. More information on the quest for the two surviving Beatles to sign the piano, and how this goal was accomplished, can be found at www.rightbraindiaries.com.
The 1908 Kingsbury piano manufactured by the Chicago Cable Company, serial number 114741, was painted by Louisiana artist Lori Gomez who, along with her husband, restored the wood elements of the instrument. New Orleans musician Barney Floyd restored the piano’s mechanics. The piano was purchased in a state of disrepair from a woman in Picayune, Mississippi, whose family had owned the instrument for four generations.
The sale of this piano will benefit East St. Tammany Habitat for Humanity/Veterans Build. Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry. HFHI seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.
The East St. Tammany Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Slidell, Louisiana was established in 1992 to serve the communities of Slidell, Lacombe, and Pearl River, Louisiana.
In 2005, Slidell was the Louisiana city hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, with the eye of the storm passing directly over the small community. Over 40 percent of the city was flooded by the storm’s surge, and countless homes were totally destroyed.
Prior to Katrina, ESTHFH had built 24 homes in the community. In the aftermath of the storm, the affiliate has since renovated 13 Habitat homes that were damaged by the storm and has provided new homes for an additional 106 families. To date, East St. Tammany Habitat for Humanity has served 133 families in eastern St. Tammany Parish through the development of strong partnerships with more than 100 businesses and churches on both national and local levels.
In 2012, the organization added a Veterans Build program to its community initiatives. Proceeds from the auction of The Beatles themed piano are dedicated specifically toward this program, to provide affordable homes for deserving veterans and their families.