Lennon's sketch of the album cover.
Lennon’s sketch of the album cover. Julien’s Auctions

Imagine… moving into John Lennon’s old house as a child in the 1960s and finding his original sketch for the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Lennon once lived in a house called Kenwood, in Surrey, England, with his wife Cynthia. In the four years they lived there, from 1964 to 1968, Lennon worked on some of the Beatle’s most iconic songs in the house’s attic or on a piano downstairs. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was released while Lennon lived there, too, in 1967.

After Lennon moved out of the house, the new owners found a sketchbook in which Lennon sketched out an album cover for Sgt. Pepper’s. The final version would become one of the most famous albums of all time, but in this early sketch, it’s possible to see the florid idea starting to form. Decades later, the woman who lived in the house as a child has put the sketch up for auction: according to Rolling Stone, it’s estimated to be worth at least $40,000.