Singer’s Sixties dresses set to be sold off at auction

A RARE treasure trove of 1960s fashion and souvenirs is being sold off in Cardiff next month.

Dresses worn by Welsh singer Mary Hopkin – one of the first acts signed by the Beatles – are going under the hammer.

Mary, now 67, was one of the first artists to sign with the Beatles’ Apple Records label – and shot to fame with her 1968 UK number one single Those Were The Days.

She is auctioning off a collection of frocks and dresses she wore at the height of her fame.

One red frock up for auction can be seen worn by Hopkin in a photograph with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker.

A silver waist belt also on display in the photo is the same she wore while performing Knock Knock, Who’s There? at the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest, where she came second. She is also pictured with Lulu wearing the same belt.

Another photo taken with Beatle Paul McCartney, who produced Those Were The Days, has of her wearing a patterned green dress which is also part of the sale.

Included in her cache of memorabilia is a poster advertising the Beatles’ August 1963 gig at The Pier Pavilion in Llandudno, North Wales, expected to auction for £400 to £800.

That same August the band went straight to number one with their second hit She Loves You, signifying the eruption of Beatlemania across the world.

The small concert in the seaside town was priced at 4/6d, 6/6d and 8/6d, and was part of the Beatles’ tour of smaller venues around the UK.

After their performance the band returned to Liverpool to celebrate the news their Twist and Shout EP had won a silver disc for sales of over 250,000.

Auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones said: “It was right that the poster should be delivered to our auction rooms in Colwyn Bay, only three miles from the venue where The Beatles played that night.

“My hope is that it will go to somebody local to the area who was at the gig but there’s sure to be huge interest from elsewhere as the market for Beatles memorabilia is colossal.

“Original and rare items like these are collected around the globe. It could go anywhere but my fingers are crossed for a local collector or perhaps a hotel in the area to buy it.”

Rogers Jones & Co will be auctioning the Beatles poster at its Antiques & Fine Art auction on May 23 in Colwyn Bay.

The company will auction the collection of dresses on June 2 in Cardiff after being given the collection by the family of Mary, who lives in Pontardawe, Swansea.