Hendrix jacket fetches £35,000 at auction

The jacket had been expected to fetch around £20,000

LONDON -- A psychedelic jacket that belonged to the late rock music legend Jimi Hendrix has sold for £35,000 ($49,200) at an auction in London.

The jacket was expected to fetch only around £20,000 at the sale of rock memorabilia, held a day after fans marked the 30th anniversary of the guitarist's death at the age of 27.

It was bought at Sotheby's auction house by the theme restaurant chain Hard Rock Cafe for its new outlet in Manchester, in the north west of England.

The green silk jacket, flamboyantly printed with dragon designs in a landscape of pagodas, trees and flowers, was sold with a photograph of Jimi and a letter confirming its authenticity from his friend Judith Vernon.

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The flamboyant guitar virtuoso gave the jacket to Vernon -- her husband was manager of Fleetwood Mac -- as a gift before the second Jimi Hendrix Experience UK tour in 1967.

Sotheby's said what was particularly good about the jacket, sold on behalf of a private collector, was that there were a number of photographs in existence of Hendrix wearing it.

At the time the jacket was designed for a woman and was made for just $10.

"It is entirely fitting that the jacket should go to the Hard Rock Cafe," a spokesman for Sotheby's said. "They started the craze for collecting and displaying rock and roll memorabilia and they have one of the best collections in the world."

Other lots in the auction included a Dolce et Gabbana dress worn by Madonna on one of her tours, which fetched £3,120.

Also for sale was the original text of the lyrics from George Michael's Number One hit song "Faith," which went for £8,400.

Sotheby's sold a Fender Stratocaster guitar Hendrix played at the 1969 Woodstock Festival for £198,000 10 years ago. Its value tripled within five years and it was reported to have been bought later by a private collector for £750,000.

In the U.S., Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, which two years ago featured Impressionist Claude Monet and now draws crowds with its Vincent Van Gogh exhibit, is about to put on display Hendrix's guitar.

His 1967 Gibson Flying V -- complete with a psychedelic flower-power pattern designed by the guitarist -- is among some 130 instruments in "Dangerous Curves: Art of the Guitar." There has also been the release of the guitarist's four-CD box set and the opening of a Hendrix exhibit at Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

Also in the U.S., the Showtime cable channel recently showed the biography, "Hendrix," which made the point that despite his status as a pop supernova, the entirety of his legendary career spanned just four years -- from his arrival in London in 1966 to his death in 1970.

It covered his key concerts -- including Monterey and Woodstock -- and was generous with the time devoted to such songs as "Hey Joe," "Like a Rolling Stone," "All Along the Watchtower" and "Purple Haze."

It also addressed something that baffles Hendrix fans -- why did he ever agree to open for the Monkees at a Miami concert in 1967?

Hendrix, who was born in Seattle, U.S., died in his sleep after an overdose of barbiturates on September 18, 1970.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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