GUEST: I'd written a book on the history of the ukulele that came out in the late '90s, and had a music trade show. A friend of George Harrison's uh passed our booth and said, "Oh, my friend George gave me that book." And it turned out his friend was George Harrison, and he said, "Gee, you know, George would love to come see your ukulele collection."
APPRAISER: Not something you hear every day. (laughs)
APPRAISER: Absolutely not.
GUEST: In fact, my wife and I thought, "This isn't going to happen." We told, we told no one about this, because we thought, "You know, Beatles don't come to your house."
APPRAISER: I was just gonna say, when a friend tells you a Beatle wants to come check out your ukulele collection, you go, "Okay, sure."
GUEST: That’s right. About four or five days later, the doorbell rang, and in came this friend who had stopped by at the show and George Harrison. And we spent the next three hours just playing ukes together. It was an extraordinary time. There we were, singing "All My Loving," with George, all playing ukuleles, and it was, it was a moment to never be forgotten. We're publishers of ukulele songbooks, and we even had a new book that was coming out, with, one of the first with Beatles songs in it. So just as he was about to leave, I thought, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get an appreciation for this songbook?" So I gave him a piece of stationery and I said, "Would you mind writing why you like the ukulele?" This is what he wrote.
APPRAISER: I am so happy that you had the presence of mind to ask him to do that, because now that he's no longer with us, sadly, everyone... There's all these wonderful folklore stories that everyone has who knew him about him driving around with a trunkful of ukuleles.
GUEST: That's right.
APPRAISER: Because he would just give them to people. You know, everyone always thought it was kind of quirky and wacky that he, he was into the ukulele, but I think it's wonderful that he really did write out here why he likes it. And this letter is such a dream because it's, it's so evocative of his personality and his turns of phrase, and he says that people who play the ukulele are "crackers," which is a very British kind of way of saying they're bonkers.
GUEST: (laughs) Right.
APPRAISER: He even signs it here with his George (Keoki) Harrison, which was kind of his...
GUEST: Yeah, his Hawaiian...
APPRAISER: He had an estate in Hawaii and that was kind of his nickname there.
GUEST: Yes, yeah.
APPRAISER: Which is Hawaiian for farmer. He was quite an accomplished gardener. And he's dated it.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And it's just a lovely, lovely piece. I know that because this was published in your book...
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: ...it's kind of been picked up and it's been out there. People have seen it.
GUEST: It has, yes.
APPRAISER: But most of the copies I've seen did not have this doodle at the bottom, of the pig.
GUEST: (laughs): That's right. For some reason, my wife, who was the art director on this book, for some reason, she chose not to put the, the pig in. Maybe it just, it just didn't fit.
APPRAISER: I think that the pig is probably my favorite part of this whole letter.
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: Because it, again, it just, it's so evocative of his personality and saying that, "Some are made from pigs!" I mean, it's just, it's so, so George…
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: …and when we look at the value on something like this, obviously, the memory for you, it's just pure joy, the thought of sitting down and playing ukulele with George Harrison. So few people on Earth may have had an opportunity like that. Obviously, things that were written when he was a Beatle are going to have the highest value.
GUEST: Sure.
APPRAISER: This is obviously quite a bit later.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And it's only three years before he passed away. A standard letter written from this period is probably, from George Harrison, $2,000 to $3,000.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: I think because of the content of your letter and because of the fact that it has the pig...
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: ...and it has so much character, I would put an estimate at auction of $5,000 to $7,000 on this letter.
GUEST: Mm-hmm, wow.
APPRAISER: I would insure it for no less than $10,000.
GUEST: Hm, wow-- thank you very much.
APPRAISER: Are there actually any ukuleles made with pigs?
GUEST: None that I know of.
