The Marianne Faithfull Collection
Marianne Faithfull
A Martin D-X1AE Electro-Acoustic Guitar, Used On The Albums 'Give My Love To London' And 'Negative Capability'
Lot Closed
September 12, 01:17 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Serial no. 1426643, 2010, Dreadnought-style body electro-acoustic guitar with natural finish, solid spruce top with mahogany laminate finish, Richlite fingerboard with side dot markers, shell-style pickguard, three-a-side tuners, Martin & Co. Maker's label inside soundhole reading 'DX1AE / Solid Spruce Top / Made in Mexico / U.S. Patent Number 5,406,874 / C.F. MARTIN & CO., INC. / Nazareth, Pennsylvania USA', in black Martin & Co. contoured hardshell case with green plush lining; including an extensive collection of typed lyric sheets on white A4 paper including for 'As Tears Go By', 'Broken English' and 'Crazy Love'; some annotated with key changes and handwritten notes
Dimensions
The guitar 41in (104cm) long
The guitar case 43 1/3in long x 17 3/4in wide x 6 1/4in high (110cm long x 45cm wide x 16cm high)
Image Captions
Image kindly supplied by Marianne Faithfull. The present Lot in Marianne’s flat.
Image kindly supplied by Marianne Faithfull. Marianne in front of the present Lot (in guitar case) in her flat.
Marianne has always owned a Martin guitar. She was given her first Martin by her parents in 1964 and was photographed with it on a number of occasions. This guitar can be seen in Marianne’s visual memoir ‘ A Life On Record’ published by Rizzoli where it is shown in the sitting room of her former Paris apartment on Rue d’Anjou. It also can be seen in the book ‘The Maverick Soul, Inside the Lives & Homes of Eccentric, Eclectic & Free-spirited Bohemians’ by Miv Watts and Hugh Stewart that features her later Montparnasse apartment, and in the short film shot there for Nowness in their ‘My Place’ series.
The guitar features on the recording of 'Give My Love To London' and 'Negative Capability' possibly others. It has also been used when musicians have visited Marianne at her apartment to work on songs for future release.
Marianne discusses the importance of the guitar in her career:
"My parents gave me my first Martin. An acoustic guitar was an essential 60’s accessory – no self-respecting folky was without one! I started out on the folk circuit when I was at school and my friend Sally Oldfield or one of the boys from Leighton Park [the nearby boys school] would accompany me. I never learnt to play properly myself but later when I started writing more of my own stuff you always had to have a guitar to hand in order to catch that fleeting moment of creativity – you never knew who was going to drop round!"
Marianne played acoustic guitar to Andrew Loog Oldham just after their first meeting, showing that the acoustic guitar has played an important role in the development of Marianne's career:
‘Two days after she met him at a party, Marianne brought her acoustic guitar to Andrew’s office and sang folk songs for him – a kind of makeshift audition – although he had already determined her future for her.
“The minute I saw Marianne I knew she was something special… she had this fantastic virginal look. I mean, at the time when most chicks were shaking ass and coming on strong, here was this pale, blonde, retiring, chaste teenager looking like the Mona Lisa, except with a great body. I didn’t care whether she could sing or not, I could sell that look, and I’d learned what miracles could be achieved by clever engineers in a recording studio.”’
Literature
T. Pearson, 2021, Why Marianne Faithful Matters, Faber & Faber Ltd, pp.39.