Julien’s Auctions will on September 21 online auction assets of BB King, the legendary King of the Blues, with the most coveted item being King’s black Gibson ES-345 “Lucille” guitar presented to him by Gibson Guitars on his 80th birthday.
Lucille is on auction with a hard leather case with “BB King” embroidered in gold and is estimated to fetch up to $100000 (more than R1.5million).
In 1949, the legend of the Lucille guitar was born when a fire broke out during a neighbourhood brawl and King went into a burning building to save the guitar.
When he discovered the brawl was over a woman named Lucille, he named his guitar after her.