Eric Clapton’s 1978 Guild D-55 guitar sells for £25,000

Eric Clapton’s 1978 Guild D-55NT natural-wood acoustic has sold at auction for £25,000 - far above its estimated £7,000–£10,000.

The guitar - which was sold at Wiltshire auction house Gardiner Houlgate on 8 March - was owned by the blues icon between 1978 and 1999, before it was sold at a charity auction in New York to raise money for Clapton’s Crossroads drugs and alcohol rehabilitation centre.

A cigarette burn on the headstock points to Clapton’s ownership, while the guitar’s strings are likely to be original, too, tied off in the style of longtime Clapton tech Lee Dickson.

There are no details on the exact occasions it was played, but records supplied with the guitar indicate it was used for writing and recording.

Of course, the final sale price is still a far cry from the record-breaking sum of $959,000, which was achieved by Clapton’s iconic ‘Blackie’ Strat back in 2004.