John Lennon's Toilet for auction.

John Lennon's toilet is set to go under the hammer this week after it was discovered in his former builder’s shed after forty years.

The famous throne will be one of two hundred and ninety five items of Beatles memorabilia to be auctioned on the day at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts.

The exceptional items at the action include the lavatory and one of Lennon’s rarest albums still in circulation, Two Virgins.

The album was a mono-sound recording which he produced with Yoko Ono in November 1968 and is expected to fetch at least £2,500.

When the avant garde LP was released it was infamous for being sold in brown paper bags because the sleeve controversially featured a naked picture of John and Yoko.

Bids are also being invited for Lennon's toilet which was taken from Tittenhurst Park, his Berkshire home between 1969 and 1972.

Lennon told builder John Hancock he could have the porcelain lavatory after installing a new one. John remarked to him he should "use it as a plant pot".

It was stored in a shed at Hancock's home for some 40 years until he died recently and was salvaged by a relative. The toilet is estimated to fetch £750 to £1,000.

Auctioneer Stephen Bailey said: "The toilet might be worth something, and it might not, but it is certainly one of the more unusual items we've sold."

Bailey, who is also manager of The Beatles Shop in Liverpool, added: "I have only ever come across two other mono copies of Two Virgins before so that will be the one to watch. Even at the end of the sixties, during such a bohemian period, the picture of a naked couple on the album cover still caused a great deal of scandal."

"The stereo version sold relatively few copies at a time when any one of the Beatles could easily have shifted hundreds of thousands of records."

The auction will take place next Saturday at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts.