Round blue-tinted glasses given by John Lennon to a man who was visiting the Abbey Road studios where the Beatles recorded are to go on sale in Britain later this month.

The Lennon-style glasses were handed to the man, who was with his girlfriend, in 1968 and are expected to fetch STG2000 to STG3000 ($A3865-$A5797). It is not clear who they belonged to at the time.

A Catherine Southon Auctioneers & Valuers spokesperson said: “The young man saw the spectacles lying on the piano and went to pick them up but was told by his then girlfriend to leave them, to which Lennon replied ‘it’s OK, he can have them’.”

The shades will go under the hammer alongside a collection of 33 black and white photographs taken at Abbey Road in 1968 and 1969, including some snapped on the day of the photo shoot for the Beatles album cover of the band walking across a zebra crossing.

The photos, some featuring Paul McCartney, George Harrison, George Martin and Ringo Starr, will be sold with the copyright for an estimated STG200 to STG300.

The items will go up for auction on July 31 in Surrey, southeast England.

Anahita Hossein-Pour
(Australian Associated Press)