David Bowie's custom-made Brionvega turntable sells for £257,000

David Bowie's personal record player – a custom-made Brionvega turntable designed as a "musical pet" – has sold at auction for £257,000. The Starman's pride and joy sold as part of a two-day auction at Sotheby's.

Designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni in Italy in 1966, the turntable was styled as the singer's "musical pet". It's made of plastic-laminated wood, painted aluminium and polycarbonate, and comes on castors.

MORE: How about a 24k solid gold music system for £4 million?

The auction also featured pieces from Bowie's personal art collection, including works by Frank Auerbach, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marcel Duchamp and Damien Hirst.

The design section of the auction – of which the Brionvega turntable was part – fetched just shy of £1.4 million.

The first two parts of the auction, consisting of Bowie's collection of modern art, sold for a total of more than £31 million. The art works sold represent about 65 per cent of Bowie's personal collection. The rest will remain with his family and estate.

You can see more of the turntable in Mary Anne's Tour of Bowie's Personal Art Collection on BBC iPlayer.

A little out of your price range? There's always the £50 Lidl turntable or even Aldi's £30 deck...

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Joe Svetlik

Joe has been writing about tech for 17 years, first on staff at T3 magazine, then in a freelance capacity for Stuff, The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, Men's Health, GQ, The Mirror, Trusted Reviews, TechRadar and many more (including What Hi-Fi?). His specialities include all things mobile, headphones and speakers that he can't justifying spending money on.