Syd Barrett, the musical genius who founded Pink Floyd, must have been laughing from the dark side of the Moon last night as his devoted fans indulged in a feeding frenzy to buy a bizarre haul of his personal effects.

The 77 lots for sale were not what connoisseurs normally expect at a fine art sale but Barrett wasn’t exactly a normal person.

The household paraphernalia of the late, great rock musician, who took the Sixties by storm, came under the hammer with a splash of psychedelic colour and a cartload of the kind of chipped bric-a-brac that Steptoe and Son might have sniffed at.

But the bidders loved it, snapping up Lot 669, a modern three-drawer chest complete with cigarette burns for £420, and Lot 682, Barrett’s sad looking artificial Christmas tree with tinsel and baubles, for £800. Eight paintings went for more than £37,000.

All the items were sold without reserve, which was not what could be said of Barrett, who became a recluse for his last 34 years after LSD got the better of him and he parted company with Pink Floyd.

The band’s founder and original songwriter, who died of pancreatic cancer in July aged 60, retired to his native Cambridge and a pebble-dashed semi, where he remained baffled by the unbidden interest paid to him by fans and music journalists alike.

Barrett, who lived with the support of his not inconsiderable royalties, might have gone “to the other room” when he died but a host of middle-aged fans crowded Cheffins’ saleroom in the city to acquire enough scraps of his memorabilia to keep his memory alive in their hearts.

The price fetched by numerous lots surprised the packed saleroom and bidders from abroad. Paintings that many might otherwise be reluctant to hang on their walls went for extraordinary prices, including an abstract that looked like a hot dog with dripping sauce, for £6,000.

Just as surprising were two A5 spiral notebooks, one entitled “garden” containing just one page of handwritten notes, which went for £1,300. But the snip of the evening was Barrett’s cream leather reclining armchair with a dark stain on the backrest where he regularly laid his head, which went for £1,100. Lot 679, a home-made plywood shelving unit, went for £190, and a pair of home-made bathroom curtains printed with dancing animals in psychedelic colours fetched £600.

One delighted purchaser was Nick Brooks, 18, a student from London who bid £750 for a Sharp micro-system that looked as if it came from a technological ark. Mr Brooks said later: “I have a brother Carl, older than me, who has been a Syd Barrett fan since the sixties, and since it’s coming up to Christmas I decided to come and buy something. I am pleased to keep Syd’s memory alive. But prices are completely out of sight. I would have hoped to get it for £ 300.”

Barrett left £1.2 million in his will, naming his two sisters and two brothers as beneficiaries. In September Cheffins sold the house for £300,000. His family planned to give some of the proceeds to artists, art being a principal love in the life of Barrett, who attended Camberwell Art School in 1964.

Nine of his paintings fetched more than £47,000, but away from Barrett’s artwork, the bizarre and the banal still fetched sky-high prices — £1,400 for a home-made bread bin used to store his clothes pegs.

A life in rock

- Syd Barrett was the youngest of five children. His father, a physician, died when he was 11

- His real name was Roger. He was nicknamed Syd at 15, after a local drummer

- He started Pink Floyd in 1965. He left three years later and began a solo career with little success

- The 1975 album Wish You Were Here was an extended tribute to Syd Barrett by the remaining band members

- David Gilmour, of Pink Floyd, said: “Syd didn’t need encouraging. If drugs were going, he’d take them by the shovelful”

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