Original Beatles lyrics handwritten by Paul McCartney and a Fender guitar owned by Jimi Hendrix are among the lots to be sold today in a big auction of rock and pop memorabilia.

The auction at Christie’s in New York will cover more than five decades of music history, with lots ranging from Miles Davis’s trumpet to a handwritten page from Britney Spears’s schoolbook, featuring her teenage analysis of the play Antigone, up for grabs.

Love letters by Bob Dylan and a previously unheard interview of John Lennon are also among the lots.

The item that is expected to fetch the highest price is a page of draft lyrics for the Beatles song Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. Christie’s expects it to fetch up to $300,000 (£151,000).

“McCartney lyrics rarely appear on the market and have not appeared for about six years,” said Helen Hall, of Christie’s.

The lot also includes two copies of the song that a member of the Beatles’ staff wrote out for use by other members of the band. They are the only trio of Beatles lyrics to have appeared on the market.

Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, which appears on the Abbey Road album, took three days to record and overdub, and caused considerable arguments between the band members as they hurtled towards their break-up.

McCartney insisted that the song was a possible single but Lennon disagreed, later calling it “a typical McCartney single, or whatever”.

Lennon was not even present in the studio when it was recorded because he was recovering from an accident. “We spent more money on that song than any of them on the whole album, I think,” he said.

Other handwritten delights in the auction include a Valentine card sent by Bob Dylan to Suze Rotolo, then his girlfriend and political muse, who features alongside him on the album cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. The message inside the card reads: “Love, Love, Money, Booze, I’d swap ’m all to be with youse, love love me Bob.”

A Fender Stratocaster owned by Hendrix in the two years before his death in September 1970 is expected to make between $80,000 and $120,000. The right-handed guitar was modified and restrung for Hendrix, who was left-handed, but it is unclear whether he actually played it.

Several items of rock clothing are also up for sale, from an orange jumpsuit worn by Sid Vicious to a full set of stage costumes for the Jackson Five and a lace jacket worn by Madonna in the film Desperately Seeking Susan.

An hour-long taped interview with Lennon that covers everything from the possibility of a Beatles reunion to his run-ins with the Nixon Administration is expected to make between $25,000 and $30,000.

Asked on the tape about allegations that he was being persecuted for his political views, Lennon says that his phone had been tapped and that he had been kept under surveillance. “I don’t want to mention names, because then my lawyer will jump on me, but there were directions coming from Washington, quite high up, from one of those people always in the news,” he says.

On the subject of a Beatles reunion, he tells the interviewer: “Anything’s possible, but I imagine they’d slate us.”

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