If you want to get ahead… head to auction

IF YOU want to get ahead, head to Moore Allen & Innocent’s next auction of antiques in Cirencester, where two particularly fine corbels will be going under the hammer on Friday, May 26.

The Portland stone heads – thought to represent Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome – are believed to date from the 1890s, and were carved as part of the neoclassical decoration of a Birmingham bank.

Each head stands at 2ft tall, one-and-a-half feet deep, and more than a foot wide. They’re heavy too, taking two men to lift them. A bid of between £500 and £800 should secure the lot.

There are around 80 heads - some of them stone, most of them flesh and bone - on the iconic cover of The Beatles’ classic album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in June.

And a vinyl copy of the album, in gatefold sleeve, will be offered for sale after being found among two cardboard boxes full of records found in a garage, and headed for the tip.

Excitingly for collectors, tucked inside the sleeve is an original sheet of card printed with images which fans were invited to cut out.

Also within the collection is a copy of the band’s The White Album because of its blank sleeve. This version is the top-loader stereo version, complete with embossed Beatles logo, lyrics sheet, four portrait set of the band members, and stamped number - in the 41,000s. Millions of copies were pressed, making this a fairly early one.

The collection also includes classics by Bob Dylan, Queen, Cat Stevens, Jethro Tull, and the Hair soundtrack. The entire collection of around 100 LPs carries a estimate of £50 to £80 – not bad, considering each of the Beatles albums retail at between £15 and £30 on the collectors’ market.

Beatle George Harrison played a red Gibson SG during the recording of The White Album, and anyone inspired to pick up the guitar by the new wave of Beatlemania could do worse than a red Gibson SG copy by Vintage in a soft Ritter case, which commands an estimate of £80 to £120.

There’s also a Roland Cube 30X guitar amp with effects pedal on offer, with an estimate of £50 to £80.

For a full auction catalogue, visit mooreallen.co.uk