Money can't buy you love – but it can buy Beatles autographs

THE increasingly rare chance to buy the signatures of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr will be offered at a Cotswolds auction next month.

A photograph printed over two pages from The Beatles Book, signed by each member of the band, will be going under the hammer at Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester on Friday, April 6.

When the vendor's aunt thrust the magazine under the noses of John, Paul, George and Ringo some time in the mid-1960s little did she know that the signed pages would one day be worth over a thousand pounds – and neither did the vendor, who was presented with the autographs as a 21st birthday present in the mid-1980s.

Even in shabby condition – the pages have been unevenly hacked from the magazine and are scarred with sellotape marks – the signatures are expected to achieve between £1,000 and £1,500.

It's the first full set of Beatles signatures offered by the auction house since 2013, when an autograph book sold for £3,800.

In fact, the entry level for the signatures of the Fab Four at UK auction is now around £1,000, while framed and mounted copies retail for three or more times that.

And the Fab Four aren't the only 1960s icons going under the hammer at the auction.

A collection of ephemera relating to Concorde is expected to achieve between £100 and £150.

The collection was amassed by friends of Concorde test pilot Captain Brian Trubshaw over decades, and includes photographs, signed prints – including Arthur Gibson's 1980 photograph Concorde and the Red Arrows, signed by Trubshaw and the Red Arrows pilots – and a signed copy of Trubshaw's 1998 autobiography 'Brian Trubshaw, Test Pilot'.

There's also an in-house poster created for the British Aircraft Corporation at Filton in December 1967, marking the roll-out of Concorde 001 at Toulouse.

Brian Trubshaw was the first British pilot to fly Concorde, back in 1969. He flew the supersonic jet from Filton, near Bristol, to RAF Fairford, a few miles from the Moore Allen & Innocent saleroom. He lived in the Cotswolds for many years and died at his Tetbury home in 2001.

Finally, from one iconic British aeroplane to another, a clock reputedly from the cockpit of a Spitfire will be offered for sale with an estimate of £50 to £80.

The Air Ministry Mark 2 D with eight day movement is one of the types fitted to the iconic Spitfire, and would now be equally at home on a mantlepiece or fitted to the dashboard of a classic British sports car.

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