BEATLES AUTOGRAPHS TOP THE PRICES AT AUCTION

Fifty years after the release of The Beatles' debut album – Please Please Me - Beatlemania continues to grip the saleroom of antiques auctioneers Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester.

A book of autographs including the signatures of George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney made the top price of the day at the firm's Selected Picture and Book Sale.

The autographs were collected by a VIP chauffeur for Pan Am and TWA Airlines at Heathrow Airport, and the book also contained the signatures of The Rolling Stones, Danny Kaye, Jack Hawkins, Orson Welles, Graham Hill, Edmund Hillary, Sonny & Cher, Julie Andrews, Beryl Reid, Roy Orbison, Bing Crosby, and others.

Auctioneers had put a cautious estimate of £600 to £800 on the lot, but bidding exceeded all expectations and the book, which also contained photographs of the Fab Four returning to Heathrow after their 1963 European tour, where they were met by hundreds of screaming fans – an event deemed to signal the birth of Beatlemania  – achieved £3,800.