A COLLECTION of signatures and works from the world's greatest composers, including a music manuscript autographed by Sir Edward Elgar, went under the hammer at Christie's, London.

The lot, which fetched £28,200, featured among others, three musical bars from Beethoven, a signed letter from Mendelssohn and two bars from Elgar's Coronation Ode, with the text from Land Of Hope And Glory.

The extraordinary cache was found in the former home of disgraced aristocrat Lord Brocket, in Brocket Hall's library, Hertfordshire. He was jailed for five years in 1996 for a £4.5m insurance fraud.

"How the Elgar item ended up at Brocket Hall was not made clear by Christie's, but it's a fascinating discovery, nonetheless," said a spokeswoman for the auctioneers. "The lot went to a company called UK Trade."

Beforehand, the sale experts placed an estimate of between £12,000 and £18,000, but fierce bidding sent the eventual price at yesterday's auction way above the pre-sale estimate.

The Coronation Ode was written for the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902.

Sir Edward Elgar was born in Broadheath, near Worcester, in 1857 and died in 1934.

In his youth, as well as composing, he worked as an orchestral violinist and became conductor of Worcester Glee Club and the County Asylum Band. He also became organist of St George's Roman Catholic Church, Worcester.