Steve Jobs' first computer could fetch £300,000

The first computer sold by Steve Jobs is expected to fetch £300,000 when it is auctioned by Christie's New York next month.

Known as The Ricketts Apple-1 after its first owner Charles Ricketts, Jobs' sold the personal computer for $600 (£375) out of his parent's garage in 1976, when he was just 21.

But it will go under the hammer at a price estimate of between £250,000 and £375,000 on December 11.

The fully operational model - which is the only surviving Apple-1 documented as having been sold directly by Jobs - was discovered in a storage locker in Virginia in 2004 by Robert Luther who had bought the contents.

He said: "I knew it had been sold from the garage of Steve Jobs in July of 1976, because I had the buyer’s cancelled cheque."

The computer will be sold with the cheque from the original garage purchase on 27 July, 1976.

Less than 50 original Apple-1s are believed to be in existence of the few hundred originally produced.

It is credited as being the machine which started the digital revolution and inspired Jobs to later create the iPad and iPhone.

Andrew McVinish, Christie's director of decorative arts said: "It all started with the Apple-1 and with this particular machine.

"When you see a child playing with an iPad or iPhone, not too many people know that it all started with the Apple-1."