LONDON, Dec 8: A box containing 23 lightbulbs used at the 1890 court case where Thomas Edison defended his patent for the invention is to be auctioned later this month and is expected to fetch up to 300,000 pounds ($600,000).

Christie's auctioneers said the bulbs disappeared after the tussle over US patent number 223,898, but were discovered by chance in 2002 in the attic of a house in the United States in their original wooden case complete with the original key.

The box of lightbulbs is the star lot at a London sale on Dec 13, and has been given an estimate of 200-300,000 pounds.

Also on offer at the Landmarks of Science auction are Albert Einstein's first scientific essay, a first edition of Charles Darwin's “On the Origin of Species” and an alchemical manuscript by Isaac Newton.—Agencies