Christie's pulls auction of early calculator after court intervenes

A rare example of the first functioning calculating machine in human history looks likely to stay in France after Christie’s withdrew it from auction pending a definitive ruling from a Paris court on whether or not it may be exported.

- Jon Henley

La Pascaline (pictured right), developed by the French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal in 1642, when he was just 19, and billed as “the most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction”, had been expected to fetch more than €2m (£1.77m).

But the auction house withdrew the ebony-inlaid instrument from sale yesterday after the Paris administrative court, responding to an urgent appeal by scientists and researchers, provisionally suspended its authorisation for export late on Tuesday.