Christopher Wood's collection fetches a fortune
A lifetime of treasures amassed by a North East antiques collector have sold for more than quarter of a million pounds.
Victorian possessions left by BBC Antiques Roadshow expert Christopher Wood, from Darras Hall, Ponteland, took just two hours to earn £251,313 at Christie's yesterday.
The superb and varied collection, also featuring pictures, furniture, sculptures and porcelain, was put up for sale following Mr Wood's death earlier this year, at the age
of 67.
Yesterday's sale at Christie's brought the collector's life with antiques full circle. He began working life as a trainee at the London auction house in 1963.
Other items revealing the fondness he retained for the North East are still to be sold, included an oil painting of Northumberland's Farne Islands with Bamburgh Castle in the distance, by Thomas Joseph Banks. It is expected to be sold for up to £3,000.
One of the top selling items was 1939 sculpture St George, He Is For England by Gilbert William Bayes. Before the auction it had been expected to sell for up to £8,000, but in the end it more than doubled that at £17,500.
A regular face on the BBC's popular Antiques Roadshow between 1999 and 2004, Mr Wood became one of Britain's leading experts on Victorian art and was the author of the acclaimed Dictionary of Victorian Painters.
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