A COLLECTION of pottery belonging to a former GP from Pwllheli has sold for over £12,000 in auction.

The late Dr Gwenda Evans, a prominent general practitioner who worked in Pwllheli, had two passions in life – her patients and her Sunderland Lustre pottery collection which she had amassed over many years.

The one hundred and fifty pieces comprised plaques, mugs, basins and bowls, frog and other mugs and jugs of all sizes.

The collection in one hundred Lots was offered at auction in Colwyn Bay recently and attracted bidders to the sales room, on the telephone and online from all parts of the UK and, significantly, from New Zealand.

The collection received three strong bidders from the UK but the surprise of the sale was the keen interest shown by a British long-time resident of New Zealand.

Mick Burdon, whose grandfather emigrated to the country in 1900, is a direct descendent of Rowland Burdon, a northern English landowner and Tory MP from Castle Eden in County Durham.

Burdon was responsible for the inauguration and building of the Iron Bridge of the Wear in Sunderland and his name appears on many transfer printed pieces of pottery featuring the famous Iron Bridge.

The top price in the Sunderland lustre section was £420 for a large sailor’s jug bearing the names ‘John and Ellen Upfold, a Present from a Friend, 1866’ with scenes of the threemaster Great Australia and an East view of the New Bridge, Sunderland.

The one hundred Lot section of Sunderland lustre realised a hammer price total of £12,200.