Greater than expected

A SILVER claret jug, presented by Charles Dickens to a friend who lived and worked in Edinburgh, has sold for nearly £30,000 — treble the figure it had been expected to fetch.

Dickens gifted the jug to close friend and confidant William Henry Wills in April 1862, shortly after the publication of his classic novel Great Expectations.

It was sold to a mystery bidder at an auction at Christie’s in London yesterday for £28,750, having been tipped to fetch £8000-10,000.