A UNIQUE piece of Georgian furniture once belonging to a North East aristocrat has sold at auction for more than £180,000.

Historians believe the chest of drawers was supplied to Sir John Hussey Delaval, of Northumberland, by Henry Hill of Marlborough, in 1775.

Properly termed a “commode”, the valuable heirloom would have originally sold for £21 – around £20,000 in today’s money.

Now it has fetched an impressive £181,250 at Bonhams, as part of the London auction house’s Fine English Furniture and Works of Art Sale.

Experts now hope the piece, which spent many years in Seaton Delaval hall in Northumberland will be preserved for years to come.

Fergus Lyons, a furniture expert at Bonhams, said: “The point about this piece of furniture is that we had very secure information about its history, and not only who it was originally sold to, but who it was made by.

“I would say even when it was originally bought, it would’ve been worth as much as a top of the range sports car today.

“It’s interesting because it would only have even been afforded by the very rich and wealthy.”

The chest was taken to Sir John’s London residence before being moved to the family seat, Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire, after his death in 1808.

It was one of several items of furniture believed to have been made for Sir John by Hill and delivered to Grosvenor House, Milbank, in 1776. In 1780, it was moved to the family‘s residence at Seaton Delaval before going on to Lincolnshire.

It remained in Lincolnshire for 150 years, passing through the Delaval family by descent until it was sold in the early 20th Century by Major Charles Francis Cracroft Jarvis.

What happened next is a mystery, as the chest fell into the hands of anonymous owners. However, it is known that the seller at Bonhams, also anonymous, purchased the piece in the 1970s from an FJ McCarthy of Nottinghamshire.

Mr Lyons said: “There is a great sense of build-up on these occasions, a great sense of drama between the telephone, people in the room and the internet. People were bidding through different formats.”