Entwistle auction fetches £112,500 (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Entwistle auction fetches £112,500

THE auction of treasures collected by the late rock star John Entwistle, bassist with The Who, fetched more than £112,000.

During a seven-and-a-half hour sale at the Frogmill Hotel in Andoversford, auctioneers Humberts sold off 750 lots of furniture, musical instruments, books, ornaments and a variety of other curios from Entwistle's Stow mansion.

One of the 500 bidders at the sale included Entwistle's son, Chris, aged 31, who bought the backgammon table on which he learned to play the game and a drum table where his dad used to keep the remote controls for the TV and video in the mansion.

Chris, who was at the auction with Entwistle's 80-year-old mother, Queenie, paid £240 for the marble topped backgammon table and £55 for the drum table.

"My mum taught me to play on that table and I was not going to see it sold off cheap to anyone," he said. "I am glad to have it back. I wanted the drum table because dad used to keep all the remote controls in there and it has got many memories."

One of the principal bidders at the auction was Dutch-born Yvia Ten Bos, who has bought Quarwood with her millionaire husband, Piet Pulford. Yvia, holding her baby daughter, Jessica, bid for many of the pieces of furniture which had adorned Quarwood before she and her husband bought it - and they will all be going straight back there.

"I did not buy them just because they came from Quarwood originally or because they were John Entwistle's," she said.

"They won't be occupying the same places in the house as he had them - I have different spots in mind."

Entwistle's mother, Queenie, who watched much of the sale, said: "I was not as upset as I expected. It is good to see everything that John collected going to good homes.

"The Pulfords haven't moved into the house yet but they seem very nice people. I shall be seeing a lot of them because I am living in one of the cottages in the grounds. John stipulated in his will that I would be allowed to live in it for the rest of my life and I intend to stay there for as long as I'm able to look after myself."

The final tally at the end of the auction was around £112,500, which will go into the star's estate along with the proceeds of the sale of his £3million house and his collection of cars and guitars.