A PICTURE taken by a Victorian photographer from Bury has fetched a record-breaking £278,000 at auction.
Experts were astonished at the sale price of the photo by Roger Fenton which was only tipped to go for around £20,000.
But when it went under the hammer at Sotheby's it achieved the highest price ever paid for an example of its type.
The photo, entitled The Billiard Room, Mentmore, was shot in 1855 and depicts a mystery man and woman playing billiards at the home of the Earl of Rosebury. It is thought the couple shown may be members of the Rosebury family.
Fenton was the world's first accredited war photographer during the Crimean War and his pictures of the conflict can still fetch tens of thousands of pounds.
He studied painting in Paris and was said to be one of Queen Victoria's favourite photographers. He died in 1869 after giving up photography in favour of a law career.
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