A TINY BEAKER commemorating the day two crows nested on a revolving weather vane has been sold for £940 at a North-East auction.

The silver-rimmed horn beaker was bought by County Durham's Beamish Museum, at the spring sale of Newcastle auctioneers Anderson and Garland.

It is engraved with a scene showing the occasion in the 18th Century when a pair of crows tried to nest on the weather vane of the Guildhall, on Newcastle's Quayside.

After several attempts they succeeded - even though their nest turned in the wind.

The scene attracted crowds of spectators as the pair struggled not only to fix their nesting material around the vane, but to fight off other crows envious of their choice of location.

The incident took place in the spring of 1783 and, according to local records, the pair hatched a brood in the unlikely location for the next five years.

Among the other lots sold at the three-day auction were two portraits of people, who worked in North-East coal mines in the 1950s, by Spennymoor pitman artist Norman Cornish. They realised a total of £1,790.

A commemorative silver table presented in April 1913 to Frederick Collins, for 65 years in the railway and dock construction industry, fetched £5,500, while an album of postcards, which was expected to go for about £50, raised £650.

John Anderson, picture specialist at Anderson and Garland, said: "At a time when there are mutterings about the market being a bad way the sale has been gratifyingly successful."

Published: 27/03/2004