Sold! Oil painting by Wolverhampton's Edward Bird goes for £6,875

The picture, entitled 'Queen Philippa supplicating King Edward to spare the lives of the six Burghers of Calais', was painted by Wolverhampton-born Bird in or around 1814, five years before his death at the age of 47.

It was expected to fetch between £4,000 and £6,000 when it went under the hammer at Christie's South Kensington in London yesterday.

The painting depicts a real-life incident which happened in 1347, when the kind and compassionate Queen Philippa persuaded her husband, King Edward III to spare the lives of the Burghers of Calais who were due to be executed.

Edward Bird, a carpenter's son, was born at Cat Yard, Berry Street on April 12,1772, and was educated at the free grammar school in Wolverhampton, before he was apprenticed, at the age of 13 as a so-called japanning artist with Jones and Taylor at the Old Hall Works, Wolverhampton.

He is the only Wolverhampton-born artist to become a Royal Academician.