Doodles by Lowry fetch £64,000

The three doodles, one drawn on the back of a menu, were given to waiter Angelo Salvini, of the George Hotel in Huddersfield, in 1968 and subsequent years.

Lowry was a regular visitor to the hotel and became friendly with Mr Salvini, the head waiter.

Mr Salvini’s family put the sketches up for auction and yesterday the three fetched just over £64,000 in total. Auction house Bonhams had estimated they would fetch between £31,000 and £43,000.

A sketch entitled A Boy, a Girl and a Dog sold for £34,850. One called Boy Shouting reached £18,750 and a sketch entitled People and Animals – drawn in felt tip on the back of a George Hotel menu card in 1971 – realised £10,625.

Bonhams sold several other drawings and paintings by Lowry in yesterday’s sale including a drawing of the Agecroft Regatta, held on the River Irwell at Kersal Cell in 1948, which sold for £211,250.

The sale beat the previous record for a Lowry pencil drawing of £121,250.

Lowry died in 1976 at the age of 88.

The current world record for a Lowry work is £5,641,250, paid at Christie’s in London in 2011 for his famous oil painting The Football Match.