A SMALL drawing penned by L S Lowry in a car on his way to Huddersfield fetched almost £4,000 at auction.
Mountain Road was sold at Christie's in London for £3,824 - nearly double what it was expected to command.
The drawing, done in ball-point pen on blue paper, measures about 5in by 7in and was dated October 11, 1969.
Lowry wrote on the drawing: "Sketched from the car on Wood Road (Hulm Man side) 1969."
The artist gave it to the grandfather of the present owner after lunch - which might have been taken at the George Hotel, where Lowry visited regularly.
News of the sale prompted memories of Lowry in Huddersfield.
Former waitress Freda Armitage got to know the world-famous artist when he made weekly visits to the cafe where she worked, Wood Cottage on Greenfield Road, Holmfirth.
She said he started coming for lunch after being pestered for autographs at the George.
"He used to come in the late 1960s and I got to know him quite well," said Mrs Armitage, 85.
"He was very interesting to talk to, but very set in his ways. He used to say to me: "Come and tell me your troubles.""
Mrs Armitage, of Shepley, said Lowry always arrived and left at the same time each Thursday.
He always chose steak and chips, rice pudding with half a tinned pear on top, and a glass of orange juice.
He would dine at 12.30pm and would then retire to the lounge for an afternoon snooze. He would then have a cup of tea and a scone before leaving between 3pm and 4pm.
Mrs Armitage took a photograph of Lowry at lunch, which he signed. He also signed a print for her.
* A furniture maker has told how he gave some not very complimentary comments about Lowry's painting of Chapel Hill.
Joseph Hemingway saw Lowry sketching, sitting on a buffet in Chapel Hill.
He says: "I was about 25 and an apprentice cabinet maker. I spoke to him more than once and said it was just matchstick men he was drawing. He said maybe so, but he was the artist."
Lowry's painting of Chapel Hill was commissioned by Huddersfield Corporation in 1965.
