A NORTH-EAST museum has won funding to buy an unusual collection.
Killhope Lead Mining Museum, in Weardale, County Durham, has bought a collection of 19th Century mineral boxes.
The museum has been awarded a Heritage Lottery grant to acquire the spar boxes from a private collector.
The plan is to create the only museum gallery in the world devoted to the art.
Spar box making is a lead miners' craft which was practised in only three areas of the country and flourished particularly in Upper Weardale.
Thousands of lead miners in the area embraced the craze in the 1880s when the industry was in decline.
Many of them collected the minerals, which went into the boxes, and were expert woodworkers. The two pastimes were brought together in the 19th Century.
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