The 103-year-old tree, which is only 31 inches tall with 25 branches and 12 fake berries, fetched well above inital estimations of £60-80.

Originally brought in 1920, the artificial tree was gifted to Loughborough resident Dorothy Grant in the aftermath of the First World War.

It served as her Christmas tree from when she was eight-years-old until she died in 2014, at the age of 101.

It was then inherited by Ms Grant's daughter Shirley Hall, 84, who lives near Loughborough.

Hansons Auctioneers, in Banbury, Oxfordshire, described the auction result as "astonishing" and put the high selling price down to the "magic of Christmas".

"The humblest Christmas tree in the world has a new home and we're delighted for both buyer and seller," auction house owner, Charles Hanson, said.

"It would have been bought for pennies originally but it's sold for thousands and that's astonishing. I think it's down to the power of nostalgia. Dorothy's story resonated with people."

Experts say similar trees have been sold for up to £420 in the past, but Ms Grant's tree has "truly excelled".

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Mr Hanson said the tree may have been purchased from the now-defunct high street chain Woolworths, which started selling some of the first mass-produced artificial trees in the early 1920s.

Artificial trees were usually made from dyed feathers until the first bristle-style artificial tree was made by Addis Housewares Company in 1930.

Mr Hanson said the tree was "one of the earliest Christmas trees of its type we have seen".

"The seller decided to part with it to honour her mother's memory and to ensure it survives as a humble reminder of 1920s life - a boom-to-bust decade," he said.

"The Roaring Twenties saw major advances in science and technology. But the decade also brought the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.

"Sadly, war, the aftermath of a pandemic and economic instability are still with us. But, then as now, Christmas joy will never be dampened."