A Dickens of a deal: Desk sells for almost $850,000 at auction

LONDON -- The writing desk and chair Charles Dickens used to write "Great Expectations" sold for just over $850,000 on Wednesday to an Irish millionaire.

Tom Higgins, who runs a company that provides live tarot card readings over the internet, said he may write letters at the desk.

"I don't think I'll write anything more in-depth than that, or try to lift the spirit of Charles Dickens from the desk. But you never know, there might be some spirit left in it for me," he told Associated Press Television News after his successful bid.

The money raised in the Christie's auction will go to the Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London. Dickens was a close friend of the hospital's founder and spoke at its first fundraising dinner in 1858.

The furniture was kept in Dickens' study at his country home, Gad's Hill, in southeast England and is seen in several portraits of the author. It was passed down through the Dickens family and was recently donated to Great Ormond Street by Jeanne-Marie Dickens, the widow of Dickens' great-great-grandson Christopher Charles Dickens.

Jeanne-Marie Dickens said she felt it was her husband's wish to donate the desk. "My husband shared his ancestor's desire to help the disadvantaged children and when I became aware of the fundraising needs of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, I knew that I had to give the desk and chair to them," she said.