HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. (AP) – A tintype portrait of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that turned up at a Tennessee Goodwill and then sold for $23,000 is headed to Harpers Ferry.

Richard Schaffer, a dabbler in antiques and the owner of the Secret Six Tavern near the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, says he’s happy with his purchase and the boost it gave the charity. But he’s not quite sure what he has.

“We’ve determined it’s probably a photograph of a photograph. But it’s not an image we’ve seen. We’ve seen this identical image in an engraving, but not in a photograph,” he said Friday.

“So, as it stands right now, we’re happy with what we’ve purchased,” Schaffer said. And the money is going to a good cause. “But there’s still a lot of mystery around it.”

The tintype was in a bin in Tennessee, about to be shipped out, when a Goodwill worker grabbed it and sent it to the charity’s online department. It was then put up for auction, fetching Goodwill a record price.

Schaffer bought it mainly as a possible investment and said there’s a lot of work to be done to establish its origins after he takes possession Monday. He’s unsure how long that process will take.

“It may turn out to be ultra-rare or completely unseen before,” he said.

Or not.

But in the meantime, it won’t be on display at his restaurant at the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

“If it turns out to be something great,” he said, “we would want to put it in a museum that would benefit more so than we would.”

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AP-WF-09-17-11 1404GMT