A Victorian brooch which almost ended up on a market stall has sold in the UK for £31,000.
Jill Cousins from Leicestershire had contemplated selling the brooch to a market stall for £10 before an Antiques Roadshow appeal brought its potential worth to her attention.
Made in the 1860s by designer and architect William Burges as a gift for the marriage of fellow architect and artist John Pollard, the brooch had appeared on the Antiques Roadshow's "most wanted" appeal.
 The £31,000 Victorian brooch |
Even so, the £31,000 figure achieved at Gilding's auction on August 2 was three times that of its pre-sale estimate.
"I was actually in a bit of a state of shock," Cousins told local newspaper the Harborough Mail.
"I had convinced myself it wasn't going to sell. Then I thought the bidding would stop at about £12,000, but it just carried on.
"It's a bit like a dream. I keep saying 'If it is a dream, please don't wake up because we're having so much fun.'"
Cousins inherited the brooch from her mother and kept it in a jewellery box for the past 20 years.
It sold to a London-based private collector.
"Burges was a genius and these items are fantastically rare - hardly measurable," Antiques Roadshow expert Geoffrey Munn told UK newspaper the Daily Mail.
A 12-piece tile set designed by Burges sold for £4,600 at Gorringes auction house in 2009.
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