A large diamond ring is expected to fetch £350,000 at auction, 30 years after it was purchased by the owner at a car boot sale for £10.00.
The owner believed the “exceptionally sized” stone was costume jewellery when she bought it at West Middlesex Hospital in Isleworth, West London, in the 1980s. The owner was unaware of its true value and wore it for decades without knowing that it was, in fact, a 26ct cushion cut diamond from the 19th century.
The stone is to go under the hammer at Sotheby’s on July 7th. The auction house’s head of London jewellery department Jessica Wyndham said ‘The owner would wear it out shopping, wear it day-to-day. It’s a good-looking ring. But it was bought as a costume jewel. No-one had any idea it had any intrinsic value at all. They enjoyed it all this time.’
‘They’d been to quite a few car boot sales over the years. But they don’t have any history of collecting antiques and they don’t have any history of collecting diamonds. This is a one-off windfall, an amazing find.’
Ms Wyndham said that after around 30 years of wearing the ring, the owners bought it into Sotheby’s after a jeweller told them it could have substantial value.
‘They came in with the idea that it might be real, they had no idea of its value,’ she said. ‘We had a look and said …’ I think that’s a diamond, we got it tested at the Gemological Institute of America.’
She added: ‘The majority of us can’t even begin to dream of owning a diamond that large.’
Wyndham said the owners, who did not want to be named, are “incredibly excited. Anyone would be in this position. It’s a life-changing amount of money. No matter what your background is or what your past experiences have been, it’s going to revolutionise someone’s life”.
The diamond is thought to have been cut in the 19th century but its history and how it arrived at the car boot sale are unknown.
