Brooch Bought For £20 Sells For Nearly £12,000 In Market Harborough

A rare Victorian brooch bought from a market stall for £20 has sold at auction in Market Harborough for over £11,700.

Flora Steel only realised how valuable it was through a chance viewing of  TV’s Antiques Roadshow from her home in Rome, having moved there from the UK.

The episode featured other brooches in the collection made by famous Victorian architect and designer William Burges 160 years ago.

Gildings Director Will Gilding at yesterday’s auction

The brooch sold for £11,780 inclusive of charges, with auction marked the third time Gildings Auctioneers had sold the only known examples of the set of long-lost set, with Flora’s discovery coming as a welcome distraction after a difficult two years fighting breast cancer.

Now cancer-free, she is planning to give the proceeds of the auction to her son and his family, and also donate a proportion to a breast cancer research fund.

Feeling too nervous to attend the auction in person, Flora decided to hear the result in the Jewellery Gallery of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where the second rediscovered brooch is displayed.

Will Gilding, Director at Gildings told HFM he spoke to Flora and the buyer following yesterday’s sale:

Flora with the brooch