A car boot sale buy – which turned out to be an ancient antiquity – has sold for thousands of pounds at auction.
The item, discovered in a box of old coins and metal bought for a tenner at a Middlesex car boot sale two years ago, was identified by Hansons Auctioneers as a 2,000-year-old late Iron Age horse harness mount.
It went into Hansons’ May 20 Historica Auction with a guide price of £1,000-£2,000 but sold for £3,800 – much to the delight of Miguel Ángel Fuster Aparicio, a 38-year landscape gardener and former Amazon delivery driver from Ashford, Middlesex.
He said: “I watched the auction live with my partner and it was so exciting. We were thrilled by the result. We will be celebrating – and I must buy my father-in-law something! Without him, I would never have known it was potentially valuable.”
Miguel’s father-in-law spotted an article in the Daily Express about an object which bore similarities to his son-in-law’s ‘old piece of metal’. A 2000-year-old Celtic chieftain’s chariot brooch had sold for £55,000 at Hansons.
The family contacted with Hansons whose experts confirmed Miguel had unwittingly purchased a 2000-year-old antiquity. The horse harness mount has an engraved curvelinear design inlaid with red champleve enamel and blue glass. This distinctive style originates from South East England and the British Museum has a similar example from London.
Miguel said: “I still can’t believe it: “I am very lucky. I bought it at a car boot sale in Middlesex about two years ago, maybe longer. I can’t remember exactly. It was in a general box of old coins and bits of metal that I paid around £10 for. I never spend much at car boots but like to buy old coins and metal toy cars, that sort of thing.
“Something else actually took my eye in the box the harness mount was in. I had no idea what it was, or that it was so old and valuable. After reading the article, my father-in-law said it might be worth something so we took it to Hansons. When I heard the valuation I thought, this is not possible – it must be a joke. But I did my internet research and now know all about its history. It’s by far the most important thing I’ve ever found at a car boot sale.
“I can’t remember which car boot sale I found it at. Every weekend before lockdown, I would go to all the car boot sales in about a 20-mile radius of Ashford looking for things. I love history.
“It’s just been lying in a box in my garage for at least two years and that’s where it would still be if my father-in-law hadn’t picked up that newspaper when he went fishing. I don’t think he caught any fish that day but he discovered I’d hooked an amazing catch.”
Adam Staples, Hansons’ Historica consultant, said: “We’re absolutely delighted for Miguel and his family. What an amazing car boot find. It’s an impressive example of a late Iron Age harness mount in very good condition considering its age. The Celtic artwork incorporates a subtly concealed animal face and I was expecting fierce competition for it at auction.”
The late Iron Age harness mount was sold on May 20 at Hansons, Heage Lane, Etwall, Derbyshire, DE65 6LS. To find out more, email [email protected].
Hansons’ next Historica Auction will be held on August 26-27, 2021.
