Sapphires found in widow's house fetch £17,800 at auction

The sapphire and diamond ring, which was discovered in an old carrier bag hanging in Margaret Hood's home, fetched £11,000 when it went under the hammer at Richard Winterborn Auctioneers in Lichfield. A pair of diamond-and-sapphire earrings, also found in the same house, went for £6,800 during the sale at the company's auction centre in Fradley.

A spokesman for Winterton said the items were hotly contested and attracted intense bidding, finally being secured by online bidders over the internet.

Margaret, or Peggy as she was usually known, died in October last year, a month after celebrating her 90th birthday.

Suffering from dementia in her later years, she was a confirmed hoarder, and somewhat secretive by nature. So relatives were amazed to discover a spectacular cache of valuable jewellery at her home in Littleover, Derbyshire.

The ring, which was found in a Sainsbury's bag hanging in the porch, had an unheated certified 4.16ct Burmese sapphire. The earrings featured two unheated certified sapphires totalling 5.60ct – one Burmese, the other from Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

They were just two examples of the treasures tucked away by the great-grandmother.

Son Jonathan Hood and daughter Sue Bird said they were delighted with the outcome of the auction.

Auctioneer Richard Winterton said the sapphires were very beautiful, ticking the crucial boxes of origin and having no heat treatment.

"Unsurprisingly, there was a tremendous amount of interest from all over the UK leading up to the auction, with phone bids on the day and hundreds watching online trying to get in on the bidding," he said.

"It’s a wonderful result for our clients Sue and Jonathan, made all the more special due to the story behind the stones. To think that this £11,000 sapphire and diamond ring was discovered wrapped up in a supermarket carrier bag inside some socks and left hanging in the porch. Hidden treasure indeed.”

They told how their mother's tendency to collect things and her somewhat secretive nature meant that sorting her house after she died proved to be a real treasure hunt.

Mrs Bird, a former exam-paper co-ordinator at Derby University, said: “We didn’t know mum had got all this jewellery – she never told us and it was only by chance we found it all.

“We knew she had inherited some jewellery some decades previously from an old family friend but we had no idea as to the extent.

“She never showed me or my brother and we were gobsmacked when we started to discover all these boxes.

“Mum was a lovely lady but she was the biggest hoarder, she didn’t throw anything away and as the dementia set in she started hiding things around the house.

“She used to save everything, even every plastic bag – after she died we found 316 plastic bags containing greetings cards."

Mrs Bird, 66, said when she and her brother became aware of the extent of what they found, they started going through the belongings with a fine-tooth comb.

“The sapphire ring was in an orange Sainsbury’s bag wrapped up in a big green rambling sock inside another bag and then wrapped in five pop socks," she said.

“It was hanging on the wall by the door and we'd all been coming and going, completely oblivious that this stunning ring was hidden in plain sight.

“It was after discovering the ring we had to say ‘right, do not throw anything away’.”