AN Auctioneer in Towcester has sold a 14th-Century Ethiopian Prayer Book for 40 times its estimated value.
Auctioneers at JP Humberts are holding their final three-day auction at the Burcote Road sale room before they move to a new home on Silverstone Business Park near Whittlebury.
On Friday morning Mr Humbert told the
Advertiser that the 14
th century Ethiopian prayer book, with an estimated value of up to £800, sold to an anonymous 'phone bidder for £32,000.
Mr Humbert said: "We are absolutely delighted. In a world where we hear nothing but financial doom and gloom it's nice to see items finding their true value."
Mr Humbert cannot reveal the identity of the bidder but said the purchasers were a private collector and researcher and an institution.
The Psalm book written in Amharic had been put up for auction by a Northamptonshire vendor and was once owned by the headmaster of the Haile Selassie School in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The gavel will fall for the last time in Burcote Road this evening at the end of a sale that begins at 6pm.
Items up for auction tonight include a 1961 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II with the registration plate 186 HRH and an estimated value of between £15,000 to £20,000.
For more information call the Towcester Sale Room on 01327 359595 or log on to
www.jphumbertauctioneers.com. The full article contains 244 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
