Susan, a retired school manager from Fleet, was left speechless after her late father's Dunhill lighter sold for £2,100 at auction on The Derbyshire Auction House. The item, made between the 1940s and 1950s, far exceeded its pre-auction estimate of £1,500 to £2,000.
Family heirlooms go under the hammer
Susan had inherited boxes of items from her parents, both proud Londoners, after they died five years before the show was made. She described her dad, Ken, as "a bit of a character, bit of a cheeky chappy down the street, and everybody loved him."
The Dunhill aquarium lighter, made of Perspex with a 3D effect inside, featured an incredibly detailed fish. Auctioneer Irita Marriott noted that Winston Churchill was known to have owned one and would give them as gifts to foreign dignitaries.
Bidding war drives price up
Irita Marriott, star of BBC's Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip, set a low estimate of £600-£800 as a tactic to encourage a bidding war. The bidding started at £600 and quickly rose to £1,500, before the lighter eventually sold for £2,100.
Susan, who plans to use the money raised to take her family on a memory-making holiday, said: "Really shocked, actually, some of those prices!" Referring to the lighter, she added: "I'm speechless, really."
Total haul exceeds expectations
In total, Susan made £8,389 from all her items, which included gold jewellery and pocket watches. She shared: "I'm overwhelmed, really. The Dunhill lighter, my dad used to say all the time, it's going to be worth something one of these days, and he was right all along, so well done dad."
The Derbyshire Auction House airs Wednesdays at 9pm on Quest and streams on Discovery+.
