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‘Costume jewellery’ diamond ring bought for a tenner wholesale halloween costumes at car boot sale turns out to be worth £350,000

A HUGE diamond wholesale halloween costumes ring is tipped to fetch £350,000 at auction 30 years after its owner paid £10 for it at a car boot sale thinking it was cheap piece of costume jewellery.

The “exceptionally sized” stone Halloween Costumes Outlet was presumed to be bogus because 19th-century diamonds were not cut to show off their brilliance like today’s gems.

PA:Press Association The huge stone goes under the hammer at Sotheby's in JulyThe owner, unaware of its true value, wore it for decades, while doing everything from the shopping to the housework.

She bought it from a boot sale at West Middlesex Hospital in Isleworth, West London, in the 1980s.

The 26-carat, cushion-shaped white diamond goes under the hammer at Sotheby's in July.

Getty Images The diamond was bought from a boot sale in the 1980sThe head of the auction house's London jewellery department, Jessica Wyndham, said: "The owner would wear it out shopping, wear it day-to-day. It's a good looking ring.

"But it was bought as a costume jewel. No-one had any idea it had any intrinsic value at all. They enjoyed it all this time.

"They'd been to quite a few car-boot sales over the years. But they don't have any history of collecting antiques and they don't have any history of collecting diamonds.

"This is a one-off windfall, an amazing find."