Some treasure hunters have all the luck – and yet it never seems to be me

A wooden carving bought at auction for £75 likely belonged to Anne Boleyn – it is now valued at £200,000. When will my fortune turn, asks Rupert Hawksley

Anne Boleyn was executed with a single stroke in 1536 (National Portrait Gallery)

One of the reasons we love to root around in charity shops and study auction catalogues is the hope, always faint, that we may unearth treasure – or at least something old and undervalued. It always happens to other people, of course. That’s one of the rules. The rest of us must instead sulk in front of Antiques Roadshow.

I recently found, in a local junk shop, what I absolutely knew was a lucrative gold necklace with a small diamond pendant. Six quid. Now to retire, I thought. My brother, a gemologist, looked at a grainy WhatsApp picture, however, and quickly suggested I rethink retiring. Ah, well.

But we keep on looking because stories do occasionally emerge that quicken the pulse. It was recently revealed that an “antique carved wooden bird”, which sold for £75 at auction in 2019, actually belonged to Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife (beheaded), and would likely have been on display in one of her private rooms in Hampton Court Palace in the early 16th century. This, naturally, changes things – that small oak carving has now been valued at £200,000.