A CHANCE find at a car boot sale is set to hit the jackpot for a couple after auctioneers valued their £2 bargain at £1,000 or more.

The rare ceramic plaque was unearthed by a local woman while browsing at a boot sale stall.

The woman, a local Government officer who asked not to be named, said: "The little ceramic wall plaque was lying in the grass underneath one stall and my husband walked past without giving it a second glance.

"I was following on behind and it caught my eye when I looked down, so I picked it up. I didn't think much of it at first, but when I turned it over, I saw the name PenDelfin.

"There was no price on it, so I asked the stallholder how much she wanted for it and she said £2.50.

"I offered her £2 and bought it just like that.

"When we got home, we looked it up on the Internet but couldn't find anything about it.

"The PenDelfin factory was in Burnley, so we went to the library there and found three specialist PenDelfin books in the reference section.

"While we were looking through one of them, we came across a picture of the very same plaque. It was really exciting because the book said it was very rare."

Ceramics specialist Chris Large confirmed the rarity of the eight-inch plaque and it will be sold at Nantwich auctioneers Peter Wilson on Thursday February 19.

He said: "PenDelfin ware was the creation of a Burnley woman, Jean Walmsley Heap.

"She died last October and there has been a revival of interest among collectors for rare pieces such as this wall plaque.

"Its official name is the Pixie House plaque, and it was introduced in 1953 - the first year of PenDelfin production - and withdrawn in 1958, so not many were made.

"It is not known how many survive today, but they are very rare.

"We expect the sale to create a great deal of interest, both in this country and in America and Canada, where there are large contingents of PenDelfin collectors."