A jade dog figurine dating back more than 600 years to the early Ming dynasty was bought for just £1 at a car boot sale and is now expected to fetch up to £10,000 at auction. The piece, described by auctioneer Charles Hanson as having a "magical history", was picked up unknowingly by a buyer browsing late in the day, highlighting how valuable antiques can still turn up unrecognised at everyday sales across Britain.

The small figurine, carved from mottled black and green stone in a recumbent pose with its head turned back, is believed to date from roughly 1380 to 1420. It is going under the hammer at Hansons Auctioneers in Etwall, Derbyshire, where Hanson noted the vendor had only a vague "idea" it was jade and might be old. He said jade held deep cultural significance in China as a "mystical, magical substance" linked to good fortune, and that the dog's age places its creation around the time of the Black Death, roughly 150-200 years before Henry VIII's reign.