A diamond ring bought for 10 pounds at a car-boot sale 30 years ago is expected to fetch 350,000 pounds at auction¹.

在30年前的一场甩卖会上以10英镑买入的一枚钻石戒指，现如今有望在拍卖会上以35万英镑成交。

The owner believed the "exceptionally² sized" stone was a piece of costume jewellery when she bought it at West Middlesex Hospital in Isleworth, west London, in the 1980s.

20世纪80年代，当该钻戒的主人在伦敦西部艾尔沃斯镇的西米德尔塞克斯医院购买来这块“体积巨大”的石头时，以为它只是一件装饰品。

Unaware³ it was a 26 carat, cushion-shaped white diamond from the 19th Century, she wore it daily for decades.

在不知道这是一颗19世纪的26克拉、垫状的白色钻石的情形下，她每天都将

The stone goes under the hammer at Sotheby's in July. The 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.

这枚钻石将于7月份在苏富比拍卖。该拍卖行的伦敦珠宝部门负责人杰西卡·温德姆表示：“钻石主人会戴着它上街购物，每天都戴着。这是一枚很好看的戒指。”

"But it was bought as a costume jewel. No-one had any idea it had any intrinsic⁴ value at all. This is a one-off windfall, an amazing find."

“但它是作为一个装饰宝石而被买下的。根本没有人知道它的任何本质价值，还乐在其中。这是一次意外收获，一次让人惊喜的发现。”

After about 30 years of wearing the ring, the owners took it to Sotheby's when a jeweller told them it may be valuable.

在戴了30年后，一位珠宝商告诉戒指的主人它可能很有价值，于是他们就把它带到了苏富比。

"They came in with the idea that it might be real and they had no idea of its value," Ms Wyndham said.

温德姆称：“他们认为这可能是真钻石，但他们不知道它的价值。”

"We had a look and... got it tested at the Gemological Institute of America. The majority of us can't even begin to dream of owning a diamond that large," she added.

她补充说道：“我们看了一眼，然后在美国宝石学会进行了测试。我们大多数人甚至梦想不到自己能拥有那么大颗的钻石。”