A DUSTY old cigar box containing 35 Chinese stamps with an estimated value of £800 fetched £79,000 when they were bought by a Hampshire expert at auction.

But it is expected that the find could sell for as much as £250,000 in Hong Kong.

Among the collection of used stamps was an uncut sheet of 19 rare ‘candarin’ stamps bought in 1882, by an English missionary in Shanghai, and kept for day to day postage use.

The find is being described by experts as “incredible and unparalleled”.

When the missionary returned to England, the unused stamps came with him – and lay unseen in the box, in an attic, for more than a century.

Auctioneer Nicholas Granger, owner of British Bespoke Auctions in the picturesque Winchcombe, in the Cotswolds, said the seller of the Chinese stamps wished to remain anonymous.

But he said the seller was “stunned but delighted” by the huge amount he received for them.

“All I could glean about the history of these stamps was that they were purchased by an English missionary who brought them back to England on his retirement over a century ago,” said Mr Granger.

The buyer was international stamp dealer Allan Grant, who revealed that he went to the auction after a tip-off that the stamps could be worth a fortune.

Three other bidders for Lot 94 –|“A Cigar Box of Early Chinese Stamps” – knew the uncut stamps were valuable, and bidding rose|rapidly in the thousands, to the amazement of locals at the auction, where most items fetch under £100.

“Eventually it was between myself and one other bidder,” said Mr Grant, owner of philatelic firm Rushstamps, based in Lyndhurst.

“With the buyer’s premium added, the total I paid was £79,000,” he added.

“This is a most incredible find and will cause huge excitement among philatelists.

“The demand for early Chinese stamps now is unprecedented. There has never been anything like this,” he added.

The 19 unused yellow stamps, printed on very thin paper, were bought in Shanghai in 1882.

They feature a dragon design, and are known in the stamp world as ‘5 candarin ochres’.

“Finding unused examples in such superb condition, still on a sheet, is incredibly rare,” said Mr Grant.

American stamp dealer Larry Gibson, co-chairman of Connecticut-based Daniel Kelleher Auctions, flew to England to collect the stamp sheet from Mr Grant.

It will be sold at auction by his firm in Hong Kong.

“I’ve had a long career specialising in Chinese stamps, and this is by far the biggest and most unparalleled find of my life,” said Mr Gibson.

“It is absolutely amazing. I have never known anything like it. I think bidding will easily be in excess of £250,000,” he said.

“They will create a sensation in China, with millionaires vying with each other to buy their culture back. They will be desperate to get these marvellous stamps.”

Before the China auction, the stamp sheet will briefly return to the UK, to be exhibited at the British Design Centre in London from May 13-16 this year.