Chess piece bought for $7 expected to sell for $1.8 million at upcoming auction

This family were totally unaware that this ordinary-looking object was worth $1.8 million. Then they made a shock discovery.

An antique dealer kept a chess piece in a drawer for almost 60 years. Now the Sotheby’s have valued the item at 1.8 million dollars. Picture: Tristan Fewings

A chess piece bought in the 1960s for five pounds by an antiques dealer in Scotland has been identified as a highly prized 900-year-old artefact from the Viking era.

The Edinburgh family’s grandfather, an antiques dealer, had bought the chess piece for $9 in 1964.

He had no idea of the significance of the 8.8cm piece, made from walrus ivory, which he passed down to his family.

The man bought the piece in 1964 and stored it in his drawer for 55 years.

The family had looked at it for years without realising its importance.

The piece is known as the Lewis warder and is now expected to bring between 600,000 pounds ($A1,090,241) and 1 million pounds ($A1.81 million) at an auction next month.

The piece is a Lewis chessmen, first discovered on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides in 1831. The circumstances in which they were first found is unclear, described by some sources as being shrouded in mystery.

The piece, the equivalent of a rook, is the latest of the missing chessmen to be identified. It is set to be auctioned at Sotheby’s on July 2.

The antique dealer bought the piece in 1964 and kept it in a drawer. Picture: Tristan Fewings

There are four more pieces still missing from the set. Picture: Tristan Fewings

So far 93 pieces have been found, with four still missing from a full set. Most of the pieces are carved from walrus ivory from the tusk.

The chess piece was passed down to the family of the antiques dealer who did not realise its significance and kept it in a drawer for over five decades.

The Lewis chessmen are intricate, expressive chess pieces in the form of Norse warriors, carved in the 12th century.

The original hoard, discovered in 1831, are now held in both the British Museum in London and the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh — but four of the chess pieces remain missing.

Sotheby’s European sculpture expert Alexander Kader said the find was “one of the most exciting and personal rediscoveries to have been made during my career”.

He told the BBC his “jaw dropped” when he realised what they had in their possession.

“They brought it in for assessment,” he said. “That happens every day. Our doors are open for free valuations.

“We get called down to the counter and have no idea what we are going to see. More often than not, it’s not worth very much.

“I said, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s one of the Lewis Chessmen’.”