Thirteen chairs found in a dusty church basement may have been part of a replacement set for Coventry Cathedral – after the original building and all its contents were razed to the ground during the Blitz.
Businessman Stephen Brealey, 43, of Sandon Street, Basford, has now put his rare hoard of oak Gordon Russell chairs up for auction.
He said: "I do a lot of clearances and normally when I find something I think, oh that is probably worth a few bob, but I dropped the ball on this one.
"Of course I am hoping they will make a fortune but I will be happy if they fetch £130 really - I thought the whole lot was only worth about £50 at first."
Mr Brealey found the chairs in the cellar of St Augustine's Church, in Sandon Street, Basford. He had bought the vacant building in 2004 with the intention of turning it into a community centre under the guidance of his mum, Victoria Joyce Brealey.
However, when she died, at the age of 62, in 2008, Mr Brealey postponed his plans and the chairs remained undiscovered in the depths of the basement for another six years, among a plethora of other treasures including, alters, pews and Royal Dalton pottery.
Mr Brealey said: "It had been six years so I thought the time was right to pull my finger out and get things sorted.
"I've put a few planning applications in to turn the church into houses and flats so I went down into the basement to start clearing it out and found the chairs.
"I thought nothing of them but took them to the Cattle Market and they got quite excited and said they may have been from Coventry Cathedral. "They don't come on the market much so we have no idea what they will go for."
The chairs were due to be auctioned off at Arthur Johnson and Sons Auctioneers, in Meadow Lane on Saturday September 20 at 10am with a guide price of between £130 to £180 for five.
Director of the auction house Phil Poyser has never seen a Gordon Russell chair go under the hammer.
He said: "We can't say they are rare because 2,000 were made for Coventry Cathedral but it is rare that they come up for auction.
"The top rail is missing from all the chairs and it is a bit of mystery why they would have been taken off, if they were complete they would be worth around £70 each.
David Timson, archive volunteer at the Gordon Russell design museum in Broadway, Worcestershire, said: "They are quite iconic chairs and of historic value." and at the time they were very innovative as they were made entirely out of wood but they stacked.
"In 1962 when they were made, that was quite unusual."
