A 2,500-year-old Egyptian bronze cat’s head that was discovered in a house clearence sale has sold for a staggering £52,000.

Auctioneer David Lay found the cat, complete with gold earrings, during a house clearance near Penzance.

The “perfectly proportioned” piece was expected to sell for as much as £10,000, but in the event went for five times that amount.

After frantic bidding between eight telephone lines, the Egyptian cat sold to a London dealer.

Writing on Facebook afterwards, David Lay Auctions wrote: “Not bad for a bit of old bronze!”

The bronze figure managed to make its way to Cornwall in the belongings of a one-time managing director of Spink & Son, one of London's oldest and greatest art dealing institutions, who had retired to Cornwall.

Mr Lay said before the auction: “Once in a while, quite unexpectedly, you come across something really special. It’s like fate’s tapped you on the shoulder, gestured to a dusty box and said ‘chin up’, with an encouraging smile.

“In this case, our ‘something really special’ was an unassuming looking Ancient Egyptian bronze cat’s head, discovered in a little old house near Penzance.

“It’s a majestic thing, greened with age, but you can still just about make out the patterned engraving to the neck, its lightly modelled whiskers and the lines around its big, wise eyes. It was sat on the mantelpiece, surveying the room, and when we first saw it, we couldn’t quite believe what we’d found.”

Cats were commonly revered in Egypt, partly due to their ability to combat vermin and cobras, but increasingly as a result of their supposed connection with the divine, and the cats of wealthy families were known to be dressed in elaborate golden jewellery.

In the 26th dynasty (672-525BC), when the cat was probably created, it became common practice to sacrifice and then mummify sacred cats, who were then buried in special cemeteries with bronze caskets as a sign of devotion to the goddess. Statuettes of cats were presented as votive offerings at temples, and sometimes placed in tombs to accompany their owner to the afterlife, which is most likely where the bronze came from.

When Mr Lay took it to the British Museum for authentication, their world expert was not only able to positively identify it, but he was genuinely excited to see it.

Mr Lay added: “It’s outstandingly modelled, and tastefully engraved, suggesting it was commissioned by a patron on considerable means. Quite a few have survived, because so many were made, but ours is remarkably fine – not quite what you’d expect to turn up in a small house in south western Cornwall.”