A SHIELD that hung for decades in the hallway of a house near Ludlow is on its way “home” this week for £22,000.

Phone bids from Down Under pushed up the price of a lot that sur prised even the experts at Leominster’s Brightwells auction house.

And the Australian Aboriginal parrying shield eventually went to an Australian buyer.

The family selling the shield didn’t want to go public, but Brightwells spoke of the shield’s place within a selection of random objects kept by an “inveterate collector.”

There was little – if any – hard evidence of how he collector came by the shield.

All told, nine keen telephone bidders were on the line to Brightwells on sale day, with several more bidders in the sale room itself.

In Australia, the collecting of Aboriginal tribal artefacts is especially popular with upmarket galleries in the more exclusive areas of Sydney and Melbourne.

Later shields, often made for the tourist market, are usually painted, making this example with its carved zig-zag design particularly desirable.

Other rare and early features noted by the Brightwells experts included a handle carved in one piece with the ends protruding to the front - a detail that should help the buyer trace the shield to a specific area or tribe – and its distinctive leaf-like shape when most such shields are ovoid.