RARE film posters dating back to the golden age of Hollywood cinema have sold at auction for £60,000, after they were discovered in a Penarth home being used as carpet underlay.

Two builders discovered the posters, which date between 1936 and 1940, while refurbishing the home of a late cinema owner in 1985. They were found in perfect condition, despite having been left under the carpet for decades.

One billboard poster of the John Wayne classic 'Stagecoach' was purchased for £31,000 alone, while a Sherlock Holmes poster, dating back to 1940, went for £13,000.

The likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Sir Laurence Oliver and Henry Fonda featured amongst the 70 prints discovered, which adorned the halls of cinemas in Cardiff around 80 years ago.

Fine art auctioneers Rogers Jones & Co auctioned the prints in Cardiff last Friday, September 15, with 66 items selling in total.

Auctioneer Ben Rogers-Jones, 44, said: "It was a really special auction to handle, I really enjoyed it.

"It was a fantastically exciting opportunity for us.

"The builders who found them were at the auction and one of them got quite emotional as they were being sold."

Mr Rogers-Jones said afterwards that it was an immensely difficult auction to predict, with their estimates being dwarfed by some of the significant fees paid by bidders.

"We had no idea how much they would go for, it was very difficult to predict because we couldn't find any comparatives," he said.

"We took a guess that the Sherlock Holmes poster would go for between £600 and £1,000, and the Stagecoach one for £1,000 to £2,000.

"To see them go for how much they did was fantastic."