Watch gifted by Cary Grant sells for £6,800

A gold watch gifted by Cary Grant to the woman who cared for his mother during her final years has sold at auction for £6,800.

Auctioneers at Clevedon Salerooms, in north Somerset, said the watch had been a thank you gift to Maggie Leach and the item had been passed down to her great niece, Stephanie Balson.

Balson said the actor "still came to visit great auntie Maggie" after his mum died and visited Bristol regularly before his death in 1986, at the age of 82.

The watch carried a pre-sale estimate of £2,000.

Grant, whose real name was Archibald Leach, grew up in Bristol before becoming a Hollywood actor, but his mother continued to live in Horfield.

Balson said she put the watch up for auction to "let someone else enjoy its story".

"When I first inherited it, I held it close because it was a link to Maggie," she said.

"But I have other things that Cary gave her and the watch band doesn't fit me, so I decided to let someone else enjoy it and its story".

The salesroom's auctioneer Henry Michallat, who is also the deputy lord mayor of Bristol, said: "Pieces like this come along very rarely.

"It is not the gold that makes this watch remarkable, it is the story it carries; a private thank you from one of Hollywood's biggest names to the Bristol family who cared for his mother."

He added: "We are glad to have played a small part in its history, and pleased that it has found a buyer who clearly values that story as much as the family did."

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