A WOMAN is hoping that her parting gift from a former boss could net her a jumbo profit this month.

The 12in high plastic elephant had been a feature of her living room for years when a near identical example featured in television's Antiques Roadshow.

An expert valued the cubist-style sculpture at between £2,000 and £3,000 - a price tag considered the going rate for a piece of work from Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, Scotland's leading living artist.

Her former boss saw the show and immediately contacted the unnamed woman, from Birtley, near Chester-le-Street, who later contacted Newcastle auctioneers Anderson & Garland to find out how much her elephant was worth.

But John Anderson, the firm's collectables specialist, warned: "Three thousand of the elephants were reproduced to his design - a fact not known perhaps to the TV programme's valuer - so we are estimating it much more modestly at about £300 when it goes under the hammer in Newcastle on June 13."

The owner had been blissfully unaware of its possible value until her former employer phoned her to say an elephant like the one he had given her had been valued on the programme, said Mr Anderson.

"She immediately switched on the television and was astonished to hear the elephant valued at thousands of pounds," he said.

"The elephant was apparently designed by Paolozzi, in 1972, as a promotional gift to architects from Nairn Flooring, in Scotland."