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A chance purchase of a film tin for £3.20 on eBay has unearthed a previously unseen Charlie Chaplin movie which could be worth up to £40,000.
Collector Morace Park decided to buy the battered container because he liked the look of it and did not even open the parcel for a while after it arrived.
When he did, he noticed the title of the movie, Charlie Chaplin in Zepped, after unrolling part of the film.
The find has caused a storm among experts and features unseen footage of Zeppelins flying over England during World War I, as well as very early stop-motion animation and outtakes from Chaplin films.
The main animated sequence starts with Chaplin wishing he could return to England from America and fight with British soldiers.
It shows him being taken on a flight through clouds before landing on a spire in England.
During the First World War he was criticised for not joining the war effort. Chaplin did present himself for military service, but was rejected as being too small and underweight.
All the footage has been cut together into a six-minute movie that Mr Park, who lives in Henham, Essex, describes as 'in support of the British First World War effort'.
Mr Park bought the film container 'from someone else who deals in bits and bobs' and did not even open the parcel after it arrived.
When he did, he spotted the film's title after unrolling part of it and decided to search for it online.
He said: 'I Googled it and then my interest was pricked. I couldn't find any sign of it on the internet.'
He then sought the help of neighbour John Dyer, the former head of education at the British Board of Film Classification, and the pair began a search to find out what Zepped was and why it was unknown to film historians and Chaplin experts.
Mr Park said: 'It starts with live shots of Chaplin. It then turns into a dreamscape.
'We see a Zeppelin bomb attack. And then we see Chaplin taking the mickey out of the Zeppelin, at the time a powerful instrument of terror,' he told The Guardian.
The movie, shot on 35mm nitrate film, is believed to have been a First World War propaganda piece aimed at lessening the fear of airship bombing raids which Germany had been launching on Britain from the beginning of 1915.
Charlie Chaplin was contracted to the Essanay film company in December 1914, where he made some of his early masterpieces including The Tramp.
A year later, contract and salary disputes saw the then 25-year-old star sever relations with his employers.
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