Antiques Roadshow guests are often surprised to hear an item that’s been gathering dust in their home for years is actually worth a fortune.
In last week’s episode of the BBC favourite, one guest left expert Joanna Hardy and the crowd gathered baffled as she revealed where a valuable brooch had been left, almost forgotten.
Fine jewellery specialist Hardy was impressed by the sparkling item brought to her in last Sunday’s programme.
“When I see this, I just think, ‘it is magical,'” she commented, beaming over the brooch.
“It is a beautiful piece of jewellery. Please tell me how did you get this brooch?” she probed.
“I found this in my husband’s sock drawer!” the owner of the jewel admitted, adding: “He keeps all sorts of things in there.”
Joanna Hardy was stunned by the guest’s admission
BBC
Laughing, Hardy quipped: “Maybe we don’t want to know them all.”
“I think it’s really beautiful,” the guest commented. “It does sparkle a lot when it’s out in the sun, which it’s not seen for a while!”
“Is it something that was handed down through the family?” Hardy asked.
“I don’t think so, no. Because I did ask him and he just couldn’t remember,” the owner admitted.
The guest admitted the brooch had been hidden away for a while
BBC
“Well, it certainly has given me a ray of sunshine to have a look at it,” Hardy exclaimed.
Going into the brooch’s history, she explained: “Because it is just quintessentially 1900.
“This is when jewellers started to work with platinum, which was a revelation because they were able to really refine platinum – you must have seen, it’s like lace isn’t it?”
“It’s so fine,” the guest agreed. “It’s really delicate, I think that’s why I’m a little bit scared to wear it perhaps because I wouldn’t want to break it!”
“No but the difference is that platinum is really strong,” Hardy assured the Antiques Roadshow visitor.
“And that’s why you can work it to such fine wires because of its strength – and its beauty as well, it doesn’t tarnish,” she detailed.
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The Antiques Road Show guest was stunned by the valuation
BBC
Getting around to the all-important valuation, Hardy inquired: “Do you know how much it’s worth?”
“It’s been in the sock drawer, so I couldn’t even hazard a guess, no,” confessed the guest.
“Well at auction, I think this would go in the region of about £3,000,” Hardy informed the shocked woman.
“Wow!” she responded, astonished. “Oh… OK, that’s amazing, thank you so much,” she added.
“Maybe it’s going to come out of the sock drawer a little more often!” Hardy joked.
“I think it might – special occasions, definitely,” she confirmed, assuring Hardy: “I’ll try to put it somewhere safe so I don’t keep losing it!”