An Antiques Roadshow expert was astonished by a guest’s presentation of items he described as “absolute gold dust” which turned out to be worth a considerable amount of money.
During the episode filmed at Pollok Park in Glasgow, Matthew Haley, an expert from the BBC daytime show, was presented with a guest’s impressive array of early prints that he instantly identified as “absolutely amazing”.
The owner of the collection recounted how he acquired one notable piece: “This one here, the wife bought me that. That’s a Koberger Bible from 1485.”
Explaining his fascination, the guest added: “She knew I was interested in old print and I got that. I wasn’t really interested in the figures, I was more interested in typefaces,” reports the Mirror.
He continued, delineating his journey: “So I started collecting different typefaces. That led me to buying early prints when it left Germany, Rome, Paris, then eventually England there.”
Revealing a personal connection, the guest mentioned his background in a “print and ink company” and how his wife had procured the leaf as a “special treat”.
Haley responded appreciatively: “It really is special. Well done her.” He went on to emphasize the significance of the collection: “I mean, talk about old prints. These are pretty much the oldest printed thing that we’ll ever see on the Antiques Roadshow. There’s a sheet of paper here that was printed in 1470, 550 years ago.”
He also touched upon a revolutionary moment in history: “Gutenberg printing the Gutenberg Bible in 1455 and that was an absolutely seminal change in, basically, the history of the human race.
“Without printing, we wouldn’t have had the Reformation. It’s like the kind of explosion that happened when the internet came onto the scene. This was happening in the 1450s, 1460s and 1470s.”
The guest further explained that one of the prints originated from the first printing press in Rome, while the second was a product of Pete Schoffer, Gutenberg’s apprentice, from 1473.
Haley remarked: “It’s amazing. I mean, when we’re touching this, we’re touching something that could have been touched by the man who worked with the man who invented printing with movable type. For somebody interested in books, like me, this is absolute gold dust. It’s really phenomenal.”
The third page, printed by Anton Koberger, had been hand-coloured. However, it was the smallest leaf that truly captivated Haley—it was from William Caxton’s Polychronicon, dated 1482.
The expert revealed: “William Caxton, the first person to print in England and in the British Isles and it’s printed in English as well. A type of English but you can read it reasonably well. And this is just a small part of an amazing collection that you’ve formed.”
Wrapping up his evaluation, Haley stated: “Coming on to the idea of value, well, a leaf from this book printed by William Caxton, just one leaf on its own at auction would make something like £600 to £1,000, for just one sheet of a book.
“Then you imagine you’ve got a leaf from 1470, 1473, later on, and this huge and spectacular collection. I think if you added it all together, the individual values of these leaves, I think you’d be looking at something like £5,000 to £10,000.”
The audience’s audible reaction to the valuation made an impression, prompting the guest to jokingly remark: “Don’t tell the wife. That started it.”
Haley then expressed her admiration for the items, commenting: “It’s amazing, it’s wonderful, and it’s amazing to have such early historic printing material on the Antiques Roadshow. Thank you so much” which elicited a nonchalant response from the guest: “No problem.”
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.