Antiques Roadshow guest floored by value of father’s gift
For most people, finding out that their old items are worth a few hundred dollars is a treat enough, and maybe a few thousand if the antique is particularly special.
But for one woman in the United Kingdom and her treasured brooches, that would have been small change.
It was Antiques Roadshow’s expert Geoffrey Munn who broke the news after inspecting her pieces in Wales, assigning an impressive value to the 18th century collection.
As the guest - and owner - explained, the two diamond brooches from her set had been gifted to her by her father.
“[The smaller bow] on my wedding day. [The floral brooch] came a little bit later,” she said, “and [the ruby bow] was inherited from my grandmother.”
She went on to share that her father had actually been involved in the antiques world, and so it was “something that I’ve grown up with.”
Upon inspecting the items, Munn noted that they were in “perfect condition”, and that they seemed to be “18th century jewels of the finest pitch”.
When it came to the smaller bow, he remarked that it was more than it appeared, being “a true lovers knot, because the harder it is pulled, the tighter it becomes.
“And the diamonds are forever, so this little subliminal message for your wedding was perfectly well chosen.”
According to Munn, the same could be said of the ruby bow, but that things were “more complicated” when it came to the floral brooch.
After sharing that it was most likely a sort of dress ornament, he noted that “there may have been 20 or 30 of them, and they might have gone down the back of a woman of very high rank and huge wealth.
“[In the 18th century], people didn’t simply recognise the sovereign because there was no photography and precious few portraits. So, when [they] entered the room, there had to be an enormous display of sumptuary.”
He then theorised that the floral brooch could possibly have belonged to Russian royalty, and that he wanted to believe that was the case.
“The Russian crown jewels were sold in London after the revolution to raise funds for the new regime,” he continued. “It’s just possible that this is a Russian crown jewel. Wouldn’t [that] be marvellous?”
Munn dubbed the entire collection “marvellous things”, declaring that “they’re not showy. They’re utterly beautiful expressions of an era gone by and that’s what we’re looking for”, as well as announcing that the trio came in at a staggering value of approximately $62,000.
The smaller bow came in at around $15,000, while the ruby brooch was valued at $18,800, and the ruby at $28,300.
And while selling the set would have given the guest’s bank balance quite the boost, she had no intentions of parting with them any time soon. Instead, she intended for her daughters to inherit them.
She enjoyed wearing the pieces, she said, but unfortunately, the bigger of the brooches were getting “difficult to wear nowadays … perhaps [they are] a bit more dated.”
Images: Antiques Roadshow / BBC