25-05-2025
Antiques Roadshow guest floored by whopping value of 'grotty' item abandoned in her garage for 20 years
A guest on Antiques Roadshow was left floored by the whopping value of a 'grotty' item that had been abandoned in her garage for 20 years.
During a previous instalment of the BBC show, expert Marc Allum was presented with a designer piece of luggage at Beaumaris Castle.
'It's a pretty kind of grotty looking old piece of luggage this, it looks like it's had a really hard life,' Marc commented.
The guest had acquired the Louis Vuitton chest after a family friend passed away and didn't originally realise the possible value of it.
'When we cleared the house it was covered in a blanket with a lamp on it, we just thought it was part of the clearing,' she explained.
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'When we cleared the house it was covered in a blanket with a lamp on it, we just thought it was part of the clearing,' the guest (pictured) explained
The guests cousin who lives in Texas owns the item and she is the 'custodian' of it.
'We opened it and it said Louis Vuitton and I've actually had it in my garage for the past 20 years covered up,' she revealed.
The expert explained how the trunk featured an 'unpickable lock' and inspected the inside details of the luggage box.
He dated it to around 1890 and noted that though it needed 'quite a bit of work' he still gave an impressive valuation.
'As this stands, it's worth in the region of £2,500 to £3,500 at auction. It's a really nice thing,' Marc explained.
'Wow, wow,' the guest remarked.
During the same instalment, a guest struggled to speak after they discovered the value of an 'extraordinary' family heirloom.
Expert Joanna Hardy was presented with a piece of jewellery made of ten gold nuggets.
'They just look extraordinary,' she commented, as the owner explained her grandfather had gifted the bracelet to her grandmother.
The guest revealed: 'My grandfather worked in Segovia, in Colombia in the Frontino mines in the '30s and '40s.
'He was an engineer so I don't believe he mined those by hand, but I think he must have got those from there.'
Joanna marvelled how the piece of jewellery was 'ahead of its time' given the art deco style that was popular in the 1930s.
The expert gushed over the nature of the bracelet and precious metal it was made of.
She said: 'Gold, it is the only metal that is just so malleable, it doesn't rust, it doesn't tarnish, it's inactive to chemical reactions so what you see here is exactly the same as when it was first found.
'It's just got that raw energy about it.'
The guest agreed and commented, 'I love it when I wear it because it's really heavy and it just fits, it's a really nice size as well.;
Joanna moved onto discussing the value of the item and pointed out 'Gold has never been higher than today'.
'So at auction, I think you'd be looking at around £5,000,' she explained.
The guest was visibly shocked and appeared to struggle to speak after realising the value of her bracelet.
She stammered: 'Oh! Okay. That's quite a lot, everybody said that I know but it's really a lot more than I thought.'
