16-07-2025
Bargain Hunt expert leaves pensioner sobbing as photographs that tell heartbreaking story sell for more than 100 times their value
A Bargain Hunt expert left a guest sobbing when photographs that told a heartbreaking story sold for more than 100 times their value.
Irita Marriott, who often appears on the BBC show, also hosts The Derbyshire Auction House on Discovery+.
The programme sees Irita help members of the public find hidden treasures in their homes and make some cash in the auction house.
One instalment saw Irita meet Helen and Ben, a mother and son who were trying to raise funds to pay for Helen's husband's dementia care.
During the episode, Helen showed the expert a collection of photos which included signed, original copies from famous photographers.
The images dated back to 1975 and featured pieces by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen and Graham Smith.
Helen's husband, Alan, came about the impressive photographs when working for a regional arts association.
Since then, they had been hung in the hallway of their family home.
The photos were sold separately and one was estimated to be worth between £80 and £120.
However, Helen and Ben were left shocked and broke down in tears when it went for £12,000.
Ben reportedly said: 'I was absolutely gobsmacked at the values people were willing to bid for what we thought were just nice pictures... that we saw on the wall every day. Absolutely brilliant.'
Sadly, Helen's husband passed away before the episode aired and the money was used to cover the cost of his funeral instead.
It comes after an Antiques Roadshow guest was brought to tears after learning the whopping value of a glass box she bought online for just £32.
The treasured item left expert Joanna Hardy shocked after she inspected it during a repeat episode filmed at Edinburgh 's Scottish Gallery of Modern Art.
The Scottish guest and the valuer were both shocked by the intricate and detailed box, with Joanna commenting: 'The skill of a goldsmith and the skill of an enameller is the same when they are making jewellery.'
She then asked the guest for the story behind the intriguing piece and the woman explained she had stumbled up on it at an online auction in England and was so taken with the crystal that she snapped it up immediately.
She went on to confess that she loved to browse online auctions, before noting that the box is no longer in perfect condition, but was still beautiful.
She said: 'I think they described it as being glass, a glass box, and I knew it had something unusual about it, with the designs on it and things like that.
'I couldn't really see much of the silver, I had a sneaky feeling it might be that, so we actually polished it all to reveal the beautiful enamel on the surface and the lovely colours'.
The guest then revealed she had originally bought the piece for just £32 and expert Joanna was left gobsmacked.
Joanna then concluded that the impressive item had been made between 1860 and 1870 and was made by an expert enameller.
She told the excited guest: 'So this is dating this from about 1860 to 1870, but there was one person that was really the head of this, he was the leading enamelist in Vienna at the time and he did the neo-renaissance work.'
And it was then that the BBC expert revealed what the £32-crystal pot was really woth, revealing it could fetch up to £6,000.
She said: 'If that was in the right auction I think you are going to be looking at between £4,000 and £6,000.'
