Tag Archives: hever

Will your heirloom/car boot find MAKE a million?

The first £1 million item unearthed by the Antiques Roadshow was no antique at all, it was the first of a series of maquettes made by Anthony Gormley of the
Angel of the North. The 6ft-high bronze model is a fraction of the size of the 66ft-high original, which stands beside the A1 in Gateshead.

The £1 million valuation is more than three times higher than the
previous record for the show, which was a collection of silver dating back to
the reign of Charles II and valued at £300,000.

A collector took the pride of his glass collection along to a Roadshow hoping
to find out if his investment has increased in value. After careful examination
the glass expert proclaimed “I’m afraid it’s an empty olive oil bottle,
Tesco circa 2008. It’s worth nothing at all.” The poor collector looked upset
& when questioned revealed he had paid more than £1,000 for the piece!

When Ben Caldicott spotted a postcard of the Queen Mary , he snapped it
up for 50 pence, it was valued at £25,000 by The Antiques Roadshow in Aberdeen in 2006.

David Battie, porcelain expert, had the misfortune to tell one London dealer
with 14 years experience that a pair  of Imari vases he’d bought- thinking they were 18th century-were worth less than £30. When washed, it became clear they were reproductions.

One lady almost burst into tears when told how much her late grandfather’s
comics were worth – Hilary Kay valued the mint copies of the first ever Dandy
and Beano comics at £7,000.

1920s popular pottery designer Clarice Cliff’s work is often forged.

Mark Eden-Bushell in a 2006 episode was told that a chair passed down to
him as a family heirloom was an original Chippendale worth
£35,000. Mark, refuses to sell the chair or put it in to storage and continues to
use it every day.

In Dorset a family were amazed when their everyday kitchen porcelain
bowl turned out to be a 14th-century Ming dish worth almost £200,000.

An 8th-century Anglo-Saxon ring was found by its owner among some hedge
clippings in his garden. The man’s wife had told him it was the sort of tacky
item that might have come from a Christmas cracker. He was told to insure it for
£10,000.

One house-proud couple brought along a bronze – polished to perfection
with Brasso…..and removed the aged patina…… Uncleaned, it would have been worth a lot of money, unknowingly they had reduced its value to virtually nothing.

Vivien Alexander was stunned when the Beatrix Potter first edition book
she kept in an old tin trunk was valued at £25,000 in 1997. Her mother had left
it to her and she suspected it might be worth something as the author had
signed it. The book was one of 450 Potter published for 2/6d.