The crowd in attendance as Antiques Roadshow took to Braford’s Lister Park were left gasping in awe as a guest’s watch was valued at a life-changing sum.
The recent episode of the BBC One series, which sees everyday people bring items from the past for valuation from a series of experts, saw Richard Price take a closer look at the ‘piece of art’ timekeeper.
The 1970s Patek Philippe watch was brought in by a woman years after she had been gifted it as a wedding present from her mother, who had kept it for some time before passing it down.
‘A lovely box with the unmistakable logo of Patek Philippe. To my mind, the very best watchmaker over the last one hundred years or so,’ Richard began, as the woman explained the item’s backstory.
Richard continued: ‘It’s a typical 1970s product, and the material, which I’m sure you know, is tiger’s eye, and that is what we call a chatoyant stone.
‘It has this wonderful lustre, and when it moves, these lines shimmy, looking like a tiger’s eye, and that is what we call a Chiastolite stone, and has this wonderful lustre when it moves, these lines shimmy.
The crowd watching on as Antiques Roadshow took to Braford’s Lister Park were left gasping in awe as a guest’s watch was valued at a life-changing sum
The 1970s Patek Philippe watch was brought in by a woman years after she had been gifted it as a wedding present from her mother
‘It’s all in 18-carat gold. Brilliant diamonds; a really, really unusual piece from the 70s. And remember, at that stage, they were really heavily into natural things.’
As Richard picked it up to examine it closely, the woman admitted that she ‘loved’ the item, adding: ‘It’s a piece of art, it’s more than a watch.’
Asked whether she could guess how much it was worth, the guest said she had imagined to get £5,000 for it if she decided to sell it.
But the expert left her shocked when he revealed: ‘No, no! It’s a little bit better than that, and if you went to a decent jeweller to buy that, he’d be asking for between £25,000 and £30,000.’
The crowd surrounding the woman let out a loud gasp, as she laughed and looked around at the stunned faces of those watching on.
‘I have to say, it’s probably the most generous wedding present I’ve ever heard of,’ Richard added, before thanking the guest for bringing it in to be looked at.
It comes as another of the Antiques Roadshow guests were left in shock after learning the huge value of the gold coins she found in her attic, as an expert confirmed they were real.
In an episode of the BBC show which aired over the weekend, antiques collectors took to Tarvit Mansion Fife, Scotland, to get their items valued.
Expert Richard valued the watch at a mammoth £25,000 to £30,000
The crowd surrounding the woman let out a loud gasp, as she laughed and looked around at the stunned faces of those watching on
Furniture expert Cristian Beadman was presented with a haul of gold coins, brought in by a woman who revealed she had found them in her attic, and was keen to know whether they were ‘real’.
Looking at the coins that had been laid out on a cushion the table, Cristian admitted he was shocked to be valuing a coin collection and not pieces of furniture.
But that didn’t stop him from giving the woman a mammoth valuation for the 23 solid gold coins, leaving her in total shock.
The visitor revealed how she had discovered the coins in an ice cream tub that was tucked away in her loft – and with two of the coins stamped with Queen Victoria’s image, presumed they were dated from the 1800s.
Cristian was quick to point out that the coins had been crafted from gold bullions, a high-grade gold with exceptional levels of purity.
‘Nice attic find. I wish I’d bought your house,’ Cristian joked. ‘These are Gold Sovereign, you’ve got 21 Gold Sovereigns and two half Sovereigns.
‘In theory, they are legal tender. You could spend it, but they’re used as a form of storing wealth effectively.
The watch’s value turned out to be a whopping five times what was expected
‘Now, something that’s important is the dating on them because some of the earlier ones can fetch more for their collectible value than for their gold weight.
‘The earliest ones here are late Victorian. The rest are either Edward VII, George V and George VI.
‘They’re largely late 19th and early 20th century. There are also some that have got a bit thumb worn, but there are still 21 Gold Sovereigns and two half Sovereigns.
‘You can get fakes that aren’t gold, these are gold. Gold has outperformed everything for a few years now.’
The expert then revealed that while coins had been priced at around £400 per item around a year ago, they would now bag around £550 a piece.
It meant the guest’s coins were worth between £10,000 and £15,000.
Antiques Roadshow airs Sundays on BBC One and is available to stream on iPlayer.
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