In an episode of Antiques Road Show episode, viewers were in for a bit of a surprise when a guest refused to sell their gold watch after the expert gave them a warning.
Yes, when the person went to the Windermere Jetty museum in the Lake District, they were holding on tight to their little piece of fancy.
A guest on the show was previously so taken aback by the value of their watch that they ‘lost it’, while in another episode, the expert refused to rate an item.
But it seems that the valuation of this golden item depended on one important factor – whether it really worked or not.
Antiques Road Show expert Richard Price was presented with a ‘very beautiful’ piece known as a ‘hunting watch’.
The watch may be ‘very rare’. (BBC)
“If it also has a very nice dial, which it does, look at that gorgeous silver dial, I can say quite categorically that it’s for the Spanish market,” he explained.
This seems to have been confirmed by the guest as he had given it to a ‘Spanish lady’ who was a friend of the family.
“Well, what a lucky couple you are. Absolutely typical of the Spanish market, beautiful numbers, it’s 18 carat gold, dating from the 1860s,” Price replied.
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After being asked if they remembered anything special about the piece, the guest revealed that its previous owner had ‘demonstrated that it had a bell’, but was a little confused as to what that meant.
This seemed to make sense to Price as he noted the design of the watch before explaining: “A very, very clever horologist named Joseph Barolos, who worked in London, created a form of the fourth iteration, which would says the clock will strike. hours and quarters, turning it to the left to make the hours, releasing and turning it to the right to make the quarters.
They’re not selling, apparently. (BBC)
“That’s not working and all that very complex replication work is going to be under the number and we can’t see if it’s there. The very fact that it reminds you of sounds in other words, a kind of repetition suggests to me almost certainly that this watch had and may still have that work there.”
While the guest appeared to be thrilled that the watch was a good value, the expert warned them that the value of the item depended on whether the ‘repeat quarters’ feature was all of the tickets.
“If this is Joseph Barolo’s patent. We’re talking about a very rare thing,” Price explained. “If it’s there, I’ll quote you £7,000 to £10,000. If not, we would be looking at £2,500 to £3,000 minimum entitlement. So, either way, a nice gift.”
But the surprised guest suddenly replied: “Oh yes. And it’s not for sale.”
“That’s what you all say,” Price joked.
The strangest items that have appeared Antiques Road Show
Some items on the show have been downright weird…
Human hair by famous poets
(BBC)
Have you ever dreamed of owning the hair of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge?
Well, it will cost you, like when this article was brought up Antiques Road Show last year it was valued at over £40,000.
The cut pieces were a family heirloom and according to expert Justin Croft, one was taken to a person’s deathbed.
Yes.
Nightmare fuel Teletubbies concept art
It turns out that Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po looked pretty scary at first.
Jonathan Hills drew the concept art for the upcoming children’s TV icons. Unfortunately, he died in 2020 and his wife brought some of his original sketches to the show in 2022.
Expert Mark Hill admitted some of the drawings were ‘creepy’ but went on to estimate individual pieces at between £500 and £2,000, and the entire collection of 80 drawings at up to £80,000.
A pee bottle
Who could forget the time pundit Andy McConnell accidentally drank his own urine in 2016?
A boy named John found the bottle in his garden and McConnell used the taste test to figure out what was inside, thinking it was port.
Fast forward to 2019, and Fiona Bruce revealed to McConnell: “Inside were these brass pins, all dating from the late 1840s, and the liquid – urine, some alcohol and a human hair.”
It turned out to be a ‘witch bottle’, buried on the doorstep of a house as protection against curses and bad luck.