Antiques Roadshow fans blown away as royal artefacts rack up five-figure valuation

Megan Bull
·3-min read
Two sellers shocked after receiving a valuation
(BBC)

As Antiques Roadshow returned on Sunday night, fans were treated to a right royal find. As Fiona Bruce and her team of experts headed to Swanage Pier in Dorset, it was British jewellery specialist, Geoffrey Munn who made the discovery.

Geoffrey Munn talking to two sellers
Geoffrey Munn met with two sellers who owned a collection of royal artefacts (BBC)

Joined by two guests, the duo presented Geoffrey with an impressive hoard, which included a couple of miniature gold eggs, a dagger and a photograph album featuring royal personages.

After explaining that her grandfather had been a gallerist on the HMS Marlborough in 1919, one of the sellers noted that he had been sent to Yalta in the Crimea to pick up the Dowager Empress Maria of Russia, and obtained the objects after working as her aide-de-camp onboard.

Two gold Easter eggs which were worn as jewellery and a leather-hilted dagger were among the collection
A pair of gold Easter eggs which were worn as jewellery and a leather-hilted dagger were among the collection (BBC)

Having looked at the impressive eggs, which would have been worn as adornments on a necklace or bracelet, Geoffrey next examined the photo album, which contained "snaps" of high-ranking members of Russia's Romanov dynasty.

A photo album with snaps of high-ranking members of Russia's Romanov dynasty
The guests were also in possession of a photo album with snaps of high-ranking members of Russia's Romanov dynasty (BBC)

As he turned his attention to the third item – a Cossack dagger – Geoffrey marvelled at the leather-hilted piece and noted that the trio of items served as a "most astonishing archive" and was worth five figures. To the shock of his guests, Geoffrey proceeded to value the entire collection at an incredible £15,000.

"It's absolutely enchanting and poignant and touching," he said, "and we want to share it with everybody."

After airing for over 40 years, Antiques Roadshow has been presented with a treasure trove of historic and sentimental objects, and in a strange development, one of the BBC's antique programmes from the 1970s – which paved the way for Antiques Roadshow – has been linked to the bizarre case of a massively undervalued vase.

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The 16-inch porcelain piece, which dates back to the Qing dynasty, was originally brought onto the BBC's game show, Going for a Song, decades ago. The antiques expert at the time had dismissed it as a "very clever reproduction" and valued it at just £800.

After appearing in the series, the original owners, a British couple, stored the vase in their attic for four decades and it wasn't until their relatives came across it while clearing out their house, that its true value was revealed.

The rare Chinese vase was sold for £43 million
A rare Chinese vase which appeared on the BBC's Going for a Song 40 years ago was recently sold for £43 million (Bainbridges Auction House)

Following a trip to Bainbridges Auction House, manager David Reay realised it could be something special. Speaking about the moment, David recalled: "They told me it had been valued at just £800 two months earlier. They also mentioned that it had been appraised on Going for a Song about 40 years ago, where it was deemed a reproduction."

Once authenticated, the vase was then revalued at £1 million, but after going under the hammer, the bidding quickly escalated. The final price reached an astonishing £43 million, with commission and VAT pushing the total to an eye-watering £53,105,000.

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