Antiques Roadshow guest's eyes bulge as 'piece of tat' given huge valuation

An Antiques Roadshow guest was left gobsmacked when he discovered the jaw-dropping value of his mother's jewellery during an episode set at Cromford Mills.

Jewellery expert Susan Rumfitt met with a delightful couple to examine two intriguing pieces: an opal bracelet and a pendant, which had caused a stir in their household.

With great anticipation, Susan asked: "Two really rather nice pieces of jewellery here, how did these get into your collection?"

The wife recounted the tale: "Well, they were on my husband's side from his mother.

"When she died, my husband said 'my mum had a lovely opal bracelet, you might like it' so we dug it out and that was that.

"But in this big box was loads of stuff and I dug to the bottom and found out [pointing to the pendant].

"And my husband said 'You don't want that, it's a load of tat! It's just a piece of glass! ' and I said 'Well I like it!'"

When pressed about his disdain for the pendant, the husband quipped humorously: "It's very big for a precious stone I would have thought!"

Susan proceeded to investigate the opal bracelet, which had been bequeathed to the woman's daughter.

She remarked: "How wonderful, lucky daughter! Well as we can see, there are these wonderful opals all graduating in size which have got diamonds in between which really help to bring out the beautiful play of colour.

The greens, the blues, the flashes of orange that we see around the stones.

"It really is totally magnificent. And the added bonus, of course, with any piece of jewellery, is having the original fitted box which we have here.

"And if we open the box up, we can see that the piece was bought at Wartski in Llandudno.

"Wartski is now based in London but this is where they were established, where they've gone on to be one of the most important jewellers in the world, known for selling Faberge.

Eager not to get the couple's hopes up, she added: "I'll put you straight now, this isn't a piece of Faberge so let's calm things down just a little bit!"

But she remained adamant that it was a "superb" piece from the late 19th Century, before moving on to the second of the two items.

Rumfitt continued: "Then of course we'll come onto the piece of 'tat' as you call it so let's have a little chat about this."

"So this dates from the Edwardian period. What we do have are diamonds which are set at the top here and they are set into platinum at the front, to give that lightness and delicacy and to give strength to the design."

"And you need strength when you are supporting a big stone as we have here."

"It's actually aquamarine. It's got a really good strength of colour and the colours even all the way through the stone as well so all in all, it's moved quite a way on from tat hasn't it, which is really good."

The expert then started to summarise: "So as far as value's concerned, which I'm sure you'd like to know."

"So the aquamarine pendant, if this came up in auction, we would be looking at an estimate of £3,000 to £5,000."

The man was visibly shocked by the valuation, his jaw dropping as he exclaimed: "Wow. Not bad for a piece of glass! ".

Rumfitt continued: "The opal bangle, of course, is a magnificent piece as I say, it's got the beautiful play of colours in the opal, the opals are in good condition, they haven't been worn, they've had the lovely box to keep them in.

"And if that came up at auction, we would look at an estimate of £8,000 to £10,000."

The woman chuckled at the surprisingly high figure, while her partner's eyes widened in amazement, saying: "Wow! Didn't expect that. That's incredible."

His wife laughed, commenting: "My daughter did well, didn't she?", to which Rumfitt nodded in agreement.

Turning to his wife, the man joked: "Think we better have another root in that jewellery box, haven't we?"

Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.