Antiques Roadshow: Snake charmer automaton wows the crowd
WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.
An Antiques Roadshow guest’s grape dish that had been in the loft for decades, proved to be far more valuable than she thought. BBC expert Duncan Campbell met with the owner of a grape dish that caught his eye during filming at Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton.
Talking to the woman on crutches, he questioned: “Well I’m guessing since this little fella’s eating a bunch of grapes, that this is a grape dish. Do you use it for grapes?”
She replied: “We don’t actually. It’s been in my parents’ loft for about 20 years.”
When asked what they used it for, she explained: “No, not used for anything. We haven’t cleaned it or anything.”
The guest knew next to nothing about the dish but assumed it was Russian, as her mum had previously heard her parents mention its origins.
Campbell elaborated: “It’s a very simple dish, you’ve got a shell, a big scallop shell and a lovely little cherub on the front with angel wings who’s gorgeous.
“Now you’re right, it is Russian. The interesting thing about it is that it’s made by a rather good Russian maker.
“On the bottom here, we’ve got the mark of Faberge. You wouldn’t have necessarily thought or associated with a dish like this, would you?”
“Absolutely not," the guest replied, clearly not expecting that her dish came from the iconic designer.
He continued: “But in actual fact it is made by Faberge, the quality of it is fantastic.
“This was made in about 1910, 1915, just before the Russian Revolution.
“Often you associate Faberge with tiny little jewels but they had a whole range of silverware as well coming out of their workshop, including your lovely scallop dish.
“The cherub is cast beautifully and although it’s not clean at the moment, I think if you did clean it, you’d really notice the detail is absolutely gorgeous, it’s a really pretty little dish.
“And it’s up in the loft, out of sight, out of mind, not being used for anything.
“You might be interested to know, that if you put this up for sale, it ought to make somewhere around the £8-10,000 mark.”
The guest’s face dropped upon hearing the appraisal, as she exclaimed: “No! Oh my goodness! I’m shocked!
“No. No, never ever thought - oh my goodness, that’s really shocked me.
“I can’t believe it. Up in the loft -”
Campbell then interjected: “Among the spiders and the dust, there’s a piece of lovely Faberge!”
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
