Antiques Roadshow: Expert discusses 'rare' 13th century jug
WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.
An Antiques Roadshow expert admitted to “wishing for years” to see a jug of such “calibre” when it was finally presented to him.
The BBC daytime series travelled to Scarborough Grand Spa Hall to film an episode of the iconic show which is where expert Lars Tharp met a guest with a special jug.
“This is a bit of a find. And it was found in 1857”, he began.
She replied: “That’s right. It was found on New Queens Street and it was the site of Nesfield Brewery, digging out the foundations.”
“An aquamanile is a posh term for a water jug and it’s from the days before running hot and cold water," he explained before the guest went on to elaborate further.
“Yes, in the Mediaeval period in the 14th Century, water would be brought to the table in an aquamanile for you to wash your hands. And if you was someone of importance, you would have quite a fancy jug for that purpose.”
When asked how it came to be in her possession, the guest commented that it was not hers personally but belonged to the Rotunda Museum in Scarborough.
Tharp said: “And indeed it is now called Scarborough ware and if you actually look at where the clay’s exposed, it has this pink fabric and that’s how it’s recognised, even in fragments. In my 26 years on the Roadshow, I have never seen anything of this calibre.
“This wonderful fleece, it’s so gorgeous and they’ve done this by taking a knife or something very sharp and just pushing the pottery up, piece by piece by piece by piece and you end up with this shaggy woolly coat.
“It’s a wonderful thing. I wished for one of these to come in for years and years and years and years. Thank you very much to you and your museum.”
But Tharp wasn’t to give an exact figure for the item as he explained “museums don’t put valuations on their objects”.
Nevertheless, he wanted to give the guest and viewers some perspective on its rarity, sharing: “This reminds me of an 18th Century Barnaby jug that I recorded at Bishop Auckland quite some years back, a slipware jug, the same sort of wonderful, informal pottery.
“I mean, an object 600 years younger than this, and on that, I put a valuation of £20-30,000.”
There was a slight pause from the guest as she slightly leaned back and awkwardly smiled at the thought, simply saying: “OK.”
Tharp then teased: “And this is much, much rarer.”
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
