An Antiques Roadshow guest shocked both the expert and the audience by revealing a rare family heirloom.
The BBC guest brought along a unique silverware replica of Kolkata's iconic General Post Office, formerly Calcutta. It wasn’t just a decorative piece - as it was cleverly made to store betel leaves, which were once a popular traditional stimulant.
Examining the silverware, arts and crafts expert Gordon Foster remarked, "I have to admit, I’ve never come across anything like this on Antiques Roadshow before," and added, "It’s definitely silver."
"I'm not quite sure whether it was especially made for order, or it was just bought off the shelf, which seems a bit unlikely," the guest explained.
He then explained how he ended up with the item, saying: "This actually belonged to my father, and that was a present from my maternal grandfather - a wedding present."
When he added the gift was received in 1942, Foster noted: "I'm sure there'll be lots of people intrigued by this." The owner chimed in: "This used to contain betel leaf, and there was a fashion those days for the betel leaf to be chewed with some lime, maybe a bit of tobacco and betel nut.”
After examining the item’s various compartments, the expert said: "It's absolutely amazing, isn't it? With no maker's marks, no no silver marks... It's clearly silver, you can just tell by the way that it's been done.
“Calcutta - at that time - there was one firm that is a possibility. They're a firm called Cooke and Kelvey. They made a lot of quite large scale pieces.
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"Yes, Govind Sharan," the guest confirmed, to which Foster went on: "So that shows that it is definitely a special commission to me.
"So when it comes to the valuation, it's quite a tricky thing to put a price on. We've never seen one before. [There are] a lot of different collectors who would be interested in this.
He then began the process of negotiating the price, saying: “It's Indian silver. It's decorative, and it's a known building. My gut feeling for an estimate for that... I would say £1,500 to £2,000."
However, the owner clearly wasn’t impressed as he expressed: “Yeah - not going anywhere.”To which he added: “We’ll pass it on to our daughter.” Foster replied: “She’s a lucky girl. They tend to have a maker's mark on it, though. But if this was a special commission, they wouldn't have had to put their mark on it. We've got two initials on the front here - GS - which I think are your father's initials."
