caused a storm when one guest was told her prized family heirloom was actually a fake.
One guest appeared on the show to present her trio of paintings to art expert Dendy Easton when the Roadshow visited Culzean Castle in Ayrshire back in 2021.
She inherited the three paintings – which depict a cathedral, people in a rowing boat and people at the beach – from her grandmother.
Explaining her ties to the artwork, the guest said: “They all came from little grandma and when she died we got the middle one, my mother-in-law and her husband took this one and my sister-in-law took this one and when my mother-in-law died last year they all came to my house.”
Dendy identified the beach painting as being by Cheltenham artist Hector Caffieri, who was born in the 1840s. He admitted: “Over the years I’ve seen a lot of pictures by him and this is a very good one.
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One Antiques Roadshow guest was left speechless (Image: BBC)
“It’s in its frame, you’ve got two ladies on the beach and it’s a very interesting composition. Slightly faded because the sunlight has got on to it.”
The rowing boat picture dated back to 1890 and was painted by Frederick Cayley Robinson. But the cathedral painting – the guest’s least favourite of the three – delivered a shocking bombshell.
After identifying the painting as being by artist David Roberts, who painted in Venice and France, Dendy confirmed that the picture had a fake signature.
He said: “Well Roberts is a very famous artist, but this is a fake. It’s a fake signature because he was so important, he was a Royal Academian, and people copy his work. It’s dated 1862 – well, he died in 1864, so I think they’re trying to mislead you that he’s having the last stroke of his brush.”
The BBC guest was taken aback (Image: BBC)
Dendy added: “Had this been right by David Roberts, I would have been putting £4,000 to £6,000 on it. It’s actually worth £200 to £300 if you’re lucky.”
Thankfully the guest wasn’t too put off, because her H Caffieri painting was given a £3,000 valuation, while the Robinson artwork was worth around £9,000.
She said: “That’s a lot of money. I’m astounded at the value of these paintings. They’re much older than I thought they were and I’m even more delighted to find out more about the background of them.”