WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.
An Antiques Roadshow guest was “blown away” by the value of an inherited piece of jewellery that had been tucked away in a drawer.
Expert Geoffrey Munn was present at Alexandra Gardens in Cardiff to meet with guests for the series, including a woman who brought along a brooch featuring “with two ugly old men and a pig”.
When she confessed she’d never seen anything like it, he responded: “Well happily, I have seen a few like it. And the pattern is incredibly ancient.
“It probably has its origins, certainly in the high Renaissance but also in classical antiquity, and it’s a composite demon often with legs called a gryllus.
“Cameos are marvellous objects because they’re mini sculptures really.
“Some of the best cameos, but not all of them by any means, are carved in Italy and they were part of the Grand Tour that when you went into perhaps Rome and Florence and Naples, you’d bring back something essentially Italian in character.”
Antiques Roadshow guests jokes she ‘won’t tell mum’ about ‘breathtaking’ value of ‘ugly’ cameo left in drawer (Image: BBC)
Antiques Roadshow expert Geoffrey Munn was on hand to value a late 16th Century cameo. (Image: BBC)
Munn asked if the guest liked the piece, to which she replied: “I love it. It’s odd but it’s the detail of it. The faces look so real.”
He suggested: “And mildly menacing perhaps, as well”, but she disagreed: “I never found it menacing. I’ve always thought it was really pretty.”
When he asked about its origin, she admitted: “Absolutely no idea. Belonged to my grandmother and my mother believes her mother. And has just come down the family somehow.”
Munn was intrigued by the potentially Italian artefact, thought to date back to the late 16th or early 17th Century, featuring an ornately carved image within a “picture frame of gold and pearls”.
He observed: “The pearl frame is about 1840 so it’s had a bit of a life in between. So all of that’s a bit breathtaking, isn’t it?”
When it came time to evaluate the item, Munn declared confidently that such pieces are keenly sought after: “Now, when these things turn up on the open market, they’re collected just as avidly as they were in the past.
“So there would be fierce competition for this object, for its subject matter and its sophistication.
“So I’ve got no hesitation at all in valuing it for, well, £7,000.”
An Antiques Roadshow guest brought in an “ugly” cameo brooch. (Image: BBC)
The owner, surrounded by an astonished crowd, could barely contain her amusement or shock, laughing and exclaiming: “I just don’t know what to say. Wow. Oh. No, I don’t think we should tell my mother about it at all.”
Munn humourously suggested: “I don’t think so. She’ll never see it. And you’ve got it now”, and she concurred.
With a knowing grin, he added: “Possession is nine tenths of the law.”
Afterward in a separate interview, the owner shared her disbelief: “Just can’t quite believe it, to be honest. It’s been sitting in a drawer for so long, we haven’t known anything about it so I’m quite overwhelmed to be honest.
“My mum is just going to be completely blown away because she won’t have believed it was worth anything. I don’t think so – I just can’t stop [smiling].”
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on One and iPlayer.