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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Entertainment
Lauren Williams & Lottie Gibbons

BBC Antiques Roadshow guest speechless as '£30 ring' is worth £4,000

An Antiques Roadshow guest was speechless as a ring she thought was worth £30 was valued at £4,000.

Expert John Benjamin was on hand to value a collection of items brought in by two women. They had inherited the three items from their great-great aunt and great-great-grandmother.

Explaining how they were 'Victorian novelty' pieces, John picked up one item, which was a miniature ice pick. He said: "Now this is an unusual piece because it takes the form of a mountaineer's pick, sort of ice pick if you like, engraved around the stem, which are the names of french mountains.

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"One assumes that the person who owns this originally was a mountaineer who went on this pioneering expedition and he climbed all these mountains.

"He thought 'Right when I get back to London I am going to commission the company Hunt and Roskell - a really important company - to make a gold novelty pencil, fashioned as an ice pick where my conquests, all the mountains are going to be engraved around the barrel.'

"And then this is the blue steel ice pick top." Turning his attention to the flower and the fly, he said: "Let's look at this one, which is also a novelty but in a totally different era, and a totally different design.

"You can see that it is a fly, and a flower that looks to me a little bit like a crocus, but the interesting thing about this are the stones in the centre when you look around it. We have got malachite, jaspers, lapis, it is really unusual, the other thing is the date because the other is made around 1879, in fact, it is dated 1879, that is more 1845."

Pointing to a small box on the table, John said: "Now we go to move onto this one, what is the story behind this?" One woman said: "So my mum was given it as a birthday present, from our great great aunt, she was gifted it at costume jewellery."

The ring which turned out to be an emerald (BBC)

According to the Express, John asked: "Right, that is a costume ring. I am going to ask a question, I want you to put it on, do you think that is costume jewellery?" Feeling the ring, the girl hesitantly replied: "Urm, I think yeah, it doesn't have a lot of weight in it"

John said: "So it's costume jewellery, inconsequential, £40 or £30." The girls agreed, saying "yes", but John then exclaimed: "It is an emerald.

"It is a splendid emerald from South America surrounded by old Victorian white cut diamonds mounted up in 18-carat gold, made in around about 1975 to 1980."

The girl said: "Ok", as she turned to her cousin in dismay. Excited to evaluate the items, John began: "I actually love this one with the fly and the flower, at auction an estimate would be £1,200 to £1,500.

"That one, the ice pick is £1,500 to £2,000, wouldn't be surprised if it made £2,000. Your costume ring, your inconsequential piece of glass jewellery, I don't know £4,000."

Both the girl's mouths dropped open in shock, with the girl whose ring it belonged to saying: "That is a lot more than I was expecting for that one."

Seeing their shock, John said: "I know. So you actually have a total value thereof £7,000 to £10,000." Thankful for his help, she said: "Oh my god, thank you! I am going to tell granny now, she will be eating her words."

Antiques Roadshow airs Sunday from 6.30pm on BBC One.

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