Antiques Roadshow guest applauded as wife's last minute buy worth four-figure sum
An Antiques Roadshow guest joked that a valuable set of buttons, bought for a mere £2.26, had been in "the family for 40 hours".
The audience of Antiques Roadshow applauded a guest whose wife's last-minute auction purchase turned out to be a wise investment.
Filmed at Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire, the BBC daytime series featured expert John Benjamin meeting with a pensioner keen to discover the value of four buttons his wife had purchased.
"Let me ask you sir, where did they come from? ", Benjamin enquired.
"My wife found them among some buttons in a box of items she picked up at an auction," the man replied.
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When asked about the timing of the purchase, the man revealed it was "Friday night, about 8pm", much to the amusement of those present.
"So we're talking about a day and a half ago you bought these. What was special about the box that made your wife buy these? " the expert further probed.
The guest explained that it was the "ribbons" and the price which attracted his wife, which he noted was just £2.26.
Benjamin then proceeded to provide more insight into the items he was evaluating.
"First of all, what are they? They are four little buttons. Each of the buttons is pretty, it's very well matched, you can see these are a set and the surface of each of the discs are covered with enamel decoration. And if I pick up just one of these and turn it over, we see that typically the back of it is mounted in a rose coloured metal."
"Now the first thing to say is that this isn't base metal, this is gold."
"This is 14 carat rose gold so right away we're moving up from your £2.26 to a value which is far, far more dramatic than that, maybe in the region of £40 or £50, just because of the fact that they're gold."
The expert then highlighted the number 56 on the loop, indicating it was a Russian item.
He further pointed out the date, December 5, 1904, followed by the initials "AH", attributing it to the goldsmith August Hollming.
He added: "This man Hollming is quite an important man, because he used to be one of the principle work masters for Peter Carl Faberge."
"In other words, what you bought for your £2.26 -".
"My wife bought", the guest interjected with a grin.
Benjamin chuckled: "Your wife bought - I don't know if you would have bought it - is a set of Faberge gold cufflinks."
"I say cufflinks, because you could make them into cufflinks although they are ostensibly four little buttons."
"Each of the buttons matching up, the engraving underneath the colour gives the reflection of almost like a circular sunburst or worming effect which is a delicious feature for a Faberge."
"One of them is damaged. In other words, yes they are inconsequential."
"If they were not by Peter Carl Faberge or this man Hollming, they would be worth considerably more than you paid but probably no more than £50."
"But they're not worth £50 are they? ".
The guest responded with a hopeful: "I hope not", as Benjamin declared: "No. They're going to be worth £1,000 to £1,500 aren't they."
The owner of the buttons instinctively looked down, stroking his beard before quipping: "Gosh. They've been in the family 40 hours."
His comment was met with laughter from the audience who applauded his good fortune at the valuation table.
Antiques Roadshow can be viewed on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.