Antiques Roadshow's Fiona Bruce stunned after hideous pottery item receives six-figure valuation
The valuation of an example of a brand of 'nightmare-triggering' London pottery, which has even made at least one person 'cry', has produced a shocked reaction from Antiques Roadshow host, Fiona Bruce.
The newsreader and presenter said that she could be 'blown over with a feather' after one of the show's experts said the piece was worth a six-figure sum during the episode broadcast yesterday (Sunday, September 15).
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It was a piece of Martin Brothers pottery. Works by the manufacturers in London represented the transition from decorative Victorian ceramics to twentieth-century studio 'art' pottery. Wallace, Walter, Charles and Edwin produced ware from Fulham between the 1870s and the First World War, which began in 1914.
Although, a small amount was still being produced until 1923, when their pottery closed. The brothers are best known for their bird sculptures and bowls, vessels decorated with sea creatures, and tiles.
In 1977, the business was moved to Havelock Road in Southall, where it remained. Several of the brothers are now reportedly buried in the cemetery in the same road.
Three examples of their pottery were shown on Antiques Roadshow by Ealing Council's collection. One included a painting of one of the brothers' faces on it, another was a 'squashed' pot, and the last is known as 'the Old Man of the Sea', and looks like a shell with a face on it.
John Sandon, a long-serving Antiques Roadshow expert, decided that two of the pieces were worth 'not a huge sum'. But then, he got to the third work.
Ms Bruce confessed that it 'would give her nightmares'. Mr Sandon said: "There's one other one like it, which was sold just a few years ago, and was, thankfully, saved for the nation. It's now in the museum in Plymouth. But it cost the incredible sum of £260,000."
"Wow," the host responded, "goodness me." She added: "Well, that valuation, you could blow me down with a feather."
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