BBC Antiques Roadshow fans fume over guests reaction to £80,000 valuation

An elderly guest on the Antiques Roadshow was left speechless after discovering his Lowry painting could fetch up to £80,000 at auction.

The hopeful guest brought the artwork to Stonor Park in Oxfordshire and explained how he came into possession of it. The BBC show's expert was visibly left stunned by the piece, the Mirror reports.

Upon examining the painting, the expert commented: "He painted the mood of the nation, I think. Provenance of Lowry is crucial. Now thankfully, on the reverse of your picture you have a label from the {undisclosed] gallery that represented Lowry as you know and sold many of his works and you also have this letter."

He went on to say: "And this letter was sent to you from the director of the gallery in 1998 and he says 'further to your letter of the 29th July the painting by Lowry was sold by us in 1965 for £175 and its got all of the labels and stock codes..'."

The expert then revealed: "In terms of value, I think if your painting were to come up for auction, I would expect to see it sell for a figure in the region of £60-£80,000." The guest chuckled in disbelief and simply responded with "Ok thank you".

It's not the first time a guest on the BBC2 show has been stunned by a valuation, as another recently discovered a baseball kept in a drawer at home was worth a small fortune.

The baseball, signed by a host of legendary players, became an instant collector's piece. The Express quoted the owner explaining: "Well my dad loved baseball, how he got these balls, I don't have any idea but when he passed away, we the siblings were kind of divvying up his things, the balls were there and I said I'd take them." Curious about the storage of such valuable items, the owner added: "Oh they were in a sock drawer, a dresser drawer and I didn't think they were much of anything."

Antiques expert Phillip revealed: "The first baseball here on the right is really interesting, because you see there's [a signature from] Babe Ruth right here on the sweet spot. And then when you flip it over to this side, right here, you have Lou Gehrig and then when you flip it over again, you have what I call the key signature. Not that it's the most important player but that's right here, Joe Girardi."

He further explained the significance of the signatures, saying: "Joe Girardi was the key signature as he only played on the Yankees for one year and by having him on the baseball, we're able to identify this as a 1927 Yankee baseball."

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