Antiques Roadshow unearths $1.8M treasure for only third time in 40 years

It’s the Holy Grail for all Antiques Roadshow fans – the moment when someone brings an heirloom onto the show that turns out to be stupendously valuable. And it’s just happened, for only the third time in the classic series’ 40 years on TV. Now, fans have been given a sneak peek of the treat to come.

In an episode filmed last June and due to air in the UK in April, army officers from a Worcester regiment of the Royal Yeomanry brought in ornament to show jewellery expert Geoffrey Munn. Only 13 centimetres-tall, the decorative piece was made up of delicate pear-blossom flowers sitting upright in a glass vase that appears to be filled with water. 

After Munn examined the ornament – which usually sits as a pretty centrepiece at the squadron’s officers’ dinners – he revealed that it was, in fact, made by Faberge – the maker of the famously exquisite decorative eggs – and that it was valued at £1 million (US$1.4 million, AU$1.8 million) A similar Faberge flower study, of lillies of the valley, is pictured below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/2QBt-uhlfI/?tagged=faberg%C3%A9flowers

It’s only the third time any antique brought onto the show for valuation has hit the magic £1 million mark, the first being soccer’s famous FA Cup trophy and the second being a model of the huge and well-known Angel of the North statue.

According to reports of the show preview, Munn said his pulse was racing as he laid eyes on the decorative piece, which has leaves fashioned from nephrite (a type of jade) and diamonds set into the centre of the enamelled flowers, as well as a stem made of engraved gold and ‘water’ fashioned from rock crystal. And the expert valuer couldn’t conceal his excitement at seeing such a rare and precious piece.

“This was a sensation beyond our wildest dreams, really, this is a towering masterpiece from Faberge,” he said. “It’s the rarest, most poetic manifestation of Faberge’s work that one could ever hope to see.”

The regiment was gifted the ornament by Georgina, Countess of Dudley, the wife of Lord Dudley, in 1904 in recognition of its service in the Boer War. Lord Dudley had been the regiment’s commanding officer and the pear blossom was chosen to remind the soldiers of the same flowers the countess often gave them as a good luck token. She had commissioned the ornament from Faberge, the Russian firm that famously made the Imperial Easter eggs for the Tsars. A similar Faberge flower study, of lillies of the valley, is pictured below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/1TTdBEBlcU/?tagged=faberg%C3%A9flowers

The ornament is held in trust by the regiment’s museum, and the regiment had believed it was worth about £50,000. Despite learning that the flowers were actually worth far, far more, the officers told newspapers that the ornament would continue to be brought out for special dinners.

“It reminds them not only of the sacrifice of fallen comrades but also that there is a continuation,” Colonel Stamford Cartright, one of the officers who appeared on Antiques Roadshow, said, according to the Daily Mail. ” It forms a bond for comrades right the way through from the 1900s.”

Antiques Roadshow, which appears on Foxtel in Australia, has delighted treasure hunters and antique fans since it first hit screens in 1978, with experts in all areas of antiques and collectibles valuing family heirlooms and garage-sale finds for members of the public. 

Do you enjoy Antiques Roadshow? Do you have a family heirloom you’d like to have valued by its experts?