BBC Antiques Roadshow expert warns of bidding frenzy over ceramic item despite admitting ‘I’ve never seen one!’
Antiques Roadshow expert Lee Young issued a warning to a guest on the show about the quirky item he had brought along.
In a classic episode of the BBC favourite originally broadcast in 2022 and set to air again on Sunday, Young was intrigued by an “ugly” ceramic toad.
Opening the conversation, Young quipped: “Well, let’s hope his mother loves him,” before asking the guest: “What can you tell me about him? How did you come by him?”
“He’s been known as ‘Ugly Toad’ to me for about 60 years,” the owner of the large, mustard-coloured ceramic piece replied.
He continued: “I don’t know a lot about him, but my mother collected unusual items.
“I did actually phone her and ask her where she got it. She said it was a elderly lady, and the lady wanted to declutter.
“And she asked there was anything that my mother would like. She says, ‘Oh, well, I like the frog or the toad, whatever it was,’ so she said, ‘well, take him.’
“My mother tells me that she didn’t take him, she said, ‘Nope, I must buy it from you’.
“So she bought, I don’t know for how much. And then one of my birthdays, she says, ‘Oh, would you like for your birthday?’
“So I said, ‘Well, what about giving me Ugly Toad?’ So she gave me Ugly Toad.”
“So people do love him?” Young asked, surprised, prompting the guest to admit: “Well, I love him, but not so much my wife.”
Providing some extra details, Young explained: “This is by a Scottish pottery called Dunmore, which first started in the 18th century.
“I they sometime around the kind of latter part of the 18th century, in about the 1790s, but those early sort of Dunmore pieces were just sort of brown-glazed, you know, and sold to the kind of outlying sort of villages.
“And it wasn’t until you got to the sort of third generation, a gentleman called Peter Gardner came in and started to create these rather wonderful kind of monochrome glaze masterpieces in this kind of esthetic style.”
Noting the rarity of the item’s size, Young responded: “The one thing I say about it is I have seen other examples of it, but I’ve never actually seen one of this scale.
“I love the fact that he’s in this almost… I’m going to say sort of almost imperial yellow, kind of rich, thick glaze.
“The reason I say imperial yellow because he is actually based on a Chinese kind of mythical toad.
“The myth is that the three-legged toad would turn up at your house in the full moon to predict an event, usually sort of good fortune or wealth. That’s what he is.
“So actually, in China, he’s often portrayed with little coins in his mouth. I think he’s such a wonderful thing.
“And for all the things we’ve just discussed about him, I think he’d easily carry an auction estimate of between £600 to £900.”
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“I’m delighted about that,” the guest beamed, with Young providing an even more optimistic prediction.
Teasing a potential bidding war, he added: “And I suspect if two people got excited about him, he could even make a bit more.”
“Thank you very much,” the owner replied, with Young joking to his wife: “Do you like him a little bit more now?” to which she laughed: “Yes.”