BBC Antiques Roadshow guest open-mouthed as emerald ring fetches value 100x more than expected: ‘Granny will be eating her words!’
A guest on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow was left stunned after discovering a family heirloom ring, long believed to be an inexpensive piece of costume jewellery, was in fact a rare and valuable emerald item worth up to £4,000.
The surprising moment took place during an episode first aired in October 2022, which will be repeated this Sunday.
Filmed at the historic Wollaton Hall in Nottingham, the episode featured an array of fascinating artefacts, including a Batman mask worn by Jack Nicholson, poetry, and personal belongings brought to the UK by Ugandan Asians fleeing the country in 1972.
But it was a jewellery appraisal by expert John Benjamin that left one family stunned.
The guests, two cousins, brought a collection of inherited items passed down through generations.
Among them was a gold novelty pencil, a decorative brooch resembling a fly on a flower, and the green stone ring in question.
Discussing the items’ origins, the guests explained that many had come from their great-great-great grandmother, who was born in 1858. One item, a mountaineer’s ice pick-shaped pencil, was engraved with the names of French mountains.
“One assumes that the person who owned this originally was a mountaineer who went on this pioneering expedition,” said Benjamin. “And he climbed all these mountains and thought, right, when I get back to London, I’m going to commission a company – Hunt and Roskell – to make a gold novelty pencil fashioned as an ice pick.”
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He dated the pencil to 1879 and valued it at between £1,500 and £2,000.
The second item, a Victorian brooch in the shape of a fly resting on a flower, was also of significant interest.
“You can see it’s a fly and a flower that looks to me a little bit like, I don’t know, it could be a crocus,” Benjamin said.
“You’ve got malachite, you’ve got jaspers, lapis lazuli. It’s really unusual.” He dated the piece to around 1845 and estimated its value between £1,200 and £1,500.
But the biggest surprise came with the final piece – a green stone ring the family had always considered costume jewellery. It had been passed down from their great-great aunt and was given to the guest’s mother as a birthday present.
Asked whether they believed the ring was costume jewellery, one guest responded: “Um, I think so. Yeah. It doesn’t have a lot of weight in it.”
Benjamin stunned them with his assessment: “It’s an emerald! It is a splendid Colombian emerald. From South America, surrounded by old Victorian white brilliant-cut diamonds, mounted up in 18 karat gold, made in around about 1875 to 1880.”
He valued the ring at £4,000. Altogether, the collection was given an estimated auction value between £7,000 and £10,000.
Reacting to the news, the guest exclaimed: “Oh my God. Thank you. Thank you. I’m going to tell Granny now. She’ll be eating her words.”