Antiques Roadshow guest lost for words as 'piece of tat' receives huge value

Antiques Roadshow expert Susan Rumfitt left a guest shocked when she revealed the true value of a bangle her husband had called "a piece of glass" and "tat"

An Antiques Roadshow guest was left astonished when an item her husband had branded as 'a piece of tat' was discovered to be incredibly valuable during the BBC show. A couple turned up with a selection of jewellery pieces for valuation, where particularly one piece—a bangle—held the wife's affection despite her husband's dismissive view.

She recounted to expert Susan the backstory: "They were from my husband's side - from his mother - and when she died, my husband said his mum had a lovely opal bracelet that I might like. So we dug it out and that was that."

She continued revealing how they found the piece, "Amongst a heap of things in this big box, we reached the bottom and there it was. My husband scoffed, 'you don't want that - it's a load of tat'. It's just a piece of glass. But I insisted, 'well I like it.'" Her other half then expressed his curiosity, saying: "We'd like to know what it is! It's very big for a precious stone, I would have thought."

In a turn of events, Susan disclosed the true value of the opal bangle, explaining: "Let's start with the bangle first. We know it's opal like you said, but it's really beautiful. As we can see, there are these wonderful opals, all graduating in size, and have diamonds in between, which really help to bring out the beautiful colours."

The splendour of an 1880s jewellery piece was highlighted by Susan, who couldn't hide her admiration: "The greens, the blues, flashes of oranges we see around the stones. It really is totally magnificent and the added bonus with any piece of jewellery is having the original box which we have here. If we open the box up, we can see the piece was bought at Wartski's in Llandudno. It's now based in London but this is where they were established.", reports the Mirror.

She further remarked on the significance of the jeweller, saying: "They've gone on to be one of the most important jewellers in the world, known for selling Faberge but we can calm things a bit because this isn't Faberge, but it really is a super example of 1880s jewellery."

When it came to another item, an Edwardian necklace, she noted: "Then we come on to the piece of tat that you would call it. This comes from the Edwardian period and has diamonds which are set at the top here. They are set in platinum to the front. You need strength to support this jewel here. It's actually aquamarine. The colour's even all the way through the stone as well."

Susan stunned the owner with the reveal of the items' auction values, proclaiming: "All in all, it's moved a long way from tat! The aquamarine pendant, if it went up to auction, would be around three to £5000."

She concluded with the valuation of a stunning opal bangle, stating: "The opal bangle, of course, is a magnificent piece and if that came up to auction, we would be looking at an estimate of eight to £10,000," which prompted the owner to react in disbelief: "I wasn't expecting that! I think we better have another look in that jewellery box."