Antiques Roadshow guest was left stunned as £250,000 property received a disappointing valuation

Antiques Roadshow expert Ronnie Archer-Morgan left a guest stunned after the valuation of their item was hundreds of thousands less than they expected.

During the latest episode of the BBC show at Nottingham’s Wollation Hall, Ronnie examined a figure from the Kota tribe in Gabon.

The current owner expected a valuation in the region of £250,000 after the expert revealed that one had been sold for this a few years ago.

However, the owner was left disappointed as instead of reaching the heights of a six-figure valuation, he was told it was worth a fraction of this, at £150.

Luckily, the guest revealed that he had paid just £1.50 for the item ten years ago.

Ronnie jokingly said, “You really took a risk, didn’t you?”

The guest replied, “Well, I was intrigued by the fact that it looked like someone had put a lot of work into it.”

Ronnie explained, “When you unwrapped this, my heart really skipped a beat because it’s one of my favorite African tribal characters. This is a Kota reliquary guardian figure and they put this on the bones of their ancestors to protect them and they polished this metal.

“And in the 19th century they were brass and copper, this is just copper, the brass and copper were like gold to them. They are so highly regarded in the art world that they have one in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.”

He continued: “They are such iconic examples of African tribal art. They hammer the metal over the wooden sculpture and then chase the metal with these designs.

‘And it’s the geometric shape that makes them so attractive, and they influenced the greatest modern artists of all time, because they were very much sought after at the beginning of modernism.

‘But unfortunately this is a very nice specimen. It’s a bit of the wrong size. This was probably made around 1980 and such an example is probably worth around £150. It’s a hundred times more than you paid for it.’

Earlier this week, another guest was shocked to discover the value of a watch he found broken in a junk shop.

During the latest episode of the BBC show at Nottingham’s Wollation Hall, Ronnie examined a figure from the Kota tribe in Gabon

The current owner expected a valuation in the region of £250,000 but the owner was left disappointed as instead of reaching the heights of a six figure valuation they were told the £150 value was worth a fraction of this.

In this episode, members of the public brought their belongings to Powis Castle in Welshpool, with one man hoping to learn more about the timepiece.

He explained to expert Alistair Chandler how he paid £40 for a box of odds, only to later discover the watch was hidden at the bottom.

The guest said, “There were all kinds of bits in there [the box] and there were some tools I wanted, but at the bottom were some dead watches, and among them was this one.

Alistair immediately gushed over the item, telling the guest how he had ‘come across a gem’.

He then explained how the watch was made by designer Jaeger-Lecoultre, before also pointing out the name of luxury London jeweler Asprey on the dial.

Alistair said: ‘It really oozes style’ before revealing it was made in the 1930s and was one of the ‘forerunners of design’ for the time.

Turning to the valuation he concluded: ‘I think you paid £40 pounds, in the current market and interest in Jaeger watches and given the store name Asprey’.

‘I think someone would easily pay £1,500 to £2,000 for this watch.’

The man looked bewildered and sighed before laughing, “That wasn’t a bad day of shopping.”

Fiona Bruce and the Antiques Roadshow team are hitting the road again this summer to film the 47th series of one of the BBC’s best-loved programmes.

Jaeger-LeCoultre is a Swiss manufacturer of luxury watches and clocks, founded by Antoine LeCoultre in 1833 and known for making some of the world’s most expensive watches.

Fiona Bruce and the Antiques Roadshow team are hitting the road again this summer to film the 47th series of one of the BBC’s best-loved programmes.

The team, as is customary at ticketed events, is open to the public and invites guests to tell them about their treasured pieces in advance by submitting photos and information about their items via the Antiques Roadshow website.

Applications for tickets and to show items are now open with limited spaces. To register for both, visit: www.bbc.co.uk/antiquesroadshow