Antiques Roadshow guest was left stunned when her £15 costume jewellery was worth a staggering three-figure sum.
During the show’s latest episode, one woman brought expert Judith Miller a necklace with a flashy green emerald.
The piece was bought many years ago, as the guest revealed she bought it with her first-ever paycheck when she was just 16 years old.
Being shown the impressive necklace, Judith said: ‘Now I love costume jewellery. I always have done and I am totally in love with this. What made you love it?’
The guest quipped: ‘It was a combination, it’s colour, it’s simplicity, It’s really bold and it really just appealed.
Antiques Roadshow guest was left stunned when her £15 costume jewellery was worth a staggering three-figure sum
During the show’s latest episode, one woman brought expert Judith Miller a necklace with a flashy green emerald
‘It was actually in a dark corner and I really just loved it straight away,’ leaving Miller more intrigued to ask where she found it.
‘A little antique shop just in a little alleyway in Wollongong in Australia. I had just started my first ever job.
‘And I decided to treat myself to something that was a little bit special. Spent some of my first paycheck on it. I was 16.’
Judith tried to provide some expert analysis on the piece but the history of the jewelry was missing a maker’s mark.
She said: ‘It’s really really high-quality costume jewellery. Because costume jewellery comes in all sorts of levels, I mean, there is a cheap costume jewellery, there is extremely expensive costume jewellery and this is just incredibly well made.
‘It is beautifully designed and I am drawn to thinking it is French. Just looking at the quality, it makes me think of a couture collection.
‘You just don’t get this detail on every piece of costume jewellery, it’s definitely 1950s.’
The piece was bought many years ago, as the guest revealed she bought it for £15 with her first-ever paycheck when she was just 16 years old
Stunned at the small price she paid, Judith went on to valued the item between £400 and £500
The shocked guest replied: ‘Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it! Wow, good choice! Thank you!’
‘Absolutely of its time, do you remember what you paid for it?’
The guest revealed: ‘I actually do. It was 30 dollars, Australian, so I don’t know maybe £15 to £20.’
Stunned at the small price she paid, Judith went on to valued the item between £400 and £500.
She said: ‘I think that was a pretty good bargain at the time because I would value this today at £400 to £500.’
Other treasures included a set of stained-glass windows decorated with mermaids an ornately decorated mandolin found concealed in an old cupboard, a device used to make penicillin, a silver milk jug from Kashmir and a huge bell from a Japanese temple
The shocked guest replied: ‘Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it! Wow, good choice! Thank you!’
‘I am absolutely blown away, I am just so impressed that, I mean 16, I had no idea what I was doing, I bought something I loved’, she added.
‘I think that’s really amazing to hear that it is worth something, apart from my emotional attachment to it, so it is lovely. Go with your gut, I think that is great, buy things that you love.’
Other treasures included a set of stained-glass windows decorated with mermaids an ornately decorated mandolin found concealed in an old cupboard, a device used to make penicillin, a silver milk jug from Kashmir and a huge bell from a Japanese temple.
