Episode 4 Priceless Antiques Roadshow

There are some legendary stories in the Roadshow Hall of Fame.

the most popular are those that begin with a bargain buy at a boot sale

and end up with the bids flying thick and fast

at a prestigious auction house.

But have you ever wondered which object brought to a Roadshow

made the biggest profit?

Could it be this clock? Let's take a look at some

of the top contenders from 32 years of Roadshow history.

Have I to tell you?

Yes, go on! You don't have to...

-Four pounds, ten shillings.

-I don't believe it!

People like the idea of something for nothing.

-I bought it at a car-boot sale.

-A car-boot sale?!

-Yes.

-What, locally, here?

-Yes, only down the road.

And if you have bought it at a car-boot sale for very little,

then I think a lot of people who watch the programme might

find that appealing.

-How much did you pay for it?

-25p.

-25p!

The bargain finds are popular on the Roadshow.

Because it could have happened to anybody.

It really could have been you.

It was about ten shillings when I got it.

The hunter-gatherers among us, male and female,

who love looking out for bargains.

I remember in Witney, this chap came in with a fabulous album.

These are the most wonderful aquatints of Switzerland.

And we got into the history of it...

this is always fascinating,

finding out where these things have come from.

Well, it came originally from a jumble sale

that my mother organised in North London.

-She paid 50 shillings for this because she thought it was charming.

-50 shillings?

Yes. This was about 25 years ago, 30 years ago.

50 shillings is £2.50 in today's money.

And that was a real bargain.

And over 37 different views, including, and I saw the binding,

I thought, we've got something absolutely tremendous here.

These wonderful oak leaves on the border here. It's beautifully done.

Lovely tooling. And over 37 different views, including a few watercolours.

Do you have an idea of how much your mother's 50 shillings has gone up?

Absolutely none.

Right, well, I think a conservative estimate would say

somewhere in the region of £10,000.

That's incredible!

What a bargain! That's 4,000 times the purchase price.

If the person is surprised, clearly they thought it was not worth a lot of money,

and now it is worth a lot, suddenly,

they've been given a present!

How did you come by it?

Well, I bought it 39 years ago.

How much?

Have I to tell you?

You don't have to, but it would be interesting.

-Four pounds, ten shillings.

-I don't believe it!

It's going to be worth in the region of

£3,000 - £5,000.

-You didn't expect that?

-No, I've got a shock!

I think the bargain finds make such great viewing.

Because there is this lottery element about them.

It could so easily be any of the people who are watching

that programme who could have found it in a charity shop,

could have got it off the internet,

could have stumbled across it at a fair.

It's wonderful.

And it looks to me as if what we have here

is an extremely handsome microscope.

I'd like to take everything out of the box and put it together.

Whilst I'm doing that, tell me how it came to you?

Well, it was an old gentleman friend of my father,

who, you know, had it about 30 years.

And they wanted to sell me a few things

and it was about ten shillings when I'd got it.

Have you ever had it set up and used?

I used to do it regularly, trying to look at spiders' legs and things!

And how did you find the magnification?

-Difficult!

-Yes. It's not easy, is it?

Well, ten years ago I saw one of these sold for £11,000.

Really?

That was ten years ago.

I nearly fainted!

That's 22,000 times what he paid for it. But there's better to come!

It would be hard to beat the discovery made by a man who

came along to the Antiques Roadshow at Witney court.

He brought along a slipware cup that he'd bought in a local auction.

It had an estimate on it

which seemed reasonable by Staffordshire slipware estimates.

On the day of the auction there was two people bidding.

They bid up to one below the bottom estimate.

I put in one bid and I got it.

It sat on my ironing board for two weeks because I thought I'd been done.

I thought somebody'd caught me out.

In the auction, he'd paid just under £500 for this cup.

Taking a gamble that this was the real thing.

He brought it to the Roadshow to find out.

I've got absolutely no doubt that this is what you discovered

in that auction and that nobody else believed.

I mean, I didn't know. And I guess so few people have seen them

that they didn't believe it would be there either.

I'm just so glad you said that!

There's no doubt about it at all.

So, thinking about what it's worth.

It's worth a lot more than you paid! There's no doubt about that.

£50,000.

No!

Really?

That's 100 times what he paid for that 17th-century Staffordshire cup.

But this next bargain, filmed recently,

broke all Roadshow records.

I cannot begin to tell you

how fortunate I was

to be at Dumfries House at four o'clock in the afternoon

on a very wet day, when most of the crowd had disappeared

and two people approached me and they were carrying a carrier bag.

A lady and her husband.

And she said, "We're probably wasting his time."

Where has this rather unpretentious vase been lurking

before you brought it along?

We've been clearing out our loft. And we came across this. We thought it was just a heap of junk.

So we were going to bin it and then we thought, no, we'll hold on to it

cos we heard the Antiques Roadshow was coming here.

And that's why we held on to it. We bought it at a car-boot.

And it had a plant inside it, a kind of purple plant.

That was the reason we bought it - for the plant.

It was quite nice in the bowl.

It was a moment that I find words are just inadequate to explain.

Because, you know, you hope for certain things to come in,

over years and years and it never happens.

Then all of a sudden, it does, it takes your breath away.

If you'd have looked carefully, there's a name on it.

And the name is lurking behind here. We'll turn it round.

And that name is Lalique.

And so, have you heard of Lalique?

Lalique? No.

No? OK, well, you're on a rapid learning curve today, aren't you?!

And this vase, it was unassuming.

But it was a vase by Rene Lalique.

So, car-boot, for a plant, how much were they asking for the plant?

We only paid a pound!

-You paid a pound?

-For the vase and the plant.

Well, it's worth a mere £25,000.

Oh, my God!

Now, tell me about your loft...

-LAUGHTER

-I don't think I will!

Congratulations, Anne.

The Lalique made an amazing 26, 000 times

what she paid for it, making her the current record holder

for buying low and selling high.

I was there when Anne brought that unassuming vase in.

Who'd have believed it?

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