BBC Antiques Roadshow guest gobsmacked at value of family brooch

An Antiques Roadshow expert left a guest utterly gobsmacked after advising her to "strap yourself into your seat" ahead of revealing the eye-watering value of her brooch. In a nostalgic trip back to a 1998 episode set in Hull Geoffrey Munn amazed a lady with the fascinating backstory and valuation of her family treasure.

"Wow. Say what a marvellous brooch. My goodness me. Is it a family one?" he asked, visibly impressed. The owner shared its lineage: "Yes, it came from my great-grandmother, to my nana, to my mum and then it's been passed down."

Curious about its origins, Munn questioned if she knew how old it was, to which she admitted: "I haven't got a clue", leading Munn to encourage her to hazard a guess, reports the Express. Her hunch was that it dated back to the 18th century but Munn corrected her: "No, absolutely not 18th at all. This is actually a 20th-century brooch so maybe the stories got a little bit embroidered."

He went on to detail its unique features, explaining: "The point about it is that it's a 20th-century design, it's a very art deco design, a very Odin style object and if one looks at it quite carefully it reminds you of a visit to one of those enormous cinemas with the decoration around the ceiling."

He highlighted the exceptional nature of the piece, noting: "What's even more special about it is that the diamonds used in its manufacture are modern cut. And what's frowned upon when you find a jewel like this is to find older cut diamonds that have been used for jewellery in the past included in such an object. This is absolutely not the case. These long diamonds here we call baguette diamonds and they're used to great effect as a rather geometrical design that actually, in this instance, owes its origins a bit to Mexican design. And here in the middle, we've got a rather substantial brilliant cut diamond."

The guest interjected : "So it is a diamond?", to which he confirmed: "Oh it is a diamond." She remarked: "I didn't think it was. No, no."

As he elaborated: "Goodness no, it's quite a good thing. Curiously enough with diamonds, if you want to make an immediate judgement as to whether a diamond is a diamond, it's the imperfections in it that tell you instantly that it is.

"Deep in the diamond, almost imperceptible without a very strong lens, a black deposit which is a piece of carbon that's not crystallised. Diamonds are simply crystallised carbon,. It's an element expressing itself in this particular way because of intense heat and pressure many millions of years ago."

However, the brooch was not without its flaws, as he noted: "There are some problems with it. I noticed as I turned it over that it's out of true. Had that damage been more critical, we would have been in serious trouble but we're not really. And it needs cleaning and a little bit of adjustment."

Nonetheless Munn was prepared to give his valuation, prompting: "And you know the direction to which this is all leading don't you?

"That this is a really substantially good, valuable object. If there's a chance of putting a name to it that would add to it even more. But you have to brace yourself, strap yourself into the seat, because we've got a really, really good one here. If you went into a West End shop to buy such an object again, I think it's possible that they would ask you for £12,000 for it."

The guest's reaction was priceless with eyes wide in astonishment as she gasped: "Good God! Dear me. I didn't think it was far. We didn't think these were diamonds." Munn clarified: "No, well they are diamonds, they're all diamonds and you've got a really valuable brooch", before expressing his gratitude to the owner for bringing it forward.