Antiques Roadshow: highest valuations of all time

A Fabergé flower became one of the show’s most expensive items ever, scoring a valuation of £1 million. 

In an episode that premiered in 2018, jewellery expert Geoffrey Munn was left stunned by the sculpture of a pearl blossom, which was brought in by members of the army regiment. Colonel Stamford Cartwright, who took the ornament in on behalf of his squadron, revealed that it had been gifted to the Queen’s Own Worcestershire Hussars, in 1904 by Georgina, Countess of Dudley. 

Crafted from gold, jade, diamonds and silver and stood, the flower stood in a carved rock crystal base and was hailed as a “towering masterpiece.” While the Colonel and his men had come to regard it as a “part of the furniture,” Geoffrey concluded that it was the “rarest, most poetic manifestation of Faberge’s work that one could ever hope to see.”

Music memorabilia is a common occurrence on The Antiques Roadshow, but in 2019, experts were taken aback by a guitar previously owned and used by two members of the Beatles: John Lennon and George Harrison. 

Brought to Battle Abbey in Sussex, owner Ray revealed that he’d received the instrument from George Harrison himself, after recording sessions for a film company that the A-lister had co-founded. 

“I played a few notes and he said: ‘Yeah, you’re definitely getting more out of it than I am. It’s doing better for you, why don’t you have it’,” Ray recalled. 

After identifying the item as a prototype fretless guitar that was made in the 1960s, it was valued at £400,000 by expert, Jon Baddeley. 

The longest-serving FA Cup trophy made an appearance on Antiques Roadshow in 2016.

Brought in by BBC Sport’s Gabby Logan and Leeds United’s former manager, Eddie Gray, it was football fan and silver expert, Alastair Dickenson who took a closer look. 

Noting that it was the third version of the FA Cup to be used, Alastair valued the statuette – which was made in 1911 by the Bradford firm, Fattorini & Sons – at £1 million. According to Gabby Logan, the trophy had been used up until 1992, when it was replaced. 

A 6ft-high 17ft-wide model of Antony Gormley’s Angel of the North became Antiques Roadshow’s first-ever item to receive a valuation of £1 million. During a 2008 recording of the show at The Sage in Gateshead, Councillor John McElroy said that it was owned by Gateshead Council and had been sat in council offices for 13 years!

In 1992, Father Jamie MacLeod purchased a painting from an antique shop in Cheshire for £400. Unaware of its true valuation, for years the striking artwork hung in the hallway of a retreat he was running for the clergy in Derbyshire. That is until Fiona Bruce came across it.

After spotting it on a shoot in 2013, the TV presenter suggested that it may have been a genuine Van Dyck, as she had been working on a programme about the artist at the time. After asking a leading authority, Dr Christopher Brown, to take a look, Fiona and Father Jamie watched as the piece was authenticated, and verified as The Old Master painting. It was valued at £400,000.