Antiques Roadshow guest gasps ‘wow!’ as expert…

AN Antiques Roadshow guest gasped after an expert revealed the truth behind a 300-year-old vase.

Sundays episode of the BBC show saw Lars Tharp meet a lady who had brought in the colourful item.

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He said: “Oh well, it’s the most colourful vase I’ve seen today. Where does it come from?”

However, the guest admitted she was a bit in the dark about the item’s origins.

She said: “Well I’m not really sure. My parents were living in Somerset for a long time, then ended up in Bristol and it’s just moved with them every time and then it came to me.”

Thankfully Lars was able to help her, but she got a shock when he said: “Well, first of all, I am going to surprise you because colourful though it may be, it did not start like that. It’s actually a blue and white vase,”

With a gasp, the lady said: “Goodness me!”

The expert continued: “We’ve got five zones… the top zone with these medallions, a central zone with dragons… rather matty little pink dragons running around.

“Then a very abstract zone and more blue grounds. How old do you think it might be?”

The lady guessed around 100 years old, but she got a shock when Lars said it was probably more like 1700, with her replying: “Good heavens!”

Lars continued: “It came from China and it was typical of what was being exported from China to Europe to the great country houses of Europe.

“So this would have sat around probably with its pair companion on a shelf somewhere.

“And then sometimes the owner would have looked at these dowdy blue and white bars on the shelves and gone, ‘What on earth are they? Aren’t they boring?'”

He explained that they would then have had them decorated into the colourful design in front of them.

He then moved on to the valuation and said: “I think it’s probably worth around £300 to £500 in spite of being clobbered.”

The lady was pleasantly surprised and replied: “Oh wow, that’s lovely, thank you.”

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Antiques Roadshow is available on BBC iPlayer.