Antiques Roadshow star shares disappointing valuation of beyond rare ring
Antiques Roadshow: Ring is valued at £600
Antiques Roadshow expert Geoffrey Munn shared some disappointing news over a “beyond rare” ring.
A guest brought along the unusual-looking piece of jewellery, and specialist Geoffrey immediately gushed about how unique it was.
“Well, there’s rare, there’s very rare, and there’s extremely rare – and what you brought me today is beyond rare,” Geoffrey explained.
He asked the guest on a recent episode of the BBC show: “So tell me about what you brought with you.”
“Well, originally it was given by a great uncle to my father, who then passed it on to myself,” he replied.
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The guest continued: “He was a great collector. And we don’t know any more than that I’m afraid.”
“It is an extraordinarily rare ring because it takes the form of the precious metal ring, a gold ring, but in this case, it’s actually made of a very humble material indeed, it’s made of quill, which is literally that sort of plasticky end of a feather,” Geoffrey detailed.
“A swan’s feather has been shaved down into little columns with little threads of quill and then bound around the core, but even more remarkably, the gold lettering goes in and out of the quill.
“So it’s a tour de force of craftsmanship, and it says on it when we pick it up here very delicately, ‘I gave innocent’ and this is obviously a love token, and we would have guessed that very easily, simply on that evidence alone.
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“Because this is gold foil running through it, and that’s a reference to the sort of incorruptibility of a relationship, a love relationship. And that would have been quite enough for me today to get very excited.
“Very, very excited, but you brought me a letter that came with it as well.
“And then this is the most touching love letter that comes with the ring because the fellow that has given it to the recipient says, ‘To my little insect.'”
“Yes, that’s a bit strange!” the owner of the item commented.
“Well exactly,” Geoffrey replied, adding: “I would like to interpret that it was actually a butterfly because, in the world of amatory symbolism and metaphor, the butterfly is the symbol of, the psyche, goddess of the soul, and all higher emotions, including love. So I think he’s probably alluding to that.”
He went on to add: “1785, with his signature and so we can only assume that he’s made this thing and we can only hope and pray that it worked.”
He enthused: “I’ve never seen anything quite like it, gosh what a belter, honestly, I can’t believe it.
“And the great irony of all this gush from me is that you might be expecting a high value, and you won’t get it!
“But nonetheless, it’s going to be worth £600 to a collector of rings, but with the context, perhaps even more than that.”
“Wow, amazed at that,” the guest responded. “We just thought because it wasn’t gold it wouldn’t be worth anything at all.”
Antiques Roadshow airs on Sundays at 8pm on BBC Two.
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