Lancashire residents will be no doubt be furiously checking the contents of their antique cabinets, following the news that an antique plate taken for Antiques Roadshow valuation in a supermarket carrier bag was estimated to be worth £100,000. Grandmother Wendy Jones had only taken the piece along to the event as an afterthought, when she learned it was being filmed near her home in Aberglasney, Wales.
The plate, which had stood for years on a rickety sideboard, very nearly didn’t make it to the Roadshow, as Wendy was only going to keep her husband company. But at the last moment she remembered the dish, a family heirloom left to her son, and popped it into a Tesco carrier bag. It’s anyone’s guess what precautions she took getting it home again, because it turned out to be the most valuable plate ever seen on the Antiques Roadshow,. Previously, the plate had crashed off its stand onto the antique cabinet it was standing on – but luckily escaped unscathed.
When ARS valuer John Axford saw the 18th century oval plate, he instantly recognised it as one of a set commissioned by the Prussian East India company between 1750 and 1755, for King Frederick II. He based his valuation on a much smaller bowl from the same service, which recently sold for £31,000.
Antiques Roadshow is less about antique cabinets than the heirlooms they contain – which can be surprisingly valuable. If you have treasure hiding in an antique chest, a Lancashire antique dealer will always give you an honest valuation.