on the box
Antiques Roadshow guest mortified as story behind box’s inscription exposed as fake
AN Antiques Roadshow guest was mortified to learn the story behind a box's inscription was fake.
Sunday's episode of the BBC show took place at Stonor Park and saw expert Marc Allum meet a guest who had brought in a metal box.
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The box had "The gift of Stella to Dean Swift" inscribed on it - a reference to the writer Jonathan Swift.
Marc told viewers about the writer, saying: "Dean Swift we know full well is Jonathan Swift, the great satirist and Irish writer who wrote Gulliver's Travels."
Swift's friend Esther Johnson had the nickname Stella, and so it appeared as if it had been a gift from her in the 1700s.
However, Marc quickly exposed the inscription as a fake, revealing how Stella' death predated the type of metal the box was made from.
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He said: "Stella died in 1728. Sheffield Plate, the material that this little caddy is made out of, wasn't invented until about 1743.
"How could Stella have given this box to Dean Swift. She couldn't have done. It's as simple as that.
"All in all, what we've got is a very old object."
The woman's face fell at the revelation, and Marc continued: "It's got this inscription on it which is not engraved, in fact, it's been stamped on it.
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"Someone has created something that has this story behind it, which I'm afraid, in the cast of this object, is just not true."
He added: "It's probably worth 20, 30, 40 pounds as an object. But there's still that intriguing and interesting story connecting to it."
The woman said: "I was hoping of course that it was going to belong to Jonathan Swift. I'm so glad to have got to the bottom of it.
"At the end of the day, it's a sweet little box and I know a little more about Jonathan Swift and little more about Stella."
Antiques Roadshow airs Sundays at 7pm on BBC One.
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