FREEBIE
Antiques Roadshow guest GASPS as expert reveals eye-watering value of pistol he picked up for free
A guest on Sunday’s episode of Antiques Roadshow was left stunned when expert Robert Tilney revealed the whopping value of a pistol he’d been gifted as a child.
Robert said the unique Italian pistol looked “quite astonishing” and upon closer inspection, he confirmed that the item was authentic and would be worth up to £20,000.
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“It’s Italian, it’s out of Turin. It’s probably 1770, 1780,” he explained.
Wanting to know about the pistol’s origin, Robert asked the elderly guest how he acquired it.
He told Robert it was given to him as a child by his stepfather.
“It was a gift from one of his business partners and later on, he wasn’t interested, so I received it from him.”
Robert was shocked that the pistol had been used as a child’s toy though, noting that it was so rare.
“This is a top quality presentation piece,” he gushed.
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He continued to analyse it, saying, “I mean, if you start going back from the muzzle, you have this fabulous burst of gold here, gold chasing.
“The two cartouches are the Turin-proof marks. This is silver inlay work of the finest possible quality.”
The Antiques Roadshow expert added: “A superb lion mask here with gilt round it.”
He then told the gentleman that if the pistol were to go to auction, it would be worth a price of around £15,000 to £20,000.
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Stunned, the guest gasped as he said: “Wow.”
“Excellent, excellent,” he added, completely taken aback.
The expert then joked that it was “not something that a small boy should have played with.
“But we’ll forgive you,” he added. “It’s wonderful. Thanks so much for bringing it in.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Bunny Campione saw an equally rare item as she told two sisters that their antique would fetch around the same price.
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The expert informed the sisters the doll that their mother had purchased in the 1970s was a rare funeral effigy from 1715.
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She said: “I must admit that this is the most interesting and unusual doll that I’ve seen in my 36 years of Roadshow.”
Antiques Roadshow airs on Sundays on BBC One at 8pm.
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