Antiques Roadshow guest ‘walks off set with sour face’ after nightmare reveal on BBC show
ANTIQUES Roadshow expert Will Farmer has revealed how one guest was left mortified after the valuation of their item.
The expert told how the guest's "faced dropped" after they received "bad news" that an alleged 17th-century glass bottle they had brought in to Antiques Roadshow had gone down in value.
Will Farmer has been a presenter on the BBC series since 2004 and has given valuations on hundreds of items over the years.
The Clarice Cliff specialist is known for his expertise in ceramics and glass, and in a recent interview with , opened up about where his passion for vintage and antiques originated from, his TV career, and other topics.
Will admitted that he "likes to put on a show" when delivering valuations, then discussed the time when he was presented with a vintage green glass bottle but had to become the bearer of bad news.
Will said: "A gentleman pulled this green glass bottle out of his bag and I looked at him and said 'What would you like to know?'
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"He said, 'I want to check the date of it' and I said, 'Are you a collector, have you inherited it? Where is it from?' and he said he'd bought it from an antique shop so I knew I had to tread carefully."
He then asked how much the green bottle was sold to the man for, which, explaining: "'It was sold as a very rare 17th-century glass bottle' and he said he'd paid £1,000 for it."
The expert then went to discuss matters with his colleagues, who gave him an insight on the man's item and confirmed his suspicions of the bottle being a fake.
Will then returned to the man and told him the item was not worth the £1,000 it was purchased for and that it was not a special green glass from the 1700s, but a supermarket commercial oil bottle.
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Will continued: "I said, 'Gentlemen, before I go and make a balls up here, make a fool of myself, what is this?'
"I had to go back and I remember this poor man's face dropped. He just took it out of my hand, put it in the bag, and walked off."
The presenter then explained that when he has given guests bad news about their items' valuation, he aims to ensure that they leave in good spirits regardless of the outcome by providing as much historical information about their precious item.
Will also revealed: "My view has always been for some people this is the one opportunity they've waited for.
"They will have waited four or five hours in the queue and will be there five to ten minutes. That's what they've worked for.
"It's a really poor show and we are all good at it, it's what me and my colleagues do. You've got to make that person feel like that five, ten minutes has been worth it.
"And you know what? The majority of things are, obviously of value...some of them can be no value at all or very, very little value.
"But as long as you tell people what they are, the story and share the story, emphasise and talk about it, you make them go away feeling happy and that they've got everything out of that moment. That's what we're here to do."
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
