Top 10 Awkward Moments on Antiques Roadshow

For fine china, Noritake Porcelain is a collector’s item, with some patterns going for thousands at auction. Seeing prices like that, we can imagine that this woman thought she’d be in for a big windfall – only to be sorely disappointed. It sounds to us like she only started collecting it in the first place after finally learning that it might be worth something, and was desperate for her hard work to pay off. She was also advised that the more abstract ones are worth more, which weren’t the ones that she’d been buying. It turned out that they were worth exactly the same amount as she’d originally paid.

This cabinet had come from a ship, though it wasn’t clear what type, and such items were apparently rather sought after at the time. The cabinet was full of tricks, including a hidden sink, used before ship cabins were all fully plumbed in. He says he paid fifty quid in the fifties, but it was then valued at £400 at the absolute top end. He wasn’t happy with this, appalled that he’d been looking after it for half a century and it turned out to be worth perhaps even less than what he’d paid for it. He thought he had an insurance policy for his later years, but all he had was an old wash basin.

This old chair had been knocking around for years, pulled out for family functions and getting significantly damaged. The damage over time was severe enough that much had been worn down and replaced, so a lot of the chair was no longer genuine to the seventeenth century. Because it had another crest stuck to the back, the value deteriorated by three quarters, going from four grand to just one. She tried to put on a brave face, but the disappointment was clear, despite him going on about how authentic certain parts of the chair were.

It’s not often that “Antiques Roadshow” brings out a comedy skit, but at the beginning of this examination of one man’s passion, he and the appraiser performed some of an old TV advert script for OXO cubes. That already got things off to a strange start, but then we had to go through his unusual collection and work out how much various OXO-themed knickknacks were worth. The advice? He should keep collecting OXO memorabilia and maybe one day he’d have a collection that really is worth something, because it wasn’t at the moment. The collection was in honour of his late father, but the performance at the beginning was very awkward.

This couple had had this table knocking around in their house for over thirty years, but were criticised right away for putting it in front of a bay window and letting the sunlight bleach it. The wife pins all the blame on her husband for not looking after it properly. But the big problem was that the people before them had cut into the solid top to add leather detailing, making the value plummet. It was uncomfortable for everyone when they revealed that they’d initially thought it had been over-valued, clearly hoping to hear that it was worth a fortune. It was worth about a third of the other valuation.

Why on Earth didn’t she clean off the dead spiders when she brought this on TV? Who knows; perhaps, as suggested, it was to try and show exactly how old it was. But this unassuming chest of drawers turned out to be the subject of one of the most dramatic “Antiques Roadshow” valuations of all time. The family story suggested that the drawers dated to Queen Anne’s reign, but it was significantly newer than that. Moreover, it was a fake, designed to trick people into thinking it was far older! We’ll probably never know how it really got into the family or why the story was concocted, though.

Some of the most beautiful paintings of the Victorian era were done by John Atkinson Grimshaw, who became immensely popular for his moody, atmospheric scenes of cold, Northern moors in the moonlight. This painting, however, isn’t particularly striking – and there are a few reasons why. First, though it certainly IS real, Grimshaw became a victim of his own success, and hired workers and cut corners to produce enough paintings for his fellow Victorians to buy. Second, it had unfortunately not been very well looked after, being improperly cleaned. Because of the damage, it was worth fifteen grand, versus the thirty it’d go for if it was a better one; the owner was not happy.

This couple found these pieces of jewellery in a tiny shop in Edinburgh, sold on the promise that they’d once belonged to Queen Victoria. But it turned out that they almost certainly HADN’T belonged to Her Majesty, because the pieces just weren’t lavish enough to have been worn by the sovereign. They were still very nice jewels, but the disappointment came when it was revealed how much they’d paid for them: about three grand. It turned out that they’d paid about what they were worth, and were sore that they hadn’t managed to land a bargain and then show off their treasures on the “Roadshow”.

This grisly item made everybody uncomfortable because of the dark history attached to it. It had been given to a survivor of a concentration camp in part of an effort to track down and name everybody who went through those camps and their fates. We’re not sure if the family who brought it on knew that that’s what it was, although it seems quite clear from just having a look at it. Perhaps if they HAD, they would have kept it at home. They look very baffled by the situation, but it’s good that something like this was on the “Roadshow” so that people could learn more about the history.

This woman was CONVINCED that her biscuit tin shaped like a racecar was worth a fortune. But it turned out that these types of tins were very common in the early 20th century and mass produced, though people threw them away in such huge numbers that they’re now something most wouldn’t be familiar with. The owner believed it was going to be worth something, and became more convinced when he started telling her how they’re now unique collector’s items and it’s in good condition. It was very awkward when she began to argue, assuming that he was lowballing her or didn’t know what he was talking about. Let us know in the comments which “Antiques Roadshow” valuations made you wince.