ANTIQUES Roadshow expert Marc Allum revealed the high price of two glass bottles to a bewildered guest who inherited them from his family.
The guest was left stunned when he discovered the mind-boggling value of his empty glass bottles.
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In a classic episode of the long-running BBC One programme, host Marc Allum traveled to the Royal Botanic Garden, where a range of guest-brought items were prized by the experts.
Marc met a visitor who had brought two seal bottles with an interesting history behind them.
Introducing the items on the show, the Antiques Roadshow expert revealed that he was a big fan of 18th century seal bottles because they contain a lot of information.
While inspecting the bottles, Marc explained to the guest that people can often extract interesting details or a backstory from the unique seal.
A curious Marc wanted to know more about how the visitor found the antique objects.
The gentleman said that one of the items originally belonged to his grandfather and the other came into his possession 11 years ago.
He explained, “I got a call from a cousin of my father’s to say she was doing the family tree, ‘Would you like to come over and have a look?'”
He told Marc that he was going to look at the tree and he saw that the first name there was CHH Sillaton 1789.
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He explained that these initials were for Christopher Hill Herring, and he told his cousin that he already had a bottle identical to the name.
His father’s cousin told him to wait until she died before getting the second seal bottle.
When Marc took a closer look at the item, he said they were mallet bottles with hemp stoppers with string to hold them in place.
He said: “With all their imperfections, they are just absolutely beautiful and in really nice condition.
‘The other information, Sillaton, that’s a place in Cornwall, but 1789 tells a great story too.
“If we put these bottles in their historical context and look at what happened in 1789, the storming of the Bastille.
“I mean, it’s really interesting when you contextualize these kinds of objects in a historical way,” he said.
The visitor wanted to know more about the history of the bottles and what was kept in them.
Expert, Marc revealed that it more than likely would have been claret wine.
He then shared more information about what was kept inside, saying they were “typical wine bottle shapes for that particular period.”
The visitor replied: “Very nice, do you think it would be a French Claret? Fresh off the revolution.
He took one last look at the item before laughing and revealing its value, saying, “These are worth £500 to £700 each at auction, so basically you’ve got a bottle worth £1,000 here after all.”
The guest looked shocked at the rating when he replied, “Interesting to know, thanks!”
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Antiques Roadshow airs Sundays at 7pm on BBC One.