Antiques Roadshow Chinese table is valued at a staggering £120,000
‘That’s nice’: Antiques Roadshow guest is mocked for his VERY casual reaction after expert reveals his Chinese table is worth up to £120,000
- Episode saw Fiona Bruce and the team head to Culzean Castle in South Ayrshire
- Owner told how he bought table online from Boston, US, which cost him £7,000
- Antiques dealer Marc Allum said ornate console could fetch from £80K to £120K
A guest on the Antiques Roadshow last night was mocked for his rather unenthusiastic reaction after an expert revealed his Chinese table was worth up to £120,000.
The episode saw Fiona Bruce and the team head to Culzean Castle in South Ayrshire, and the console was named one of the most expensive pieces of furniture ever featured on the programme.
The owner told how he bought the table online from Boston, US, which cost him £7,000 including shipping.
Antiques dealer Marc Allum said the ornate wooden console could fetch between £80,000 and £120,000 if it went to auction in Hong Kong – to which the owner simply replied: ‘That’s nice.’
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A guest on the Antiques Roadshow last night was mocked for his rather unenthusiastic reaction after an expert revealed his Chinese table was worth up to £120,000
The episode saw Fiona Bruce and the team head to Culzean Castle in South Ayrshire, and the console was named one of the most expensive pieces of furniture ever featured on the programme
Many viewers at home took to Twitter to remark on the collector’s low-keyresponse, with one commenting: ‘That’s nice? THAT’S NICE?!! I’d be effing and blinding like mad. That bleeper would be out in force with me!!’
Marvelling over its intricate carving and construction, antiques dealer Marc Allum admitted it was ‘one of the most spectacular and enigmatic piece of furniture that I’ve seen for a long time’.
He added that it looked Western but was ‘Chinese through and through’, and suggested it could have been looted from the Imperial Palace in 1860 during the Opium war.
‘If I look at the way this is constructed, it looks at first sight to be like an early 19th century platform based console table,’ he said.
Many viewers at home took to Twitter to remark on the collector’s muted response, with one commenting: ‘That’s nice? THAT’S NICE?!! I’d be effing and blinding like mad. That bleeper would be out in force with me!!’
‘It looks to me to be made of zitan which is a member of the rosewood family. That’s an imperial wood, it’s a very auspicious wood.
‘If we look down the leg, we can see this foot here, and I do know that there are some chairs in the summer palace that have a foot which looks literally identical to that. That’s documented so we can see a similarity there as well. These are the pointers that this was made for the imperial court.’
When it came to the valuation, Marc admitted it was ‘really, really difficult’ to put a price on it, but acknowledged that a similar smaller console table came up for auction several years ago.
‘It had no platform base on it, it was missing its top and it wasn’t in brilliant condition and it made £55,000,’ he said.
Marc said the table looked to be made of zitan which is a member of the rosewood family. ‘That’s an imperial wood, it’s a very auspicious wood,’ he added
When it came to the valuation, Marc admitted it was ‘really, really difficult’ to put a price on it, but acknowledged that a similar smaller console table came up for auction several years ago and sold for £55,000
‘What we have here is something we can’t totally pin down, but it’s an awful lot better than the £55,000 one.
‘It’s bigger, it’s more complete, to me it’s better quality. If we put it in a really good auction in somewhere like Hong Kong for instance, in a very specialised oriental sale, a table like this could make £80,000 to £120,000.’
The owner smiled and replied: ‘That’s nice.’
Writing on Twitter, a viewer remarked: ‘Be a bit more excited about that £100K evaluation mate, one man’s antique was only worth the £40 he spent getting the train here.’
Antiques dealer Marc Allum said the ornate wooden console could fetch between £80,000 and £120,000 if it went to auction in Hong Kong
Another wrote: ‘£80-120k for the table,’ followed by a shocked emoji, while others shared memes to express their surprise.
The most expensive item to ever appear on the Antiques Roadshow was a Fabergé flower in 2017, owned by a British army regiment.
The detailed flower – just under 6in high- is one of only 80 surviving pieces in the world. Simon Shaw, the show’s executive producer, described it as ‘one of the most significant jewellery finds in 40 years of the programme’s history’, with suggestions it may be worth more than £1 million.
Antiques Roadshow continues on Sunday on BBC1 at 8pm.
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