A BBC Antiques Roadshow guest was left open mouthed after expert Christian Beadman had told him he’d significantly devalued his Russian bronze statues from being a “keen polisher”.
The owner of the two statues explained that there had been a lot of family history behind the items that were originally owned by his great grandfather who had worked at the cotton mill in the 1900’s.
It was established that one of the items had been gifted to his great grandfather who had set up a workers counsel to deal with work hour issues – unveiling that this was unheard of in those days.
He added that normally the workforce would have been “beat into submission” but his grandfather decided that was not the way to go.
(Image: BBC)
Speaking about the shiny bronze statue that boasted what appeared to be a warrior on a horse, the owner chimed in that his great grandfather was “given that in 1907” by the grateful workers.
Christian interjected: “What a wonderful bit of family history, as know it’s a mounted Cossack.”
He added: “This I would probably describe as a late 19th century cast and it’s a very wonderful thing.”
Moving his attention to the next sculpture they analysed the Russian bronze model that saw a large wild bear savaging a lifeless man.
(Image: BBC)
The expert however noticed something more unusual as he asked: “They’re both quite shiny, are you a keen polisher?”
“I was last weekend,” admitted the owner as they both laughed.
Christian commented: “It’s not necessarily a good thing to do with antique bronzes as it takes away the original patterer which does sadly effect the value which brings us neatly onto the question of their worth.”
(Image: BBC)
Pointing to the horse statue, the expert said: “This one is probably in the region at auction of £2000-£4000 and if it weren’t so highly polished you could have doubled those figures.”
Coming to the second item Christian told the guest: “It is again quite highly polished so I think again that that one is only £20k-£40k.”
“Thank you very much indeed,” gushed the man.
Meanwhile, fans on Twitter were left in hysterics over the “keen polisher” remark and took to their keyboards to giggle.
“Don’t polish your bits and pieces. #antiquesroadshow,” warned one viewer.
Another echoed: “Very expensive polishing session #antiquesroadshow.”
A third exclaimed: “Did he just say 20-40 thousand!!! #antiquesroadshow.”
While a fourth person asked: “Polishing his bronzes , is that a euphemism? #antiquesroadshow.”
Antiques Roadshow airs on BBC One at 19:00 on Sundays.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
