An Antiques Roadshow guest said her husband would “drop dead” when he found out the huge value of her inherited pottery collection.
The popular PBS series, filmed in Houston, featured a guest with an impressive collection that left expert Nick Dawes and his team astounded. The expert said: “When you came to our table and said: ‘I have a collection of Wedgwood Fairyland Lustres’, we thought maybe we’d see three, four or five pieces but as I understand it, you’ve brought 15 pieces.
The guest corrected him, stating she had actually brought in 17 pieces. Nick responded: “And we couldn’t get them all on the table but what we’ve done is put together a selection of what we think are some of the more interesting pieces that represent the whole variety of Wedgwood Fairyland Lustres.
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She explained: “The Wedgwood was given to us by my husband’s grandmother. “Before she passed away, she told her two grandsons that they could have a collection of hers.
(Image: (Image: PBS))
“She collected glass, pottery, all sorts of different items and my husband picked this and so it’s been with us ever since. “Dawes then delved into the history of the guest’s collection, saying: “This is a fabulous collection and when she put it together, she clearly had a good eye, as we say, reports the Express.
“If she bought it in the 1960s or the 1970s, she was able to buy it at a fraction of the value that it has today. Wedgwood was a famous name in the history of English ceramics and there are 200 years of Wedgwood production.
(Image: (Image: PBS))
“But Fairyland Lustres ware is among the most valuable of all Wedgwood from any period.” Dawes continued to discuss how the pieces were designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones, who started her career at Wedgwood in 1909.
Just six years later, she was given the opportunity to create her own line, Fairyland Lustres, a feat “very few people did”. He elaborated: “It was hugely successful for Wedgwood, especially after the First World War when the British and many Europeans were looking for something to escape from the horrors of the war.
(Image: PBS)
“And this is real escapist stuff. These pieces are adorned with images of goblins and fairies set in fantastic landscapes. We can see these wonderful poplar trees which are a feature in the background of many of the Fairyland Lustres pieces.
And then if we turn it up, you can see beautifully painted fairies and imps and goblins all decorate the inside. He said: “The surviving pieces today, and they are kind of fragile, they do get broken and sometimes they’re repaired very carefully. But the surviving pieces today are really very valuable.
“I discussed with my colleagues and we went back and forth on what we felt this table worth would be. For all of these pieces with this one being the most valuable, if they came to auction, the low estimate would be about $25,000 [£19,748] and the high estimate would probably be $35,000 [£27,647].”
The guest was utterly shocked and couldn’t help but exclaim: “Oh my goodness. We thought they were worth maybe $500 [£394], $1,000 [£789] a piece. I’m going to cry.”
Dawes informed her: “Some of the little pieces are worth $500 [£394] to $1,000 [£789] a piece”. He went on to reveal: “The more complicated pieces, like the bowl, my colleagues said up to $10,000 [£7890], I think $7,000 [£5529] to $9,000 [£7109].”
The guest then declared with excitement, “I guess I’ll display it now, take it out of the box.” She added: “My husband is going to die when I call him on the way home, he’s going to freak out!”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
