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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Zoe Delaney & Kris Gourlay

Edinburgh Antiques Roadshow guest left in tears over true value of £32 glass box

A guest on an episode of the Antiques Roadshow filmed in Edinburgh was left sobbing after learning the true value of a £32 glass box.

The episode, filmed outside the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art, recently went viral after the unsuspecting guest on the show was informed that her old discarded box was indeed worth a small fortune.

The BBC's antiques expert, Joanna Hardy, had great pleasure in informing the woman of her new-found wealth and was shocked to discover just how little the box had initially been purchased for, reports the Mirror.

READ MORE: The lost Edinburgh shop that may have held the 'world's first' Santa's grotto

With an array of locals having their chance at appearing on the popular daytime show, it was one female guest who left the crowd gob-smacked thanks to the small, detailed glass box she brought for a valuation.

"The skill of a goldsmith and the skill of an enameler, is the same whether they are making jewellery," Joanne began when chatting to the guest.

"This beautiful box, it is just wonderful, now tell me why did it catch your attention and how did it catch your attention?"

The woman replied: "Well it was actually on an online auction down in England and I just thought there was something really unusual about it being rock crystal because I don't really see so many of these sorts of items like this."

The box was purchased for £32. (BBC)

She went on to explain how she is fond of an online auction and often snaps bargains up via the internet, before musing how the box didn't glisten the same compared to when she first purchased it.

"I think they described it as being glass, a glass box and I knew it had something unusual about it, with the designs on it and things like that," the guest revealed to Joanna.

"I couldn't really see much of the silver, I had a sneaky feeling it might be that so we actually polished it all to reveal the beautiful enamel on the surface and the lovely colours."

The guest then revealed how the only paid £32 for it, a comment that almost left Joanna in shock.

"Well, this is rock crystal which is of the quartz family," the antiques expert told her shocked guest. "And you can see the inclusions inside the stone which is their natural inclusions, there are no bubbles, if you saw bubbles then you would know it would be glass."

The BBC star continued: "Now, in about 1850 in Vienna in Austria, there were a group of goldsmiths who also did a lot of enamelling work sort of in the renaissance style and this is in the neo-renaissance style.

"So this is dating this from about 1860 to 1870, but there was one person that was really the head of this, he was the leading enamelist in Vienna at the time and he did the neo-renaissance work."

It was then time for Joanne to reveal how much she estimates the piece to be worth.

"If that was in the right auction I think you are going to be looking at between £4,000 and £6,000," the star declared, much to the disbelief of the box's owner.

The stunned guest replied "No!! Really?!?," before breaking down in tears, clearly overwhelmed at learning her £32 purchase is worth so much.

Congratulating the woman, Joanna told her: "Enjoy it and well done."

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