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Wales Online
Wales Online
Lifestyle
Ruth Ovens

BBC Antiques Roadshow expert's excitement over item's possible origin

A BBC Antiques Roadshow expert suggested a diamond brooch may have an interesting origin - worth exploring further. BBC Antiques Roadshow aired from Wales on Sunday, May 28, and saw experts look over a number of items brought in by their owners.

Expert Geoffrey Munn spoke to the owner of a beautiful collection of 18th Century jewels, reports BirminghamLive. The guest said: "Well, the two diamond brooches were given to me by my father.

"[The bow] on my wedding day. And [the flower emblazoned one] came a little bit later and [the ruby bow] was inherited from my grandmother. My father was into the antiques world, it's something that I've grown up with."

Geoffrey told the guest: "Well, it's the most superb piece of jewellery set with rubies and diamonds set in silver, probably backed in gold... The one on the left here is a very sweet little bow.

"The bow is not simply a bow, it's a true lovers knot because the harder it is pulled, the tighter it becomes and then the diamonds are forever, so this little subliminal message for your wedding was perfectly well chosen." The guest admitted she hadn't "appreciated" the bow's meaning at the time.

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Geoffrey was questioned by the guest whether the expert knew the origin of the pieces. He explained the larger bow brooch was "probably Spain or Portugal" while the lovers knot was marked as English.

"I would like to think [the floral brooch] was Russian, and that would be very, very exciting. The Russian Crown Jewels were sold in London, after the revolution to raise funds for the new regime. And it's just possible that that is a Russian jewel and wouldn't it be marvellous, if it came from the Russian Crown Jewels," he said.

Geoffrey added: "We can work on that but not here right now. But, what we can work is that these are very valuable to you because they have sentimental values." The expert priced the smallest of the items at £8, with the other two at £8k and £15,000 respectively.

"They're marvellous things, they're not showy, they're utterly beautiful expressions of an era gone by and that's what we're looking for really," Geoffrey told the guest.

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