An Antiques Roadshow guest was shocked tonight as she discovered how much a chair she had saved from a skip was truly worth.
The participant told expert Elaine Binning about how she had come to own the 240-year-old chair which dated from the time of Charles II.
She said: "I saved it from being thrown in a skip from the Royal Hospital in Wolverhampton.
"The porter went past my desk and I asked him where it was going and he said oh we're throwing it into a skip and I said 'no no you can't do that'.
"I asked him how much and he said £1, so that's how it came to be in my position."
Expert Elaine said the chair would have been made for a "rich family" and she said it was unusual to have cross moulding.
She said: "Sometimes these kind of chairs have large initials carved in, there are initials PHS but they're very tiny so its difficult to know if that's the stamp of the maker or the household who owned it, but more like an inventory stamp rather than for decorative purposes."
The guest said that the chair was well used, she said: "Everybody sits on it, visitors and family, we all think who has sat on this."
Elaine said the chair has been repaired and "had really lived" she said: "A pound, you can't go wrong."
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The guest said she would have paid more for the object and Elaine said: "Age sometimes isn't an indicator of value, but I'd estimate it was worth £400."
The guest smiled and said: "That's fine, we wouldn't get rid of it, it's so nice."
