Fiona Bruce took Antiques Roadshow viewers to Clissold Park in Stoke Newington on Sunday night and saw the experts being presented with a string of interesting items. Some of the antiques included Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s pipe and an 1891 cut-glass vase. However, it was a rather unique pendant that caught the attention of expert John.
He went on to tell the guest he’d never valued one on the show before and so he was delighted to see it.
As he inspected the item, John began: “Well now this is a teardrop shape rather severe dark-coloured jewellery box and when you open the lid it reveals something considerably more colourful and bold inside a splendid gold pendant.”
“Do you like it?” he asked the guest before she explained: “It’s a little bit garish. But yeah, I do like it.”
“It’s not my style,” she added as the expert shared the pendant’s history.
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John continued: “But it would have been your style if you had been around in the 19th century about 1870 to 1890.
“Jewellers in France and this country and all over the continent, make jewellery…[and] they try to make it look as if had been made in the 16th century.
“Now what we call that is Neo-renaissance another term [is] Tudor revivalism.
“Of course, this one we’ve got has an interesting piece of paper, server 1879, which does suggest that it is a 19th-century piece.
“But even if it wasn’t, there are factors in this that tell me it’s not quite as old as it’s trying to be.”
John pointed to the coloured pendant as he explained further: “Okay, so look at the colours.
“The enamel work is splendid. You’ve got the background red, and you’ve then got this quite complicated scene, haven’t you? Where you’ve got five or six figures standing and sitting and crouching.
“Then have a look at this, did you see this large triangular-shaped stone? It’s a diamond, but what we call a flat Lesko cut diamond.
“The frame, now this is the giveaway for me.
“This decorative device in this strap board, can you see this very detailed gold? Almost like little scrolls and hearts and that is much more 19th-century than the 16th-century.
“And then if I may, can I turn it over because you can always tell the quality of a piece of jewellery when the back is as good as the front.”
When discussing what he believed the pendant would fetch at auction, John said: “It would finish up making £10,000.”
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