Antiques Roadshow was back with a new episode on Sunday, and one guest left expert Gordon Foster baffled with an item he’s “never seen before”.
The guest brought along a silverware model of famous Indian landmark, the General Post Office in Kolkata – formerly Calcutta – which was made to contain betel leaves, which were traditionally used as a stimulant.
“Well, I have to say I have never seen a piece like this ever before on the Antiques Roadshow,” the arts, crafts and silver specialist admitted as he observed the unique heirloom, adding: “It’s clearly silver.”
“I’m not quite sure whether it was especially made for order, or it was just bought off the shelf, which seems a bit unlikely,” the guest explained.
Detailing how he came to own the item, he went on: “This actually belonged to my father, and that was a present from my maternal grandfather – a wedding present.”
When he added the gift was received in 1942, Foster noted: “I’m sure there’ll be lots of people intrigued by this.”
“This used to contain betel leaf, and there was a fashion those days for the betel leaf to be chewed with some lime, maybe a bit of tobacco and betel nut,” the owner continued.
After taking a look at the item’s different compartments, the expert commented: “It’s absolutely amazing, isn’t it?
“With no maker’s marks, no no silver marks… It’s clearly silver, you can just tell by the way that it’s been done.
“Calcutta – at that time – there was one firm that is a possibility. They’re a firm called Cooke and Kelvey. They made a lot of quite large scale pieces.
“They tend to have a maker’s mark on it, though. But if this was a special commission, they wouldn’t have had to put their mark on it.
“We’ve got two initials on the front here – GS – which I think are your father’s initials.”
“Yes, Govind Sharan,” the guest confirmed, to which Foster went on: “So that shows that it is definitely a special commission to me.
“So when it comes to the valuation, it’s quite a tricky thing to put a price on. We’ve never seen one before. A lot of different collectors who would be interested in this.
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“It’s Indian silver. It’s decorative, and it’s a known building. My gut feeling for an estimate for that… I would say £1,500 to £2,000.”
Immediately sharing his plans to keep hold of the unique item, the guest replied: “Yeah – not going anywhere.”
He continued: “We’ll pass it on to our daughter,” with Foster responding: “She’s a lucky girl.”
