Antiques Roadshow guest makes confession as expert has 'difficult job' valuing item
An Antiques Roadshow guest was lost for words at the true value of her "sentimental" necklace.
WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.
An Antiques Roadshow specialist was left stunned by a "magnificent" necklace that held deep "emotional significance" for its owner.
The BBC daytime programme travelled to Shuttleworth House, Bedfordshire, to record another instalment with Roadshow expert Geoffrey Munn amongst the experts present.
Upon being shown one specific diamond necklace, Munn was unable to hide his enthusiasm.
He observed: "This is a sublimely beautiful diamond necklace and here it is with you but everyone wants to know what it has to do with you."
The visitor revealed: "So I was given it by my grandma to wear on my wedding day.
"It was actually passed down from my father's side and he was actually from Mumbai and it was very sentimental for me to wear on the day, because my father sadly passed away when I was nine-years-old.
"So she gave it to me to wear on my day to remember him."
Munn then proceeded to provide additional information about the piece, explaining: "Very beautiful, superbly articulated thing and very flattering actually. And we can pick it up and see that immediately.
"It's very slinky ma-linky, it moves beautifully on the hand like that and of course, it moves beautifully on the neck.
"But when I first saw this, I was slightly thrown off because the quality of the diamonds is absolutely marvellous.
"And when they are marvellous like that, it makes my job quite difficult because I'm looking for flaws and this, that and the other to tell me they are diamonds.
"So it took a little while to establish that they are."
The guest's face dropped in amazement as she discovered the diamonds in her necklace were genuine.
The expert revealed that the "brilliant diamonds" were mounted in white gold with each setting crafted by hand.
He went on: "These are miraculous objects, because they are made by hand but there doesn't seem to be any obvious sign of human activity at all because the craftsmanship is so superb.
"The thing about diamonds, the great mystery of them, is that they are the hardest material known to man."
Munn added: "When we see a piece of jewellery, there's lots of design features that helps us date these things and this is definitely a 20th Century thing and I'm going to go for the 1960s.
"It's quite difficult to do in the absence of hallmarks but there is a sort of handwriting of jewellery in design form that helps me to tell those things."
Wrapping up his assessment, Munn declared: "And so this is a very covetable object, a very desirable object, everyone would want to wear this one.
"So I'm going to go a little bit raving mad and tell you that it's worth £25,000."
The stunned guest was left speechless as her jaw dropped before she managed to gasp: "Wow. Shock."
She then took a moment before confirming: "Definitely. Amazing. But obviously the sentimental value is worth a lot more.
"Beyond that", Munn interjected, to which the guest agreed.
In a separate chat, the guest confessed: "My grandma definitely said it was kind of real but there were so many diamonds on it, I must admit, I did question myself that it was actually real.
"You do miss your father when you're getting married and walking down the aisle so having that piece of him there that I've known has been part of his family for a long time was really, really special."
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.