1 week Ago By Hayley Anderson
WARNING: Spoilers ahead from Antiques Roadshow. An Antiques Roadshow guest didn't know what to say after discovering his mother's 50p charity shop treasure was actually worth a small fortune. Expert David Battie was present during the BBC daytime show's visit to St Andrew's University, Scotland, where he encountered a man who had been unknowingly sitting on a valuable item for twenty years.
The owner, unsure of the object's nature, admitted: "Not really, I think it's Japanese. It was given to me by my mother about 20 years ago. "She liked charity shops, still does, and anything with an animal on it, she would give me.
"She got wooden elephants and China ducks and she gave me this and I thought it was different. It was all broken, the piece of string was broken, it was 50p." Battie remarked: "I think it is just the most magical object.
This is an inro, it is Japanese, you are right. "And the Japanese used to carry small objects around in their seals, medicines, spices, that sort of thing. "You then come through the cord which you've got more or less right there, to the ojime which actually tensions that.
"Now it won't on yours, because the cord's too thin, you need a thicker cord." Battie then demonstrated how the netsuke and inro ensemble would be traditionally worn, hanging it from his belt for effect. He continued: "Now I strongly suspect, I mean, we're dealing with a time in Japan in the 19th Century, when the Samurai had been stopped from fighting one another.
"So you had 200 years of peace, the economy's quite robust and not an awful lot of people so they turn to creating show-off objects which the Samurai can wear about his person and inro were one of those. It's essentially lacquer. "I thought it was plastic actually," the guest interjected as Battie responded: "Well in a sense you're right, because lacquer could be considered a form of plastic.
"It isn't. It's actually the sap of the Rhus tree and it comes out of the tree as deadly poisonous and all the people that work with it at that stage die an early death. "It's then processed and they paint it onto food dishes, wine holders, cups, bowls.
" Battie continued to explain that this particular netsuke was in the shape of a house or hut and featured a "soapstone plaque and an inscription" "I've never seen that before. Very, very unusual. But the real joy is the inro itself," he expressed.
"This fantastic, lobster, crayfish [design], and only the Japanese would have thought to do something literally eccentric, off centre. "In Europe, we'd tend to balance it with another one [animal design]. "It's an absolutely staggering object.
It's possibly by one of the greatest lacquer artists of the late 19th Century, Shibata Zeshin, but I don't know if it is, I'd have to go and do a bit of work on it. "Even if it's not, it's worth £3,000 to £5,000." The guest was visibly taken aback by the valuation as he hesitantly responded: "Oh my God.
OK." "And if it's [the work of artist Shibata] Zeshin, I don't think I dare tell you. It's really fantastic," Battie continued with a hint of playfulness, prompting the guest to exclaim in gratitude: "I'm really glad I brought it, thank you.
" Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer..
