Antiques Roadshow expert wowed by 'magical' 50p charity shop item worth thousands

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.

An Antiques Roadshow guest couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he found out that a trinket his mum picked up from a charity shop for just 50p turned out to be worth a pretty penny.

Antiques expert David Battie was on scene at St Andrew's University in where he encountered a man who had kept an obscure object for over twenty years.

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The bemused owner, when quizzed about the nature of the item, 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 couldn't hide his enthusiasm, exclaiming: "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."

Demonstrating the customary way to wear the inro, Battie showed how it dangles from a belt, making the revelation all the more extraordinary for the lucky owner.

The expert elaborated on the historical context: "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 strong and not an awful lot of people so they turn to making show-off objects which the Samurai can whereabout his person and inro were one of those. It's basically lacquer."

When the guest mistook the material for plastic, Battie clarified: "I thought it was plastic actually," leading Battie to respond, "Well in a sense you're right, because lacquer could be considered a form of plastic."

However, he corrected the misconception: "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."

He then described a particular netsuke: Battie went on to explain that this netsuke in particular was in the shape of a house or hut and had a "soapstone plaque and an inscription".

"I've never seen that before. Very, very unusual. But the real joy is the inro itself," and praised its unique design: "This fantastic, lobster, crayfish [design], and only the Japanese would have thought to do something literally eccentric, off centre."

He contrasted Japanese aesthetics with European ones: "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 revelation caused the guest to pause and raise his eyebrows in surprise before he responded with a shocked: "Oh my God. OK."

Battie continued to intrigue with his expertise, hinting: "And if it's [the work of artist Shibata] Zeshin, I don't think I dare tell you. It's really fantastic," which led the guest to express his gratitude, saying: "I'm really glad I brought it, thank you."

Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.