BBC Antiques Roadshow guest stunned as £10 item is valued for huge amount

A guest on Antiques Roadshow was left gobsmacked when her £10 lamp was valued at a staggering amount.

The episode, filmed at Shuttleworth House in Bedfordshire, saw the guest chatting with expert Will Farmer about her unique find.

She revealed: "I bought it in a yard sale on the way back from the station. It'd been there for about three days, so on the third day, the Friday, it was just that and a piece of lawn mower left there. So I went in, knocked and asked, is it still for sale?

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"He said yes, so I said, right, I'll have that. I didn't realise how heavy it was though."

Will queried: "So I'm guessing if it had been there for three or four days, it must have been really expensive then?", reports the Liverpool Echo.

To which she confessed: "No, no, no, it wasn't. It was £10!" leaving Will exclaiming: "Wow!" over the bargain price.

Discussing why she bought the lamp, the guest shared: "It reminded me a lot of things I saw when I was growing up. Teachers with ceramic pendants, different sort of coffee mugs, and I just really liked the colour."

She further admitted that she had no clue who made the lamp until she cleaned it and discovered a stamped label reading "Rooke".

Expert Will revealed that Rooke refers to British artist and studio potter, Bernard Rooke.

He went on: "I mean he started his potting career in 1960 in South London at the studio there, but by 1967 he'd sort of outgrown that space and he wanted to find himself a better environment for him to work, so he moved out to Old Mill in Suffolk.

"I mean in terms of his work, we do see a lot of lamps, but most of the lamps that we see are table lamps sort of 12, 14, 16 inches high. Absolutely typically him and you can tell they're him straight away but these are rare.

"Now this is called the totem and you're probably aware because it's yours, but all of these elements here are, you know, just slightly movable because they sit on a central column that goes down through the middle of them."

Delivering his assessment, he announced: "Well found, good spot, because £10 a few years ago is £1,000 today."

The guest was left stunned, along with the audience, by the valuation as she replied: "Thank you, thank you!".

Antiques Roadshow continues on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.