‘We’re not having that!’ BBC Antiques Roadshow guest slaps down price tag despite being offered thousands

Antiques Roadshow expert Alastair Chandler left one guest refusing to sell her family heirloom after revealing the staggering four-figure valuation.

During last Sunday night’s episode, items brought to the roadshow included a quirky 18th-century “Harlequinade” children’s flip book, a vintage trainer collection and a flying helmet from the Battle of Britain.

Marc Allum was captivated by a premiere programme for the classic sci-fi film Metropolis, while Hilary Kay found a miniature bottle of medicine fit for a royal doll’s house.

However, it was Chandler who was stunned by a pocket watch one guest brought along, and began: “Well I must say as pocket watches go, right from the outset.

“You can tell this is something quite special. It looks like it’s got all the whistles and bells, so it clearly belonged to someone quite special.”

The guest delved into her family history and explained: “It belonged to my great-grandfather, whose name was Leonhard Tietz, which is why you’ve got LT beautifully engraved on the front there.

“And Leonhard started one of the big chains of department stores in Germany. The department stores were one of the first things aryanised by the Nazis because April ‘33 was a boycott of all Jewish-owned stores.

“So they got the writing on the wall quite quickly. So it came via my great-grandfather to my grandfather, who then fled and ended up here in Ealing, as it happens and then eventually to me.”

Chandler was stunned by the history and added: “Wow, what an amazing story and what a great survival for this watch, and also for your family as well.

“It’s beautifully engraved, and it’s a full Hunter pocket watch. When you open the back, you reveal the family portraits, which is really special.”

Opening the back of the watch, the guest pointed out which portrait was her grandfather, before Chandler continued: “It’s a chronograph, so you can time various things, like a stopwatch. Not only that, it’s got the day of the week, the date, it’s even got the lunar month.

“One of the most remarkable things is it knows when the leap years are. It’s incredible. It’s also a beautiful minute-repeating pocket watch.”

Getting to the important part of the discussion, Chandler revealed that the watch could fetch between £6,000 to £8,000 at an auction.

Stunned at the price, the guest quipped: “Well… that’s good to know, but we’re not having that, thank you very much.”

Thankful, Chandler concluded: “Good. It’s an incredible bit of kit, a lovely story, and thank you so much for sharing it with us.”

Speaking to the camera about the valuation after and her reason for not selling the pocket watch, the guest explained: “Having the photographs in that watch makes it very, very special.

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“It really brings the past to the present, and it makes those people very real.

“Also, incredibly proud, because they started from nothing. So it is a signifier of that, so it is very special. There’s no way it is going to get sold, it wouldn’t mean anything to anybody else.”