Antiques Roadshow guest refuses to sell beloved item despite 'priceless' value

A recent episode of Antiques Roadshow featured an unexpected star: a wooden duck with quite the back story.

The unassuming object was brought on the show by a guest and his wife, who also shared alongside it a photograph and a funeral card.

Eager to understand more, expert Eric Knowles asked about the history of these items. Their owner recounted how this 120 year old wooden decoy duck was used by his grandfather for hunting pursuits on Lake Windermere.

Pointing out a man in the accompanying photograph, he revealed: "That's my father," then indicated the second figure, adding, "and the man on the right is my grandfather.", reports the Mirror.

He gave further insights into his grandfather's technique of mixing the decoy with actual ducks during his hunts.

Eric responded with surprise, asking: "So they'd be out there shooting at this? Thinking it was the real thing? ", marking the puncture marks visible on the wooden duck's face and observing: "And they did strike it."

Intriguingly, the guest said: "My grandfather took it back to The Old England, and they put it on a silver platter because the gentry would be having duck for their dinner."

Pausing for effect, he continued: "And they would lift it up, and the duck was there, along with the funeral card."

Explaining the sombre addition, Eric picked up the funeral card sitting on the display table, reading aloud: "In memory of a wooden duck, brutally done to death on Lake Wind on the 28th day of February 1908 by three cold-blooded poachers, namely The Major, The Parson and Joe. May their sins damn them to eternal hellfire."

Spotting the duck's limited movement range, Eric ended with an inquiry: "So do you want to tell me a little bit about the contraction of this thing? ".

The woman elaborated, "Well it was done with a whale bone out of a woman's corset to put it on a spring."

"Later, it had to be replaced by a more modern substitution shall we say," she continued.

When Eric inquired, "Which came from? " The lady responded, "From somebody's bra." Eric responded: "Alright, well it does the job, doesn't it?"

He further commented: "It's a bit of a cliché when people say 'he's priceless', but the tales you're telling about this duck are equally priceless."

To this, he asked her - "If I offered you £50 for him, would you sell it? " to which the owner instantly replied: "No."

Persistently, Eric continued - "If I offered you £1,000 would you sell it? " But again, he was met with a firm "No." Not deterred, the expert raised the stakes and said, "If I offered you £5,000 would you sell it? ".

But the owner stood her ground saying, "It wouldn't go to anybody other than the family and I'd make sure that it was looked after."