Antiques Roadshow guest in tears over heirloom's huge value after 'worthless' confession

An Antiques Roadshow guest was met with a pleasant surprise when she got her items valued - despite initially thinking they were fake.

The recent episode of the long-running BBC show also saw fine jewellery specialist Joanna Hardy in sheer shock over the unique items brought in.

"I came with this brooch because I wanted to know whether it was glass or whether it was real," the guest explained, alluding to two glitzy brooches she'd brought with her.

"And this one?" Joanna asked, pointing to the second jewel before the guest replied: "And that one - was that also costume jewellery?"

Joanna went on to find out how the lady came by the items, as the guest explained: "When my husband passed away... He used to collect lots of little trinkett-y things.

"He was a carpenter and he just had this bag above the wardrobe and in this tobacco tin were several little bits, these were amongst them."

"I just thought, 'They're not worth nothing,' I didn't think it was worth any money," she went on to reveal.

Holding back a laugh, the woman continued: "And then when I heard you were coming, I just said to my sister, 'Oh, come on then - if we can find somewhere to park!'"

"Well, I'm very pleased that you came today," Joanna admitted as she excitedly added: "I am more than very pleased. I'm absolutely gobsmacked."

Pointing to the jewels, she began: "So you thought this one was glass? And you think this one's glass? You're right. One of them is glass. It's this one... And this one is a 12-carat sapphire."

And the good news didn't end there, as Joanna continued: "But not only that, it is absolutely superb. The colour, the cut of it, and when I first saw that it just absolutely popped out at me.

"And I just thought, 'Wow, this is a wonderful, wonderful stone,'" Joanna gushed as she went on to suggest the stone was from Sri Lanka.

"But it is the colour that has to speak to you because you can get dark kind of sapphires that are actually quite dull and they and they don't have much life.

"This has a lot of light. So this is in a setting with diamonds all around - and I think this would have been a ring," the expert pointed out.

"Well, it's funny because I kept thinking if that was real, I'd have it like the royals have got, you know like Diana's old ring - I was going to take it to a jeweller," the owner of the jewels chimed in.

"Do you know, I think I know where that's going to go after this show!" Joanna quipped before getting around to the valuation.

"So it's about a 12-carater, it's a beautiful colour," she raved, before dropping: "And I think at auction you'd be looking around £15,000."

The guest was almost floored and was clearly overcome with emotion as she exclaimed: "Oh... Oh dear, that makes feel quite... Well, thank you very much."

"It's gone to a good home," Joanna said, adding: "And if you change it and make it into a ring, I think it will be a wonderful end to its journey, for you to be able to wear it."

"I'd be too frightened to wear it now!" she admitted in response to the suggestion before Joanna urged: "No, you must wear it, it's beautiful - it's stunning."

"OK. I'm glad I've come," the guest confessed with a huge smile on her face, to which the expert replied: "So am I!"

Antiques Roadshow airs on BBC and is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.