Antiques Roadshow guest fights back tears at ‘amazing’ value of ring left by late friend

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow. 

An Antiques Roadshow guest didn’t quite know how to react when he was told the true value of his late friend’s ring.

Filming at The Royal Hall in Harrogate, the BBC daytime series saw expert Geoffrey Munn meet with the owner of a beautiful ring and was eager to know of its backstory.

“One tiny ring, one blue stone. Tell me about it with you”, he commented.

The guest replied: “It was left to me by a very dear friend who I’d known for many years and he passed [away] quite recently.

“I’d not seen him for nearly two years though and I just got a letter out the blue saying that I’d been left a load of his things.

“He was a great man. He collected everything, artwork, jewellery, he loved jewellery.

“And when I was very little I used to go into his shop, he had a shop at the time, and I used to go among different objects, knock things over and there would be the odd time I’d be screamed out of the shop, not welcomed back.”

Munn then confirmed the guest’s suspicions that it was a sapphire ring with a carved design of Julius Cesar in the stone, pointing to the fact it’s from Italy.

He continued: “We should just say that sapphires are the second hardest material known to man so to carve it in what we call intaglio, which means to cut in, it’s a tour de force.

“And what else have you noticed about the ring?”

“I know it has a little signature on the bottom, it looks like a niggle”, the owner replied.

Munn laughed as he clarified: “No but actually it’s more than a niggle because its back-to-back c’s and the back-to-back c’s are the monogram of possibly the most famous jeweller working in 19th century Europe.

“It’s the monogram of the Castellani in Rome.”

The expert elaborated that Castellani was a jewellers located near the iconic Trevi Fountain in Rome which seemed to leave the guest struggling for words.

When asked if he had been there, the guest managed to say: “Go on, please.”

“It operated between 1860 and even as late as 1930 but everybody went there, it was a sort of honeypot for the elite of Europe without a shadow of doubt.

“You have a near classic head of Julius Cesar, carved by the Castellani in a tiny signet ring.

“Well tell me what it means to you.”

Clearly feeling emotional, the guest stated: “I wouldn’t replace it if you told me it was worth £1,000.”

Munn replied: “And you couldn’t replace it, because it’s a token of your friendship and I have a funny feeling that he might have just known some part of this and perhaps wanted you to discover it.”

“His words were ‘never let it go’”, the owner added as he gulped down his emotions.

Munn then summarised: “Well that’s pretty good isn’t it? And these things are very touching but unfortunately you have to make a choice about something else.

“Because it’s not worth £1,000, it’s worth £5,000.”

The guest’s eyes bulged at the price tag: “Oh my God. Wow. That’s amazing.”

Munn commented: “I’m very affected by it and I think you are too, aren’t you?”, with the guest agreeing: “I am. I’m stunned, honestly. Wow.”

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