Antiques Roadshow item in ‘appalling’ condition gets six-figure valuation as duo stunned

Antiques Roadshow guests were blown away as their “disgusting” item received a six-figure valuation from BBC expert Mark Smith.

Two guests brought in two cases chock full of war medals dating back to the early 1800s, but admitted they didn’t know how to restore them to their former glory. Handed down through the generations, they assumed the two gentlemen who earned their medals were father and son, though their identities remained a mystery.

Mark kicked off the segment by prompting: “I’ve got to ask first of all, what have you done to them?” as the guests responded: “Well we obviously haven’t looked after them very well.” One of the medals was upside-down, while all of them were dirty.

Mark commented: “I can’t see what it says around the rim because they’re so dirty you can’t actually read them.” One medal dated back to 1808, while others related to the conflict in Syria in 1840.

The guests didn’t seem overly impressed with their items, as they confessed they found the two men “pretty ugly”. But five clasps on a Syrian medal made it incredibly rare, as Mark said: “Three clasps - almost unheard of. Four, no. Five - wow. You have five, wow.

“You have kept these in the most appalling condition that I have ever seen in any medals ever, and you need to give them to me so I can love them,” he urged.

When the guests wondered how they’d go about restoring them, he urged: “Take the little screws off the back and see about returning them to their original spots.

“I sat down and thought about this, that you’ve kept these medals in this awful condition, and they’re worth £100,000.” He labelled the items “horrible” and “manky” – but left both guests blown away by the six-figure sum they could receive for their heirlooms.

Clearly lost for words, the duo were told the items surpassed even museum quality, as “you don’t see” medals with five clasps “even in naval museums”.