Antiques Roadshow guest gobsmacked by true value of 50p charity shop find (2025)

The guest was left stunned after finding out the true value of a wooden Japanese inro which his mother had picked up for 50p in a charity shop and was given to him 20 years ago

An Antiques Roadshow guest was stunned when his mum’s 50p charity shop buy turned out to be surprisingly valuable - and the price tag is jaw-dropping.

On the BBC's Antiques Roadshow, held at St Andrew's University in Scotland, expert David Battie met a man who'd been unknowingly hoarding a treasure for two decades.

The item's owner, puzzled about its origin, confessed: "Not really, I think it's Japanese. It was given to me by my mother about 20 years ago."

He added, recalling his mother's penchant for second-hand curiosities: "She liked charity shops, still does, and anything with an animal on it, she would give me."

Elaborating on his eclectic collection, he said: "She got wooden elephants and China ducks and she gave me this and I thought it was different. It was all broken, the piece of string was broken, it was 50p.", reports the Express.

Battie enthused over the find, saying: "I think it is just the most magical object. This is an inro, it is Japanese, you are right."

He then detailed the item's purpose: "And the Japanese used to carry small objects around in their seals, medicines, spices, that sort of thing.

"You then come through the cord which you've got more or less right there, to the ojime which actually tensions that."

He also advised: "Now it won't on yours, because the cord's too thin, you need a thicker cord."

Battie illustrated the traditional way of wearing the netsuke and inro, placing it on his belt to show the guest.

Delving deeper into the history, he noted: "Now I strongly suspect, I mean, we're dealing with a time in Japan in the 19th Century, when the Samurai had been stopped from fighting one another.

"So you had 200 years of peace, the economy's quite robust and not an awful lot of people so they turn to creating show-off objects which the Samurai can wear about his person and inro were one of those. It's essentially lacquer."

"I thought it was plastic actually," the guest chimed in as Battie remarked: "Well in a sense you're right, because lacquer could be considered a form of plastic.

"It isn't. It's actually the sap of the Rhus tree and it comes out of the tree as deadly poisonous and all the people that work with it at that stage die an early death.

"It's then processed and they paint it onto food dishes, wine holders, cups, bowls."

Delving deeper into the object's features, Battie detailed how this particular netsuke was sculpted in the form of a house or hut, adorned with "a soapstone plaque and an inscription.

"I've never seen that before. Very, very unusual. But the real joy is the inro itself," he enthused.

"This fantastic, lobster, crayfish [design], and only the Japanese would have thought to do something literally eccentric, off centre. In Europe, we'd tend to balance it with another one [animal design]."

Describing the item's significance, he proclaimed: "It's an absolutely staggering object. It's possibly by one of the greatest lacquer artists of the late 19th Century, Shibata Zeshin, but I don't know if it is, I'd have to go and do a bit of research on it.

"Even if it's not, it's worth £3,000 to £5,000."

The revelation of the potential value left the guest staggered, as he nervously uttered: "Oh my God. OK."

Battie added with a touch of playfulness, "And if it's [the work of artist Shibata] Zeshin, I don't think I dare tell you. It's really fantastic," prompting the guest to express heartfelt thanks, saying, "I'm really glad I brought it, thank you."

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