BBC Antiques Roadshow expert slaps £50k+ price tag on rare Titanic artefact – before delivering major catch
One Antiques Roadshow guest was told they may have been sitting on a fortune thanks to a piece from one of the Titanic’s lifeboats during Sunday’s instalment.
Antiques expert and Titanic specialist Hilary Kay was tasked with slapping a value on the unique artefact after the guest claimed it was a rowlock taken from one of the damned ship’s lifeboats.
“When I woke up this morning, I can assure you I didn’t expect to see this,” Kay said as she kicked off the evaluation at Beaumaris Castle in Wales.
She continued: “Which is a brass rowlock on a board which says, ‘Titanic Lifeboat No.3’. So I have to ask you, which member of your family was on the Titanic, and obviously survived?”
“None of us,” the guest bluntly replied with a chuckle before Kay probed further: “Okay, so there has to be another explanation… How did you get hold of it?”
The owner explained: “We recently purchased a house in Llandudno last year and as we was sifting through the house, we obviously took the contents as well.
“And we came across this in the corner of the garage, really. It was just in a corner. As we were rummaging around in the corner, we pulled it out and it was just like… yeah.”
The guest admitted he’d have had no idea what it was if not for the plaque on the item and keen to provide more information, Kay delved into the backstory.
Kay said: “Everybody knows the history of the Titanic. Lifeboats were launched. Now, lifeboat number three was on the starboard side and although it could have held 65 people, it’s believed there were only between 36 and 38 on board.
“When one looks at what happened to those lifeboats, they were brought on board the Carpathia, the ship that rescued all those folks in lifeboats. And then the Carpathia took it to pier number 59, the White Star Pier at New York.”
Kay’s history lesson continued: “And then all the name boards that said Titanic were taken off. And those lifeboats sat there, until – well, for another six months and then they were dispersed.
“Harland and Wolff, the maker of Titanic, produced all the clinker-built lifeboats to go with them and every lifeboat had 10 oars, so presumably 10 rowlocks.
“Whether there were on the Olympic or on the Titanic or later on the Britannic, they were just generic rowlocks.”
With the background now covered, Kay turned her attention to the item’s authenticity: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could categorically say that this is from lifeboat number three on the Titanic?
“And if it was, we could be talking about in excess of £50,000 for value.”
The owner chuckled in disbelief while the crowd around gasped and giggled too, but Kay was keen to lower expectations.
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“But, although there’s probably some fairy dust sprinkled over it, we can’t say it for sure,” she admitted.
“So I’m afraid we’ve got to leave it out there as a mystery as to where it ultimately came from. Thanks so much indeed,” she signed off.
Despite being left in the dark as to whether he possessed a lucrative and rare find or not, the owner smiled and thanked Kay for her time.