'Antiques Roadshow' guest says 'oh gracious' after hearing the real value of her vintage toy set
People who come to “Antiques Roadshow” at times do conduct their own research, but even then, their estimates are far from the value that experts come up with. Knowing the kind of artifacts that turn up on the show, one doesn’t think of toys as items that could get appraised there. That is exactly what happened in an episode of the BBC edition of the show when a guest brought a magnificent set of toys that was supposedly made in the first half of the 19th century. The toy set was of Noah’s Ark, and it had every single character as per the story.
The guest said that it was a “Sunday toy” that her father used to play with when he used to visit his grandmother’s house during his younger days. “Presumably, that’s how it managed to survive all this time. He wasn’t allowed to play with it except on Sundays,” the guest added. The set was in fantastic condition, and that certainly would not have been the case if someone played with it every single day for a period of time.
The Noah’s Ark set had every single character from the famous story. It’s extraordinary how each one of those miniature animals survived getting broken or lost for well over 100 years.
The guest did not expect a lot from the set but was taken by surprise when she realized that it was actually worth 10 times more than what she had believed. “I suppose it might be worth around £2,000 ($2,751),” she said. The expert then revealed its true value, which was a five-figure sum. “One, very recently, in not quite such good condition, with the same number of animals, made over £20,000 ($27,514),” she revealed.
The guest could hardly believe her luck as she closed her eyes and said, “Oh gracious.” This is not the first time that toys have been appraised at a massive value on the show. On an earlier episode of the PBS version of “Antiques Roadshow,” one guest had brought a set of toy soldiers that he had purchased for $400. "I guess it was the Buffalo Bill Wild West cowboy show. I bought it at an auction locally here about 21 years ago," the guest said.
"I had it in my pocket and I said, 'I like it. I'll just buy it and let the devil take the hindmost.' And then that was that," he added while saying that it was a lot of money to pay for a toy set at the time. The expert took a look at it and said that it was made by the Heyde company, a prominent name in the German toy industry.
"This set on today's market, I think, at auction, could bring in the neighborhood of $15,000 to $20,000," he told the guest. This was good news for the guest who was reprimanded as a kid for spending so much money on toys.
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