Art Deco hairclip shocks owner with 880,000 baht valuation on Antiques Roadshow

A vintage hairclip, nearly discarded multiple times, stunned its owner when it was valued at a whopping 20,000 pounds on the popular TV show Antiques Roadshow. The show, which is aired by the BBC, features experts travelling across the United Kingdom to examine and appraise antiques brought by locals.

Antiques Roadshow, which began operations in 1979, has evaluated millions of items to date. On one episode, a participant brought in a hairclip, immediately catching the attention of jewellery expert Susan Rumfitt. Not only was it stunningly beautiful, but it also held a “not so ordinary” value. The clip originated from the Art Deco era of the 1930s, a period marked by lavish royal parties.

Art Deco is a school of art and design that started in Paris in the 1920s and spread globally in the 1930s. Especially notable is the school’s blend of incongruent ideas and designs. After the 1930s, diamonds became a valuable gemstone, accessible only to the aristocracy, as transporting them to factories was extremely difficult, reported Sanook.

The participant revealed that the hairclip was an heirloom from her old English aristocratic family.

The expert said he could imagine the participant’s grandmother enjoying wearing this.

“Have you ever guessed how many carats it is?”

The participant guessed around three carats before the expert revealed its actual weight to be 14 carats. Besides its historical value, this hairclip is worth a staggering 20,000 pounds, approximately 880,000 baht.

The owner was so surprised by the value of this heirloom from her grandmother that she felt shaky.

“It’s like winning the lottery. There were many times when I thought about throwing it away because it was too old, but now I’m…shocked at the massive profit from this old hairclip.”

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