Antiques Roadshow guest left in disbelief over sculptures staggering valuation

Antiques Roadshow guest wowed by value of painting

An Antiques Roadshow guest was left shaking her head after expert Will Farmer revealed the staggering value of her statue during the latest instalment of the BBC show.

Will asked: “Do you love her?” The guest replied: “I do indeed, I look at her every day.”

“She’s just so simplified down to almost an economy of line,” Will added. “There is an elegance, there’s a pose, there’s a posture to her and she is just so charming and just so beautiful but how did she come to be in your life?”

The guest explained she thought the sculpture came from the French side of the family.

She had great-grandparents in Paris in the early 1900s and then a great-aunt who continued to live in France.

There was a “lovely” signature on the piece’s base reading J Bernard which stood for Joseph Bernard.

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He was born in 1866 just outside of Lyon, in France, and he studied at the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Lyon and progressed in Paris.

Will exclaimed: “What we are looking at here is one of his most famous and most celebrated works which is Jeune Fille A La Cruche, which is a young girl with a jug.

“There is something clearly classical here but you can also see that we are moving towards Art Deco. He is hailed by so many as being the father of this movement and the father of this style and one of the true pioneers of the Art Deco movement.”

He branded the artist’s work as influential and said he was renowned for working directly into stone.

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“You see the limbs are tighter into the body and the hair is often plaited,” Will explained.

Before revealing the value of the piece to the anxious guest, Will said he “loves her”.

“I can tell you that one of these did appear in an auction last year in Paris.” he continued. “It was estimated at £15,000 to £20,000.”

The guest looked stunned and replied: “No,” before Will interjected: “But it didn’t fetch £15,000 to £20,000, I am really sorry. It sold for the equivalent in sterling of £40,000.”

The guest was staggered as she gasped: “Oh, no. Oh, my God. No, no, no, no! Oh my goodness.

“Well, that’s quite something for the family because she is a family piece and we are so lucky.”

Will replied: “We are only custodians, my grandmother always taught me that. We never own anything, we merely look after that.

“You have that pleasure and you have that right, thank you for bringing it in.”

Antiques Roadshow episodes are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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