An Antiques Roadshow expert has suffered a bad day in the auction house after mistakenly valuing a school pottery project at £35,000.
Alvin Barr, an antiques broker from South Carolina, presented a glazed ‘grotesque face’ jug for appraisal in a recent episode of the show’s US version after finding it “covered with dirt, straw and chicken droppings” at a Eugene, Oregon estate sale.
“It speaks to me. It was saying: ‘I’m very unusual’, ‘I’m very different’,” he said, adding that he paid $300 for it.
Much to Barr’s surprise, appraiser Stephen L Fletcher became excited by the item and began likening it to the masterpieces of Pablo Picasso. He dated the jug to the late 19th century and priced it at between $30,000 and $50,000.
Antiques Roadshow expert mistakenly values jug at £35k - turns out it was a school art project