ANTIQUES Roadshow were left open-mouthed at a HUGE offer for an old pen passed on by a late husband.
The show parked up at Christchurch Park in Ipswich for Thursday’s episode, leaving Mark Hill with the task of valuing a rare Japanese pen.
The guest brought along a Japanese dip pen alongside a matching pencil, both in excellent condition.
The pen was bought by the guest’s late husband, who was a fan of antiques.
But she was very surprised by the valuation from the antique expert – who said it was worth up to £30,000.
Mark said: “If you were writing a letter by hand in the 1920s or 30s and you were a rather wealthy person, you might have written a letter with this pen here.
“And it doesn’t look much like a pen. But if I unscrew this… swizzle it around and there it is.
“There’s the nib and it turns into a little dip pen. And next door to it, by the same maker, we have a bridge pencil.
“Recognisable from its conical shape. So I’m guessing you had a very wealthy, letter-writing, bridge-playing ancestor.”
The guest explained: “No I don’t think so! Not that I’m aware of, no. Well, it came from my late first husband, who was very much into antiques.
“Didn’t collect anything in particular. But just small interesting items and particularly of oriental origin.”
Mark then went onto explain why it was valued so highly.
He said: “So this pen was made in Japan in the 1930s by a company called the Namiki Manufacturing Co, which was founded in 1915 by Ryosuke Namiki.
“Namiki’s pens were different because they were covered in lacquer. When I look at these pens there’s a number of features I look for. The first is the design and we’ve got a frog and a lily pad here – quite a popular motif within Japanese art – and then a ship on that one.”
He continued: “The artist, in this case, is Shobi Makizawa and he was born in 1880. And then just on the right-hand side there you have three characters that read ‘Namiki’.
“They’re quite rare so I would say at auction – the pencil, £3,000 to £5,000, maybe £7,000 if it really captures a collector’s eye.
“The pen, maybe £20,000. But it’s in such good condition and it’s in such wonderful quality lacquer it could go to £30,000.”
He concluded: “So in total in your pocket n one sense of the word or the other, you’re looking at over £25,000.”
The guest was completely stunned, saying: “Oh gracious, I don’t know what to say. That is good news.”
Watch Antiques Roadshow on the BBC iPlayer now.
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