Antiques Roadshow guest speechless as dad's old pot revealed to be worth small fortune

An guest was left uneasy on his feet at the unexpected valuation of his father's old pot, handed down to him half a century ago.

The beloved programme set its scene at the picturesque Chenies Manor in Buckinghamshire, where Oriental expert David Battie took centre stage.

A man approached Battie with an ancient pot, clueless about its origins, admitting: "I've got no idea. It was given to me by my father probably 50 years ago and I know nothing at all about it."

Battie, intrigued by the piece, revealed that it was a Chinese brush pot crafted from bamboo.

He further explaiend: "And the pots can be anything from actually quite tiny for a tiny brush, up to massive great things for the really big brushes."

"The date, my guess is, it would be somewhere around 1760 to 1810, somewhere along that basis."

Battie delved into the cultural history, describing how brush pots were essential items on a scholar's table, used by the literati who preferred the solitude of nature over administrative duties.

"Brush pots were part of the accoutrements of the scholar's table.

"These were literati, these are people who'd passed the exams, the civil exams, and rather than working as an administrator or whatever, they took themselves off into the Bosky Landscape and did whatever they fancied.

"And some of them were highly skilled poets, writers, painters and carvers.

"They actually did some of the carving themselves. And those objects are now very sought after by today's market."

Expert David Battie was taken aback by the intricate decorations on an antique pot, which featured pine trees, "towering rocks" and what appeared to be Literati in a fishing boat.

The pot also bore Chinese inscriptions, which Battie couldn't fully decipher, but his colleague Freya Yuan revealed it contained a "four-phrase poem".

Battie expressed his admiration: "I like this a lot. It's the kind of thing, like I said, that the Chinese market is very keen on. So you like it?", which the owner concurred.

In a playful haggle, Battie quipped, "If I offered you £300 for it?" However, the owner stood firm, retorting: "No. You could buy it off me for £10,000 and I still wouldn't take it."

Battie then unexpectedly revealed: "I'm not going to offer you £10,000. I'm going to tell you it's worth £30,000 to £40,000."

The revelation sent shockwaves through the audience, eliciting gasps of astonishment.

Overwhelmed, the owner, who looked uneasy on his feet, uttered: "God. Dear," as Battie playfully nudged, "Now you're tempted."

Visibly shaken, the owner exhaled deeply, turning to a relative in the crowd with the words: "Oh boy. Good old dad."

Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.