Victorian Micromosaic Jewellery Hidden In An Oven Survives A Sunday Roast | Antiques Roadshow UK

Well now, set out here on the pads, a very unusual set of jewellery. What's the story behind them? Where did they come from? This belonged to my mother and it was quite a prized possession for her. She used to hide them in these various places inside the house and occasionally she would shove them around from place to place. One fine day she decided to put this set in this box in the oven. In the oven? Yes, but she prepared a Sunday roast without even seeing the box. Luckily enough, it was strong enough to protect the whole set. That's the box? That's the box. And indeed there it is, showing you some distress burn marks caused by the jewellery in the box being heated up to regular level five or whatever it might have been. Wow, I've never heard that one before. Okay, well now you can see it's a set, it's called a parure of jewellery, comprising a bangle, a brooch and drops for the ears. Parure is when you get various components of matching design. In this case we've got this large, rather naturalistic looking beetle, a scarab beetle and it's in a yellow frame with little tassel drops coming off the bottom of it there. Same here, this hasn't got the tassel but you can see the same construction here. Scrolling around the frame and this bright yellow colour. So first thing, where's it from? It's Italian, it's from Rome and it was made in around about 1870, so it's about 150 years old. It does make sense, reflecting our heritage. You have family, ancestry that went back there? We have both French and Italian. Italy, good. Okay, well that dovetails in nicely. The beetles are micro-mosaic, mosaic, little tiny pieces of coloured glass that are put together to form a decorative device, a pattern, a design and they can be anything from naturalistic ruins to birds and bees to beetles and beetles were actually quite a popular design in that time, 1870s. Now the frames are high carat bright yellow gold. The condition of the bangle at the back is not terrific. I would say these have been used and worn quite frequently in their 150-year life but as a set it's a very, very bold and exciting looking set. So £600, £600, about £800 to £1,000. So the set, the whole lot of cooked jewellery in the gas stove is £2,000, £2,500 at auction. Finally, it's sentimental value that goes behind it. In your family. It will remain. It's priceless. Are you going to wear this when you get married? Well, I'm actually going to wear it for my engagement party pretty soon too. Right, well don't keep it in the oven if I may suggest.