WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.
A guest at the Antiques Roadshow had to laugh when she was told the price of a dress she had never really looked at.
A crowd gathered at the BBC show as expert Hilary Kay prepared to inspect a stunning dress belonging to a pensioner in the grounds of Tewkesbury Abbey.
Kay began, “When I look at this dress, I can somehow imagine the scene on a misty morning, a woman walking through the meadows of the Abbey. It’s beautiful, and is it a family heirloom?”
The guest bluntly replied, “No,” which amused Kay greatly and she said, “Oh,” causing her and the audience to laugh.
She continued: “I was given it as a gift from a friend in the 1960s. And she gave it to me because I had just had a daughter and I think she thought she might be interested in dressing up in it later.”
When asked if her daughter had ever tried it on, the guest stated that it had “never been touched” and she had “never seen it in use,” which surprised Kay greatly.
“You’ve never seen it in the exhibition? This is the first time you’ve actually seen it -” to which the guest replies: “Yes, seen it in the exhibition.”
“What do you think it looks like?” asked Kay and the guest commented that it looked “very beautiful, beautiful”.
Kay explained that the dress, which had been sitting in a box for decades, was known as the robe à la francaise, or sack-back robe. The outfit had an open front that women wore with a petticoat underneath, as well as wide hoop skirts to create the “wonderful silhouette.”
She said: “Imagine wearing this in candlelight in the 1760s or 1770s, the period it comes from. How it would have glittered and sparkled and shadows would have fallen down the side of the dress. It would have been quite extraordinary.”
Kay further explained that it was made of painted silk with raised pockets in the panels to give it a three-dimensional look.
The back of the dress features box pleats running from the shoulder blades to the hem, giving it a train effect and making “quite a statement.”
“When you look at a dress like this, you have to realize that this is an extraordinary piece of survival,” Kay added.
“Painted fabrics are notoriously difficult to preserve and the fact that they were kept in a box for so long perhaps explains why they did not simply fall apart, which so often happens.
“It is an incredibly rare surviving piece, it is beautiful, it has a wonderful design and, perhaps more importantly, a dress like this is in great demand among collectors and museums around the world.
“The future is way out there, here in Tewkesbury, and who knows where it will end up, but it’s for a major museum somewhere in the world.”
Kay then summed up: “And what was a gift from a friend will now be worth around £40,000.”
As the audience gasped, the guests giggled, amazed at the enormous size of a dress she had never seen displayed like that before. She laughed, “Oh, don’t tell my granddaughter! Oh dear, I can’t believe it.”
The Antiques Roadshow can be viewed on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
