A man who dug up a bronze pig at the bottom of his garden when he was a child was shocked to find out its astonishing predicted value on Antiques Roadshow.
The small figurine was unearthed several years ago in Cottenham and was taken to expert John Foster on Sunday night’s show (January 17).
“This looks to be Roman and first, second AD if it were right,” said Mr Foster. “That would sort of fit in with this area – Roman settlements and all that sort of stuff.”
“Looking at it overall, it's a pig cast in bronze... the detail in the face, the eyes, the tusks, it is almost too good to be true... I think a lot of these were decretive.”
The owner told Mr Foster that it just “sits on the shelf” and that he doesn’t think “it will be worth anything particularly”.
Mr Foster said: “This is going from a gut instinct, there’s work to do here and it needs to go off to a museum... I think at auction [its worth] in the region of £10,000.”
“I was not expecting that,” said the shocked owner. “I thought it might only be worth £100... I wouldn’t really want to sell it; it’s always been a part of the home.”
Mr Foster added: “I’ve never seen a pig of that quality, you see plenty of pigs and boars because they were hugely important in Roman times – but never one like that.”
To watch Antiques Roadshow on the BBC iPlayer, visit: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b006mj2y/antiques-roadshow
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