WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.
An Antiques Roadshow expert slammed a previous appraiser of a valuable doll for being “unethical”.
A guest brought in a French doll to be valued on the PBS daytime series, explaining that her antique collector parents got it for her when she was little.
But as they knew it could be a valuable item, she sadly wasn’t allowed to play with it and it wasn’t until her mother passed away that the guest got her hands on the toy at last.
The owner and her sister thought it could be worth a lot of money due to the original outfit and so took her to a “creepy” doll hospital.
It was here that they received their first appraisal for the item which neither of them quite believed.
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She commented: “And then there was [a] man there who had a very long beard and he looked at the doll and he said: ‘Can we keep her to evaluate her?’.
“A week later, they called us and said: ‘You’ve got to come down, you’ve got to come down.
“‘This is the highest price doll we ever saw.’
“So we went down and they said: ‘She’s worth $16,000.’ and we went ‘OK’ [pulls face].”
This wasn’t the only time the doll had been appraised as she continued: “A few years later, we went to this wannabe roadshow and we had her evaluated again and they told me it was worth $3,000 and they wanted to purchase her.
“But my husband said: ‘Oh no, she’s worth $16,000.’ and again it was like, really?”
Before expert Billye Harris went to the appraisal, she couldn’t help but comment on the second value given.
She stated: “It’s very inappropriate and unethical in our business to offer to buy something after we appraise it.”
Harris then clarified that it was a Schmitt et Fils of Paris, France doll, known as a French bebe.
“She’s in her original French costume with her little straw hat, her little lace dress, her wonderful socks and original labelled shoes”, Harris said.
“She’s made of bisque and she has paperweight eyes and a composition body.
“When we turn her around, we will see that she is marked and it’s very difficult to see under her little wig but there’s a little shield mark with ‘SH’ in it and that stands for Schmitt and then we have ‘000’.
“And then also on her bottom, we would see that it’s marked in the same way.”
Harris went on to conclude: “These dolls were made in the 1880s and they were sold as the finest French dolls.
“Beautifully made, very excited to see her. So now we need to decide if the fake appraisal fair or the weird man with the long beard is right about her value.
“A little doll like this, at retail would sell for $16,000 to $18,000.
“I’ve even seen them at auction sell for more. Very desirable, high-end doll.”
The guest then pulled a face and said: “Oh my goodness. Well I guess I shouldn’t have laughed.”
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on PBS.
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