Antiques Roadshow guest's amazement as 'terrifying' item given five figure value on one condition

An Antiques Roadshow guest was gobsmacked at the potential fortune behind a quirky family heirloom that had been scaring children for years.

Expert Steven Moore, while filming at Woodhorn Museum in Northumberland, encountered a mother and daughter with a peculiar ornament – a fusion of a bird's head and what seemed to be a frog's body.

Moore quipped: "Looking at this, I can't help thinking of a phrase of my grandmother's. 'It's a face only a mother could love.' Do you love them?"

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The mother confessed: "Well I do. For a while it lived in my parents' house in a cupboard in the spare bedroom."

Her daughter, however, recounted: "The bedroom that my brother and I would stay in if we stayed over and we were terrified of it.

"Definitely couldn't sleep with it in there. We would cry until it was removed and hidden far away from us."

Moore continued, highlighting the eccentric nature of the Martin Brothers' creations: "That's the thing about Martin Brothers. They were idiosyncratic, one way to describe them.

"Crazies may be another way to describe them," he added, before probing further into the ornament's bizarre design.

"Robert Wallace Martin who made this, got so much character into this face which is clearly a bird. But what's going on here [with the body]?

"Did you have a name for him or was it just sort of terrified?"

After revealing the item had been called Ernie, Moore quipped: "That seems a very unscary name."

The mum elaborated: "Well the story is that my grandparents saw it in an antique shop and walked past it and admired it a few times, or at least my grandmother did.

"And then one day she walked past and it was gone but what had happened, my grandfather had a winnings on the premium bonds and he went and bought it for her -".

Moore cleverly linked the nickname to the famous lottery computer, saying: "Hence, the name of the computer that drew the premium bonds, of course," referencing Ernie, the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment.

He then noted: "In theory, there's no reason why there could have been a kiln disaster and the body of this one and the head of this one were destroyed and thought 'Well actually, you know what?'

"So yes, maybe they could have put them together but what I think is more likely to happen is a dealer has probably found this [referencing the item's body].

"And thought 'one day, I might find the head'. And they found this head and they put them together and sold them."

When it came to valuing the "collectible" and mismatched items, Moore estimated the base at £2,000 and the head at a hefty £4,000.

"That's a lot for just a head," the daughter responded with a laugh, but Moore had yet another detail to add.

He added: "But there's an intriguing possibility. If you could find the head for this body and you could find the body for this head, you would have a profit of £60,000 to £70,000, because that's how much the two separate items would be if they were complete."

The revelation of such a staggering value left the mum utterly flabbergasted, her face a picture of shock, while her daughter managed to keep her cool.

She responded excitedly: "That is amazing. I don't think he's grown on me and I don't think I'd be impressed if I got him as a birthday present as my great-grandma did.

"So Ernie hasn't gone up in your estimation," Moore joked, to which she said: "He brings back quite funny memories so I feel like he has to stay in the family."

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