BBC Antiques Roadshow expert leaves guest fighting back tears at late pal ring's value

ok.co.uk:

An Antiques Roadshow guest was visibly moved when the ring left to him by a late friend was given an unexpected valuation.The episode, filmed at The Royal Hall in Harrogate, featured expert Geoffrey Munn examining a stunning ring and keen to learn its history. "One tiny ring, one blue stone.Tell me about it with you", he asked.The guest responded: "It was left to me by a very dear friend who I'd known for many years and he passed [away] quite recently." "I hadn't seen him for nearly two years and then out of the blue, I received a letter saying that I'd been left a bunch of his belongings." "He was a remarkable man.

He collected everything, from artwork to jewellery, he had a real passion for jewellery." "When I was a child, I used to visit his shop, he owned a shop back then, and I would wander among various items, occasionally knocking things over and there were times when I'd be shouted out of the shop, not welcomed back." Munn confirmed the guest's belief that it was a sapphire ring featuring a carved design of Julius Caesar, indicating its Italian origin.

He added: "We should just mention that sapphires are the second hardest material known to man so to carve it in what we call intaglio, which means to cut in, it's a tour de force." "And what else have you noticed about the ring? ". "I know it has a little signature on the bottom, it looks like a niggle", the owner responded.

Munn chuckled as he clarified: "No but actually it's more than a niggle because its back-to-back c's and the back-to-back c's are the monogram of possibly the most famous jeweller working in 19th century Europe." "It's the monogram of the Castellani in Rome." The expert went on to explain that Castellani was a jewellers located near the iconic.