WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow. An Antiques Roadshow guest told an expert to “stop it” when he shared the almighty price tag of her inherited and rare lighter. The BBC series travelled to Portchester where expert Mark Hill was met with a guest who wanted a decorative and personal item to be appraised.
“So we’re looking at a, dare I say, rather kitsch 1950s, 1960s cigarette lighter”, he said. She stated: “My father worked for Dunhill as a salesman in the 1950s.” Mark replied: “Magic word - Dunhill.
And of course there it is on the front. What we’re looking at is what is called a Dunhill ‘aquarium’ lighter and one thing you don’t find in an aquarium is moths.” The guest said: “That’s always intrigued me a bit really, because I have heard it’s called an aquarium lighter and it seems bizarre there’s moths on it.
” Hill questioned if she had seen any aquarium lighters before with her commenting that she had on Antiques Roadshow where they were decorated with fish. “And they’re bright colours and they’re jolly and jazzy aren’t they?” he continued. “And that’s what this was all about so they were effectively little artworks in their own right.
“They would take a panel of lucite and they would carve from the back the pattern out so they had a watercolour to work from which had been approved by Dunhill. “And then they’d be sent elsewhere to be painted in bright colours so you end up with these almos.