WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow. An Antiques Roadshow expert couldn’t quite believe it when he discovered a “spectacular” 18th Century Imperial robe was used by children used to play with. BBC expert Lee Young met an elderly couple at Ham House, Richmond, who brought along a stunning robe for him to appraise.
“There are those moments in your life where you will always remember and I’ll always remember standing here but I’ll certainly always remember the first time that I saw this spectacular robe”, he commented. Explaining the provenance, the elderly gentleman said: “I was brought to the UK by Sarah’s grandfather probably in the early 1930s and he was general manager of the standard bank in India in Kolkata.” His wife added that she thought it was a present and when Lee questioned where it had been, she laughed: “It was in the dressing up box.
” “No! So did you wear it as a child?” the expert asked as she nodded: “Oh yes." Lee continued: “So look, 1750, it certainly would be Imperial, it’s a ladies’ robe. A robe of 1750 is a very rare robe indeed.
I mean, there are few survivors, the only other ones I know of this type, you have to go to Beijing and go to the Palace Museum to see one of these. It really is a museum item.” He stated that it wasn’t a robe of an Empress as those are usually bright yellow and this particular one had a “slight green tinge” to it.
Nevertheless, it was Imperial as it featured .