WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Antiques Roadshow.

An Antiques Roadshow expert threw his arms in the air when a guest made an unexpected confession.

The BBC daytime series filmed at Ebrington Square in Derry when expert Mark Hill met a woman who was keen to have her orange armchair appraised.

“It’s a bit battered I think but it’s beautiful," Hill stated.

She replied: “We kind of thought the same thing. I especially thought that when my husband brought them home after picking them up in a charity shop for £10. We’ve got two of them and £10 each he paid.”

The expert queried: “Were you angry about this or were you happy when he turns up after being sent out for a pint of milk with two battered old chairs?”, as she shared her love for “mid-century furniture”.

She continued: “The orange, the material, put me off a little bit. Doesn’t put the dogs off. They enjoy them very much.

“So we have a dog sit on each one in the window looking out at the view.”
An Antiques Roadshow expert believed a 'battered' chair was created by designer Adrian Pearsall. (
Image:
BBC)

Hill went on to point out the chair’s “curving lines” thanks to the use of its “beautiful wood” that screamed Scandinavian modernism.

He then pointed out the chair’s legs, stating that they were not from the UK but rather America, indicating who the maker was.

Hill continued: “Looking at the shape, there’s a name that pops into my mind and that name is Adrian Pearsall.

“So, Adrian Pearsall studied construction engineering at the University of Illinois and in 1952, he’d sort of moved more into furniture and he founded a company called Craft Associates which was well known for producing these very sort of sculptural, elegant forms. And I think this is one of his lounge chairs.”

Hill then began to summarise: “If these were restored, I think they’d need to be a little bit sanded down and then the colour and the grain and the beauty of the wood brought back out.
An Antiques Roadshow guest smiled as she admitted her dogs would continue to sleep on her valuable chairs. (
Image:
BBC)

“These are the original seat pads, which I know we don’t like. You could replace them if you like but I’d tend to leave them as they were.

“Clean off the dog hair and I think you’re looking at, what, £600 each.”

The chair’s owner beamed: “Great. Thank you. Thank you very much.”

“Not bad for a charity shop dive, is it?”, Hill teased before he then asked: “Answer me one final question. When you get them home, are the dogs going to sleep on them?”

She smiled: “Probably”, as Hill gasped: “Ah!”, flinging his arms into the air and exclaiming: “Heresy!”

He then laughed and once again thanked his guest for giving him a chance to look over the chair.

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