For Jewelry Enthusiast Flora Steel, Lightning Strikes Thrice!

In 1988, jewelry enthusiast Flora Steel found an interesting-looking silver brooch at an antique market in England. Not recognizing a maker, but drawn to what she described as “its strong design, strange lettering, and unusual stones” –a lapis lazuli in the center, coral and malachite alternating around the circular frame—she bought it for under £20 (or $25).

Thirty-five years later, Steel was watching a clip of “Most Wanted Finds” from Antiques Roadshow and saw something familiar. Jewelry specialist Geoffrey Munn displayed a sketch of designs for brooches by 19th-century architect and designer William Burges. Munn explained that the brooches themselves have been lost to history; finding one would be a “holy grail” worth about £10,000 ($12,500). Steel realized that the inexpensive brooch she had bought years ago matched one of the designs. She contacted the show and appeared on its 2023 “At Christmas” episode, where Munn confirmed that her brooch was Burges’s design.

This is already a fantastic story, but it’s even more amazing for being the third time this has happened! The “Most Wanted Finds” clip originally aired in 2011, when Jill Cousins of Leicestershire watched it and recognized a brooch that had been languishing in her jewelry box for 20 years. This one had a garnet heart in the center and a frame resembling interlaced twigs with four forget-me-nots with turquoise centers. She had been planning to sell it for £10 at a local market; instead, she contacted the Gildings auction house, where it sold in August of that year for £31,000 ($40,000), more than tripling Munn’s estimate.

Lightning struck twice in 2011: another Antiques Roadshow viewer saw the same episode and owned a brooch with the same design. This one was also sold through Gildings but in a private sale to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Burges, one of the greatest architects of the Gothic Revival period, was commissioned to design the brooches as gifts for bridesmaids at clients’ weddings. In Victorian England, it was a custom for the groom to give small gifts to the bridesmaids, usually a small piece of jewelry like a brooch or pendant. They often incorporated the bride’s and groom’s family arms or featured symbolic designs.

Steel’s brooch will be sold at Gildings’ upcoming Jewellery & Watches auction, scheduled for March 5, 2024.

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