Antiques Roadshow S45E07 - Eden Project 1

In this special episode, filmed before the Accession, Fiona introduces the Queen Consort to roadshow visitors and members of the team of experts, and finds out about her close connection to the Eden Project and the charity The Big Lunch.

Like any visitor to the roadshow, the Queen Consort has brought some personal items to share with the experts. Silver specialist Duncan Campbell is thrilled to see a rare snuffbox from the Royal Collection that was made from Cornish silver, while books expert Justin Croft admires a copy of Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard. The Queen Consort describes her love for the poem and her interest in the book's exquisite binding, which was done in 1899 by the Guild of Women Binders.

The Queen Consort also joins Fiona for a ‘guess the mystery item' challenge posed by jewellery specialist Geoffrey Munn. Can they work out the true purpose of three unusual items – a piece of rock crystal, a silver plaque decorated with a pair of eyes, and two jewelled arrows?

Elsewhere in the show, Alastair Chandler comes across a Rolex Submariner bought in Yemen in the 1960s and used by its owner for underwater swimming and spear fishing. Robert Tilney meets a member of the Goldfish Club bearing his precious Goldfish badge, awarded after surviving a crash-landing in the North Sea.

Cornish treasures spotted by Chris Yeo include a Huer's horn, sounded by lookouts on cliffs when they spotted a shoal of pilchards during the height of Cornwall's fishing industry. Duncan Campbell is delighted to see a rare silver gig trophy, awarded for the national sport of gig racing, which draws its origins from the Cornish rowing boats once used to help larger vessels in distress.

And from the other side of the world, Lee Young is wowed by a Ming Dynasty bronze Buddha, discovered by metal detectors on a beach in Western Australia. Could it have links to a 15th-century Chinese treasure expedition, or was it left on the beach more recently?