Losing a dear one is one of the most heart wrenching things one could ever face. While on one hand they are grieving, on the other they find solace in holding the belongings of the deceased. But have you ever lost someone close to you and found something strange when you went to collect their belongings? That is what happened with this person who found something in the belongings of his grandfather that turned his life around. It was a collection of metal boxes that had been a part of his family for many years. However, when he consulted Antiques Roadshow, he was left in a state of shock.
The Value Was Unbelievable
Antiques Roadshow is a show that features some antique pieces and experts tell the actual price of your weird belongings. In most episodes, people are disappointed with the dull amount of money they get for their belongings. It began like a regular episode with people leaving with disappointed faces. However, when one man appeared with some exotic iron boxes, the aura completely changed. The experts couldn’t believe what they were looking at. The expert revealed the true purpose of the box and left the owner bewildered with how much they thought the boxes were worth.
A Special Episode
The show is known for exploring the most unusual venues to showcase their appraisals. But when they appeared at Abbey Pumping Station, the viewers knew they were in for some unconventional stuff. Originally a sewage pump, Abbey is now a museum of science and technology. This time Fiona Bruce was about to host the show where these mysterious boxes were going to make an appearance. But the owner of the exotic boxes needed the right person for the job.
Needing Some Expert Advice
The man realized that his family had these boxes for a long time and he needed an expert to give him the exact details of the boxes his grandfather had owned. Antique Roadshow knew the apt person with immense experience in the field. International Director of Asian Art at Christie’s Auction House, Amin Jaffer was the person in question. He had worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum for over a decade. Of course he knew his way around the exotic boxes but even for him, they were a strange surprise.
A Startled Expert
There is no denying the fact that Amin has a thorough travel history. His job has brought him face-to-face with a lot of different antiques on the planet. He had opportunities of exploring different metal boxes. He thought he had come across everything and there was nothing left that had missed his eyes. He wasn’t aware that he was going to be proven wrong at this particular episode of Antiques Roadshow. This man gave him the chance to feast his eyes with the most unfamiliar exotic metal boxes of all time.
Some Mysterious Boxes
After all the boring stuff, Amin had a chance to examine the boxes for the first time and it isn’t wrong to say that he was in awe of the man’s metal boxes. His first reaction was, “Well, these saucer-shaped containers are rather mysterious looking.” He had many questions running in his mind. He wanted to know how the man got the boxes and how much he had spent on them. The questions were never ending but the answers he received left him dumbfounded.
Obsessed With The Boxes
The boxes blew Amin’s mind and he wanted to know the details of the collection. He wanted to know so much about them but for starters he wondered how the man had built his huge collection. He said, “I’m rather fascinated by how you acquired so many of these.” Before answering any of his questions, the owner admitted that he was obsessed with the collection and considered it unhealthy. After he acquired a few of those boxes, he was determined to collect more.
A Deal To Steal
Amin knew that not many people are aware of what these boxes are. So it would be easy to get them at a bargain. Their worth is much more than a usual person can guess. The owner of the boxes was talking about one specific box and he said that he had got from France. The person selling the box didn’t know what it was and hence, he got it for 70 bucks. The most unusual thing about those boxes was that he hadn’t paid for most of them as he found them in the most unorthodox places.
Clueless About The Boxes
Apart from the appearance of the exotic looking boxes, the owner was most intrigued by the lack of information about them. He was fascinated by the mystery that surrounded the boxes. He said, “It just interested me. They’re not known about in the west. It’s something that people have no idea about. So, I started doing more research and started collecting and found them in the oddest places.” The part that shook them the most was that a few of them were found near his home.
Inherited From Grandfather
The owner told that his grandfather was the original owner of the boxes. Some things that are passed down to us from the previous generations are incredible. But this man had no idea that his grandfather had a collection of strange looking boxes. He said, “When I was clearing my grandfather’s house after he passed away I found a couple of these boxed-things in a drawer.” At first he didn’t know what they were. But later, he joined the dots by the little information he had of his grandfather and decoded the truth about the boxes.
Traveling Through Asia
The grandson sat down with the little knowledge he had about his grandfather’s life to figure out what these boxes were doing in his drawers. After getting down the road of details, he realized that the boxes are from Asia. He said, “I had no idea what they were so I started to do a little bit of research. I know he was born in New Zealand…he traveled around the Southern Indian continents – Indonesia, Sri Lanka, around there.” The last piece of information completed the puzzle for him and he had his doubts cleared.
Suspecting A Betel Box
The man told Amin what he suspects the boxes were. He said, “So, I started looking in that direction, I did discover exactly what they are – Betel Lime Boxes.” Jaffer knew that the man was right and the boxes were indeed Betel Lime Boxes. The moment he saw the boxes, he knew what they were. He knew about them because there was a gold betel container shaped like a bird kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum where he worked for over a decade. Not only this, he also knew what those boxes were designed for.
Love For A Classic Treat
Jaffer had an explanation and he said that these boxes were initially made to carry paan wherever people went. If you’re wondering what a paan is, it is one of the most popular treats in many Asian countries. He further explained, “Throughout South Asia and South-East Asia there is a culture of having areca nut, what we also call Betel nut.” Before driving home the importance of the betel box, he wanted them to know what the betel treat consisted of.
Containers For Lime
Jaffer was talking about the nut with great enthusiasm. He said, “The nut would often be sliced up, fermented, mixed up with different spices and consumed often in a betel leaf. But the main mixture in all of this was a lime paste, and it was an edible lime and of course, these containers were used for the lime.” Jaffer knew exactly what he was talking about. He proved his point by opening one of the boxes and there it was.
A Living Proof
The moment the box was opened, the owner knew what Amin was talking about. There were traces of lime present in the box. "You can even see if you open them up," he explained. "[And] can still see the traces of the lime. You can see how used these would've been." It was evident at this point that the box was used very often. Amin noticed that there were different types of boxes in the collection and the apparatus attached to them. These details revealed where the boxes had been and Amin was excited to explain further.
A Game Of Spoons And Chains
Amin noticed that many of the exotic boxes from this collection had metal chains and spoons attached to them. He held one of these boxes and pointed out a feature about it. He said, “This one’s rather handy because it comes with its very own little spatula – a little spoon.” The owner was now confused. He wanted to know why some of them had extra spoons and chains attached to them while others did not. And as expected, Jaffer had answers to all his curiosity ridden questions.
Appreciating The Portable Device
We live in a time when every single person has at least one portable device in their hand. Whether it is a smartphone to stay connected on the go or a kindle to read books any time of the day, we are surrounded by portable devices. There was a time when betel boxes were also a portable device, especially in the southern part of Asia. Jaffer explained, “As you can see, they were designed to be portable.” Amin wasn’t the only one with answers, the owner had an interesting theory too.
Protecting Against Poisoning
The collector had his own theory about the real reason these boxes were invented- to prevent its owner from getting poisoned. "There is a story that to get rid of your enemy in love or war, the easiest way was to poison the person," he said. The man further explained, “And they generally [did] it with a lime. So, in the end, people thought that it would be better to carry my own personal supply of lime with me.” Despite this explanation, Jaffer had his own views on the matter.
Mark Of Eastern Hospitality
Jaffer didn’t condemn the owner’s story but he had different beliefs. He said that the purpose of carrying a betel box was hospitality. Eastern people think highly of hospitality and that is why they took it along with them wherever they went. Amin explained, “Having betel nut and having a little package of betel nut in the leaf was a form of hospitality and engagement and it was done all the time, it was like having a cup of tea.” However, there was some truth behind the collector’s theory and here’s why.
Lime For Protection
While the story about the boxes preventing poisoning didn’t convince Jaffer, he did agree that there was a health reason behind their invention. He said, “The lime could be infected quite easily. It could be mixed up…with all different types of ingredients quite easily, narcotics, etc. So the idea was that by carrying your own lime, you were making sure that what you consumed was always safe.” But it wasn’t just the purpose of the boxes that stood out, it was also their design.
Where East Meets West
The design of these boxes was something that reflected the combination of the east and the west. The most interesting detail of these boxes was explained by Jaffer. He said, “Well, what’s really fascinating is that many of them are designed based on European men’s pocket watches. So if you look at the shape, it’s just like a pocket watch. We have a little bit of East and West. It’s a completely Eastern habit, but the design is coming from the West.” There was one box that attracted Amin’s attention the most.
The Favorite Box
Amin was extra drawn to a box with two separate containers. He said, “The actual box for the betel nut and…the beautiful little container here for the lime. This is the type of thing in the 19th century or the early 20th century a gentleman from Ceylon…would travel around with… showing how sophisticated he was.” Despite all the praise, the owner didn’t actually figure out what the hype was all about. It was unclear to the collector how much Amin would value the boxes in the end.
A Hard To Believe Number
After all the discussion, Jaffer decided to break the mystery of how much it all cost and the estimated value left the owner in a stunned state. His first reaction was to laugh at the big number he was told. He realized that all this time, he had a fortune with him and he didn’t know. People present there had a similar reaction when Jaffer said it was time well spent by his grandfather. But what was the actual value of the boxes?
Revealing The Actual Price
When Jaffer was about to declare the value of the boxes, everyone was staring at him to get rid of the mystery. He said, “I would have thought in the area for the whole group for the right buyer, of something like £15,000-£20,000.” This means that the owner was about to get a handsome amount between $20,000 and $27,000. However, this was not the end of the story. There was a secret the owner was about to reveal on national television.
Many More To Come
On one side Jaffer was excited about the man’s collection of beetle boxes and on the other, the collector was about to reveal a secret. The owner shared an interesting piece of information- there were more at his home. Amin said, “I haven’t seen all of them. I know you still have some hidden at home that you haven’t brought.” This value was to be revised once Jaffer saw them all. Regardless of how many more boxes he had, there was one question that pressed everyone.
Confused About The Next Step
After the evaluation of the boxes, the owner was at a loss of words and he couldn’t express his actual thoughts on camera. It was a stunning valuation of his boxes and yet, something didn’t feel right. The money did lure him but he wasn’t sure if he was ready to part with the boxes after keeping them for all these years. As of October 2019, it wasn’t clear if he decided to hand over the boxes to Antiques Roadshow. He could either be sitting on a goldmine or cashing it!
Getting Back To Work
Amin Jaffer is a professional and knows not all antiques can be around him. After coming in contact with one of the most exotic boxes in history, he is back to his usual life. He is still on to finding some amazing antiques. He has undying hope that he will find even bigger and greater antiques from the past. He believes that betel boxes were proof that he can still find stunning antiques. After finding this incredible treasure, Amin believes that hard work always pays off.
Spilling The Beans On Social Media
The makers of Antiques Roadshow were ecstatic to share their story of coming across exotic beetle boxes with people on social media. They shared a tweet about the treasured boxes on Twitter after the airing of the episode. The tweet read, “These 19th-century betel lime boxes were not only convenient but also kept the owner safe from poisoning!” They gave a little hint why that episode was special and shared some photos with the tweet. Now it was time to wait for the response and see if their followers thrilled about this important find.
A Lukewarm Reaction
If anyone said that the lifesaving betel boxes went viral, they’d be lying. Sadly, the tweet received a very lukewarm reaction. It received 9 retweets and a bit more likes, 15 to be precise. Only a few people took out time to share their views about that specific episode. One of them wrote, “Betel nut boxes – never heard of them, but fascinating collection #antiquesroadshow.” While beetle boxes didn’t receive much love online, they will remain fascinating for anyone interested in antiques.
