£½m Fabergé flowers kept in a shoe box

FOR Charles Hanson it was the find of a career in the antiques business – two very rare Fabergé flowers.

Crafted with precious stones and metals in the final years of tsarist Russia, they were found wrapped in a tea towel and are expected to fetch £500,000 at auction.

Mr Hanson, a familiar face on TV’s Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip, says they took his breath away when they were brought into his firm’s office in south-west London.

‘It was totally unexpected – as the best finds always are,’ he said. They had been stored in a shoe box for 40 years until the owner saw that one was valued at £1million on the Antiques Roadshow in March.

One represents a sprig of barberries. Even the vase and the ‘water’ in it is made of carved rock crystal. The other represents morning glory blossom, with enamelled gold flowers, inset with diamonds.

About 80 Fabergé flowers survive – compared to around 40 of the original Imperial Fabergé eggs. The flowers, which are six inches tall, will be auctioned by Hansons on June 11.