Note of septic tank? Vial surprise for antiques guru
ON REFLECTION, the imposing bouquet of “septic tank” may have been too strong on the nose for this to be of the finest vintage.
With a grimace, Andy Mcconnell, Antiques Roadshow’s glassware specialist, quaffed the unknown beverage from a sealed 150-year-old bottle and believed it was port.
But expert analysis on the mystery liquid revealed the reeking contents of the bottle to be 19th-century urine.
Despite ultimately sipping antique bodily fluids, Mr Mcconnell told The Daily Telegraph his experience was “bloody brilliant”, and he could not resist risking his palate on something that smelled “like a septic tank”.
He inadvertently sipped the wellaged urine when valuing a bottle in Trelissick, Cornwall, for a 2016 pro- gramme, after the item was found buried under the threshold of a house.
In an episode broadcast on Sunday, Fiona Bruce, the presenter of the longrunning programme, had bad news for Mr Mcconnell, after experts at Loughborough University had analysed the contents of the bottle. “Bloody brilliant,” he said of the twist of fate. “I mean, just great. It was serendipity. One has absolutely no idea what is coming on to the show. I wanted to know what was in there.”
Mr Mcconnell was allowed to transfer a sample from the bottle to a tumbler using a syringe, with a producer checking health and safety guidelines before asking the expert: “Andy, you’re not going to drink that are you?”.
“It smelled absolutely rank,” said the antiquarian. “I thought ‘let’s do it’. There wasn’t any real mental process, or there was, and it was me being completely mental.
“But, in for a penny, in for a pound.” The “very brown” liquid inside the bottle was found to be urine, with a trace of alcohol. The 19th-century item also contained other unpalatable items, including brass pins and a human hair.
Mr Mcconnell said: “People were really expecting me to roll over and die.
“I didn’t know it would be urine, 200-year-old urine was not part of the thought process.
“It took 24 hours to get the stink off my hands, I had to scrub them with Jif.”
While dismayed by the disclosures, Mr Mcconnell was not deterred.
“I’m a bit of a nutter, there’s no doubt about that. I’m a ‘yes’ person,” he said. “Bring it on. Hopefully someone brings something nicer than urine next time.”