WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.
An Antiques Roadshow guest couldn't help but pull a face when it came out that his early prints were worth a small fortune.
The episode, filmed at Pollok Park in Glasgow, featured expert Matthew Haley who was introduced to an owner of an impressive collection of early prints, which he immediately described as "absolutely amazing".
The guest explained how he came to own the collection, saying: "This one here, the wife bought me that. That's a Koberger Bible from 1485."
He added: "She knew I was interested in old print and I got that. I wasn't really interested in the figures, I was more interested in typefaces."
His fascination with different typefaces led him to start collecting early prints from Germany, Rome, Paris, and eventually England.
The guest's interest in print stemmed from his employment at a "print and ink company", and his wife gifted him the leaf as a "special treat".
Haley responded with a grin: "It really is special. Well done her."
He then declared: "I mean, talk about old prints. These are pretty much the oldest printed thing that we'll ever see on the Antiques Roadshow."
He pointed out a sheet of paper that was printed in 1470, over 550 years ago.
"Gutenberg printing the Gutenberg Bible in 1455 was an absolutely seminal change in, basically, the history of the human race," he concluded.
"Without printing, we wouldn't have had the Reformation. It's like the kind of explosion that happened when the internet came onto the scene. This was happening in the 1450s, 1460s and 1470s."
The guest explained that one of the prints was from the first printing press in Rome, while another was a 1473 print by Pete Schoffer, Gutenberg's apprentice.
Haley remarked: "It's amazing. I mean, when we're touching this, we're touching something that could have been touched by the man who worked with the man who invented printing with movable type.
"For someone like me, who is interested in books, this is absolute gold dust. It's really phenomenal."
The third page was printed by Anton Koberger and had been hand-coloured.
However, it was the smallest leaf that truly captivated Haley, as it was from William Caxton's Polychronicon, printed in 1482.
The expert revealed: "William Caxton, the first person to print in England and in the British Isles and it's printed in English as well.
"It's a type of English but you can read it reasonably well. And this is just a small part of an amazing collection that you've formed."
Wrapping up his appraisal, Haley stated: "Coming on to the idea of value, well, a leaf from this book printed by William Caxton, just one leaf on its own at auction would make something like £600 to £1,000, for just one sheet of a book.
"Then you imagine you've got a leaf from 1470, 1473, later on, and this huge and spectacular collection.
"I think if you added it all together, the individual values of these leaves, I think you'd be looking at something like £5,000 to £10,000."
As the crowd expressed their amazement, the guest humorously remarked: "Don't tell the wife. That started it."
Given a warm thanks by expert Haley for bringing in such early historic printing material, the guest casually responded, "No problem."
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
