Antiques Roadshow guest makes stunned six-word plea after learning value of bronze cockerel

An Antiques Roadshow guest made a six-word plea to an expert after learning the true worth of his bronze cockerel .

The popular BBC series visited Audley End, where more guests brought their unique items for appraisal . Expert John Foster was shown a particularly interesting statue in the form of a large bird .

He asked: "So I've seen a couple of bronzes today and then you turn up with the monster of all bronzes. Where did you get it from?"

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The man explained: "It comes from Belgium. It was at my aunt's house in Belgium where I spent my junior years and during the First World War, he spent the whole war underground.

"And when the second war broke out, we were in Belgium, so we dug him in the ground again underneath the magnolia bush."

"So after five years of war, we had a bit of trouble finding him, because we couldn't quite remember where the hell we put it. Otherwise, it would have been used to make cannon shots and all that kind of thing."

"Just like in this country, railings were taken away during the war, weren't they, to be used up."

When asked why he liked the piece, the guest said: "Well I was born in Tottenham, although my accent is not English as you can gather, but I'm a Spurs supporter, the cockerel is the emblem of Spurs, and that's why we love him even more."

Foster confessed he couldn't identify the maker's mark on the bronze but reckoned it was crafted by a Parisian artist around the late 19th Century.

"[But] none of that matters, because to me, it is all about the quality and the size of it."

"Although at some point it's been buried twice in its life, the colour is beautiful, it's exactly how you want to see it, this lovely nutty brown, it's such a good looking piece."

"So, whether or not a Spurs supporter would be interested in buying it, I don't know."

Wrapping up his thoughts, Foster said: "I think the market for this would be in France and at auction, easily £3,000 ($3,942.60) to £5,000 ($6,570.04)."

The guest, appearing somewhat perplexed, responded: "Well that causes a problem, because I have two daughters so what the hell do I do? To divide it up?"

Foster chuckled: "It's not a bad problem to have", to which the older gentleman concurred: "It's not a bad problem."