Antiques Roadshow expert drinks 180-year-old urine, rusty nails and a human hair after mistaking liquid for port
Fiona Bruce also revealed there was a tiny cockle-like creature inside the mystery bottle
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An Antiques Roadshow expert, Andy McConnell, accidentally drank 180-year-old urine, rusty nails and a human hair during an appearance on the show.
The glass specialist had mistaken the mystery liquid for 1840s port or red wine when he drank from the bottle in a 2016 episode of the BBC series.
Inserting a syringe in the bottle’s cork, McConnell tasted some of the “very brown” liquid and remarked: “I think it’s port – port or red wine... or it’s full of rusty old nails and that’s rust.”
Host Fiona Bruce has now revealed, in the latest episode of Antiques Roadshow, that the bottle was filled with urine and a single human hair.
“Inside were these brass pins, all of these dating from the late 1840s, and the liquid – urine, a tiny pit of alcohol and one human hair,” explained Bruce.
“And a mysterious little creature called an ostracod, which is like a little cockle. So [this] was not a bottle of port or wine, but a witches bottle.
“So buried in the threshold of the house as a talisman against witchcraft, against curses, against misfortune coming into the home.”
McConnell replied: “Yummy. Such good news.”
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