In a basement museum, a lost collection of Faberge heirlooms was discovered. They had been hidden for nearly 90 years.
The items were found in good shape despite being covered with dirt and dust.
Dating to the turn of the last century, the previously unrecorded antiques are believed to be worth over £1 million.
They will now be displayed in a new public display.
The two photo frames are jewel-encrusted and were made by the prestigious Russian jewelry house.

The Faberge heirlooms were discovered during routine visits to the Royal Pavilion and Museums in Brighton.
Both frames include contemporary photos of two women.
Their identities are still unknown, but it is possible that one of them might be Princess Alice, Queen Victoria’s greatgranddaughter and mother to Prince Philip.
Henry Vere Benett may have brought the five Faberge items back to Britain. He was a British Intelligence Service officer at St Petersburg during 1917 Russian Revolution.
He was well-known for searching in local jewellers to find things to send back his stepmother Lady Ellen Thomas-Stanford, who lived at Preston Manor in Brighton.

Dating to the turn of the last century, the previously unrecorded antiques are believed to be worth over £1 million. Two photo frames with jewels are included, made by the prestigious Russian jewel house.

Also included in the small collection are two gum pots (one pictured) and a stamp damper
Lady Thomas-Stanford was a wealthy and close friend of Princess Beatrice, the child of Queen Victoria.
Preston Manor and its contents, which she had died in 1932, were left to the local authorities to be turned into a museum.
Geoffrey Munn of Antiques Roadshow was the one to discover the Faberge items.
He was making a routine trip to the Royal Pavilion and Museums Trust storerooms in Brighton when he noticed a display cabinet with mostly English porcelain.
He saw the corner from the purple enamel Faberge photoframe sticking out of the tissue paper that it had been wrapped with.

The items were found covered with dirt and dust, but they were in good condition after a routine visit to the Royal Pavilion and Museums of Brighton.
He asked that the cabinet be opened to reveal the Faberge pieces covered in years of dust.
They included two photo frames in enamelled silver or gold, two gum pots, as well as a stamp damper.
Mr Munn did some research on the items and was able to trace them back at Lady Ellen of Preston Manor.
He said that it was an exciting discovery, not least because it was completely accidental.
“I was there researching the Sussex painter, and there really was a snowflake chance of me finding exactly what I did.
“I was walking down the basement after doing something completely different when I saw the corner where one of the photo frames was sticking out of tissue paper.

Henry Vere Benett, a British Intelligence Services employee in St Petersburg during 1917 Russian Revolution, may have brought the five Faberge items back to Britain.
“Because Faberge products have been my entire life, I just recognized it and said, “Come on, let’s lift the tissue paper”. There were two frames and two gum pots as well as a stamp damper in blue enamel.
“If the tissue paper had completely covered them, they would still be there now.
“I was thrilled, but they were also filthy and covered with tobacco tar and God only knows what else that obscured the brilliance.
“Faberge is a well-known name, but it wasn’t always so. It was out of fashion in 1930s and 1940s.
Mr Munn found inventory numbers on the back of the photo frames, written in the same hand that inventory numbers for Preston Manor items.
They also indicated that the frames were made in 1896 to 1906.
The photographs of the two female sitters were taken at the same time.
Princess Alice of Battenberg would’ve been in her late teens. The woman in this picture is believed to be her. She’s wearing pearl earrings that she was well-known to have worn.
She was an associate of the Russian Royal Familie, who were overthrown in 1917’s Russian Revolution.
Mr Munn doesn’t know the identity of the second woman in this photograph and is asking for the public’s help.
He stated that the photos had not been seen by the public since Lady Ellen left them.
“How she got them is a great mystery and it still remains so.” However, she was certainly in the orbit Royal Family as Queen Victoria’s daughters stayed with her as weekend guests.
“And there has always had a strong royal connection to Faberge, afterall his main clientele were the Russian Royal Family and, to a lesser extent, the British Royal Family.”
The items will be on display at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery from November 2 to June 2022.