Compilation Antiques Roadshow

Questions, questions, questions.

Every Roadshow echoes with literally thousands of different people

asking our experts questions. "What is it?"

"How was it made?" "What's it worth?"

The question is, which is the most interesting answer?

Luckily, our cameras are there to catch them as they happen.

Welcome to another busy Antiques Roadshow.

People often ask me about the Roadshow.

"Do your experts ever turn up and find nothing interesting?"

Well, thankfully, in over 30 years of touring, the answer is no.

In fact, the reverse is true, that usually there are so many treasures on offer,

we can't fit them all into one programme.

So tonight we're going to bring you some of them, and three magnificent venues for the price of one.

Stand by for a whistle-stop tour of England.

The grand entrance to the British Museum in London recently welcomed

thousands of visitors keen to see our specialists.

And on a sunny day in the Derbyshire Dales,

we found our way to the magnificent Chatsworth House.

Both await us in this episode.

But we start in Cumbria, in equally glorious surroundings.

Six miles from Penrith is our most recent stopping off point, Hutton-in-the-Forest.

It was there that Eric Knowles started our day.

Forgive me, I think you should really be lying on a couch.

I'll tell you why, I'm thinking of myself at the moment

more as a sort of antiques psychiatrist,

in so far as I want you to tell me about your cabinet.

Well, I bought it in a local auction in Carlisle

because I do like art deco.

And I was particularly interested in the beautiful inlay,

and mother of pearl and the lovely floral decoration.

And also it's quite a practical cabinet as well.

I think when it comes to eyes, you've got a very good eye.

And you present me with a classic piece of French art deco.

-Oh, very good.

-And, I have to say, it's a bit of a jewel, isn't it?

And as for the legs, just the way that they start here

and they're beautifully reeded.

Then it forms a decorative feature all the way up to this cornice.

And on the top, inset with what appears to be like a marble slab,

-which is quite typical. Because it's practical.

-Yes.

But the woods that have been used,

you've got like a burr type yew wood, or walnut, on the top of it.

-Yeah.

-And the actual decoration, well, it's pure fantasy.

I love that roundel.

Yes. I love the mother of pearl, the way it shines. It's really nice.

I could imagine, in artificial light, at night,

it's got a magical quality.

-It's lovely.

-But it's a bit of theatre, is your cabinet.

-Yes.

There's more to this cabinet than meets the eye, isn't there?

-Well, there you are. Ooh, simplicity.

-Yes, yes.

-Isn't it?

Although it's nice wood as well.

Isn't it? I mean, more exotic woods.

-So, a secretaire.

-Yes, yes.

Date-wise, I suppose we're looking at around about 1925.

-Designer, who is it?

-I would love to know.

-It's very much in the manner of Louis Sue and Andre Mare.

-Right.

And Sue et Mare specialised in exotic inlays.

-Yes.

-And they went very heavy with mother of pearl.

-Right.

-I don't know for sure.

Dare I ask what you had to pay? And how long ago was it?

-It was two years ago.

-Oh, recently?

And I paid £900.

900? Well, let me just say that, you know,

if I went into certain galleries,

I know two or three that specialise in deco furniture.

And I know for a fact that I would not get away with paying

less than £9,000.

Oh, goodness, that's a big difference.

Lovely, that's excellent.

It'll be my pension, then.

If you can associate this piece with Louis Sue and Andre Mare,

then it becomes an important piece of furniture

and the starting price would be £30,000.

Goodness me!

If it does turn out to be Sue et Mare, I'm on 10%.

LAUGHING: I'll send you a cheque.

This is an incredible collection of amateur magazine work, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Tell me about it. Where did it come from?

It came from my husband's aunt and she was clearing out the house.

We went to help and she said would I take some rubbish out? And I did.

And I lifted the lid and there in the dustbin were these three books.

And so you pinched them?

I did. I asked permission first.

That sounds fair enough, doesn't it?

I asked if there were any more because there was only three.

Wonderful. "My aunt".

She looks absolutely dreadful, doesn't she?

I know. I know. Very Victorian.

Very Victorian. The whole thing is very Victorian.

This is a magazine, a private magazine.

And, of course, this is the sort of thing

they used to do in the evening.

They didn't watch television sets or anything like that,

they wrote magazines which they passed around the family.

But look, it's just full of all sorts of wonderful illustrations.

Some of them more amateur than others.

This one looks quite good to me, don't you think?

Yes, it has pictures in it.

You have to find pictures, but I've never found them.

-Hidden pictures?

-Sort of, yes.

She looks like a smouldering beauty, doesn't she?

Yes, she does.

It's a wonderful reflection of Victorian society.

And I think, although amateur, I think it is absolutely charming.

And I suppose we have to give it a value.

You got them for nothing and I'm going to say that they're worth

-£1,000 for the three volumes.

-Never?

-Yes.

-I don't believe you.

All right, don't then.

I had them valued 40 years ago and they said £30 for three.

And I didn't get rid of them because I love them.

And now you've made my day.

This is absolutely tremendous and it's really good stuff.

-Thank you.

-As I say, it does reflect Victorian society.

-Indeed.

-You've brought in a couple of Wedgwood candlesticks.

-Yes.

They say Wedgwood on the bottom.

And they're Jasper, they're blue and white.

-Yes.

-Everything about them shouts Wedgwood.

But how much more do you know about them?

Only that they've been in our family for as long as I can remember.

And we've tried to do a bit of research on them,

but not got very far.

So have you an idea of the date and maybe their value?

No idea at all.

Let's start with the mark. They're Wedgwood.

There's the mark on the bottom in block capitals,

-Wedgwood, loud and proud.

-Yes.

Absolutely no doubt about it. So the mark

-and the way they're constructed will tell us what date they are.

-Right.

Because, like lots of potteries, they kept popular patterns going.

And Jasper, of course, you can still buy today.

So what we need to find out, for your sake, is are they new?

-You know they're not.

-Yes.

-Or are they very old?

They are actually 18th century.

-Right.

-About 1785-1795 in date.

-Really? Yes.

-The mark tells us a little bit,

but it's the way they're constructed.

The 18th century ones were all made in small separate moulds,

-assembled by hand and then lots of hand finishing.

-Oh, I see.

So if you look, particularly at her toes,

you can see there's actually a bit of extra hand cutting.

And the draperies, when the clay's still wet,

-they finished them off by hand. This has been a piece.

-Yes.

This has been a piece. She's been in several pieces.

The plinth's a piece, the base is a piece.

-I see.

-So, all put together, whilst wet, using liquid clay.

And, of course, as ceramic technology progressed,

they found ways of making this section together.

And then, eventually, the later ones would be made in almost one piece.

-Yes.

-So the mark and the technique shouts 18th century.

-Right.

-Would you like to know how much they're worth?

-Go on.

-£1,000 to £1,500.

-Right. Fine.

You need to find fancy candles to put in them.

I don't think they're ever going to see wax.

-I'm glad to hear it, thanks very much.

-Thank you very much.

Well, since we're in Cumbria and near the Lakes,

I was really hoping all day, really hoping,

to see a Wainwright. A Wainwright drawing.

And this one of Scafell, I couldn't ask for a better one.

It's completely wonderful.

Have you walked this?

I have, many years ago. Nothing recently. But yes, I have.

That looks quite precipitous, actually.

It is, it looks worse than it is.

But it is a very... It's a good path walk.

And did you use a Wainwright's Guide on that day?

I did, yes. I always walk in the Lake District with a Wainwright.

And do you use it? Do you use his drawings

in preference to an Ordnance Survey map?

No, I always have an Ordnance Survey map with me when I'm walking.

-I suppose that's safer, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Do you know, what I love about these drawings most of all,

in a sense, is that you know exactly where you are at any point.

And he draws them with such clarity that he's understood 3D

and rendered it into 2D in a perfectly articulate way.

And it's his incredibly ordered mind that enabled him to do that,

I think, to put that down in pen and ink.

It's a piece of perfection.

What do you know about him?

He was a keen walker when he started his books,

the pictorial guides to the Lake District.

It was a labour of love for him. And he was a very solitary man as well,

it was quite difficult for him later on,

when the books became so popular.

And, in a way, he's responsible for making walking in the Lake District

as popular as it is today.

He went there for solitude

and he ended up finding it, you know, incredibly busy.

And of course it was partly his fault

that it was so very, very busy.

-Yeah, yeah.

-How on earth did you get it?

It was my grandfather's and it came to me after he died.

-He was a fell walker too, I suppose?

-He was a very keen fell walker, yes.

He used to walk in the Lake District a lot and there was a competition

with a very famous baked bean manufacturer,

that if you sent off an amount of labels, I can't remember how many,

you'd be put in a prize draw to possibly win a picture.

My grandfather was very keen on Wainwright,

not so keen on beans, didn't like them at all, but...

-He didn't even like them?

-No, he didn't like them at all, but being a Northern man,

he wasn't going to throw them away, so he ate them

and he entered several times and got nothing

and he was getting more and more frustrated

and in the end he wrote to them and said,

"I've been buying your beans for months and I don't even like them".

He didn't hear anything back,

then a few weeks later this turned up in the post.

What a fantastic story.

He must have been rather bloated with beans by then.

Yes, quite possibly,

although I think he was very happy the picture turned up,

but also very happy that he could stop eating beans.

Well, is it a work of art? Is it a topographical drawing?

I don't know, but they're very, very popular.

Everyone loves Wainwright.

And what that means, that such a good example as this, of Scafell,

-well, between £1,200 and £1,500.

-Blimey.

Didn't think it was worth that much.

You're never going to sell it, are you?

No, it'll be going to my son. Get a lot of enjoyment from it.

From the beauties of the Lake District,

we're heading to equally stunning landscapes -

to Derbyshire, where we recently set up camp at Chatsworth.

It was there many hundreds greeted us for another busy Roadshow.

Are you a general clock collector

or just clocks with a nautical flavour?

No, just general really. I like all sorts of clocks.

-Do you have lots at home?

-Quite a lot, yeah.

Time fascinates me.

-You picked these two because you thought they were fun?

-I did, yeah.

They're both slightly in the rough. Have you...?

-Well, this one was rebuilt by a friend of mine.

-Yeah.

He put all this one back together.

I bought that off a chap all in bits in a box,

and I put that one back together.

But I do realise that there are certain things that aren't right.

They're both French.

And this lovely automaton lighthouse is absolutely typical

of the sort of industrial themed clocks and nautical clocks

that the French were making in the latter part of the 19th century.

-Oh, right.

-So we've got this wonderful light.

It has a duplex escape wheel down there

and the balance wheel is basically this "lamp"

-in inverted commas, with the glass rods.

-Yeah.

-So it's a very visual item, isn't it?

-Yes, it is, actually.

It fascinated me when I first saw it.

It's good it's working, because if it doesn't,

they are absolutely fiendish to get back running.

It's a very tricky thing.

Well, I'm glad I didn't have to do it.

So let's go to this one.

Now, do you know what this is meant to represent?

I've always related it to like a diving bell, this sort of thing.

Well, you're much more likely that,

because I think actually it's an early buoy...

This is its counterweight.

It would have sat under the water, you would have seen this bit,

-and that would have been your light on it.

-Oh, right.

That would have kept it effectively from toppling over in a heavy sea.

We've got the time piece movement in there

and then going round, 120 degrees,

we've got a rather nice curved thermometer.

-Around again and we have an aneroid barometer.

-Yeah.

And then in the top...

..we have a little inset compass.

Now the great thing is this -

"The 1st Admiralty Prize",

and you can see the presentation.

And it's dated 1889.

"HMS Britannia",

-which is the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth.

-Yeah.

Two great pieces.

And we're here, obviously, to talk about their value.

This one, once it's had a little bit of re-plating done,

a bit of polishing and lacquering, make it look good, retail condition,

-you're going to see about £3,500.

-Oh, right, oh, right.

I didn't think it was worth that much.

And what about the lighthouse?

In a decent shop or, once again, at a top quality antiques fair,

people would be asking towards £5,000 for that.

Ah, right, right.

So from a bag of bones, literally, to a high value object.

Yes, yes.

So it's great to meet a fellow clock enthusiast

and I trust there's lots more at home

-and next time, bring a lot more in.

-Will do, yeah.

It's nice to know the value of them.

I get very excited when people bring along

wonderful pieces of jewellery, naturally.

But when there are super boxes like this, it gets even more interesting.

And then if we open them up, we have two gorgeous bracelets in there,

and each of the boxes has the Liberty logo in.

How did you get hold of these?

Well, these were my grandmother's.

They've been handed down two generations.

And do you remember

your grandmother wearing them?

I remember her wearing them, yes.

She wore them often, especially this one.

Well, they are absolutely gorgeous,

and of course Liberty, which is based in London, on Regent Street,

was opened in 1875 by Arthur Lasenby Liberty,

and his whole idea was to get amazing works of art,

be it furniture, paintings, rugs,

bring them into the building and display them in such a way,

which just showed off their best potential.

Eventually he started to bring in jewellery as well,

and here we've got a beautiful bracelet

with turquoise and delicate silver work,

which you can see in each of the panels,

and these very of the period, where they enclose the turquoise.

And if we look on the clasp,

we actually have Liberty Sterling stamped to the clasp.

It is just such a delicate piece of jewellery. Do you wear it?

Yes, but it's been handed down to my daughter,

so she's very interested in all about it, knowing about it.

But it's a gorgeous piece. It is very pretty.

It's absolutely wonderful.

And the turquoise has all stayed in extremely good condition.

It's all nicely coloured and the intricate detail on the silver

is also very, very beautiful.

Now, slightly later in date, we've got the bracelet over here.

This has got various gemstones set all along it,

including lovely carnelian, sapphire,

lapis lazuli, amongst other gemstones

and I'm sure you can see they're all lovely little scarab beetles.

-Yes, yes.

-And the scarab, of course, is associated with Egypt,

and in the '20s, Egypt was just total excitement,

-because Tutankhamen's tombs had been re-excavated.

-Yes.

And there were these major images coming back of these tombs.

The Mail actually called the period "Tutankhamen Mania"

because everybody went mad

and there's always been an excitement about Egypt,

and it showed that you were ahead of your times

and you were in the height of fashion. With regard to value,

if these came up at auction,

it's just fabulous that you've got the boxes with them as well.

Each of these on their own, the boxes,

they're each worth about £100-£150.

-Oh, amazing.

-Yeah, it is.

But the jewellery, what about that?

Each of these, I think you could expect to get

-about £1,000-£1,500 at auction.

-How much?!

-A thousand and...

-£1,000-£1,500.

Oh, my goodness, fantastic.

Now, as the Duke of Devonshire,

we should firstly say thanks for allowing us into your splendid home.

It's wonderful you're back, it's great.

-Now, this is your favourite item in the house.

-I love it, yes.

I remember it from a long, long time ago,

when I was little and living here, when we moved in in the late' 50s.

-It's always being admired.

-Who first had this made?

This was made for a man called Baron Von Knyphausen

in about 1697 in Germany.

It was bought in 1817

through an agent in Brussels by the sixth Duke.

Now, it's not just an extraordinary eagle or hawk in its own right.

-It's also a drinking vessel.

-Yes. If I just take this out...

-Yikes!

-So that's the head, that is safe.

And then inside is this drinking vessel.

There's the baron's coat of arms,

and I think it was made as a statement of importance.

It's certainly an incredible sort of power symbol, isn't it?

Yes, it's covered in all these semi-precious stones.

There's garnets and cornelians and amethysts.

-Sapphires here.

-Sapphire there.

And emeralds... It is beautiful. Let's put it all together.

What is it about it that you love so much?

I love it because it's flashy and blingy,

and it's really a statement of somebody saying,

"This is a beautiful thing

"which I've made for the best of my abilities."

And considering how old it is, it's rather fascinating.

-Have you ever drunk out of it?

-No, I haven't, actually.

You can't put the silver beaker down, actually.

So you'd have to drink it all in one go.

-Sounds like a marvellous excuse. Maybe later.

-Maybe later.

Well, when I first saw this, I thought,

"Oh, my goodness, some tatty book",

but it proved absolutely fascinating going through it.

I mean, these are, what are they? They're police records.

Yeah, police mug shots.

Where does it come from?

It was rescued from a skip some 30 years ago,

from a Derby police station that were clearing out.

And in those days I suppose records didn't matter,

and my dad rescued it because he thought...

He was interested in old things.

And your father was...?

He was a policeman.

I'm not sure he's allowed to do that!

But anyway, I'm very glad he did,

because this is rather important, isn't it?

James Brady, here, and Alfred Mason...

-These people were involved in a plot.

-They were, yes.

Against Lloyd George. And the date here is, what, 19...

-1917.

-1917.

Were they Bolsheviks or German sympathisers or what?

It's alleged that they were Communist sympathisers.

Well, here they are and here are their mug shots,

James Brady, alias The Duke.

It says where he went and all the things that he did.

And here's this other chap, Alfred George Mason.

And then the others, who are rather strange, which are two women.

Yes, they were, I believe, conscientious objectors,

didn't agree with the war.

It was in the middle of the First World War.

And Lloyd George was in charge, as it were, at that stage.

Their plan was to poison him.

-How were they going to do that?

-They tried to poison him with a dart

and they tried the poison on dogs to see if it would work,

but I don't think they actually got that far and they got caught before.

How extraordinary, for killing dogs.

It is the most fascinating book,

and it is remarkable for it to have survived.

It's a social document. There's lots of people in here,

but I would say in excess of £1,000.

-Right.

-Why not?

-Thank you.

And I suppose we should thank your father

for taking it out of a skip.

You know, I just love Japanese pots and Japanese works of art.

Is this a family treasure or what?

It is a family treasure.

The only thing I know about its origins is that it was given

either to my grandmother or my great grandmother

by "a seafaring man" who wasn't her husband.

-Right.

-And it has always been called the Japanese vase,

although we didn't know whether it was or not,

and nobody is ever allowed to touch it.

-Oh, really?

-Yes.

-I should feel as though I'm wearing

-sort of white gloves, then, today.

-Yes.

-So do I have your permission to...?

-Yes.

Thank you very much.

Well, let's have a look at it, because you're absolutely right,

-it is Japanese.

-Well, we've got something right.

Oh, you got it right there.

-But it is a little gem, it is a treasure.

-Is it?

Well, you've only got to look at it, the detail on there.

Because this type of pottery is referred to as Satsuma.

But more importantly, this type of quality

you would normally associate with the city of Kyoto.

There were lots of big names who specialised in this particular ware.

One big name is Ryozan, another one is Yabu Meizan,

but my favourite is Kinkozan.

Oh, lovely.

A pot like this I would say is probably about 1910.

Having said that, if anybody says, "How old is it?"

you say, "It's late Meiji period."

Sounds better, doesn't it?

Right, yeah. Oh, it sounds very nice.

It's the detail these people worked to.

I mean, that is just a mass of tiny, tiny butterflies.

Is it really?

-Hang on, how long have you lived with this?

-All my life.

-And you've never...?

-I was never allowed close to it.

I didn't touch it till I was well into my 20s.

Oh, my goodness me, that's repression!

Goodness me.

No, trust me, they're all there.

-And you've got this wonderful figural decoration as well.

-Yes.

And that's where I home in on,

because that tells you whether it's absolutely top, top notch.

And this is very close to perfection.

It is a little miniature masterpiece in every sense of the word

but you want to know who it's by, and there is no mark as such.

There is a very indistinct impressed mark there

which I just simply cannot, cannot, cannot read,

which is a bit of a shame.

Also, what is important from a collector's point of view

is condition, and if we look at this black band here,

-you'll notice it's slightly worn...

-Yeah.

-..which is a bit of a minus.

So, what price do we put on a pot that has led such a sheltered life?

-No idea.

-None whatsoever?

-None at all, no.

I'll tell you what it's worth because that'll make me feel wanted.

All right.

Because I think if I wanted to go out and buy another,

I'm not going to get any change whatsoever

out of £1,500.

Wow!

In a round about fashion, you can actually thank your parents

for having that sort of control.

-I still have the same control.

-Oh, you do? OK.

My daughter touched it for the first time last night and she's 23.

Poor things.

Thank you very much indeed.

It was given to me by a neighbour who was leaving their home

and taking up another one and they found it under the roof.

Yes.

Rather dirty and filthy and as I was an art student at the time,

they said, "Oh, give it to Dave."

I like the whole composition of the thing,

although I feel that that arm is a little bit...

Yeah, there are little things...

Odd bits about it which don't quite gel.

Well, let's look and see exactly what we're looking at.

We've got Mary, the mother of Christ, who's standing here.

He's a little bit older than the infant Christ

we're used to seeing in traditional representations.

And down here, we've got John the Baptist,

and he's wearing his camel hair shirt, and that's his staff there.

Tied around the staff is a ribbon on which is written

"Ecce" and "Agnus Dei." I am the Lamb of God.

And the Christ child is reaching out to hold it,

as if grasping his destiny,

because this picture looks back as well as forwards.

It looks to Christ's death.

In fact, in the distance you can see one big rock

and they are a hint at Calgary, where he ends up on the cross.

I think it's 17th century

and I also think we're quite east in Europe,

we might be as far as Germany

and perhaps even as far as Czechoslovakia, Bohemia.

-Really?

-Yes, it's possible,

because look at the drapery here. That's actually quite Gothic

in the way it's so deeply cut

and so carefully and sharply layered.

Yet the face of Mary is very human

and she's what I might call a "bus stop Madonna".

You'd meet her at a bus stop, she's a real person,

and you get a strong sense of the affection between mother and child.

It's very human, the whole grouping, the cascade of figures,

is done in such a way that the two are extremely intimate.

So we're looking at a devotional object. It's quite small,

so it might have been for domestic use.

A privileged person would own this beautiful painting

and keep it almost as a personal chapel,

wouldn't have to go to church with everyone else

because she's got her own little shrine in her house.

We don't know who it's by, but the Old Master market,

that's the category it falls into in the art market,

it doesn't often care about the certainty of a name,

it's more about the quality of the picture.

We can see some very good qualities in this picture.

What it all adds up to is a value of between...

£3,000 and £5,000.

That's a very comfortable figure.

I must remember that expression, "a bus stop Madonna."

It's rather poetic, really.

Our recent visit to the British Museum

found the team hard at work beneath the colonnades

that form the grand entrance.

As museum visitors hurried to see the collection inside,

our experts were busy finding their own selection of treasures.

It's great to welcome you to the Antiques Roadshow

on this sunny day, but I understand today

is an important day for more reason than just you being here.

That's true. My 66th birthday

and retirement from active work.

-Your retirement as well?

-Yes.

-You've a lot to celebrate.

And I understand this is just a small part of your collection?

Yes.

I have been collecting ever since I got married to my wife about 33 years ago.

So I am a general collector, so I collect everything.

And what's it like to live with him?

Oh, that's a good question.

It's really a hell

because I don't know anything about antiques before I knew him.

When he started collecting... We do worry almost every day

because even a halfpenny... If he had a halfpenny,

he wouldn't mind investing it in the antique,

then later on when you ask for money,

he says, "I have no money." "What happened to your money?"

"I invested it in antiques."

And he's ploughing it into this seeming scrap metal.

Where do you go to find them?

I go to auctions, I go to car boots, I go to junk shops...

-You name it.

-That's what objects are for,

to give you a thrill, the thrill of the chase,

and the thrill of possessing.

That's a good one, Keighley. Quite a contemporary artist.

How long have you had that one?

About...17 years now.

Did you pay a lot for it?

Well, I paid...

£500, because that was what he was selling it... I met him in person.

This is from the Amsterdam series in the mid 1980s

and 500 then, would be probably £800 to £1,200 now.

But look at the colour of it,

it's a little upturned Dutch girl's bonnet,

resting on a pair of clogs.

This one is Indian.

Yes.

I think it's maybe cast in the last sort of 50 years

and I'd say in a sale room, that would fetch

between £100 and £150.

You've got this figure here, too. Where did that come from?

Well, this one, I bought it from a junk shop.

Well, your junk shop find is actually quite old.

Made in Italy about, sort of, 1880.

Do you know who it is, in all his glory?

-No.

-Narcissus.

He was an ancient Greek hunter who was a very good looking lad,

so good looking that he used to despise other people

and was rather haughty and arrogant.

For a punishment,

the gods made him fall in love with his own reflection,

and he couldn't draw himself away from his own reflection

and he perished and just turned to dust.

So it's quite a nice thing.

It's modelled after an ancient one which was excavated in Pompeii

in, I think, about the 1860s.

It's a very, very popular subject.

He's lost his base and, of course, he's lost his foot.

But what I do love about it is, all this verdigris.

It's been outside, it's probably been in somebody's garden.

Did you give an awful lot for this?

Well, I think £350, something like that.

I think that's probably about enough really. It's probably worth...

I mean, a perfect one with the base,

about £1,000 to £1,500.

So you've not done too badly at that.

So how do you display these?

Are these pride of place in the living room or are they...?

No, I hide them away from my wife.

So you do put your foot down then?

Yes. Hard fast.

I think you get away with a lot.

Look, you're ploughing your money into things

that you enjoy discovering, it gets you out at the weekend,

it gets you out and about into the auctions and there's a thrill,

of going to a sale room, going into a dealer's.

I think you're doing really well.

We've got eight objects, metal objects, from your vast collection.

What's in front of me is worth certainly upwards of £1,500.

Yes, but I thought I would have got more from this.

It means I have to look for a job.

LAUGHTER

To carry on your collecting habit?

We'll find him a job, won't we? We'll find him a job!

Can you tell me, is it family or purchase?

-Family.

-And the history?

It was a gift to my father in law

from his senior partner.

When he died, his widow gave it to my father in law.

That's a tremendous gift from the senior partner...

It was very nice, and now my eldest son is the owner of it.

The first thing that caught my eye is its size.

It's somewhat smaller than bracket clocks of this period.

Yeah, shorter.

Yes, indeed. Now, it's signed on the back

by a maker called Daniel Parker in Fleet Street.

Do you know anything about him at all?

No, but Fleet Street is newspapers, not clocks.

That's true. Not even newspapers any more!

It's not that far from the area of Clerkenwell,

where the clock making industry flourished.

-Right.

-He started in Derby, he moved to London

and he was mostly working towards the very end of the 17th century,

so we're talking about 1680-1690.

You've got, as you'd expect,

a rather pleasant engraved back plate.

-It's beautiful.

-Fortunately, it's got a pendulum lock.

These are very often missing. This is the piece

that locks the pendulum when the clock's transported,

which in those days would have been from room to room

or possibly from house to house.

When a family went from London to a country house,

-they would have taken the clock with them in a box.

-Right.

You've got striking, which you can see from the back,

-we have what is known as the locking plate.

-Yes.

That's the wheel, the interrupted wheel,

and as it strikes, the detent here will count its way round,

jumping into the hole commensurate with the number.

It's one of the reasons why we have to be slightly careful

-with these clocks, they can get confused.

-Oh.

If you whizz the hands round, they can get confused.

It has what is known as a basket top,

which is this repousse engraved piece.

Good size.

Um, minimum, I would say,

£5,000 to £7,000.

But, and it's a big but, with a little bit of tidying up,

I wouldn't expect to walk into a shop and buy it

for, say, less than 15.

-It's a lot of money for a tick tock.

-I know. Isn't it?

It's not often I see a piece of silver

that makes my heart skip a beat,

but this is one of the most beautiful pieces

of art nouveau silver I've seen for many a long year.

And if we pick it up and look underneath,

it gets even better

because we see it's got the mark of Liberty & Company.

The date letter "d", which is a little bit worn here, but for 1903,

and then a little patent number, 2028.

It's got a Shakespearian inscription from Romeo and Juliet -

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet",

but it's got these wonderful enamel,

rather Arthurian plaques set in the side.

I think these might be from The Lady of Shalott.

We've got particularly the lady here, Lady Shalott.

She wasn't meant to look directly at the knight,

she had to look at him through the mirror,

and the story goes in Lady of Shalott

that it cracked from side to side, because she looked at him straight on.

And if we move round, we've got a knight in armour right round here,

so I think that's where it may be taken from.

Now, names like Archibald Knox are always associated with Liberty,

but I don't think this is an Archibald Knox design.

Do you know anything about it, or its history?

I know a little about it

and I'm a collector of things like Archibald Knox

and in searching for that kind of art nouveau silver, I came across

this piece, which is a little less modern than my taste normally,

but I fell in love with it because it is so unique, so beautifully made

and very much appealed to me.

And you've brought along this photograph,

which looks to be the original design of this bowl,

because it's got the same number, 2028,

which is stamped on the bottom. Where is this from?

This is from the Westminster Archive Library.

They have a sketch book of all the Liberty silver from about 1900-1912

and I was delighted when I found that picture in it of the bowl.

It's a really glorious piece. Can I ask what you paid for it?

Around £5,000. Not cheap.

I'm not surprised,

but I actually think it's worth a bit more than that

because I think it's such a pretty piece.

I think it was probably designed by Oliver Baker.

It's got very much his mark of influence over it.

Liberty - great name, it's stylish, it's pretty, it's a rose bowl,

hence the Shakespearian inscription. It's got everything going for it,

so I would say maybe...

-£6,000, £7,000, even £8,000.

-Thank you.

I think you've bought a great object.

Well, I have never seen so many Russian Easter eggs

blazing away in the autumn sunshine here.

Why did you bring them? What was the story?

Well, I was watching the Antiques Roadshow a few months ago

and somebody produced a Faberge cigarette case.

Well, it was found by my grandfather

in the hunting fields in the early '20s.

He advertised it in Fox and Hound, Tatler, Country Life,

and nobody claimed it.

This is a Russian cigarette case. Did you know that?

I knew it was Russian, I've done a bit of history

on the hallmarks, but beyond that, I don't know.

And the little ruby thumb push to open it with, a cabochon ruby,

that's quite a hint of what lies within.

And here are endless signatures written in Cyrillic.

But possibly the most interesting thing is the maker's mark here.

It comes from the Moscow branch of Faberge

-that made the Imperial Easter eggs for Nicholas and Alexandra.

-Amazing.

And when the case was opened by the expert...

-That was me!

-..I saw my grandfather's... Yes!

It was my grandfather's signature that jumped out at me,

one George Bray,

and he had given his wife such a necklace.

These were presents at Easter time.

-Didn't they get certain eggs?

-They did.

He was very devoted to his wife.

-They were in Russia, but British people living in Russia.

-Yes.

And you're right to say these are Easter eggs

and they've been collected,

and in a way these are British people following a very Russian tradition,

which is an Orthodox tradition where Easter is the major religious festival.

And on Easter morning, you get up and give a single Easter egg

to your beloved with the blessing, "Christ is risen"

"Khristos voskrese."

And she or he would answer, "God bless you"

and that would be that part of the ceremony over.

It was the highest religious festival in Russia

and took precedence over Christmas

and it was a pattern also to be given jewelled Easter eggs

of this quality to make necklaces, just as you see them here.

In a way, I couldn't ask for them to be more typical.

As soon as I'm shown something like this,

I think, well, I'm going to look for a Faberge one.

The problem with these is when they were put onto the necklace,

the gold loop was taken away to solder them on more often than not,

and with it goes the Faberge signature,

so it's a pattern more often than not in the necklace.

We can't read Faberge's signature.

But this one, subliminally, I believe, is by Faberge.

It has the red cross on it in enamelled gold.

The Tzarina was patroness of the Red Cross

and the Russians were losing millions of people on the front

in the 1914-18 War

and the Red Cross was enormously important to them

and it's not a surprise to see it here.

We have to think a little bit about value

and it's quite easy really

because there is precedent for these things to be sold.

But this is an unusually full one

and by the time you've added it all up,

it's nudging £10,000 for this necklace here.

And then this necklace here, just a little fewer eggs,

but doesn't really matter,

maybe £7,000 would do it.

But very strangely, this one here,

which is in perfect condition, is the one that I'm most interested in.

It has a curious red stone at the bottom

and it is also in the colours of Holy Russia,

and Holy Russia and Easter, and so it's a patriotic object.

More than that, the stone underneath is called purpurine.

In nature, hard stones arrange themselves

in all kinds of different colours

and what it lacks really in nature is a brilliant coloured red,

which was invented by the Romans to fill that gap

and Faberge revived it and I can tell you with absolute certainty

that that is a Faberge Easter egg.

Who does that belong to?

Anna.

It's probably about three times the size

of any Faberge pendant Easter egg I've ever seen.

It's also in pristine condition.

-Have you worn it?

-No.

-Not once?

Very tempting, isn't it? It's in pristine condition,

you can't ask for it to be anything more exciting from Faberge

because Easter eggs have an echo of the Imperial Easter eggs

made by Faberge for the Imperial Court

and this object here in front of us

-should be insured for close to £30,000.

-My gosh!

My goodness! Right.

Does it change your perception of it at all?

Yes!

A little bit. Brilliant. Well kept.

Absolutely. Marvellous. Well, how brilliant. What a lovely story.

and wrought by the Antiques Roadshow because without the Antiques Roadshow,

no you, no necklaces and no egg.

We only brought that one as an afterthought because we weren't sure about that one!

Do you know, I couldn't be more thrilled for those three.

How amazing was that? They come along thinking they're going to talk about their grandfather

and it turns out that they own some incredibly precious Faberge.

Dreams really do come true on the Antiques Roadshow.

We've thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you have as well.

Until next time, bye-bye.

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