Newstead Abbey 1 Antiques Roadshow

We've all heard of Dracula, but did you know

he was based on one of Britain's greatest Romantic poets?

The blood-thirsty Count was originally a character

in a book written by the physician to Lord Byron.

They clearly didn't get on very well, because the physician

chose to immortalise his patient as the fanged fiend.

Welcome to Dracula's home, Newstead Abbey, in Nottinghamshire.

We think of the cult of celebrity as a modern invention,

but here at Newstead Abbey is the equivalent

of a 200-year-old scrapbook plastered with celebrities,

that once belonged to the great Romantic poet Lord Byron,

who back then was the biggest celebrity of them all.

Nowadays, images of famous footballers or pop stars

are stuck on bedroom walls, collected in sticker books,

or plastered all over the internet.

But back in the early 19th century,

Byron had images of his celebrity icons,

many of whom he knew,

plastered all over this screen, when he lived here from 1808 to 1814.

It's crammed with pictures and news articles of people

he admired from the world of the theatre.

On this side are the stars of the stage, all over the place.

Look at these - there's Sarah Siddons here,

and the celebrated actor Edmund Kean.

I think they were the Kate Winslet and the George Clooney of their day.

This side reflects what might seem an unusual obsession

for a Romantic poet, and that's boxing.

This character here is John Jackson,

he was the Muhammad Ali of his day, and at huge cost,

Byron hired him to be his own personal boxing instructor.

It's a crucial part of Byron's history

and an amazing record from 200 years ago.

It was almost lost when he sold it to pay off debts,

but fortunately Byron's publisher tracked it down

and brought it back to Newstead, where it's resided ever since.

The screen is just one of a collection of objects here

belonging to the great man. This is his desk,

at which he used to write some of his poems.

His ink well, his candlesticks,

and these of course are his boxing gloves.

We'll be seeing more of those later in the programme.

Our experts won't be pulling any punches with their valuations,

as they welcome the good folk of Nottinghamshire and beyond.

So, you've brought a little couple here.

-A little pair of tiny, tiny dolls.

-Yes.

Can you tell me anything about them?

They used to be in my grandma's house,

at the top of the stairs in a doll's house.

Right, so they had their own residence.

-They had their own residence, yes.

-Yes.

And somehow, I think when we cleared out, my aunt kept them

and she eventually gave them to me.

And what happened to their residence?

-Where did that go?

-No idea.

-So they've been homeless ever since.

-That's it, they've lived in a drawer.

-Right, OK.

-Any idea how old they are?

-No idea, really.

But I think they were there in 1907 because my mum could remember them.

-Right, so we can get them back to 1907.

-Yes.

-Actually, they're rather older.

-Right.

I think they were made around about 1820-1830

so they're nearly 200 years old.

-Oh, I didn't realise they were as old as that.

-No, they are.

Well, their fashions actually display their age quite well.

-Oh, right.

-But what's really unusual

is this chap's dressed as a gentleman.

You don't get many male dolls at that period,

and they were made in an area called the Grodon Valley

which was on the border of Italy and Germany.

Oh, right.

Their lovely faces are painted and then gessoed over the top,

or varnished over the top, and they're hand whittled.

And what's even more interesting about them, when Queen Victoria

was young, before she ascended the throne, she and her governess,

Baroness Lehzen, decorated dolls and dressed dolls just like this.

-Oh.

-It was a fashionable thing to do.

So they're really early and really sought after.

Oh. Not rubbish, like my son says?

-He said they were rubbish?

-Rubbish.

Really? Well, they're far from rubbish.

To a doll's house collector, they're little gems of Regency fashion.

-Oh.

-And, you know, I've noticed the condition's not good.

No, not really.

They're both missing an arm So they're probably not worth much.

£1,000.

-Not rubbish.

-Not rubbish.

Not rubbish, very nice.

Tea is served.

Thank you, yes, tea for two.

Tea for two. Tell me about these.

Well, I don't know very much about this, Lars, at all,

-other than I do know it is Royal Crown Derby.

-Yeah.

And it was in me mother's house since about 1980, I think,

but what little bit of research I have done,

-I've never seen one in the rust colour.

-Right.

-I've only ever seen it in blue and white.

-OK.

And I've never seen it on a swivel - what I would call a party Susan.

A party Susan?

But I think this is called a lazy Susan.

-That's what I would call it.

-Yes.

And the idea is, you just keep it on the table

-and you can serve tea very, very easily on the round table.

-Yeah.

-By just rotating the stand.

-That's right.

We've got underneath the mark of the Royal Crown Derby factory,

they've called the pattern Wilmot and there's that little diamond

that gives us the actual date

-when the design was taken out as a patent.

-Yes.

But you've also got these. Tell me about those.

Well, I'm hoping these are Pinkston.

Pinkston being?

Pinkston, from the Pinkston ceramics factory

which I think was opened around 1796, maybe a little earlier,

I'm not sure, but I think by the early 1800s it was closed again.

-But there's no markings at all on it.

-No markings.

-None.

Let's have a quick look. No markings.

-Are you sure?

-Well, I've had a close look.

-Even in the sunshine!

-How close did you look?

Do you see that, and that, and that?

Those are the little setting marks,

the spurs on which that would be perched in the kiln

when it was being fired. An absolute giveaway for Pinkston.

Oh, right.

So you're right, Pinkston, but much earlier.

So we go from the 1880s back to the late 1700s, early 1800s.

The colours are exceptional.

This wonderfully thin palette -

you've only got a very small number of colours.

Tones of green, a little brown and then just a tinge of blue here.

Beautiful landscape. I mean, this is as close as we get,

without exaggeration, to John Constable on porcelain.

And the style is typical of Pinkston,

as is the quality of the gilding.

I mean, the gilding is as bright as the day it came out of the kiln.

A continuous landscape, unbroken, beautiful thing.

I mean, this is stunning, and I have to say, I'm going to come clean.

Given the choice between the late Victorian transfer printed...

Yes, yes, I understand.

..and exquisitely hand painted, there is no competition.

But is that reflected in the price?

Oh, I couldn't tell you. I would hope so.

I think you could buy a lazy Susan today, from Derby,

for around maybe £500 to £800.

Maybe a bit more in a shop, but at auction £500 to £800.

-Very nice.

-For a Pinkston trio - it's an incomplete tea service -

-£500 to £800.

-Oh. Yes, very nice.

So this is a good instance of something that is so much better

in quality than that, being worth so much more as well.

-It doesn't always work like that.

-No, it doesn't.

Very nice, thank you very much.

So I've been through ten volumes of this stuff, all to do with royalty.

Kings, queens, jubilees and all the rest of it.

-What started you?

-I saw a Silver Jubilee chocolate wrapper,

1935 Silver Jubilee, on the internet and I was lucky enough to win the bid

and subsequently I've found nearly 100 different wrappers,

but I went on to collect paper ephemera, way back as far as I can.

What grabs you about chocolate wrappers?

I think the artwork's fantastic and it was a throwaway item

and yet there's in many cases a real picture of the king and queen,

in many cases the wrapper's embossed.

Yes, but you see you've preserved the silver paper.

Silver paper, it's the only one that I've got

of nearly 100 chocolate wrappers

-where someone's bothered to save the silver paper.

-Well, I'm gob-smacked.

I really am, absolutely incredible.

But those don't quite excite me as they obviously excite you.

I'm much more interested in this sort of stuff

-which are coronation tickets.

-Yeah.

Which I find absolutely incredible.

Here is one for the present Queen's coronation, 2nd day of June 1953.

Embossed, signed by the Earl Marshall.

that's a beautiful 1953 piece of coronation memorabilia.

-Do you know, I've never seen one of those.

-Right.

-What is it?

-It's a ticket for George III's coronation.

-George III's coronation.

-Yes. So it's very old.

-It's very old indeed!

-Older than me!

One of the 18th century... George III's coronation,

I mean he was, he was on the throne for nearly 60 years.

-The man who lost the Colonies.

-The man who lost the Colonies,

the man who lost America, yes indeed.

Printed in bisque and the symbols of the coronation all around it.

That is incredibly rare.

Now you didn't find THAT on the net?

-No, I bought it from an ephemera dealer in London.

-Yes,

and I expect you paid a small fortune for that.

I paid a fair amount.

And then of course you go to George IV, they're much more, much more...

That was a very expensive coronation.

It was one of the most expensive,

-because they dressed up in medieval costume.

-Yeah.

And they paraded around the streets.

-Now this one is a number

-10. Yeah.

-But it's signed by Clarence.

This is the Duke of Clarence.

The Duke of Clarence, who was his brother.

-Became William IV.

-So this is a king's coronation ticket.

-Correct.

In actual fact.

So, we've got George IV here, we've got his brother, William IV here.

Now that's not a particularly special ticket

-but it's on a very, very interesting colour of mauve.

-Yeah.

And then this one here - that is Queen Victoria's.

Tiny coronation, they didn't want to spend much money on it.

So, let's go for a valuation of the coronation tickets.

We start off with the George III.

I think that's very rare,

best part of £1,000 quite easily.

The Queen - well, they aren't particularly rare,

they do turn up. I would say no more than about £100.

Going back to Queen Victoria,

not many tickets around,

-probably £300-£400, possibly £500 for that one.

-Yeah.

Again, William IV - if you've got the set

-you've got to have him, haven't you?

-Yeah.

-So we're talking about £200-£300 for that one.

-Yeah.

And, of course, George IV,

there were many done and the security printing

obviously attracts a lot of people.

They are incredibly attractive

and so I would say for an ordinary one

we would be talking about £300-£400, possibly £500.

-But - we've got a signature of a king here.

-Yeah.

So a king's ticket going to his brother's coronation,

the future king...

it's unique, isn't it?

Well, if I was into chocolate wrappers, as you are,

and I was valuing those as a few hundred pounds or £100 each,

I'd have to value that at thousands of pounds,

say £5,000.

Thank you very much.

The most beautiful white marble Hellenistic Victorian bust

-of a gentleman, and it's by Patric Park, a Scot.

-Yes.

-And he was born in Glasgow.

-Uh-huh.

-Lived there for most of his life.

-Uh-huh.

And he moved right at the end of his life -

-he died in 1855 - it's dated on the back.

-Yes.

To Manchester. What do you know about him?

He was on a railway station,

he went to help a porter struggling with a heavy load,

and he burst a blood vessel and it killed him.

That was in 1855.

But his work can be found in Holyrood House in Edinburgh

and a museum in London, so he's quite an eminent sculptor.

Very much so.

It's in white Cararra marble and it is flawless.

His face is wonderfully smooth

and then his hair is a little rougher

where it's been carved and not finished,

and when you look closely at it, you can see how he's made it.

Because, you know, a sculptor will look at a beautiful piece

of Cararra marble like this, and he'll try to see the form within it.

If you think about it, it's the complete opposite

of making a sculpture out of clay, where you're ADDING to it.

Instead he's cutting away the material

to reveal what he imagines inside.

And he uses various things to help him, for example

with the sitter, with the gentleman himself,

he'd use a pair of callipers to measure the side of his head,

and the top of it, and then working on the raw block of marble -

you just have to imagine a big block here -

what he'd do is, he'd drill through to the required depth,

using a drill, and that would give him his marker points

to chip away to.

And you can sometimes see - and I think you can see here -

where the drill has gone into the side of his head there.

That's a mark to help the sculptor get the width of the forehead right.

I'm looking for clues as to the sitter, at the moment.

The thing is that, because he's quite a good sculptor,

it should be possible to find out who he is.

Now I've had a bit of a look but I can't immediately,

with the facilities available to me now, nail the sitter.

But most of his sitters were very eminent men.

If we knew the sitter, it might make a difference to the value,

-and so we need to find out.

-Yes.

-If we don't know the sitter,

I think it's worth between £4,000 and £6,000 just as it is,

-and cheap at the price.

-Yes.

But if you went to a specialist sculpture dealer,

I can see that being in five figures easily.

They'd do the research, they'd find the sitter,

they'd realise its true value.

Needs work. That's one of the best busts I've seen.

I'm a keen dog lover, I've got two terriers,

but, you know, both of my terriers would pass clean through this

dog collar. I've never seen a dog collar quite like this before.

Tell me something about it.

Well, this dog collar has been passed on to me by my father

and my understanding is that there was a huge bull mastiff

in the 19th century which wore this dog collar, but I don't,

I'm afraid, know anything about the Mrs Winton who's on the label.

-Right, OK.

-As to whether she actually took the dog for a walk,

-or whether it was a guard dog.

-I don't think it looks like

the kind of dog that you would have taken for a walk.

Judging by the stature of this collar, I think it's more

likely to have obviously been on a guard dog of some type.

I can see that there are two addresses.

We've got Mrs De Winton, 20 Pont Street, South West,

so that's Belgravia in London - very smart address.

If we turn it round and look at the other brass plaque, we've got

Mrs De Winton. Is that... Ms... Sorry, my Welsh is terrible. It's...

-Maesllwch Castle.

-Maesllwch Castle, Glasbury, Radnorshire.

Is this your family?

This is my family.

They were considerably better off, let's just say,

in the 19th century, thus they had two addresses.

Right, OK, OK.

Now, I see that you've brought your dog with you today as well.

-Obviously this is not going to fit your lovely dog.

-No, no.

It's got a lot of interest for collectors of dog collars.

I'm not sure that you would ever, ever want to sell it of course.

No. I don't think I would.

It's an interesting piece, and I don't think I'll ever have a dog

that big, although a lot of people in Nottingham do, I have to say.

But certainly I'm surprised to find people collect them.

Well, we're going to have to talk about value,

because this dog collar would make £1,000 at auction.

Really?! Good grief! Good grief.

-Absolutely.

-Amazing.

Not only have you brought me some fabulous jewellery to look at,

you've brought me this fantastic photograph of the items being worn.

Well, this is my grandfather and my grandmother and he was the Sheriff

of Carmarthen and this is in their dress clothes, and my grandmother's

wearing the diamond necklace and the earrings in the photograph.

Absolutely stunning. They're beautiful and, you know,

she's wearing the perfect dress for the jewels, isn't she?

Yes, yes, absolutely.

Now the actual necklace, it has a name

and it's called a negligee pendant.

-Oh.

-Have you heard that?

-No, not at all.

I'm not quite sure why.

I can't imagine people walking around in their negligees

-wearing... Well, maybe they do, with a diamond pendant.

-Oh, how lovely.

That name suggests the elegance and, I mean, these are just absolutely

quintessentially just so elegant,

this photograph showing the jewels. Have you worn them?

Yes, absolutely. On any occasion I can.

-Any excuse.

-Yes. If it's a ball or whatever.

And I was particularly excited

because my niece wanted to wear the earrings for her wedding

as a sort of to be borrowed, and that was very special for me as well.

How wonderful to have them documented

-and to be passed down through the generations.

-Yes.

And still being loved and worn, that's what's so special.

-Looking at the pendant first, it's in platinum.

-Yeah.

-Now, it dates slightly earlier than the photograph.

-Oh, really?

Yes, it's about 1900.

Oh, I didn't realise it was that old.

-Yes, yes, it's about 1900-1905.

-Yes.

And we've got what's called knife wire edges

that those diamonds, beautiful diamonds, have been suspended from.

-They are cut, sort of the 1900s, 1910 cut.

-Yes.

Still has the full 57 facets but the angles are slightly softer

and so, therefore, they're not so sharp

-as the modern brilliant cut that we know today.

-Oh, right, yes.

Then you've got the ear pendants here,

again with that knife-wire edge motif suspending the two diamonds.

Similar cut, same period,

and they're just under a carat in weight, each of the stones,

but again a really lovely quality.

And the ring - well, this is about 1920, this is slightly later.

Oh, right. I love the emerald cut diamond in the centre.

-Is that what it's called?

-Well, it's a step cut diamond.

This is quite an unusual cut because it's square, but it has a few

more facets than you would normally expect for a square cut diamond.

-Oh, right.

-So it really is quite unusual,

and the beautiful little sapphires around the side on the edge there.

-Yes, I really like those.

-And the baguette cut diamonds.

The attention to detail of this ring is really quite superb and

again, you've got about 1.8 carats, quite a large stone in the centre.

-Oh, right.

-I mean, you know, value.

Collectively you're looking around about £20,000.

What?!

Oh, I didn't expect that.

I mean, you know, they really are fabulous. They really are fabulous.

-Oh, God.

-And definitely had fantastic taste.

Yes, she did, didn't she?

This week's Basic, Better, Best Challenge is a bit of a

bittersweet experience for me.

These are vinyl records, remember those?

And these belong to Marc Allum and he's brought them along.

There's Hank Williams...

MUSIC: "I Saw The Light" by Hank WIlliams

..Jimi Hendrix...

MUSIC: "Castles Made Of Sand" by Jimi Hendrix

..and the Sex Pistols.

MUSIC: "Anarchy In The UK" by Sex pistols

And one of them, the basic one, is worth £20.

The better is worth 200,

and the best is worth £500.

Now, I don't know about you, but I gave all my records away

years ago and I hope I'm not going to regret it today.

Anyway, let's see what our visitors think first.

Here we have Basic, Better, Best. Which do you think is which?

I kind of think Hank Williams is the best.

-You think Hank Williams is the best.

-Yes.

The basic one is worth £20,

the better is worth 200, and the best is worth 500.

Sex Pistols basic, erm...Jimi Hendrix better.

-This one's basic...

-Right.

-..this one's £200...

-Better.

-And this one's the best.

Hank Williams basic. Erm, Sex Pistols better and Jimi Hendrix best.

Sex Pistols basic, Hank Williams better and Jimi Hendrix best.

-And were you a fan?

-Yes.

At the end of the 19th century, I don't think most fireplaces,

or hallways, were complete without their set of tiles.

But where did this set come from?

It came out the old Pearsons Department Store

and when it was being demolished after the fire, my uncle bought them

out of there, gave them to my aunt, who refused to have them in the

house and they've been wrapped up in newspaper in the garage ever since.

Really? So that's where he kept them, these prized possessions.

Well, they were a nice save.

I mean, interesting, if we look at the two panels,

quite clearly we've got the depiction of air and fire.

Ah, that's what it is.

-So I can only assume somewhere is earth and water.

-Right.

Sadly your uncle wasn't quite there early enough to get the full set.

What a shame.

These are classic interpretations of this

sort of style at the end of the 19th century, and I've gone all over

them and temptingly and teasingly, down the bottom, there is the

most faint signature, which I believe to read as Babb, B-A-B-B.

And a date of 1876, 1874.

I've got to be honest, I don't know the artist.

They are a plastic clay tile,

rather than what we call a dust pressed tile.

It's a certain type of manufacture, so it's clay thrown into a mould,

fired, tin glazed and then they've been hand enamelled on top.

Everything about them screams to me of that late movement

going on at the end of the 19th century.

They've got essence of William Morris, they've got essence

of the Pre-Raphaelites. They almost look like stained glass panels.

-Yes, yes.

-So whether they've drawn their interpretation from that

really needs a little bit more research, but they are sensational.

-Beautiful, aren't they?

-So, value.

I'm going to go with a slightly open book in the fact that I haven't

tracked down who this artist is, or clarified that signature, so I'm

going to go on their pure artistic merit and how good they are,

and I think for that alone, these panels are worth at least £800.

Wow. Wow. For something that's been in the garage.

But let me go on further, £800 each.

Wow.

That's a holiday. They're too beautiful.

They are beautiful tiles.

If earth and water are out there somewhere,

they would make a sensational set of tiles and I think a little

bit more research will only take them further. They are exquisite.

My goodness, how glamorous. Matches you two ladies as well.

So tell me, is this something that's come to you from your family?

It was given to my mother by a lady called Adele Roscoe who,

with her husband, ran the Palais de Dance in Mansfield

from 1927 and they closed in 1967.

I think were quite well-known ballroom dancers, weren't they?

-Very well-known, yes, yes.

-Yes.

So is something that she wore herself?

-These apparently belonged to her mother.

-Right.

And she was supposed to have danced to the King of Spain in that

particular dress.

Really? And what sort of date would that have been?

1910 or... I don't know.

OK. Well, I think that story may be slightly far-fetched

in that this actually, I don't know whether you know,

this is not actually a dress at all.

It's been made into a dress, but actually what it is, it's

an Egyptian dowry shawl and you've probably wondered what this thread,

which looks slightly gold on there.

-It's actually silver and it's just tarnished slightly.

-Oh.

If you just polish that up, it actually would shine again.

These were given with ladies when they got married,

as part of their dowry.

It's been cut across the centre and has had this stitched onto it

to make it into a dress.

Typically these date from between about,

about 1915-1925 or thereabouts.

But it hails from North Africa, from Egypt.

And the shawl - presumably that was hers as well.

That was hers as well, yes.

Well, the shawl is actually older than the dress.

The shawl is a Cantonese shawl dating from the very late part

of the 19th century.

What's remarkable about this one is that it's in fantastic condition.

They're not particularly uncommon, you do see them,

but often they're holed or their colours have faded, but this

is fabulous, it's like the day it was new and I'm assuming this is

actually a very large piece as well. They're generally very, very big.

-Is it something you've worn yourself?

-I have, yes.

Because I've often seen people wearing these at fancy dress

-parties actually.

-I have, yes.

-OK, well, that's perfect then.

With regards to value, these perfect in their shawl form currently

sell for £400 to £600, something in that order.

However, the fact that it's been made into a dress,

as lovely as it is, it does devalue it somewhat, to be honest with you,

and we've got a little hole there, so I think value is not

going to be huge on that. Possibly £150 perhaps, or thereabouts.

Whereas, the shawl is actually a far more desirable thing.

It's very, very in vogue now, people love this sort of thing to

decorate their houses, and that at auction would probably

sell for maybe £250, £300, somewhere in that region.

-Right, very interesting.

-Right, very nice.

Earlier on, Marc Allum set us our Basic, Better, Best Challenge

with vinyl records, remember? The basic one is worth £20,

the better £200, and the best £500.

Now, I would like to think I might know something about vinyl records,

but, Marc, I have absolutely no idea.

-We've got Hank Williams, Jimi Hendrix and the Sex Pistols.

-Yep.

I mean, I presume it's about rarity but that's as much as I could go on.

It's not always just rarity

but that, obviously, is extremely important.

So what should we be looking for?

I presume it's not the fact that this is a 45

-and this is an LP.

-No, not necessarily at all.

So, where should we start when trying to assess these three?

Well, I've tried to foil you, I suppose, in doing this.

So what I've done, I've given you a very old single,

which is Hank Williams, I Saw The Light.

This is an EP in fact, and was made in 1955.

In the centre here we've got Jimi Hendrix's second album,

Axis: Bold As Love, 1967. This has an insert inside it.

Here we've got the Sex Pistols first single, Anarchy In The UK, 1976.

Not only is it their first single on EMI, but it's got

a mis-credit on it, it's got a producer mis-credit on it.

-Oh, so this has got a mistake on it?

-Got a mistake on it.

Not only that, only 5,000 of them were made, so after that, it

was obviously changed, but this one is not only the mis-credit, it's

got the "Demo record, not for sale," so that was a promotional copy and a

mis-credit, so those are the kind of idiosyncrasies you're looking for.

When I've seen this with our visitors,

we all came up with different answers.

I went for basic being Hank Williams,

Jimi Hendrix better and then I presumed that the Sex Pistols

with the demo record, was the best.

You got one right here.

-Shall I tell you which one it is?

-Yes.

It's basic.

And so why is the Hank Williams, the basic one?

He's just not as collected, so he's worth £20.

If we go on to these two, you've got these two the wrong way round.

OK, so this is obviously better then, the Anarchy In The UK,

so after all you said about it, why is this not the best one?

That was the foil in the collection here,

because one of the most valuable records ever made is

the Sex Pistols, God Save The Queen, but it's on A&M.

-And that's where people get confused.

-The A&M label?

Yeah, they were only on A&M for a very, very short time,

and when God Save The Queen came out,

actually most of those were destroyed and only a few exist.

There have been instances of that single selling for over £12,000.

-Gosh.

-That is one of the holy grails of the vinyl world.

So that was the foil and that's worth about £200.

Because there are more of them, it's just not as desirable.

-Absolutely.

-So Jimi Hendrix is the best - why?

Why, well, what we could say?

Jimi Hendrix, one of the most iconic musicians of all time.

This is a mono edition of the album, which was later re-editioned

in stereo. It has inserts in it, which are complete and those inserts

make a big difference to the price, the condition of them as well.

Very, very sought after. This album is worth £500 to a collector.

There'll always be iconic in music, and certainly...

You know, my wife on countless occasions has

tried to make me get rid of my vinyl, but I lug box upon box of it

around and unlike yourself, I'm never going to get rid of it, Fiona.

You say your wife tried to persuade you to get rid of all

your vinyl records. I did actually chuck out all my husband's records.

He might not be too happy with me now.

Do you know, we've had the most extraordinary things on the Roadshow.

We've valued all sorts of unspeakable things -

monarch's underwear -

and here we are at Newstead and we've got a pair of boxing gloves.

Explain.

Well, Byron was born with a deformed, or a damaged, right foot.

This deformity or damage that occurred at birth,

-caused Byron to walk with a limp for the rest of his life.

-Right.

Now despite this - or possibly more likely because of it -

he became a great sportsman and his favourite sport was boxing.

It was boxing. And he's boxing with gloves, because common people

fought with their fists, gentlemen fought with gloves.

I know that Byron sparred with gloves that he called muffles.

Muffles, and here they are.

There are references in letters from Byron's servant,

Joe Murray, to his lordship's boxing gloves being

stored in the great dining room along with the fencing equipment.

And that's where you found them.

Well, certainly that's where Thomas Wildman found them

when he bought Newstead from Byron in 1818.

And he was a fellow, he was a colleague at school, wasn't he?

Yes, a good friend in fact, yes, yes.

-And Byron learned boxing at school.

-He did.

-When he arrived at Harrow, inevitably he was bullied a bit.

-Yes.

He was taunted about his disability and being hot-tempered and proud,

his immediate response was to give any of his tormentors a good

thrashing and very soon he got a reputation for his skills

in fighting and became a champion of the younger, weaker boys

who he protected from the bullies.

-Absolutely splendid, and he always used them here.

-Yes.

And he did the most extraordinary things here at Newstead, didn't he?

-He did, well, he...

-I mean, he shot guns in the hall.

He ran a bachelor residence here

and he had great fun in the years that he lived here

before his marriage.

He swam in the lake, he rode horses,

he fenced, he was a great marksman, but his great passion was boxing,

because as he said, he got the most exertion, it was the most

extreme exertion that he got from boxing and that was important to him,

because in addition to survival tactics, for Byron, boxing provided

-a means of keeping fit and he was very obsessed with keeping fit.

-Yes.

These are hallowed relics. Not only did Byron's hands inhabit

-these gloves, wrote his poems with these hands...

-Yes.

..and everything else.

They are as close as we can almost get to Byron.

They're extremely personal, and look how tiny the hands are.

Yes, they are, aren't they? Yes, little fingers.

-Have you tried them on?

-No, of course not!

I'd be tempted, but anyway, my hands are too big.

It would be awfully exciting to try them on.

It would, it would, it would.

-Now, you don't want me to value them.

-Not allowed to.

No, of course not, absolutely.

I wouldn't dream of valuing them, I'm a bookseller,

I'm in antiquarian books, why should I value gloves?

But let me tell you, I'm interested in memorabilia

and signed memorabilia come to that.

I suppose the only thing I can think of is a pair of Henry Cooper's

gloves, signed by Henry Cooper, £5,000.

Impressive.

Not signed by Byron, Newstead Abbey, couldn't be better,

on the Antiques Roadshow...

-I couldn't possibly tell you.

-Thank you.

Well, thank you for bringing them in.

I know you didn't have far to come, but they're great.

Well, here we have Neptune carved in this amazing shell,

looking over this collection of cameos.

How did you get to have so many cameos?

Well, the cameos belonged to my grandfather.

I never met him because he died when my father was 16, in 1929,

but this was his collection.

My grandfather bought them at auction, I think.

And they've always been in the family

and they were left to me in my father's will.

Well, they really do show sort of a very male side to perhaps

collecting as far as jewellery's concerned,

because way back in the Renaissance period, it was the fashion

and the thing to do, to build a huge collection of cameos,

whether they be shell cameos, as we have the majority here, or even

cameos carved in agate, and leaders such as the Medicis over in Italy

were collecting these cameos to show that they had power and wealth.

There was a big revival of cameos in the Victorian period because

they too were looking back to the Renaissance period for inspiration

in design and also back to the Classical period where they were

looking at the ancient cameos, also for inspiration in the jewellery.

And the majority of the cameos that you have here

-are from the Victorian period.

-Well, that would figure.

And I think to see Neptune obviously carved in the shell, it just

brings home the fact that these cameos do come mainly from shells.

And it's a really very delicate and intricate way of producing

a wonderful picture within a shell or a hard stone.

Subject matters are always very important

when it comes down to cameos.

So here we've got Hebe

and the figure of the eagle, which is actually representing Zeus,

so that's a very, very well carved cameo.

You've got depth there, which is important, you've got an even colour

in the whiteness and very fine quality carving and then here,

a chariot with the horses and the lovely delicate stars.

-I mean, what attention to detail to get that.

-I know, I know.

And then over here, this is an interesting one,

-it's actually made out of lava.

-Oh, right.

Because during the Victorian period, of course,

there was real interest in Mount Vesuvius and the cameos were

carved out of the lava and they come in a variety of colours.

And we've got a lovely ram carved into this one here,

-which of course will represent Aries.

-Yes.

Now I know that we've only got a few here on show, haven't we?

-That's right.

-So how many have you got in your collection?

Well, erm...we've got 36.

Well, if they are all as good a quality as this,

and showing such a variety of subjects et cetera,

then to a collector I think if you were to re-offer them

at auction, then I can see somebody paying in excess of possibly

-£2,500 to £3,000 for them.

-Really?

That's a lot. That's lovely. Thank you very much. Thank you.

-But I'm not going to sell them.

-No.

This is an absolutely fantastically dynamic image, isn't it?

A real battle scene, we've got tanks pushing in from there,

German and Italian tanks,

pushing down onto this line of very beleaguered gunners

manning their 25-pounder guns.

It's by Terence Cuneo, who is one of the greatest

war artists of his generation.

Can you tell me the action that it depicts?

It's describing the Battle of Knightsbridge, which took

place on June 6th 1942.

My regiment, the South Notts Hussars, had been given the order

to fight to the last man and the last round,

and not to retire, so we knew we were fighting a last stand,

and this painting by Cuneo

is marking position after a long day's battle.

So this is actually a picture of an action that you fought in?

I fought in that battle. I am in fact that man there.

-You are that man there.

-And the reason I say that, is because

the regiment was wiped out.

By some miracle, I was the last man, virtually,

and I fired the last round, and when Cuneo was commissioned to paint this,

he needed someone to tell him what it was about, and I spent many, many

hours with him, describing the situation which he later painted.

-So you are the man that pulled the handle.

-Yes.

-Fired the gun.

-Yes.

-And did the round hit anything?

-Yes, it did.

That last round I fired, which was later than this,

it was about six o'clock at night, did hit a Mark IV tank

and then this man standing at the side of me, was killed

because a German tank had come up behind us and fired a machinegun,

almost point blank, blasted him into the shield.

And I took a deep breath and waited for mine.

For some reason, it didn't fire and I survived and am still here.

And so we can see on the extreme edge there,

the artist has built up paint using a technique called impasto,

to give the impression

that there's a great bang as the shot hits the tank

-and it fetched the turret off.

-Exactly.

Which is normally fairly terminal for most tanks.

-And very close of course.

-Yes.

-Because by this time, the tanks were right upon us.

-Yes.

It's interesting that this is part of your story, it's also

part of mine, because I was in the South Notts Hussars as well.

Were you really?

I was, and I can remember being in the gun park at the drill hall

-in Bulwell, which is just down the road from here.

-Indeed, yes.

And Terence Cuneo came round to start to make

sketches of the guns, because we were still using the 25-pounder

in the 1970s because it was an excellent training gun,

and I can remember the commanding officer coming round and saying,

"Right. I need people to act as artist's models for the artist

"who is coming round," and there were three or four chaps

from my troop taken out who were placed by the artist

in the position that he wanted, round the gun

and he made his preliminary sketches from it.

-Amazing.

-I can remember for many years,

sitting in armchairs conducting research in the officer's mess

into gin and tonic and fine wines, and this picture

always gazed down on us. I understand it's no longer there.

That's correct, it now hangs proudly at the Queen's Royal Lancers

in Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Museum at Thoresby Courtyard,

Thoresby Park, which is about 20 miles from here.

-So, it's still very much within Nottinghamshire.

-Absolutely.

The greatest feature of the picture for me, the bit I like,

is his trademark of the little mouse.

-Little mouse, firing...

-And there he is,

-he's got his own little 25-pounder.

-There he is, yes.

If I'm any judge of the matter, I think he's been fairly

successful from that pile of burning wreckage there.

I said that Cuneo was perhaps the greatest military

painting artist of his age and as a result of that,

his pictures are very, very much sought after.

If you had to buy this, this is between somewhere £30,000-£40,000.

It is a fantastic painting

and it's just wonderful to see it here at Newstead today.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

We've thoroughly enjoyed our day here in the glorious

gardens of Newstead Abbey,

but I wonder if you've noticed some noises off while we've been filming.

-That piercing cry you might...

-DISTANT SQUAWKING

Like...like that,

is not one of our experts exclaiming at some marvellous object

placed before them.

It's the peacocks who are wandering around, looking gorgeous,

but apparently they're vicious, so I've been giving them a wide berth.

From all of us here at Newstead Abbey, until next time, bye-bye.