Salford Antiques Roadshow

This week we're in Salford, a busy city alongside Manchester, but with a character and history of its own,

and evidence of a great pioneering spirit.

Here at Worsley, the Duke of Bridgewater established the world's first canal independent of a river.

It carried coal to workplaces five miles to the south-east. The cost - four pence a hundredweight.

An ambitious enterprise, it reduced the price of coal

and helped industry flourish in the north-west of England.

More than a century later came another audacious scheme - the Manchester Ship Canal -

one of the Victorians' greatest engineering projects.

It meant that ocean-going vessels could travel 35 miles inland from Merseyside.

From their opening in 1894, Salford docks were amongst the busiest in Britain.

But in the 1970s, the patterns of commerce changed,

containers took over, the docks declined.

And so the city of Salford turned its face to the future.

They'd already been the first municipal authority to have a museum and a library, 150 years ago,

and now they've built the massive and stylish Lowry Arts Centre

on the apex of one of the old wharves.

Inside, with its array of theatres and galleries,

the jewel in the crown - the works of Salford's most famous citizen.

Lawrence Stephen Lowry was born in 1887.

He began developing his evocative but controversial style between the two world wars.

The art establishment was slow to appreciate him.

Lowry worked as a rent collector and in his spare time created images of an urban life

that has now disappeared. The public grew to love his unmistakable pictures.

His matchstick people even inspired a pop song.

# Now he takes his brush and he waits

# Outside them factory gates

# To paint his matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs... #

These exhibits reaffirm Lowry as one of the most distinctive artists Britain has ever produced.

You may recall that this example came to light when the Antiques Roadshow visited Oldham a year ago.

He'd given it to his driver.

Lowry used Peel Park as a setting for many of his pictures.

Today, a new generation of the people of Salford are heading to the university

which is hosting this week's Roadshow.

These are fun things. They are candle extinguishers,

for putting out a candle. Made by Royal Worcester round about 1950, 1952,

-just post Second World War.

-Yes.

-Yes, have you had them a long time?

-About 25 years.

-Mmm, and what did you pay for them?

-There was a little black boy as well.

-Mmm.

-I gave £7.50 for the three.

-For the three things?

-Mmm.

-So less than £7.50 for these two?

-Yes.

They're jolly nice. This is a monk.

He's wearing his brown habit, and he's reading his book. He's great.

-And the mandarin from China...

-Yes.

He's a wonderful yellow and orange with a black hat.

-I think he's tremendous. They're very collectable now.

-Yes.

Your £7.50 has gone up a bit.

I suppose the monk's going to be £150 or £200

-and the mandarin's going to be around about £250.

-Oh...

-So you've got two jolly nice things there.

-Lovely.

-Happy about that?

-Yes.

-Well happy.

-A lot more.

But this is terribly interesting. This is Minton,

and absolutely marvellous, How did you come by this?

-My father bought it for my mother 66 years ago.

-Yes.

-And he gave two pound ten shillings out of a second-hand shop.

-Two pounds ten shillings?

-That, back then, was quite a lot of money.

-Yes.

My mother wouldn't buy it because it was too dear,

and my dad went back and bought it.

I think it's great. They're Chinese, I suppose,

-in a kind of a boat.

-Yes.

-It's almost like a European gondola

because it's made in England.

And it is quite an extraordinary little piece.

The whole structure of it is tremendous fun,

you know, these little chaps rowing their boat along

and he's got a fan just like this mandarin.

Incredible how similar these are, yet this is almost 100 years earlier

-than these extinguishers. Somewhere about the 1870s - 1875, say.

-Yeah.

I think it's quite extraordinary.

-Modelled by a man called Henk and they're fairly rare.

-Oh.

-Have you had them insured or valued?

-I had it valued,

er...and he told me £400.

-£400.

-Mmm, about six months ago.

I think that's probably a little low.

Because of its rarity, I think you're probably looking at £1,000

-or £1,200.

-Oh, a lot more than I thought.

-So that's...

-A lot more, yes.

-From two pounds ten shillings...

-Ten shillings.

-That's a decent price.

-A good buy.

-Yes.

-But more important than that, you like it?

-Yes.

-It's a wonderful model.

Tremendous.

Is there Russian blood in the family?

No, not at all. My grandfather worked in Russia at the turn of the century.

I think he spent about 4 or 5 years there, he was a mining engineer.

-And he was an Englishman?

-Yes.

-And were they GIVEN to him originally?

-No, I know that he bought this box,

which I assume is a cigarette box.

Yes. When did he leave Russia?

It will have been at least 90, 92, 93 years ago.

Yes, I see. That's interesting. And this one is interesting, too.

It's a vesta case. Before the advent of the lighter,

everybody had to carry matches. They were called "vestas".

They were impregnated with wax, and smoking, everybody did.

This technique is called niello. A black sulphurous alloy

is laid into the surface of the silver, filling the engraving,

and then it's polished down to be brought flush with the surface.

It's a very Russian technique. Lovely family history for you,

-and £200 to £300 today.

-Really?

These cigarette cases are of a recognised type. It's not complete.

There's a mysterious sort of hole.

I wondered what it was. Do tell me.

It used to contain a tinder which you could light from the matchbox.

-You could take your matches out of here...

-Yes.

-..strike them on there,

pull up the tinder with a silver pull here, light it,

and then when the wind from Siberia was blowing hard,

you'd pass it to your friends who'd light their cigarettes.

-I see, really?

-There was also a fashion

for covering cigarette boxes with these ciphers.

They're souvenirs of the original owner.

He was probably in connection with the imperial family on some level.

We can tell that from these Romanov eagles that appear twice.

I believe they're the tops of stick pins

that have been mounted onto this cigarette case.

-Really?

-And they meant a lot to him.

-It dates from 1899 to 1908.

-Really?

-It's a rather good span.

It would be important to the new Russian collectors.

-Really?

-So it's gone up...

-Really?

-I was afraid it had gone down with the market opening.

-No, on the contrary.

The Russians love to bid

at auction for their heritage,

which they scorned at the time.

I think probably if it turned up somewhere in a European sale

at which they were in attendance,

-£800, maybe £1,200, wouldn't be too much.

-Really? Good heavens.

Ralph Herbert Lord was a well-known Victorian photographer.

-Yes, he was my great-grandfather.

-Fascinating. With his wife there?

-Yes, in Southport.

Here we have an album of his photographs.

Yes, just the ones that he used to submit

-to exhibitions.

-Right, OK, let's have a look at them.

"An Idle Moment". What a wonderful evocation of late Victorian England.

-It is, yes. He lived in Cambridge when he was doing photography.

-Right.

-And of course a lot of the scenes are from Cambridge.

-Of the fens, yes.

Here, the farmer is having a brief respite from his ploughing

and talking to his wife.

Now... Oh, this is a famous photograph.

Yes, that's one of the ones

-that won a gold medal at the Royal Photographic Society.

-It's Neddy...

-"Neddy's New Shoes".

-A terrific photograph.

He was a wonderful artist.

-Yes, yes.

-Yeah. Here we've got one entitled "You Stupid Boy",

obviously a posed photograph.

The master is about to clip the boy round the ear

for not getting his sums correct.

These are platino-type photographs of large size,

so he'd have needed to carry a lot of equipment.

Yes, that is the size of the plate,

and he had a camera on the back of a cart. He had a horse and cart.

Oh, another well-known photograph.

"How's That?". Marvellous condition.

-You can see the old boy taking snuff.

-That's right.

And the other gentleman with the snuff box in his hand.

And another one here - "Try Again".

-Are these superimposed?

-They are, yes, and he put a pile of bricks here

-to make this shadow from the gentleman's leg.

-Wonderful.

His photographs appear at auction from time to time, and he is recognised as a very gifted artist.

-Nice to know.

-Mmm, and I would think

that the value of this at auction probably lies

-in the region of £6,000 to £8,000.

-Gosh! That's a total surprise.

Just down the hall, the porcelain queue is over there and jewellery's just behind you.

-How many tickets do you reckon you have?

-About 1,500.

-1,500?!

-Yes.

-That's an astonishing collection.

-Yes.

-Did it take long to collect?

-About 20 years.

-Amazing.

-And when did you start collecting?

-1959, when I started train spotting.

And where have they all come from?

Acquaintances swapping railwayana and various items of railway memorabilia.

-You're fond of railways, obviously.

-Yeah.

Some of them are rather fascinating.

-"One Dog", for example.

-Yes.

-Which is your favourite?

-That one. 19...

-That was YOUR ticket?

-Yes. That station is closed now.

-It's Manchester Central which is now the G-Mex Centre.

-Really?

It's a tremendous collection.

How much have you paid for these tickets?

Nothing. It's just things I've exchanged.

-What do you reckon it's all worth?

-I haven't a clue.

There are a huge number of people

collecting railwayana these days, particularly tickets. There's a huge market.

I see the prices that they fetch. You'd be astounded by the prices...

-Really?

-..that some tickets actually fetch. I would think that, um...

if you bought these through postal auctions today,

-you'd have to pay around £2,000 to £3,000 for the collection.

-Really?

-Oh, yes.

-Well, you've got 1,500 tickets!

-Yes.

-It's a tremendous collection. I wish it were mine.

-I'm gobsmacked.

-Thanks very much.

-SMASH!

-What happened?

-It's just...fell out of my hand.

-"Fell out of my hand".

I have to tell you that, on every Roadshow, there is a crash and a client has dropped something.

The best packing material, if you can't get that plastic bubble stuff,

is newspaper. Well...you haven't ruined anything of any great merit.

This was made in the 1950s

and it was worth, before you put paid to it,

-about £10 or £15.

-Oh.

-So, not quite the disaster it might have been,

but sorry it happened.

Well, it used to hang in my father-in-law's office

and then my husband brought it home some years ago

and that's all I know about it. I don't know where it came from.

It's an enjoyable picture, isn't it? It actually breathes quality

and enthusiasm.

He's an artist who was born in 1816,

as it says on the mount, and died in 1869.

He lived a fascinating life.

He studied at the age of 23 under the East Anglian artist, James Stark,

but the quality in depth

is amazing.

-So many artists put everything in the front.

-Right, yes.

But this artist put things in depth

and his sense of depth is absolutely amazing.

-And the colours are very good.

-Indeed.

It's slightly faded, very slightly,

-but it hasn't been in direct sunlight, clearly.

-It's been moved

-from the hall to another wall.

-Yes.

-Away from the sun.

-I'm glad to hear that.

-There is a little bit of staining here...

-Yes.

And also on the other side, and there is slight damage.

-I noticed that when I was wrapping it up.

-Those things

can be so easily repaired.

Erm...

It's truly a tremendous example of a river landscape

by one of our very best 19th-century watercolourists.

-Now, value - have you ever had it valued?

-No.

-What would you think it's worth?

-I think about £5,000.

-Oh, no, no.

-What would YOU think?

-The thousand mark...

-I don't know.

-Well, you're nearer it.

-It is certainly about £5,000...

-Yes.

-..to about £7,000.

-On a good day, maybe up to ten.

-Gosh.

-And going up all the time.

-Yes, as long as you keep it out of the sun and look after it.

-Mmm.

My grandfather was a soldier in the Boer War

and when he came home in 1902 he brought this collection home,

and I understand that it was a Zulu wedding dress.

-Whether it was or not, I don't know.

-That is fascinating, but what about the photographs?

The photographs were never seen by the children or the grandchildren.

They were kept in a brown envelope.

It was only these last few years that they came to light.

-Really? Only just...

-Six years ago.

-And do you think your grandfather took the photographs?

-I doubt it.

-I doubt it.

-No.

This is absolutely fascinating for me,

to see... this is how they wore their beads.

We see beads on the Roadshow,

but we don't know where they were meant to be put,

so this is a wonderful record of a Zulu wedding outfit, if you like.

Now, we've got three of these.

That's probably the best one. They are fading a little bit.

They have got a little bit of discolouration.

But the fact that we've got three here, different girls...

This one's a bit more faded.

All wearing this particular wedding dress which they've made themselves

out of the beads that they would have.

This one's again a bit faded, got a back view here - bare bottoms.

This is one of the little fringes

that was worn by these girls, in the front,

It goes round the waist

and hangs in front, very delicately

and charmingly. It's in fantastic condition.

-It is absolutely mint...

-Yes.

It might have been worn once and that's it.

And then you've got what they wore round their necks.

Again, you'd wear it how she was doing it,

round there, a lot of work in that to make it round.

If you've ever done bead-work, it's a labour of love.

And this one, a bit longer, also to go round the neck,

and this here, which goes round quite a small waist.

So although that lovely lady looks buxom, she had a small waist.

Here we have what the men would have worn.

-Ah, right.

-It's a pity we don't have the men in the photographs.

What I love about them is...

they're the same colouring on the one side,

and on the other side...

it's completely different.

So it's double. They could wear them back to front and inside out.

And superb condition.

If only we could see the couple wearing these,

it would be wonderful, wouldn't it?

Now Zulu bead-work

from that time, from the 1900s,

is now very popular.

It's become a popular collecting field in this country.

-Have you ever had it valued?

-No.

-No, it's the first time

it's been taken out of the cabinet to our knowledge.

It's difficult to put a price on it,

but the photographs themselves have a value in their own right.

Those, I would say, could be worth

-as much as £80 to £100 each.

-The photographs?

-They are very special.

The beads, altogether, I suppose we could be talking about £500.

-I'm amazed!

-It's amazing!

I thought my uncle brought it back from WWII when he was in Thailand,

but only recently did I find out from my auntie

-that it came from Farnworth Co-operative Society.

-In England?!

-He's an ENGLISH dragon.

-Yes.

-He looks madly Oriental.

The mark on the back is Charlotte Rhead,

the great potter in Stoke-on-Trent,

who developed an incredible system of what's called tube lining.

That is, out of a tube, you squeeze clay

to make a pattern, of the dragon and all these decorations here,

and then the girls in the factory

would fill it up very carefully.

So you've got a raised pattern filled up with this...

He's English, but I can understand somebody thinking he was Chinese!

But this is purely English style,

all this decoration. I suppose in date,

1930 would be a good date for that.

A fine tube-lined Charlotte Rhead dish like this

is more than something from the Far East at that time.

-We must be looking at £300 or £400.

-Oh, right.

-It's a jolly nice piece.

-Yes.

-So enjoy it as an ENGLISH dragon.

-Yes, we will.

-Thank you.

-I bought this brooch at an auction room in Melbourne.

-In Australia?

Yes, I think about two years ago.

How do you come to bring it to us, then, here?

I'm going to a wedding in Ireland of the son of an Australian friend.

Alison, my friend, had said she might be coming to the Antiques Roadshow

in the few days I was spending with her in Manchester.

Then a friend jokingly said, "Sue, if you get on the Antiques Roadshow while you're in England,

-"we can watch you on TV in Australia."

-And they can.

-They can indeed.

-What a happy ending,

except that it has to be looked at by an expert. Geoffrey Munn is the man.

"Best of luck to you in the future, sincerely...

-"Elvis Presley".

-Yes.

-How did you come by this?

-Back in 1959 when I was young...

-Yes.

-..um, I wrote to him.

-Yeah.

When he was in the army in Germany, like you do when you're young...

-Were you a great fan?

-Oh, yeah, loved him,

and I just pleaded with him for a reply.

Well, it's dated 1959, so...

-he would have been about 25, and doing his National Service.

-Yes.

-I was over the moon.

-I bet.

-That's why it's tatty.

-Is this a teardrop?

Were you so excited that you started crying?

-No, it was in my drawer for years and perfume spilt on it.

-Oh, is it?

-Yes.

But this, it came apart

from opening it to show people.

There's a good market in rock'n'roll memorabilia and, after the Beatles,

Elvis is the most collected. This has a wonderful history,

and I don't suppose you'd sell it.

-No.

-No, absolutely, hang on to it.

But, despite its condition, if this came up at auction,

-it would probably fetch, I suspect, £500 or £600.

-Yes.

-Thank you, and long live the King.

-Yes.

These intrigue me.

I can't say I've come across any by this particular maker before.

-Patrick Leonard. As far as I know, he's the only chap who ever worked in Salford in silver.

-Yes.

You're looking at £100 plus, and similar with the dessertspoon.

I've never come across his work before,

so I think you've cornered the market in Patrick Leonard.

-They've been in our family since 1916, so my mother says.

-Right.

And they were bought at Kenwood in Manchester for five guineas,

and that's as far as I know and what my mother tells me.

-OK, I know we're talking local.

-Yes.

-We're talking Lancastrian pottery,

Pilkingtons Royal Lancastrian pottery. Place of manufacture is...

-How many miles are we from Swinton?

-About four miles.

-We live about ten minutes' walk away from where these vases were made.

-OK.

Now, I've seen a mark there that's slightly different.

I know that this mark was brought in about 1914.

The early mark is a large P

with two bees climbing around it,

but the mark that we've got here is the Lancastrian rose.

What makes it interesting is that it's got the date.

In this case, I'm reading on this one either 1916 or 1918,

and you know, I've got to say,

I've not seen a piece dated like this before.

-We think it's '16.

-1916? That would make sense.

-Yes, yes.

-Let's face it, five guineas EACH - that's a tidy sum.

-Yes, it was.

Anyway, let's look at the pots.

Firstly, a nice shape, nice Chinese shape,

often referred to as a Meiping shape,

this lovely elegant shoulder form.

One thing that Pilkingtons really did master was lustre decoration.

The lustre is...

is nicely done, but I've got to say that it hasn't fired 100% perfect,

but the fish - they're quite magic. There's a sense of movement there.

-Yes.

-But again, the lustre...

-I don't think it's taken 100%.

-Oh, right.

And this is what collectors are looking for.

I'm happy to say that, from a collectability point of view,

-they are desirable.

-Desirable.

This fellow, I would suspect, is probably around about £400,

-whereas the fish, a little bit more desirable.

-Yes.

I think you're looking in the region of about £600,

but I would stress

-that had the actual lustre decoration been stronger...

-Right.

-..you could probably add at least 50% onto those figures.

-Oh, right.

This is a platinum-mounted, Ceylon-sapphire and diamond brooch.

It's not so much the quality of the stones that's of interest here.

It's the expression of the Art Deco style.

There's a whiff of Japanese ornament in here, perhaps Chinese ornament,

which the Art Deco jewellers took on board,

-so one's jolly pleased to see it. Do you know Selfridges?

-Yes.

There used to be an Art Deco lift in Selfridges

and, in a way, the same decorative sources have been used

in this piece of jewellery.

They are Ceylon sapphires.

They're paler than perhaps one might have wanted.

The pure cornflower blue is the colour that one looks for.

This is not of the intensity

to send the value through the roof, but a very beautiful object nonetheless.

These stones have probably been CUT in Ceylon because, at the back here,

-there's a sort of asymmetrical point.

-Yes.

It veers to the right in the centre stone

which is a clue that these stones were cut in the Orient,

and by a less sophisticated lapidary than one might have found in Europe.

So, you're at the auction, your heart pounding.

-So, how far did you go?

-3,800 or 4,000 Australian dollars.

-So...£1,250?

-Something like that, I think, yes.

Well, I think that was a very good move.

I think it would be jolly difficult to find this brooch for £1,250.

I think double that, so very clever to have chosen it

-and jolly nice of you to bring it over.

-Thank you.

I bought it at an auction three years ago with a small legacy from my aunt

-and it reminded me of my little boy's face.

-How nice.

Did you, when you got your legacy, think, "I must buy a painting of a mother and child..."?

Yes, and my aunt was very fond of children and couldn't have any of her own,

so it seemed very appropriate to remember her by

-as well as being pertinent to my situation.

-Yes. How very nice.

I think it's a charming painting and it's interesting... It's painted by this artist,

Eugene Le Roux, in the 19th century.

But it reminds me of an earlier French artist, Chardin

and there was an exhibition recently of his work,

even figures wearing rather similar caps, and these famous still lifes.

We have a beautiful still life in the background. He's been clever

in the way that it's beautifully painted

and exists on its own but doesn't detract from the main figures.

Returning to the signature, it's interesting because just below it,

beneath a layer of paint, is his signature again and a date, 1869.

I think that's probably drawn in with black chalk or a pencil.

That's a kind of interesting bit of detail,

and why that happened, I don't really know.

-Can I ask how much you paid?

-I paid £2,000.

-That doesn't seem a great price for such a beautiful picture.

I don't think it's an extraordinary value

but I think this painting is probably worth £3,000, £4,000.

I think to be able to get a painting of this quality

-for that kind of figure is extremely good value.

-Terrific, yes.

-Thank you for bringing it in.

-Thanks.

They came from my mother's house and my mother died recently

and we had to dispose of the contents of the house.

At the last week that we were finishing the removal,

we had the hospice van come to take the remaining goods away and my friend, Yvonne, said,

-"How much do you think they're worth? I think you're going to be surprised".

-Well done, Yvonne.

-Do you know what they are at all?

-Well...

-Did you look?

-Yvonne turned them over

-and said, "There is a signature on the bottom."

-OK.

-Hannah Barlow.

-Hannah Barlow.

-Hannah B Barlow,

one of the two Barlow sisters. She had a sister Florence,

and they worked at the Doulton factory in Lambeth.

They went to Lambeth Art School and both did this style of decoration,

that is scraffito, scratching into the glaze

to produce the design. Eventually they came to an arrangement

that Florence would do the birds and Hannah would do the animals.

These are relatively early.

We've got her monogram here.

We've got ES. That stands for Eliza Simmons,

and she was responsible

for all the rest of the decoration. Then we've got the Doulton rosette mark,

and the word "England",

but it doesn't say "Royal Doulton", it says "Doulton",

so it's before 1901

and after 1891,

so we can date it pretty precisely, 1895 there and abouts.

Cows, she did quite a lot. We see a lot of them,

but this size of vase is actually quite uncommon.

They're a splendid pair in really remarkable condition.

We've just got one small chip there.

It's made a difference to the price but not an awful lot.

Yvonne has done you a favour because they're now worth close on £2,000.

-Oh... Thank you very much. Goodness!

-Happy?

-Very. Excellent.

-Good. Thank you very much.

-The Rembrandt Hotel?

-Yeah, Tony Warren and a lot of these people

have been drinking in there. This ended up in the cellar and I found it behind rubbish.

-So you saved it?

-Yeah. The bloke who owns it, Peter, wanted to throw it out

so I said I'd bring it along today.

Each photo is personally signed, and Elizabeth Dawn

has signed "The Rembrandt Hotel" so it's a unique set of signatures.

-I'd have thought to a true fan, it'd be worth £300-£400.

-Quite good.

They might take more care of it and not throw it in the cellar.

This is a remarkable piece of work -

an early draft manuscript of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time.

Now, how did you get this?

I got it thanks to a geography teacher from school.

I had a bad accident whilst I was doing my A levels at school.

It turned out my geography teacher had gone to school with Prof Hawking

and so I wrote to him to ask Prof Hawking to write to me...

to encourage me to perhaps carry on and go to university and things

and this is what I received back -

his original sort of script for his famous book, the best bit being that he hadn't quite finished it

and he wrote his last page...

handwritten at the end.

He's saying at the end that he hopes...

He'd be disappointed if there wasn't an ultimate theory

to the end of the universe,

unified theory. He thinks somebody will get there in the end.

Did you go on and get your degree?

I did, but not from Cambridge, not quite as smart as him. I got my physics degree at York.

-Fair enough. This is a treasure.

-For a physicist, it's great, yes.

You've got beautiful illumination here,

-done, I'd say, turn of the century by Alan Tabor.

-That's right.

-My father-in-law.

-Not a name I know and yet this is...

No, he was fairly local in Manchester and Salford mostly.

He worked for Manchester Corporation and Salford. He started as a tailor,

-I believe.

-Did he?

-Cross-legged, sewing, and didn't like it very much,

and he'd go to the British Museum and copy the manuscripts.

-These were done at the practice.

-Really?

Then he set up in business and did scrolls and things

-for presentations to famous people.

-Excellent quality.

-I'm amazed that this is amateur work.

-Yes, he was amazing.

We have here a Longfellow - The Bridge - in lovely red morocco,

and Gray's Elegy, done in 1914. How old would he have been then?

He married in 1912 when he was about 23.

It's beautiful work, I must say, and executed in vellum

-with marvellous historiations of birds and roses.

-That's right.

-Absolutely sensational.

-Yeah, and the gold leaf too which has lasted.

Well, I must say I'm most impressed.

-They are really top-quality objects.

-They're beautiful, aren't they?

They're beautifully bound, especially this Gray's Elegy

-which is a lovely job. Have you had them valued?

-No. I've often wondered

about the value, not that they'd be sold.

-They're family heirlooms.

-Yes, quite.

I think at auction today you would have to expect this group

to command a figure something in the region of £5,000 to £6,000

-for the four.

-For four? The three...

-Yes.

-Wow. Gosh.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

My husband bought them. He had a good eye for antiques.

Yes. They are a cross between...

-They're wonderfully grotesque shapes here - the head.

-Yes, yes.

It's a cross between a dragon and a fish. They're dragon fish.

They're leaping from these wonderful frothing waves.

You get this idea of carp

jumping up the rapids to get to the other side,

then they are transformed into a dragon.

But I think it was in some way linked with passing exams -

you know, great heroic efforts and succeeding -

when the Chinese passed their exams in the civil service.

-These actually are Japanese because the Japanese also made these...

-Yes.

So these are Japanese ivories

but very much influenced by a Chinese idea.

I think the eyes... Aren't they fabulous?

-They are beautiful.

-They're made of mother-of-pearl.

-Are they really?

As with all Japanese ivories of that period - the end of the last century -

the quality of carving is superb.

If you look at details - the scales, around the mouth here,

and what I referred to earlier,

-these wonderful frothing waves.

-Yes.

Typical Japanese work, craftsmanship at its best.

-You paid £20 for them?

-Yes, roughly.

-That was about 30 or 40...

-35 years,

-40 years ago, yes.

-Not so long ago. This was a fantastic find THEN.

-It's not as though they were bought 100 years ago.

-No.

-They're now worth

-£1,000 to £1,500 I should think.

-Very nice.

-Isn't it?

-Yes, very nice surprise.

I was bequeathed it by a maiden aunt of mine about three years ago

and she said, "I'm going to leave you this picture."

She had been left it by her boss in the civil service,

-and she passed it on to me.

-How nice.

It's The Rebuilding Of Rylands. Tell me about Rylands.

-Rylands is where Debenhams is now in Piccadilly, Manchester.

-Yes.

-The old building was knocked down and rebuilt. I presume it was about 1929.

-Yes, the signature is here

-and the date - 1929.

-And I think that's the work in progress.

He has done other pictures, which we saw at the Lowry Gallery,

showing the finished building.

Talking about the subject of the picture, I think it is a very interesting composition

with all these girders, this building, the figures,

and then almost a cliff face here with a train.

It has lots of detail and activity,

-and I like the way the whole sheet is full of information.

-It is, yes.

But of course, with many artists,

-but particularly with Lowry, there are a lot of fakes.

-Yes.

We must be careful, but I would recommend to you that you check with the Lowry Centre

-to get their final opinion, but I think it's absolutely right.

-Yes.

-And there are other things,

supplementary details or bits of evidence which one must consider.

The nice ordinary oak moulding...

-That was the original frame.

-Yes. And the mount here.

-It's discoloured by light, all the impurities going into the drawing.

-Yes.

I suppose in a way...it looks right, but it SMELLS right also.

Now, I don't know if you've had it insured or...

No, we just have it on the ordinary household insurance.

You'll have to change your thinking completely.

It's difficult in a rising market, and still rising,

but what about £30,000?

-That's a bit more than we thought.

-Thought it was worth £1,500 or something like that.

Well, earlier in my life, I was connected with the whaling industry.

I came across it in the early 1960s.

I acquired it from an old merchant marine sailor.

He told me that he'd got it from someone many years previously.

I really can't tell you much more.

It could have gone from one whaler

to another sailor and finally to you.

These engraved whales' teeth are called scrimshaw

and they were done in the 19th century by whalers,

probably on days when there were no whales to catch.

We see many many replicas and reproductions,

made from a plastic resin. One way to tell a replica from a real one

is that you can see right up inside the root of the tooth here,

so this is absolutely genuine.

What I like is that it's crudely decorated.

Sometimes they're very detailed.

This one is very crude and you can see some alterations.

He must have had something in his hand, this chap,

whose name is Jim Crow, and somebody's altered it slightly.

And it's a great colour. The reproductions are very grey.

This one's orange and yellow

all the way down to this tobacco colour at the bottom.

It's a portrait of Jim Crow,

and if you just turn it around, along here it says "Anne H Dean"

and the date, 1854.

-Right.

-And on the other side,

there's this portrait of a merchantman or a man-of-war,

but what's interesting is it's got the American flag.

So maybe an American scrimshander did this.

If it is, it's very desirable.

Round here, it says, "Jim Crow for New York".

It could've been about his travels, maybe this was his girlfriend...

But it's an absolutely genuine, honest scrimshaw.

-Have you had it valued before?

-No, I haven't, actually.

I did BUY it.

It was something like £5, I think.

-Quite honestly, it was...

-£5, but a long time ago.

-Yes, yes.

A few years ago, this might've been worth £2,000-£3,000.

There is a resurgence of interest in English and American folk art

-and today we'd expect it to fetch £6,000-£8,000.

-Good gracious!

-Not a bad buy for £5.

-Wow, that's...

-You've really astounded me there!

-I love it. Thank you for bringing it in.

Wow.

Thanks to the University of Salford for opening their doors to us today.

I spoke to a man earlier who now owns the house where LS Lowry lived with his mother

and turned out his finest work.

Sadly, his mother never enjoyed a single thing he ever painted.

Until next week, from Salford, goodbye.

Subtitles by Judith Simpson BBC Scotland 2001