Biddulph Antiques Roadshow

Today we're in the Biddulph Valley in the Staffordshire Moorlands,

a few miles north of the Potteries.

Behind me lies Biddulph Moor and the headwaters of the River Trent.

The river flows south to Stoke, then east to Nottingham and beyond.

The name "Biddulph" in Old English means "by diggings".

The valley's mineral riches were discovered a very long time ago.

In Biddulph in the Industrial Revolution, coal mines went down,

iron foundries went up and railway lines ran across the valley.

James Bateman used the fortune he inherited from coal and engineering

to develop an extraordinary garden at Biddulph Grange.

Bateman and his wife, Maria, gardened with great enthusiasm and even greater imagination.

The result was a mixture of formal layouts and unique areas,

each with a different national character. It's glorious.

All this splendour cost large amounts of money and commitment.

Eventually, it became too much for the Batemans. In 1871, they sold the estate. Years later, in the 1920s,

the Grange was converted into a hospital.

Much of the area went into economic decline, but eventually, tourism came to the rescue,

and North Staffordshire has been rejuvenated. In 1980, the National Trust took over the gardens,

and what they've done in the past 20 years would make James Bateman look down and smile.

The much-loved willow pattern was a favourite of Bateman's too,

and he created a Chinese garden, tracing the features of a typical piece of porcelain.

It would be just the thing if we came across a few examples today.

We're at the new Biddulph Valley Leisure Centre,

where the doors are open to welcome this week's Antiques Roadshow.

-So what's his name, then?

-Fred.

-Fred?

-We call him Fred.

-Yes.

And the children would run up the stairs.

We used to say, "Don't go up the stairs because of Fred."

-He was the bogeyman?

-He was the bogeyman at the bottom of the stairs. But a recent great-grandson...

-Yes?

-He was running down the hall, and I said, "Zak, don't go down the hall because of Fred."

He looked at me and said,

"Grandad,

"it's only an orminant!"

-So he wasn't going to be frightened by no orminant?

-No, he wasn't frightened by orminants!

-I hate to disappoint you - he's not called Fred.

-No.

-Do you know what his real name is?

-We haven't a clue.

-This is Homer. You've got your own home Homer.

-Homer?

-Not the Simpson variety - the original.

-Yes.

Well, I hate to tell you this - it's a copy.

-A copy?

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Now... I immediately noticed this coming in.

-Yes.

-I have known this fellow for rather a long time.

-Yes.

The original is in a museum in Copenhagen.

-Yes.

-But the original - this is one of the ways you can tell it's not original - hasn't got a nose.

-No.

I see.

But our Homer - your Homer - has a nose. This is a Victorian copy.

-Yes.

-Of a very well-known bust. But the funny thing is, the original in Copenhagen - even that is a copy.

-Oh.

-It's done in the style of a Greek sculptor.

-Yes.

As with so many Roman statues, copies of Greek originals, we don't have the Greek original,

-so this is a copy...

-Yes.

..of the Classical copy of a hitherto undiscovered Greek original going back to the 2nd century BC.

I think today, if you sold this magnificent marble bust of Homer,

a superb Victorian copy, you would probably get

-£3,000 to £5,000 at the very least.

-Oh! Thank you. Thank you.

This is... It's not a panorama, but it's a view of...

..the Great Exhibition, and it comes out of its box like that,

and each piece is hand-coloured -

beautifully hand-coloured, jewel-like hand-coloured - showing the inside of the Great Exhibition.

The wonderful Joseph Paxton building in Hyde Park - the Crystal Palace.

There's a Christmas tree or an English oak at the bottom.

-Yes.

-Absolutely wonderful. And so this dates from 1851.

Now, remarkably... Very often these are quite torn and have been repaired quite often,

but obviously the odd one is...guarded like that.

For the most part, it seems to be in remarkably original condition.

1851, hand-coloured...

Value today, I suppose somewhere in the region of...

-£800 something like that.

-Really? Good grief!

-Is this an old family treasure?

-Well, it was me grandfather's, originally. It was inherited by me -

by my mother - then me mother died

-and I inherited it.

-So you don't know where it came from?

-Not a clue.

-Haven't got the original bill?

-I presume me grandfather bought it, but I don't know.

Right. What about nationality?

-Don't know that.

-Right.

My mother said to us was that it was Queen Anne or something, but...

-It's not that old.

-No.

-Let's get the date out of the way first. The shape and size of this display cabinet

-are typical of, in fact, the late 19th century, early 20th century.

-Right.

-1890-1910, that sort of date.

That's indisputable. It's certainly not English.

Many things tell me this is French. The most obvious one...

See this long lock here?

Imagine French windows. It's hard to get out of French windows - they've a long bar locking the whole door.

Very secure. And you turn it once, like this.

You still can't get out or lock it properly, so you turn it again.

And that double lock is French.

-Exclusively French.

-It's funny, that.

Me grandad also had a huge monstrosity, like a Louis cabinet, with a big bow front and everything.

A horrible thing! I presume that was French as well, but, I mean, nobody wanted that.

It sounds like he was a collector of good quality French furniture. This is a Louis cabinet,

influenced by Louis XVI of the 1780s.

It's influenced by that 100 years later.

This quarter veneering here is French, going down and then across,

so that everything points to the middle. What's really interesting is that here...

-Can you see these little flecks in here?

-Yeah.

-All these little flecks, that's known as Ois de Vermay,

which is... The tiny little flecks are rather like a silver gilding colour.

It's a particular type of wood used in France in the late 19th century,

into the early 20th century. Only the very best makers made it.

I have a feeling I know who this is made by - Francois Link, who was Czechoslovakian

and he went to Paris in 1881. Until he became famous, about 1900, he wasn't signing his furniture.

The way this is made, the type of wood - the very best quality wood -

this rather nice sort of garland of flowers and husks here and laurel, in fact.

There's some gilding, but there's a lot of coppery colour in it. He favoured that type of gilding.

All the mounts are the type he used continually throughout his career,

which lasted from 1880 until he died in 1946, so he went well on into the 20th century.

It's quite a rare early piece by Link. Have you got a value in mind?

A couple of thousand, something like that.

That's conservative. If you insure it for £2,000, you'd expect it to make £1,000, £1,500 at auction.

I think you'd get easily £2,000 or £3,000 at auction,

so, even with my hesitant attribution to Francois Link,

-I would put £5,000 for insurance.

-Good heavens!

This is the dish I was holding at Biddulph Grange. David?

This is a Spode one. It's a pearlware body - a creamware with a blue glaze -

and it's been transfer printed, in underglaze blue with a willow pattern.

There are hundreds of willow patterns - every manufacturer did one. The basics are the same.

We've got two birds - the love birds - the figures on the bridge,

a pagoda, and the willow tree. It of course comes from the Chinese.

Thomas Minton was the first to probably engrave it.

We don't know. This is a Spode one of the late 18th century and it's a very nice dessert dish,

-part of a set.

-Did they start making them because the originals dried up?

No, it was purely cost. It was hoped the Staffordshire manufacturers

could undercut the Chinese original.

Now, when you think that a Chinese original plate - the Chinese plate -

landed in London and sold for one shilling... They had to undercut that price. And they did!

When did they become treasured pieces?

Well, the idea of collecting old pottery

doesn't actually go much further back than the second half of the 19th century.

But this sort of thing would not have been taken seriously as a collectible item

the 1970s, 1980s.

Since then, the prices have been moving up very strongly, particularly for pearlware.

Pearlware is a cult thing at the moment, so prices are very strong.

Well, I'll keep hold of it. Thanks!

Stoke City Football Club, as it was in 1892,

and as it was in 1938

with perhaps its most famous son - there we go - sitting in there somewhere...

Stanley Matthews.

You're a collecting nut!

Yes. I've collected ever since I went to Stoke in 1960 with me Dad.

Since then, I've just done solid collecting, but purely only Stoke City.

You've also got this...

which is the results book for Stoke City from...

the 20th August 1949 all the way through. Now, where do you get something like this?

This particular item came up for auction at the local Stoke City Fair some years ago.

There wasn't an awful great deal of interest at the time,

and hence the price I paid for it some years ago was only £40.

Well, I think that's a gift! But it also... It's amazing to me. We've got here the Stoke City Crockery.

This was when the Victoria Ground was to be demolished.

An auction was held.

There was approximately 36 to 39 sets of these cups, and myself and two friends bought all the lot.

Having looked at the selection that you've brought here, there's no question that in my mind -

this is the best part.

We've got two gold medals - one for the Swifts...

Stoke Swifts. That was what they were known as

-before they became Stoke FC...

-Yes.

-..before they became Stoke City.

-And the date of this one is 1888.

Now football medals,

particularly gold ones, just don't turn up.

They turn up very seldom and when they do,

there is a terrific amount of competition for them.

It's lovely you've got the photograph too.

In the right auction, this little frame might fetch perhaps as much as £1,000

I wish you luck with filling any gaps you might still have. Thanks!

-Thank you!

-OK.

It's a good-looking English watch.

-Do you know what date it is?

-Er...1920.

-My husband's grandfather's had it as long as that, so...

-As long as that? Right.

-Yes.

Well, let's look at it a bit closer.

It's got this strange pendant, which tells me that it's a repeater.

So, do you ever make it repeat or not?

-We've tried, but...

-With no luck?

-No.

-There's a little slide here,

which you move to allow the plunger to go down. Very stiff indeed.

SERIES OF CHIMES

Did you hear that?

-Yes.

-It's very quiet, but it gave you the hours, "ding-dong, ding-dongs" for the quarters,

then a single ding - so it is what we call a half-quarter repeater.

That gives you the time to the nearest 7½ minutes, when you were in a dark room or something like that.

-Yes.

-Now, it's what we call a consular case...

..so it's got this big chunky outer case and a beautiful gold dial, a lovely machine-turned centre,

beautiful raised gold numerals,

and looks to me to be the original hands.

Have you ever seen inside it?

-No.

-OK.

At the six o'clock position, there's a nib where you put your finger...

Wow!

Not only is it half-quarter repeating...

but it is signed "John Roger Arnold".

It has a spring detant escapement,

and, looking down here, you can see

a blued steel helical spring to set it running

-and his typical "z" balance.

-Right.

This is a really very, very interesting find.

And the case...

a full set of London hallmarks,

18-carat gold...1811.

-Oh, right.

-110 years before you remember it in your grandfather's possession.

And a lovely heavy watch in the hand. At auction now,

-it would fetch towards £15,000.

-Gosh!

-And you MUST insure it for a minimum of £20,000.

-Right. That's wonderful!

Interesting bit of ceramic history. It's the first Dressler tunnel kiln built in England in 1915.

-Art Nouveau design - looking back, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Majolica glazes,

Art Nouveau, so...

but up-to-date in kiln technology.

-How many do you think were made?

-Very few, I should think.

So it's been a rare piece, but probably not a huge value, £100 to a tile collector, something like that.

Well, I think definitely not Thomas Somerscales. It's definitely, as you rightly suspect,

a later copy in the manner of. I think you'd have to call it a fake,

-cos it's got the monogram.

-Yeah.

This is a sweet Bing table-top train set.

-This was an auction purchase?

-Yes.

Did you buy it recently?

Four or five years ago.

-How much did you pay for it?

-£50.

-You did very well.

These have become very desirable. This is in very nice condition.

It's got a very nice little station with it, which is in superb condition, and, believe it or not,

it's probably going to be worth

-maybe as much as £200 or so at auction.

-That's nice.

These have the look of somebody with a good eye. You clearly have got it,

because all these things have got something about them

which is appealing. If we go back in time, you've got a Wedgwood transfer-printed tile.

-Yes.

-These were put round fireplaces.

Um...this one is "September",

so it's obviously one of the seasons,

-and there would originally have been a whole set.

-I have the whole set.

-Oh, very nice. Oh, very nice.

-I didn't bring them all for fear of damaging them.

-That's sensible.

-Have we got a mark on? Yes, we have.

-They are all Wedgwood actually.

The Wedgwood mark across there, dating from the 1870s.

Um, a set of those are going to be worth around...

-£250 to £350.

-I see.

-I love this.

-I've had that for a long time.

-Do you know what it is?

Er, well, it's creamware, obviously, isn't it? And I don't know what factory,

-as so many factories did creamware, didn't they?

-Absolutely. It's a later development of creamware.

It's creamware with a slight blue tinge on it.

You can see that very clearly here on the foot rim. And this is pearlware.

This one dates from about 1795.

What's joyous about it are these completely mad birds -

I suppose they're doing a sort of love dance.

-Yes.

-Very charming. That's going to be worth around

£250 to £350, maybe even a bit more.

My first question is how did you come by this marvellous collection of beautiful ladies?

The two bronzes were family pieces.

We've had them a long time. I'm not sure of their origin.

The other piece...

my father bought a company from a 90-year-old gentleman in Bradford who was going into a nursing home,

so he persuaded my father to buy the reclining lady plus two others.

-I

-wouldn't have taken much persuading! We'll come to her later.

-Right.

-Perhaps if we start with this one...

This is Austrian, almost certainly by a company called Bergmann.

Annoyingly, I couldn't see any mark, but it's such wonderful quality that it's almost certainly by Bergmann,

who produced cold-painted bronzes - bronzes with decoration that's painted on

-rather than fired.

-Right.

You've got a Moorish girl here, helping the lady out of the bath.

We see the wonderful naked body beneath.

-Yes.

-It's very sexy. It's an absolutely marvellous piece.

It dates from around about 1910.

At auction today, it's worth £2,000 or £3,000.

-Yes.

-Maybe even a little bit more.

-It's very, very nice.

-Yes.

-This one is double-walled.

-Yes.

-We've got an inner vessel,

which contains the tea, and an outer vessel which has been pierced

with this honeycomb pattern.

This idea has been pinched straight from China of the 17th century.

This is particularly common coming from Te-hua, Fukien province, in Southern China,

on their blanc de Chine wares. From the 1650s onwards they did this, what was called Lin-lung work -

devil's work - and it's been copied 100 years later in Staffordshire.

A very nice and uncommon object,

in basically good condition.

Um, that's going to be worth...

around...£600 to £1,000.

-Really?

-Very nice thing.

-A slight problem with these. If you took that to San Francisco today without the right licences...

-Yes.

..they'd destroy it in front of you,

-because the ivory...

-Oh, yes!

-There are problems with import and export.

If you ever did decide to sell it

in the American markets, you'd have to get the right licences.

-Right.

-She's suffered, sadly, in a way that these things do. She's lost the tip of a finger.

-Yes.

-The ivory has dried out slightly - there's a crack there.

-Yes.

-It COULD be cleaned. My inclination is to leave it alone.

-Really?

-I have to say.

It's by a man called Philippe, who's signed it on the base.

She's probably worth much the same - perhaps £2,000 or £3,000. Maybe a bit more.

-Right, yes.

-Very popular, these theatrical figures.

-Yes.

-That is a rare item.

-Yes.

-Do you know what it is?

-Yes, I know what it is.

-Not many people would know what this is.

-No.

-Shall I tell you a story about how I came to get that?

-Do.

-It was a church fair.

They were raising money, and an auctioneer brought that in for people to guess what make it was,

-what year it was and what its purpose was.

-Right.

And...you paid to have a guess.

-Yes.

-And I guessed right.

You break an egg into there, put the lid on,

shake it and, suddenly, you've got scrambled eggs!

It's a very clever idea, and they were made by Wedgwood

in the 18th century and early 19th century.

-They're not common at all.

-I haven't tried it!

-You haven't?

-I think £250, £350, no trouble at all.

-Right!

It's wonderful! You've a great eye. Thank you very much for bringing it in.

Sexy ladies reclining on a couch, are very often found in art -

Velazquez, Manet...

and obviously, the most famous of all the carvings

is the Canova of Madame Recamier reclining.

And you know, one's mind immediately goes to those. You commented that you've noticed

-people touching her.

-Yes.

-It is wonderfully tactile, and I think

that's really the clue to the value of this.

-We don't know who it's by, sadly.

-No.

-It's almost certainly Italian.

-Yes.

I would suspect she dates almost exactly the same as your chryselephantine figure...

-Yes.

-From the 1930s.

-Right.

Cold-painted decoration - this decoration here - which has survived pretty well,

and you've got a mixture of stones.

and the textures and the forms are just so beautifully observed. It's absolutely marvellous.

-I'd imagine she would make somewhere in excess of £10,000.

-Really?

-Which one are you taking home?

-I like this lady.

-Yeah.

-I know which one you're taking!

-I'll take her.

-Right!

This is a complicated thing. Is that typical of what people bring?

It is. It's what I HOPE they're going to bring. This is a lovely 19th-century microscope and, yes,

-one of the best things I've seen so far.

-"Miscellaneous" is the most difficult of all disciplines here,

-because it's everything, isn't it?

-True. It's the most exciting.

You never know if something like this will come out of a bag,

or a postcard or a bit of broken tin. It's great!

-What makes you sort of groan inwardly when it's brought up?

-Bits of things.

People who have part of an object and want to know what this handle actually wound,

what this lid came from.

-It doesn't happen that often.

-You could, in fact, start a new trend.

You could say, "This is worth collecting" and the word goes round.

-That's an excellent idea! Why didn't

-I

-think of that?

Oh, it's "Laying the foundation stone of the armoury at Burslem,

"in commemoration of the coronation of Edward VIII."

and it's got the badge of the First Volunteer Battalion of the Prince of Wales North Staffordshire Regiment.

It's a very handsome trowel with a lovely carved ivory handle,

and I see it's got a further inscription on the back.

"Owing to the King's illness, the presentation was postponed

"to August the 5th

"and the foundation stone of the armoury was laid on the 16th October 1902."

That's rather nice. It was actually made by a silversmith, John Round, and that's his maker's mark there.

Right.

Made in Sheffield in 1899.

These are not terribly saleable unless they've particularly interesting inscriptions.

-This one HAS got one. What normally happens is, the inscriptions are erased and used as cake servers.

-Yes.

-Normally, these aren't valuable.

-No.

-But this one, because it is interesting, is worth £400 to £500.

-Oh, that's lovely!

-Thank you.

So, this mysterious YLVA... It's not a youth club or anything.

-It's actually SYLVAC - Sylvac.

-Yes, Sylvac.

-Sylvac, which is collectable. Do you collect other pieces of Sylvac?

-Yes I do.

-What have you got?

Um, I've got plaques, vases, jugs.

-Dogs?

-Um, corgi dogs.

-Corgi dogs.

-I've got four corgi dogs.

I love this chap with the teapot head. He's completely flat!

-Have you ever seen another one?

-No. I've been Portobello Road in London,

-all the auctions...

-How much would I have to offer you?

-Go on, tell me.

-I don't want to sell.

-You don't?

-No.

-What's the most you've ever paid for a piece of Sylvac?

-Um...

-Ever?

-£56.

-I think this is worth £500, £600, £700.

-Ah, you're joking!

-No.

-Oh!

-I've never seen another one.

Oh, lovely. I'm not going to touch it again. I daren't take it home now.

I've seen many ships' accounts and copy letter books. Mostly, they're terribly boring but here...

What a gruesome tale unfolds when you read these!

Gruesome, and at the same time, rather fascinating.

These are slaves that were sold, and the people who bought them,

down on this side here. This is incredible.

"The sale of 234 slaves imported in the ship Dalrymple -

"Pat Fairweather, master - out of Africa."

Here they all are and the prices they all made.

He bought two men there at £40 each - £80.

So it goes on. The accounts go on,

and on to the following page. This is 1778, don't forget, and the price here, the sum total, is £6,906.

-That's a hell of a lot of money, isn't it?

-It is, in those days.

Quite remarkable.

Anyway, yes, absolutely - this is a great story and really needs cataloguing up incredibly well.

We have "to be sold by auction". This is unusual in itself.

This is an auction catalogue of the bounty, a prize to the Essex. Now, the Essex,

obviously a private ship of war, and they stole from this ship from Amsterdam all these bits -

29 hogsheads of clay'd sugar and so on, muscovado sugar, coffee, tobacco.

The nice thing about this - because normally, these were thrown away afterwards -

-you've got what everything made.

-At the end of the sale.

You very rarely ever see sale catalogues like that.

You've compounded this. I mean, you've got all this material here. This here, the Essex -

which was mentioned in that particular sale catalogue - you've got the wages book of the Essex.

-Yes.

-1784. You notice very interesting things.

Here, these ship's seamen... These are their wages, and it says here,

"Run away in the West Indies". Remarkable.

The other thing very evocative of its period...

A lot of these seamen couldn't write, and you see here,

James Hodgson, then "his mark".

-He scratched it in there.

-His mark, yes.

-That's quite...

-For his wages.

Tell me the history of them.

They were going to be destroyed, and my father, approximately 50 years ago, rescued them, really.

-Where were they before...?

-They were in an old farm building.

-Yes.

-And I think they was clearing it out and someone was told just to burn them all

and Father rescued a few of them.

-Just these few? Because you've got receipts.

-There was a lot more - big chests full.

One dreams of finding this - Liverpool merchants dealing in slaves, sugar, and all the rest.

-it is absolutely incredible. Now, it needs cataloguing.

-Yes.

-It needs going through very fully,

but my feeling is it's probably a very valuable collection.

-You'd have to pay in the region of £5,000.

-You think so?

-For this collection, yes.

-Your father did a wonderful thing in rescuing these.

-Thank you very much.

Rupert, the owner of this has been told it's a fake.

-How do you know?

-Well, there's been a bit of publicity about this man.

He's a bus driver and fakes them in his kitchen. I was warned I might see a Picabia drawing at a Roadshow.

Now, why else? Well, because, if you look at this face,

there's something curiously modern about it. It's like a shopkeeper's dummy.

That sort of gives it away.

-Picabia wouldn't have done that.

-Is the discoloration to age it?

Yes. That's clever. He's made some very strong tea

and he's painted the paper

to make it look as though it's been damaged by age and light.

-Is this intrinsically worthless?

-Good question. I think so. I think fakes are worthless, full stop,

but some people disagree and like to see fakers fool the "experts".

At a casual glance this does pass for a Picabia. There's a lesson to be learned here.

You have to look very, very carefully and question everything.

I used to go in the drawer, take it out and pretend she was my little sister.

-Well, you've treated her very well because...

-She's lovely.

-..she's in superb condition.

This is poured wax, as opposed to having a composition underneath it, and a little thin layer of wax.

So this was literally poured into a mould,

then the eyes would be put up through this shoulder plate.

In the middle of the 19th century, in England, we were really good at making wax dolls.

And the famous makers of the time were Montanari, Meach and Marsh.

I think this is probably by Montanari. Now, this actual whole dress is silk taffeta

and it is SO fragile, yet it's in wonderful condition.

So this real hair...

is individually inserted into the wax,

wonderful, real human hair.

Glass eyes... Quite a petulant face.

-Beautiful.

-Lovely little face.

-She's beautiful.

So, a Montanari doll in the original clothes.

I'd say an auction value of between £700 and £900.

Lovely!

It's most unusual to find, on the bottom of a piece of Shelley,

a name and a date. Who was GM Hitchen?

That's my maiden name, and I was allowed to paint this tea set for my own wedding present in 1934.

-Really? So were you working for Shelley at the time?

-I didn't work for Shelley. I didn't work.

We purchased the tea set so that we could paint it for a client in red carnations,

but we couldn't find the right red.

The client got fed up and said, "Don't bother."

So the boss of the works at the pottery said,

"You can paint that to your own design for your wedding present." So that's a one-off -

So I painted it myself,

did all the banding, lining, painting, and he let me have it

for me wedding present.

-Did you do the gilding too?

-Yes - real burnished gold.

-Right.

NOT the, er...

the cheap gold. And if you upset a pot of gold on your overall, your overall's taken off you

-and burned to recover the gold.

-Really?

-Yes.

-Not many people make their own wedding present.

-No.

-It's all still there - six cups and saucers.

-All complete.

-All complete and in lovely condition too.

-Yes, yes.

-I'd have thought, commercially,

-with such a lovely story, it's worth about £300 to £400 for the set.

-Yes.

But, of course, you'll never sell it. No.

This VR cipher denotes this handkerchief as belonging to Queen Victoria.

-Yes.

-How did you come to have one of Queen Victoria's handkerchiefs?

-Well,

my great-aunt used to string the pearls for Queen Victoria and Queen Alexandra.

And when she retired, Queen Alexandra gave her this box,

-which is Victoria's handkerchief box.

-Right.

-And all the things inside it.

So the box was reputedly Queen Victoria's, and this is one of her handkerchiefs?

-That's right. Yes.

-Obviously, with that family provenance,

-I think it's obviously indisputable.

-Yes.

-Um...now, um, I mean, my feeling is

-that this handkerchief and this boullework box are probably worth £200.

-Oh!

-Well, who do you think this little drawing's by?

-Well, I'm hoping you're going to say John Constable.

So many people come into the Antiques Roadshow saying,

"I've got this Constable" and so many people one has to disappoint.

-but I do think this stands a good chance of being by Constable.

-Hope so.

-It's fascinating,

because it's Constable at the very, very beginning of his life, probably in the sort of late 1790s.

His life was difficult at the beginning as an artist,

-because his father wanted him to join him in his watermill business in Suffolk.

-Right.

And he really wanted to be an artist and he studied with the watercolourist John Thomas Smith,

who was known as "Antiquity Smith".

You can certainly see influences of his style in this.

you can see the outline of the pen and the nice wash shadings...

-and of course, at the same time, what is very typical of Constable - this Dutch influence.

-Yes.

He was a product of the Norwich School, the East Anglian School.

-So would he be getting a training?

-He would have been training.

That's why you see the influence of John Thomas Smith's style.

But, um, where did you get this, actually?

-They were bought as a pair in 1971 at an auction in Suffolk.

-In Suffolk?

-That's fascinating. Obviously, Constable came from Suffolk.

-Indeed.

-That ties in neatly.

-They were bought as being from his sketchbook.

Yes, and I think that in order definitely to establish this little drawing, which is so fascinating -

such a wonderful piece of history and such a wonderful indication of his origins -

-you would need now for it to be seen by the Tate Gallery.

-Right.

If they gave it the OK, then you've got a real Constable.

-Right.

-And I think you probably have.

-You're probably now expecting me to say it's worth £300,000.

-No.

-Knowing if it's by him, that would make the value for me.

-I'm glad you take that view,

because as an early almost curiosity by the artist, it's not worth an enormous amount of money.

-Yes.

-Perhaps you should insure it for £1,200 or £1,500 - something like that.

-Yes.

-At last, an almost genuine Constable on the Roadshow!

-It's still "almost"! Thank you.

My grandfather actually bought it.

This is the lady who, um... had the collection,

and you notice she's wearing these pearl earrings and that ring in the picture.

It's so good to have a photograph of someone actually wearing them. The pearls -

let's just have a look at those first,

because these are very classic design. So wearable - just drop pearls at the end of diamond bars.

It's interesting because, if you have a look at the pearls, they're not actually very well matched.

-No.

-On the ears, you can't tell the difference,

but close-up,

one of them is more pointed than the other.

-Yes, right.

-I think, looking at the surface nacre of these pearls,

their sort of quality and style, and particularly their period,

they would be natural pearls rather than cultured pearls.

-Being natural pearls, they're pretty big.

-Yes.

And you've got these lovely, simple collet-set stones in between.

Those, I would think, by themselves...

are going to be worth something in the region of maybe £4,000,

-just by themselves.

-Oh, my God!

-But may we move on a bit?

-Yes!

-Um, you mentioned that,

in the photograph, she was wearing this solitaire diamond ring. When you get close up to it with a lens,

you see that it's got quite a lot of carbon spots in it.

-Oh.

-The more marks inside a diamond, the more the value goes down.

If I have a look at that one,

the centre diamond is relatively clean and it's a pretty setting -

in platinum with smaller diamonds going around the stone itself.

-Sapphire and diamond bar brooch.

-I remember her wearing that.

-Did she wear it high up on the neck?

-On her lapel,

-if she was wearing a jacket.

-Did she wear it at a rakish slant?

-Yes.

These are Burmese sapphires and diamonds - the old cushion-shape diamonds.

That's a classic brooch from around about 1910 or 1915.

This is a pendant necklace,

with pale blue aquamarines in pearl frames.

That was my great-grandmother bought that for my grandmother's 21st,

or round about her 21st birthday.

It was given to my mother on her 21st and then to me.

-Will YOU pass it on?

-I haven't any girls, so...!

My favourite piece - the diamond heart-shaped locket.

Super, great big, fat heart with a star, but what I like about it...

If we turn it over,

you see that, inside, there is a rock crystal cover

and then you can put inside there a photograph or a lock of hair

The Victorians were such practical people. You have a pendant, but you could put something inside it too.

-How does it open?

-Let's have a look.

You've got a very, very fine little ridge going round the outside. If we pull that back...

Oh, right, quite easy.

There we are. The diamond ear studs...

They really match in with the period of this.

These are made in around about 1915, something like that. Very simple set, platinum mounted.

Each of the diamonds weighs about a carat and a half. Nice, clean stones - well made, brilliant.

But you've got a PAIR of stones, so those, you see, by themselves are extremely commercial.

Now, prices. Gem-set pendant -

maybe around about £600.

The sapphire and diamond bar brooch, with chunky diamonds and sapphires - that's probably worth £2,500-£3,000.

-Adding up, isn't it?

-Yes, I'll say!

Um, diamond heart-shaped locket - hearts are incredibly popular. The break value of the diamonds

is at least around about £2,500,

so we're looking, just for that one, at about £3,000 to £4,000.

Then your diamond earrings.

They are something of a piece de resistance here.

The diamond ring - that's going to be worth in the region of £3,000 to £4,000 for that

and then those in with it mean those are worth about £5,000 to £6,000.

That with the flawed stone is not as valuable.

We're looking at a total saleroom value, for the whole collection,

of maybe something in the region of £20,000 to £25,000.

Right, don't wear them when we go down the pub!

This has been one of the busiest days our experts have known,

with an extraordinary range of items from Queen Victoria's hankie to the ship's accounts from a slave trader,

and the first Constable that I've ever seen outside a museum.

AND I think I've met most of the people of Biddulph! Until next week, goodbye.

Subtitles by Valery Tough BBC Scotland 2000

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