Blackpool Antiques Roadshow

If there's one place most of us like to be, it's beside the seaside - even on a rainy day like today.

And more pleasure-seekers flock to this resort than anywhere else in Europe.

Last year, more than 16 million of them

filled its hotels and guesthouses and saw its world-famous landmarks.

Welcome to Blackpool.

In 1750, the population of Blackpool was 473 -

50 years later it was 47,000.

The reason for the 1,000% increase -

the railways.

With the railways came the masses, particularly during Wakes Weeks

when northern factories and mills closed for their annual holidays.

It was hardly first-class travel.

In the very early days, they were transported in cattle trucks

that had hardly been cleaned out.

By the time they got to Blackpool, they were bruised and battered and determined to enjoy themselves.

The Winter Gardens were opened in 1878 and, after a shaky start,

became a huge success due to William Holland, the "British Barnum".

Bill understood his customers and gave them what they wanted,

which was all-day entertainment for just sixpence.

He even offered a one shilling dinner and a one shilling tea.

"Plenty of everything! Help yourself!"

A new phrase for Blackpool was "Holland's weather" -

It meant a sunny morning to send the trippers to the seaside,

and a wet afternoon to drive them to the Winter Gardens.

We have lots of what Holland called his "golden showers" around today,

which might encourage visitors and Blackpudlians alike to come to our Roadshow -

here at the Empress Ballroom, home of the political conference.

Hopefully our experts haven't slipped off to the Big Wheel.

I think one of them's found something to his taste.

Make sure they're the right way round. Some people have them the wrong way round, like that.

-Yes.

-It doesn't make sense at all.

When you look at the modelling in the faces, that's how they go, cos he's giving her the glad-eye.

-Mm.

-Like so, and she's being all demure and cute...

-Yes.

-..with her two little dimples.

-That's right.

-Now, we see a lot of this sort of thing at a Roadshow - made in Germany, slip cast.

-What does that mean? Made in one piece.

-Yes.

-You can see right up the end of them.

-Mm.

-Mass production technique.

-Yes.

-Don't expect much value from them.

-There is one thing that's nice about them, and that is the mark.

-Yes.

-This is by a factory called Hutschenreuther.

-Yes.

They made huge quantities of high-grade, slip-cast figures.

-They also made dolls, piano babies...

-Yes.

They have a sense of humour about them, which I think we'll take into consideration.

-Normally, I'd be saying £20 or £30 for things like this.

-Yes.

-In this case, cos they're SO cute, aren't they?

-Very. Bit like you!

-I haven't got dimples.

-No, you haven't.

I'm going to put a value of around maybe £200 to £300 on them.

Oh, very nice.

My husband who was a compositor, printer,

happened to see them at the Antique Fair at the Marine Hall in Fleetwood

and he just bought them in a book form.

-Were they all in one big book?

-Yes.

-So you broke them up?

-We did. We didn't know whether to or not.

-We'll come onto that later.

What's interesting is that they were published in monthly parts.

It says here, "McLean's Monthly Sheet Of Caricatures."

This one is May 1st 1833.

And it says here,

"Three shillings plain, six shillings coloured."

Six shillings was really quite a sum in 1833.

In a way, it was like the Private Eye of the day.

It was the political cartoon, which the public, at that time, would have learned how to read.

Today it's harder, cos unless you're very hot on your William IV history,

it's difficult to read some of them.

-Yes.

-I'll try and read a couple.

I think this one's very interesting because today there's much debate

as to whether, you know, we should be a monarchy or a republic,

whether it's too expensive, and, here, in 1833,

they're saying that the monarchy was costing £600,000 a year

whilst an American president was a mere £6,000.

"Is there really a balance there?" was what they were asking.

This is an interesting story.

Here we have the Russian Bear attacking Turkey

-while England sleeps.

-Oh, I see!

What's going on here is that if Turkey fell to Russia,

then Russia would be able to get into India.

That would be critical to the Empire.

India was the jewel in the Empire.

They were suggesting that the monarchy were lying by idly, paying no attention.

-You can see that just by looking at that picture?

-Exactly.

The same would apply to all of these.

-A story behind every one of them.

-Yes.

-Every one of them would have been lampooning something.

-Yeah.

-Oh!

-It was a great shame to break them up like this.

-Yes.

Having said that, I'm sure that if you had sold it as one thing,

-someone else would break it up.

-Yes.

You've done what someone else would have subsequently done.

Individually, they're not hugely valuable

and some will be more than others, depending on the political elements.

-You say there are 47 of them.

-I think 47 or 48.

-47, 48.

Even at a tenner each, that's £500.

I suspect they're worth quite a bit more than that.

It's a nice collection and you're going to have to learn a bit more...

We'll have to learn how to read them.

-Condition's not very good, is it?

-Not very good at all.

It just gets thrown in the loft.

Oh, that's nice, yes - Lehmann.

Is it flapping? Yes, it flaps. It's missing a pair of legs underneath.

Made around...1915-1920.

-In that condition, about £60, £70.

-Thank you.

And that - less, much less.

-About £15.

-Thank you.

-OK.

-Now, sir, sorry about that!

-That's all right.

Now, tell me the story behind these.

A friend of mine wanted a job doing, he'd just moved house,

short of funds, and said, "What about an exchange?"

-Very good. Bartering's rife up here, is it?

-It is. Very rife, I may add.

Let's have a look at one or two.

Datewise - we can date them quite easily from the Dion quins here...

-Oh, yes.

-..who were 1935.

There they are, the little group of quins with their dummies. One dummy missing. Very sweet.

They're probably dating from about that period.

We've got one here made by a company called Tipp & Co.

-Tipp? Ah, yes.

-Tipp.

There's the monogram on the front there,

which is in pretty good condition,

-That might be a little earlier.

-Is the fireman missing?

Missing a member of the crew there,

but nice lithography here,

showing the pistons and the hoses and so on.

That's a bit earlier. That's probably mid-1920s.

This is lovely. This has come a long way from London. ..Oh, I don't know.

"London to Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Continent."

-That's quite a tour.

-Quite a reasonable bus route.

And this I love too.

-This is an AA man. They used to salute you by the side of the road.

-They did.

-They had a side car on as well.

-Yes.

I believe there's a story about the AA man.

If he didn't salute you as a member, there was a police trap up ahead.

Oh, is that so? So it was enforced.

I was trying to get it back into circulation.

It would be very nice, wouldn't it?

It should be part of their customer service routine in the future.

But that IS very nice.

Motorcycles have a cult following with collectors, as indeed buses do.

-Now, I suppose you've got them out on display, have you?

-No.

-No?

-Not allowed to?

-Not allowed.

-Yes, I can see.

-She's over me shoulder.

In the background with the rolling pin.

I think what you've got here is a lovely group.

Certainly we're talking about several hundred pounds,

perhaps as much as £1,000 -

I would have thought a fair exchange for work done all those years ago.

-Many of these were converted to wristwatches at a later date.

-Yes.

That one, for example, has got this sort of...catch on the bottom

by which they would have made a wristwatch out of a pocket watch.

I've handled Majolica ware, which is what this is,

since 1969,

and what amazes me about it is that new bits that I've never seen before keep appearing.

-Did you know it was Majolica ware?

-No.

It was made by the Victorians in response to Italian maiolica, which they greatly admired.

They discovered how to use the glazes and then put them onto much more wacky things like this vase.

I mean, I think it was probably for a specimen...lily or flag iris,

or maybe even a display of peacock feathers.

We're right here in the middle of the aesthetic movement.

The design here - although it doesn't look it really - has been very influenced by Japan.

We've got these irises on here.

They're very much a Japanese flower.

And round the bottom here,

we've got this wonderful toad.

That's probably because they've been looking at little Japanese netsuke.

We expect to find, on the bottom, marks.

Now, this is a piece by Minton.

We've got..."Minton" with no "s" on the end.

-They added an "s" in 1872, so we know this predates 1872.

-Oh.

So, quite an elderly object.

Where did your family...? Where did you get him from?

My grandparents had a fish business. They travelled round Lancashire.

They got very friendly with a lady customer who was a spinster

and they were very kind to her.

And, from what I know, when the spinster's mother died -

my grandma had always admired this -

-and I think they gave it to her as a gift.

-Really? Oh, wonderful!

-That would have been the early... about 1910, I would imagine.

-Yeah.

-It was an elderly pot then. You've known it since you were a child?

-Mm.

I think it's a great thing - hugely collectable, particularly in America, enormous market.

I would have thought we were looking at somewhere between...

-£3,000 to £5,000.

-Yes.

-All right?

-Mm-hm.

Well, this mallet is obviously an official tool. What is its story?

In 1935, we re-laid the entire ballroom floor here in the Winter Gardens.

At the end of the job, the Mayor of Blackpool was asked to come down through the ballroom

and to lay the centrepiece

in a special ceremony, using that very mallet.

He hammered it into position and we, in fact, have a photograph of him doing that very thing here.

There's an official standing in the background with the mallet in a box.

-We're on that very spot.

-We're on that very spot, where countless masters of ceremony have stood

to direct ballroom dancers and ensure good order.

-Your house must be a bit empty without this in it.

-It is, yes.

-Where do you keep it?

-It's in the front room.

-In the front room?

-In the front sitting room.

-So, how do you use it?

-You've got objects displayed on it?

-Oh, yes, all the family portraits and all the relics are on it.

-It's an extraordinary piece because it's a real mixture of styles.

-Yes.

When you first look at it from a distance, you say, "English Arts and Crafts"

because of the shape of it,

-but all sorts of the detail just says French Art Nouveau.

-Oh.

-So, that was really popular around 1900.

-Yes.

For the influence to get to England, because I'm sure this is English,

would have taken just a little bit of time,

so I suspect this was made between 1900 and 1910.

And it's got all the features you would expect to find on a kind of mixture of those two styles.

What's very Arts and Crafts is the use of these metal hinges across the door to make it very decorative.

That takes your eye across the curve of the outside doors into the centre panel,

-which is, although it's got an Art Nouveau character to it, quite English, quite Arts and Crafts.

-Yes.

-As you come up, you get this really broad surface, very useful surface.

-Yes, yes.

-And you get these lovely pillars, deeply cut at the top with leaves.

-Yes, yes.

-It's echoed on the inside here with this branch of pomegranates, I think they are.

-Are they? Oh.

-Have you thought about a valuation?

-No.

-It's not been an issue at all.

-Never bothered.

-I think if you saw it at auction you'd see an estimate of

maybe £4,000 to £5,000.

What?!

Oh, dear.

Here is Satan himself, Rex Mundi, King of the World, beneath a pile,

absolutely writhing with sin and iniquity.

There's a reptile here for the lower order of the animal kingdom, a dragon, a scaly unwholesome reptile,

and here are the damned - in serious trouble, falling against rocks - naughty ladies with long hair,

naked gentlemen who probably led profligate lives. And there is a degree of hope in all of this,

because we see at the top an angel.

And he's reaching down to save this soul here,

and I think from that point of view we can be certain that this is not hell. It's purgatory.

-Wonderful object. Have you thought about what it does?

-Absolutely no idea.

It was once set with an engraved stone or piece of die-stamped metal

or something like that, because it's a seal for a letter.

In fact it's very ergonomic in a sense, works very well.

The finger falls between the angel's wings to press down.

I'd like to think this belonged to a Cardinal, really,

or a Roman Catholic priest, in the mid 19th century.

It's fire-gilt, which gives it this look of gold, although it isn't.

Anybody would be very pleased to add that to a collection,

-for £600 or £700 today.

-Good gracious!

-He belonged to my father, and when my father bought a practice and came to Blackpool...

-Yes.

..A chartered accountant's practice, that was part of it.

Two shillings he paid, in about 1928 along with the paper clips...

-He was an accountant?

-Yes, he was.

-Was it to frighten clients?

-I dunno.

-He said it's "somebody who's received his tax bill."

-Exactly how it looks!

-Do you actually know anything about him?

-I know nothing at all.

Does the name Messerschmidt mean anything?

-Forget the aeroplane.

-Not really.

Right. Franz Xavier Messerschmidt, born 1736,

was an Austrian doctor.

He developed a theory that there was a relationship between what was going on inside your head

and the physical structure of it outside.

There was a feeling that you could get into the way the brain worked

by looking at physical features - the shape of the head, expressions.

Now, not surprisingly, Messerschmidt was considered to be a complete lunatic.

He went on making these models through his lifetime, trying to prove this point.

Later they were given silly titles - The Yawning Man, Constipated Man.

That has nothing to do with it, cos at the time, people couldn't decide

if they were serious medical exercises or entertainment.

I think it's painted plaster, a later cast.

-Yes.

-Not necessarily late 18th C, but exactly the same figure. You have it in your insurance?

-We haven't.

-Perhaps you should.

Although seen as bizarre and quaint, they're very collectable,

-particularly in Germany and Austria. £500 to £800 seems fair.

-Good God!

-A sweet revolving bookcase!

-Thank you.

-Where and how did you get it?

It belonged to my husband's aunt and uncle -

parlour maid and chauffeur at the cotton mills in Oldham.

I think this was a piece of furniture that they inherited from there.

-Would that have been in the 1920s?

-Yes.

-Or a little bit earlier?

-Yes.

-This mahogany-finish revolving bookcase dates from the early years of the century.

-Oh, right.

Revolving bookcases are VERY popular now and I like this one particularly because it's small

and because it's got some rather interesting characteristics.

It's on a three-legged stand, but what I like particularly is the Art Nouveau motif of a tulip

and the stretchers are in the form of a stylised Chinese bridge,

-the sort you see on willow-pattern plates.

-Oh, right, yes.

It's very sweet, and of course it revolves.

It may well have been to contain something like the Waverley Novels or a set of Dickens, originally,

and they've all gone missing,

-but given the interest in revolving bookcases nowadays...

-Yes?

-..this could easily fetch £600, £700, maybe a little bit more.

-Oh!

Right! That's VERY nice! Thank you!

Here's something that's been lent to us by Blackpool Tower

where it forms part of a display commemorating the life of the great clown, Charlie Cairoli.

It takes us back to February 25, 1970, when Eamonn Andrews stepped up

and said "Charlie Cairoli, This Is Your Life".

Now, two things strike you at once. The book is neither big nor red.

It didn't swell and turn red until later in the '70s. But here's another colour -

Eamonn Andrews' signature and best wishes there, written as always in green. Here are a lot of pictures,

other great entertainers and Eamonn himself - looking as excited and happy as he always was.

A lovely piece of TV history.

-You are Keith Harris, are you not?

-I certainly am.

-Absolutely wonderful.

-The famous Orville. First time you've seen me with two hands?

-Quite true!

-I remember you very well with ONE hand, on TV.

-Exactly.

-You've brought an interesting picture.

-Yes.

-What's its history?

My manager, a gentleman called Peter Dulay, he gave me this painting,

and this is of the pier at Great Yarmouth.

I worked at the Britannia Pier in Great Yarmouth many seasons,

many seasons there, and he thought it was a nice present.

I think he bought it in London, I don't know.

I wanted to know a bit about it. It's a wonderful painting.

It is. What it shows quite clearly is there are some fishermen here,

looking out to sea on a stormy day with a telescope, perhaps waiting for the fishing fleet to come back.

-Most probably.

-Probably worried - cos there's this great wind blowing,

pushing the sea over the wall.

-Yes.

-I can tell you about McIntyre.

-Ah.

-He was a Sheffield artist.

-Yes.

-He's a bit off his beat here in Great Yarmouth.

-Right.

-He was very well respected in his local town.

-He became president of the Sheffield Society of Artists.

-Really?

It's probably worth... A sale-room estimate might be £1,500 to £1,800.

-Oh, really? Oh, that's nice. It's sentimental value, as I say.

-Yes, I'm sure it's worth more to you.

-Yes.

We often get medals brought to the Roadshow,

but rarely groups as wonderful as this. It contains not one, but two decorations for gallantry.

-Are these from your family?

-Grandfather.

-Your grandfather was...

Company Sgt Major Robert Moyse,

"Distinguished Conduct Medal. Awarded the Military Cross

"for conspicuous gallantry and initiative on the 8th August 1918

"when his Company Commander had become a casualty and although wounded himself, he took command

"and led the company through a dense fog, machine gun and shellfire.

"They passed by a battery which opened fire with a machine gun.

"This warrant officer rushed it by himself, capturing it and the field guns with one officer and 20 men.

"He showed splendid leadership, courage and endurance." Wonderful!

-Yeah.

-It's not surprising they awarded him this -

it was for junior officers, captain and below, and warrant officers -

already on the top of his Distinguished Conduct Medal,

which he had got in 1917 for consolidating a company position.

He was obviously a great man of action.

-Oh, yes. Just five foot four.

-Five foot four?

He had a medical reject at first, and he had to fight to get in.

I don't suppose the Germans knew what hit them, coming out of the mist.

The rest of the group is very interesting,

because you get an Elizabeth II Meritorious Service Medal

and the three typical First World War medals,

the 1914-15 Star,

the Victory Medal and the War Medal.

Then we get into the Second World War

and at the end are various foreign medals.

When you get a group that is as good as this, it's always worth framing.

And particularly, framing it with a picture and also the citations. These are now getting very fragile.

He didn't take care of 'em. Punched holes and stuck 'em in a file.

-Some people would put them on a wall.

-Probably thought nothing of it.

-No.

-Often incredibly brave people

think it's the sort of thing they do every day and they're modest and retiring.

It's difficult to put a monetary value on one man's courage. Have you thought what they might be worth?

-No, never.

-I think that because...

-I wouldn't sell them.

-..there are two of them,

two decorations and this wonderful picture and the citations,

I think these are worth between...

..£1,500 to £2,000. They really are a super group - and thank you very much for bringing them.

Thanks.

Tell me what you know about this pendant.

Only what my mother told me.

It was bought in a lot from a sale at the Earl of Dudley's Estate.

-Right, yes.

-In the early years of the war.

She told me it was made of silver gilt - the case - and had the original glass.

-And I mustn't ever wash the ivory.

-She was right there.

-That's all I remember.

-Did she wear it?

-My mother wore it at my wedding.

-Yes.

-On a black velvet band.

-Wonderful.

This is extremely unusual, extremely rare. It is complete in every sense.

She was absolutely right - don't try to take it to pieces.

-I can see one prising the glass out.

-Oh, no.

To begin at the beginning - it's a devotional pendant.

On the one side we've got the Madonna and Child carved in ivory.

Mm, yes.

If we rotate it, on the other side we've a warrior saint on a horse.

It has wonderful feeling in the way the ivory is carved on both sides.

-Yes.

-Do you know anything about it historically?

I don't - my mother thought it very old, but how old...

-What did she ever say, or what did she mean by "very old"?

-She may have done.

It's a long, long time ago.

I was only 12 when she bought it.

-Let's start...

-I wish I'd asked before she died.

-I could have.

-She may not have known.

It's one thing we never do is ask the right questions.

-17th century, does that make sense?

-Oh, right.

Probably... It's certainly European,

not British. It was probably made in South Germany, possibly Switzerland,

where the style particularly, this Mannerist approach to ivory carving, was very popular in that period.

-The great thing is, it's not just the two sides, it's also this wonderful mount.

-That is nice.

At first you think the mount must be later but it's exactly contemporary.

As you say, silver-gilt. The mount was made for the object.

-Would it be a Catholic medal, if it's devotional?

-Oh, yes.

-I suppose.

It would've been worn by a Catholic. When made, it came from a Catholic country into a Catholic world.

She bought it during the war. We'll never know what she paid.

-Very little.

-I'm sure very little.

It's the sort of thing one could've picked up for nothing in those days.

-Pounds, I should think.

-Today, it's a very important object.

-How about, I think, £1,200 - £1,500?

-Really?

-Yes.

-Oh, I say!

-Busy day, Michael?

-Haven't stopped for a moment, David.

-Refreshment?

-Thank you. ..Hang on! How clever.

-Trompe l'oeil. Isn't it wonderful?

-Where did it come from?

-It was my mother's.

So realistic. "Huntley & Palmers" on here, "Osborne Biscuit" there.

It was actually made by the Bretby factory just outside Leeds,

They did a number of decorative vases and things,

but this is one of their well known ones.

-I think it's great fun.

-And still identical to today's biscuits.

-Absolutely.

-Discoloured, maybe.

Well, give it a bit of a wash. Very good, and worth quite a bit of money

because Bretby is quite collectable.

-That's going to be worth around £300 to £500.

-Oh!

-Almost the world's most expensive biscuits.

-Gosh.

I remember going to the celebrations afterwards with my Dad. I was only five.

-But...

-When Blackpool won?

-Yeah, when we won.

-Brought the cup back.

-Yes.

-You saw that?

-Of course, yes.

-Marvellous. Programmes are now very collectable, this one is very special, isn't it?

-It is.

Because there it is, it's signed by...all of the Blackpool team? Not quite, somebody didn't.

-Bar one - Coleman.

-And in particular, a signature like this - Stanley Matthews.

The great Sir Stanley Matthews, only recently died. So, with those signatures today, £300,

-£400, £500.

-Excellent, very good.

-Could be £500.

-Mm.

But you're going to keep it in the family, aren't you?

Definitely. It's written in the will.

-They argue over who should have it.

-A programme written into a will.

-Three sons.

-Marvellous!

-D'you know what it is?

-We know it's salt-glazed.

It's salt-glazed stoneware,

made in Staffordshire, round about the middle of the 18th century.

What I love is the decoration, these beautiful rosebuds

enamelled in an almost three-dimensional relief with a little bud on the corner there.

Now, does that mean anything to you?

-Well...I know it's quite rare for blue to be enamelled in colours.

-Right.

The blue was named after somebody called William Littler,

who was a potter in Staffordshire in the middle of the 18th century,

and then went on to make porcelain.

But it's this enamelling I think is so wonderful, with the wonderful three-dimensional colours.

What I think -

I think it's a Jacobite piece,

made for a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie - or his father -

after the 1745 rebellion, because the rose in bloom here

symbolises the Old Pretender, and the little bud here - the little sprig - his son,

Bonnie Prince Charlie. They would have had all kinds

of secret signs and symbols they would've used amongst themselves

so that, drinking the loyal toast, they might've done it with that mug

and held it over their fingerbowl of water so they'd be symbolically drinking to Bonnie Prince Charlie

who was the exiled king over the water in France.

Have you ever dared to drink your tea out of it, or...?

No. We've sat and nursed it, really.

-We like the way all the little hairs on the stalks...

-It's wonderful.

It's a little moss rose.

It IS a bit of a wreck. It's got a nasty crack right down one side,

which obviously is going to badly affect the value.

However, it's a small, attractive piece,

it's got this Jacobite association with Bonnie Prince Charlie,

and I think that if you were to go and buy that

in one of the big London antique fairs,

you could be perhaps having to pay about £5,000.

Thank you.

This is a beautiful jewel. Did you give it to your wife?

-To my mother YEARS ago.

-Where did you buy it?

I bought it from a pawnbrokers in Blackpool,

and I thought it was perhaps

a reproduction of a Renaissance jewel.

-You are absolutely on target there, without doubt. How old do you think it is?

-I think it's Victorian.

It's VERY Victorian. It's actually possible to give it not only a date

and to say it's a neo-Renaissance one, but, in this instance, because the work is so characteristic,

we can be certain it's made by a particular maker, Ernesto Rinzi.

He worked in Argyll Street,

behind Regent Street, from about 1860 until the 1870s, when he turned his attention to miniature painting.

We can be so emphatic about the authorship

cos the palette of the jewel is very distinctive, obviously -

blue, white and red - and one simply recognises it when you see it.

-Let's look at it at the back here. There's a little compartment with a window in it.

-Yes.

It's a "compartment for souvenir", a souvenir in the form of a photograph or a lock of hair.

We can see a tiny loop at the bottom, which was actually to support a missing pendant drop.

-The composition of it would make more sense with the drop answering the pendant.

-At the other end?

-Yes.

-Which may well have been set with a ruby, as this is.

-Yes.

-Anyway it's gone.

It's slightly "the good news and the bad news" with this pendant. Life's like that, isn't it? God only knows!

It couldn't be more fashionable today.

That's the good news. The bad news is the condition isn't marvellous, sadly.

Had it been in pristine condition, it would have been £3,500.

-I know, "Ouch!"

-Ouch!

-In its present condition - it IS an ouch - I think it probably falls

to about £700 to £800. People who collect this sort of jewellery are like stamp collectors,

-very, very conscious of condition.

-Perfection.

-Perfection. Yes.

But you chose it when the world had turned its back on it - that's the compliment to you.

A brilliant discovery, and I can't tell you how I welcome it here.

We think about metals in terms of awards and gallantry.

This is something different.

If one looks closely, it's got a picture of a Hoover on it.

What an extraordinary thing. Where did you get it?

An uncle of mine worked for the Hoover Corporation, selling Hoovers.

-Right.

-I believe he was awarded that

for a number of Hoovers he was able to sell in one particular period.

It's APPARENTLY a gallantry award

The citation says he won the gold VSM.

-What d'you think the VSM stands for?

-Um, obviously to do with sales.

-Yes.

-So it could be a "sales medal". What the V stands for I don't know.

Yes. It's obviously the top of the tree

cos we can see that he was the top salesman at that time, 19...?

1936, April. And the letter is couched ENTIRELY in military terms.

It's to Sergeant Bosworth from Battalion Commander Burling

-of the Northern Army. This presumably was the army of salesmen.

-That's right, yes.

Yet the whole citation is based on a military citation.

The whole structure is as though they've just fought some bloody campaign and he's come out on top,

-and I suppose in sales terms he HAD.

-Yes.

-Now, the 1930s, this was a very militaristic period,

at the rise of Hitler in Germany,

Mussolini in Italy - belatedly, the British rising to that threat,

so military awareness was very much in the spirit of the age, but the combination of this,

and the medal and it all coming together -

is something I'VE never seen. Have you ever seen one?

No. I've made contact with Hoover and they have no knowledge of it at all.

So it's gone from history completely. I think to a serious collector who knew these things,

-you're looking at £50 or £100. In a sense that's irrelevant.

-Right.

Extraordinary insight into the attitudes of that period.

I think it's a lovely thing. So can you tell me what you know about it?

The artist is actually Adolphe Valette - he died in Lyon in 1942 -

but in 1905 he was the Master of Art

at the particular building on the left,

and his pupils at that time

were LS Lowry, Smart and Rowley.

They were just three of his pupils,

but LS Lowry... You can see where he's got...

the actual bits and pieces from.

-Yes.

-This particular part here is the Manchester School of Art.

-Yes, absolutely...

-At the turn of the century.

I sometimes wonder whether Valette suffers

from being "the man who taught Lowry" or whether his own reputation is only in reflected glory of Lowry.

-Yes, yes.

-Um, but then we have to turn things around sometimes when we're looking at pictures,

and the thing that Lowry became deeply popular for

-were those "matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs".

-Yes.

And that heavily stylised way of portraying the city of Manchester.

In this painting you can see this figure, a classic "Lowry" figure

with the slightly sort of globby feet.

But also, other things about this picture remind you of Lowry,

in particular the impasto -

-the thickness of the paint and the way it's layered...

-Yes.

-..whilst it's still wet.

Different things used to make marks in the paint, not just the brush.

The end of the brush was used to expose layers of paint underneath.

It brings to mind something Lowry used to say about HIS pictures,

-that you would only see them at their best, how they were intended to be - after about 20 years.

-Yes.

-When the paint had set, and you'd be able to see the layers of paint coming through from underneath.

-Yes.

Valette came fresh from Paris, full of ideas and a kind of picture library in his head built up

-by looking at the work of French Impressionists.

-Yes.

In those days, Manchester was a very murky, smoky industrial city.

Mist would cling to particles of pollution, making real peasoupers.

-Yes.

-And it was a wonderful opportunity to create these very moody townscapes,

-with distorted shapes coming out of the mist.

-Yes, yeah.

Um, I don't know... I know Lowry has this wonderful reputation,

-but I wonder perhaps if Valette had not been a Frenchman, whether he too would have enjoyed...

-Yes.

-..a similar status.

-Yes.

You may want a valuation on the painting.

-Yes, please.

-Well, you know, he still is Lowry's master.

-He is not Lowry, so he obviously can't command those...

-No, no.

-..stratospheric prices Lowry can.

But I think a pretty picture like this by Valette

-should be worth as much as £4,000 to £6,000 at auction.

-Yes.

You should insure it for about £6,000.

Well, this could be a scene from any station track side between Rickmansworth and Baker Street -

that's where these Metropolitan electric trains were running.

We open it up and what have we got?

In fact, it looks like a jumbled siding. We've got Metropolitans, but other things too.

Let's put this over here and unpack it, we can treat it a bit like a bran tub.

First of all, we've got this LMS loco in - I have to say - slightly battered condition.

-Who's responsible for that?

-Not guilty.

"Not guilty," he says quickly.

No, I have a son who's a destroyer, but it was battered before...

It was destroyed. He didn't actually wreck this one.

Battered though it is - I mean, it's a pre-war Hornby locomotive.

Even though it's a rather uninteresting tank loco, still probably going to be worth £100.

-So that's an interesting one. What shall we go for next?

-We're in profit.

-In profit?

-Tell me the story.

-It was a friend of mine sold it me for the boys.

-Yeah.

-An electrician friend looked at the transformer and said, "Don't let the children play with it.

-"It's lethal".

-Quite right.

-So they never even played with it.

Back in the box and away it went.

This is a locomotive by the manufacturer Bassett-Lowke. There's the maker's name.

If you hadn't seen many, you'd think it's another Hornby train.

But actually, Bassett-Lowke, the quality of their locos,

was very different to Hornby -

the quality of the paint and castings and so on.

In their early days they had German manufacturers making locomotives for them and retailing them.

They are very collectable. This one, George V - I'd say we're probably talking about perhaps £250,

£300, so... Maybe even a bit more actually.

But I'm keeping my powder dry. We've a couple of nice Pullman carriages.

We've got Alberta and Iolanthe

and they're in reasonably good condition too.

They're going to be around perhaps £100 each.

Are you keeping a tally on this?

And then we come to the little Metropolitan loco and the two carriages.

Now the reason why I like this loco particularly

is that it was the first time that Hornby made a locomotive

based on a real locomotive that anybody could see, going up and down

on the Metropolitan Line between Rickmansworth and Baker Street.

The box, I think, would probably be worth £60 to £80 on its own, empty,

because they're that rare, and the Metropolitan set itself, I'd say between £500 and £700.

So if we add up this group, we're talking about well over £1,000 and I would just say

that I'm very pleased that the "destroyer" didn't get hold of them, and they survived to tell the tale.

-Thanks for bringing them in.

-Thank you.

One thing I've learned today is that Blackpool once provided anchorage

for Admiral Nelson's old flagship HMS Foudroyant, which, after a career sinking French ships,

became a tourist attraction. Sadly, one night in 1897, a terrible storm blew up

and drove the ship onto the beach at Blackpool.

The wreck was bought by businessmen for the timber and copper.

Here's the ship in her last moments and some articles from it

and some things that were made from Nelson's old flagship.

England expects every Antiques Roadshow shall come to an end.

Until next week, from Blackpool, goodbye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd