Carlisle Antiques Roadshow

This week's Roadshow

finds itself in a place with Celtic and Norse origins,

which was for 250 years the northern outpost of the Roman Empire,

before becoming fiercely Scottish and then, finally, English.

Where am I? Well, that's a question I might well be asking MYSELF soon,

because we're going on a pub crawl of Cumbria's finest, indeed only, city, Carlisle -

strictly in the interests of historical research,

because what happened here in the early part of the 20th century

changed British drinking and social habits for ever.

In January 1916, with the country reeling from the impact of war,

Lloyd George took the extraordinary decision

to close down almost half the pubs in the Carlisle area, as well as three of the four breweries.

The rest were brought under state control.

National security was at stake,

because of the riotous behaviour of thousands of migrants who came to build and work

in the largest ammunition factory in the British Empire.

It was hard and thirsty work

and at night the workers poured into the pubs of Carlisle with plenty of money and nothing else to do.

They poured out again blind drunk and caused havoc in the streets.

All this was seen as a serious threat to the war effort,

but the nationalisation of the liquor trade soon had the desired effect.

The government drastically reduced opening hours

and diluted beer and spirits.

They commissioned Harry Redfern to redesign Carlisle's state-owned pubs - his fine buildings survive.

Redfern's establishments were more spacious, more appealing,

and built to cater for a broader clientele than the dingy "men only" drinking shops which existed before.

He designed rooms where food could be served

and introduced leisure areas, all of which meant less concentration on the alcohol.

It was the start of something big.

Architects and town planners came to Carlisle to witness the revolution.

Redfern's model pubs were reproduced throughout Britain.

By the time the liquor trade in Carlisle

was finally de-nationalised in 1971,

the old-style taverns had vanished for ever.

And now it's opening time at the Sands Leisure Centre

for another session of the Antiques Roadshow.

Time, gentlemen - and ladies - please. Can we have your treasures?

I thought, "Ah, that's a Doulton plaque!" -

these were made at the start of the 20th century,

a mixture of transfer printing and hand colouring.

And then I turned it over and looked at the back.

And we've got a label -

always a good sign

when you've got a framer or gilder's label.

But it says, "Carvers and gilders, picture makers and restorers, England,

"bevelled glass and old frames re..." - what does that say?

-Regilded.

-Regilded.

But where's the maker? Where's the shop's name?

-It says nothing.

-No.

-So we started to peel back here

-and there we suddenly get the original colour of the paper.

-Yeah.

Now, old paper does fade, but it don't go down that much.

-I think the frames have been...

-It looks as if it's been sprayed...

-Artificially aged, without a doubt.

And what we've got inside...

-absolutely white, pristine piece of earthenware with no Doulton maker's mark on it.

-Rubbish.

Well... Now, OK, you say "rubbish". Where did you buy it?

-In the local auction rooms.

-And did you like it?

-I loved it.

-I like the blue and white.

-And what did you pay for it?

-£43.

£43 is absolutely fine.

One has to be careful, because these appear all over the country.

We see them on every Roadshow - somebody's got a similar one.

But if you paid £43 for it - it's a decorative object, you like it,

hang it on the wall, no problem, but it isn't Doulton.

-Oh, well... It nearly fooled you, didn't it?

-It did - nearly did, yes.

Are they yours or...?

No, they were left to my sister from a friend in the family and...

And is this a passion of yours?

No, we... None of the family smoke at all, so...

Well, if we think about the history of tobacco,

it wasn't just men who started to use it, it was men, women and children

and they called it tobacco drinking, which is extraordinary, isn't it?

And it wasn't just in England that the pipes were being made.

We've got several examples here, in fact, of, um...French pipes

and the typical French pipe was known as a Jacob.

-And here you can see there's the letter JA...

-Yes.

..COB on here, and these were known as Jacob pipes.

And they very often had a wooden stem that was slotted in.

This one, as you can see, has been painted, which is quite fun,

but there's also something written

across the top of his turban, and it says "je suis le vrai Jacob",

which is, "I am the real, the true Jacob",

because the pipes were so popular, loads of people started to copy them.

And here's another Jacob pipe.

This one is in very bright condition because it hasn't been smoked.

As they get smoked, so the tars...

-They change colours.

-And this one caught my eye, too.

This relates to the storming of Sebastopol, in the Crimean War.

So that... I mean, Sebastopol was relieved, I think, in 1855 or - yes, about 1855,

-so we can date that one quite precisely.

-Right!

-You're getting interested in pipes now!

-Yes.

Do you think you might start collecting? The more you look at them, the more you see.

This is quite an interesting one.

-This is by a company called John Pollock of Manchester.

-Oh, right.

They started in the middle of the 19th century and I think they only went out of business in the 1990s.

The company had a very long and illustrious history of pipe making.

And the DD

stands for Dirty Dick,

whoever Dirty Dick was. That's a Dirty Dick pipe.

These are all basically 19th century, apart from those earlier ones,

and the ones that are moulded here,

they have a value, depending on the subject,

of between £50, £60, perhaps £80.

Very few of them would be over the £100 mark.

But this particular one is the cream of the collection.

It's a little monkey and he's dressed in what looks like a bellboy outfit.

And he was probably made in the late 19th century,

-made of salt-glazed - you knew that...

-Yes.

-..salt-glazed ceramic,

probably from Chesterfield, where there were four or five factories producing this salt-glazed ware.

And, although it's a pipe, it's almost immaterial

because whenever a salt-glazed miniature comes up for sale,

there's an enormous amount of interest in it and it would be worth

-something between about £400-£600.

-Good heavens! Thanking you.

OK.

-Pretty, aren't they?

-Very delicate.

I've been frightened to wear it - I don't know how strong it is.

-It IS very delicate, because it's made from mesh work...

-Yes.

..and tiny little panels and sections and little itsy-bitsy flowers.

-It isn't what I would call robust.

-No, I didn't think it was!

-It's made of white gold.

-Oh, is it?

-Yeah. And if we have a look here,

there's a little sort of maker's stamp there.

And a little stamp for white gold.

Usually, when you get little carved flower sections,

they come from somewhere like Germany or possibly Austria.

I think that's where it came from.

-Oh, it's not English, then?

-I don't think so, no.

-The little stamp on the back there suggests it's probably Austrian, Vienna maybe.

-Oh, that's interesting.

There's a little carved flower head in the middle

-with a carnelian.

-Yes, but I didn't know what the others were.

-Lapis lazuli.

-Ah!

-The mixture of the blue against the brown works well.

And tiny diamonds in between

in these twin, lozenge-like settings.

-It's very fussy.

-Mm, it is.

-But it works very well.

And then the additional facility of being able to... Look.

Oh, how clever.

So if you've got a slightly larger wrist you can adapt it, rather like a wristwatch strap, I suppose.

Yes, it's a bit like a watch strap.

Now, tell me a bit more about this one.

I inherited that from my favourite aunt - I think it was her mother's.

-I think this is made in around about 1900-1902.

-Right.

Lovely diamonds set throughout and mounted up in silver settings.

And then in typically... You see, you have a diamond three-stone loop.

-Does that come off?

-Yes.

-How do you do it?

You simply pull that...

like that.

Then, at the bottom of this

fully flexible, swag-like drop,

you have a beautiful, smooth,

teardrop-shaped natural pearl.

So it's a really nice piece, it's well made,

and whoever mounted the diamonds has found a good quality pearl

that balances up the frame.

Different periods, different styles,

but both in their own way very commercial.

I think that the Continental mesh work bracelet

ought to make £800

-and I think insurance - probably around £1,500 for it.

-Right.

But because this is so jam-packed with diamonds, it has this lovely pearl and is in such good condition,

-in auction, that would probably make around £2,500.

-Oh, my goodness.

-Which of you was responsible for putting this together?

-I am, really.

-And what inspired you to go in for this?

-Just the colour of it.

Everybody refers to it as cranberry and that's a sort of fictional word,

because generally a lot of it is actually - and has been for many centuries -

called ruby glass.

The Germans discovered how to make this in the late 17th century.

That one is very nice, of course,

because it's got the spiral in it, and it gives a variation of colour.

I can remember when they were £10 or £15

but I suppose they're now up to £70-100 each one.

Now this says...

Is that £15 or £75?

It's actually £75. £75.

-And where do you think that comes from?

-I don't know.

Well, I'm not sure whether it comes from Bristol or from Sunderland.

In both areas, they made glass of this colour.

-But I think that's a full price.

-Yes. I think so.

-I thought they might have seen you coming, but I don't think that's possible.

-No, no.

And, technically, this is wonderful.

You've got a layer of clear glass in the middle

and then white inside and red on the outside,

which by the time you've overlaid it on the white, looks like pink.

Again, probably from the Stourbridge area

and dating from 1880, 1890.

That's a very unusual piece.

-I hope you'll go on and find lots more.

-Yes. Thank you very much.

This is a fabulous model of the Royal George. Who made it?

Well, as far as I can gather, my great-great-grandfather, that was my grandfather's grandad.

-Your great-great-great-grandfather?

-Uh-huh.

-And was he a sailor?

-No, he was a coal miner.

We were a coal-mining family. Nothing to do with ships.

My grandfather was pretty good with his hands, with wood,

so probably he inherited it from his father and his grandfather.

Not only is it extraordinarily rare to get an original photograph with the maker,

but look - the stand alone is beautifully constructed, isn't it?

-It's been re-rigged as well.

-And polished.

-And I love the figurehead nearer you.

-It's beautiful.

The standing rigging was to hold the mast up and the running rigging was for putting the sails up and down.

The rigging was supposed to be on the lines of 1790-1810, I believe.

There were many boats named the Royal George during the Georgian period.

They were ships of the line.

This is quite small in comparison to some of the actual models called the Royal George,

but even so, exceptionally fine, and the photograph adds so much to its desirability to a collector.

It's not worth a great deal because it has been restored, but certainly, at auction, about £1,000 to £1,500.

It was a present from my brother. He was in Germany doing his national service.

Well, these cameras were made in Germany

in the 1950s and '60s - the time your brother was out there -

-so he would have probably bought it new.

-Oh, yes.

It's a Petie camera and this model is known as the Vanity model, for obvious reasons -

it's not just a camera,

it's a powder compact and vanity case.

And then, on the top, this one pulls out and it's for lipstick.

And the camera comes out of the top, like that.

Was it difficult putting the film in?

-Was it fiddly?

-Not really.

-And what sort of photographs did it take?

-Um, about two inches square!

-So you almost needed a magnifying glass to look at them!

-Any idea as to its value?

-No.

-No.

-It's just it was precious to me because it was a present.

-Mm.

Well, it's not particularly old - about 50-60 years old -

but if this came up at auction you'd probably get perhaps £400-600 for it.

Oh, very good.

-It's for a cheese?

-It's a sort of gondola-shaped cheese coaster.

It's printed with THE classic, early-19C blue-and-white design -

the willow pattern.

Staffordshire potters produced willow patterns on all shapes and sizes.

This is a particularly eccentric one.

When it came to putting a print like that on the inside of a curved shape,

they would take an existing print that may not have been intended for this particular artefact -

the print has been stretched so that they could re-adapt an existing print

onto a new shape. It's a jolly nice thing.

Well, this was probably made circa 1810, 1820.

It's rare and, to a blue-and-white collector, I think probably worth...

-in the region of £700 to £1,000.

-Oh, smashing. Yeah.

-It's a very, very classy object.

-Thank you.

There's a pub in Carlisle called the Malt Shovel

and here is the very object - a malt shovel and, presumably, a malt fork.

-How did you come across these?

-I have a pub on the outskirts of Carlisle and, when we bought it,

the estate manager at the time came across these and gave them to us.

It was long before your time that Lloyd George nationalised the pubs,

but do any of your older customers talk about it?

-One or two of the very older chaps.

-What do they say?

That the beer wasn't all that good!

My grandfather got it from Robinson in Ilkley and it's been in the family ever since.

Robinsons - as you know - are a prominent Ilkley maker.

They specialised in this kind of furniture.

It is a cross between furniture and engineering, really.

In Robinson's catalogue, this is an invalid couch - absolutely ingenious.

The back here raises up. If you could turn that wheel...

Look at that.

And what I really like is the gearing

because it's so nicely geared that you can be lying on this couch and adjust it yourself, can't you?

And the same thing happens down here - here's the wheel

and this piece also is raised on the gearing.

The other ingenious thing is the suspension system -

this is a continuous coil of wire zigzagging right the way down and it's really rather comfortable.

Very much so.

-It looks like it should be plugged into the mains!

-It could even be a sun bed, couldn't it?

Um, presumably you must have a mattress for it?

Yes. It's the original one.

It's horse hair, but it is in need of repair.

-A great thing. Now, have you any idea how much it's worth?

-No idea at all.

-You've not got it insured?

-No.

Well, if you were to buy one of these - and they'd be difficult to find -

-you'd need to be paying somewhere around £2,500.

-Good grief!

-Is that more than you thought?

-That'll please my wife.

Well, they were a gift from my father's cousins

and um, this is for grapes, so they said.

-Right.

-And the spoons... Now, they're made of a special metal, I think.

-This is the information you were given?

-Yes, that's all,

-but they must be a lot of years old.

-That's true.

Let's have a look at these first.

-These are NOT for grapes.

-Oh.

-These are actually for sugar.

-Oh, yes.

-These are sugar nippers

and when you get into...about 1730, these really start to develop.

Oh, yes.

Then these dominate right through until about 1770, when sugar tongs -

as we tend to think of them - really came into their own.

They're marked, in fact, just there, just next to the grips.

It's a partnership, in fact - London goldsmiths called Faux and Love.

Now, I'm intrigued with these,

that they suggested that they were some special metal other than silver.

Because they ARE actually silver.

-They are? Oh.

-The marks - and this may be what threw them -

the marks are very difficult to read, and just two.

Most people expect to see four, or perhaps five, marks

-on a piece of silver.

-Mm-hm.

But at this period - again, around the 1760s -

they only put a maker's mark and we've got the maker's mark there.

That's actually WF - William Fearn -

a very important spoon maker.

That's the standard mark next to it.

We've got the little lion passant. But they're very difficult to read.

So... These, in this sort of condition,

I would expect to see them on sale for perhaps £120-150.

-Really?

-That sort of price. And this, a lovely set of six -

again, one would expect to be paying the best part of £100 for those.

-If not a bit more.

-Uh-huh.

-Um, so that's a very nice little group.

Thank you very much for telling me about them.

My husband's grandfather started off as a ship's captain in Manchester

and eventually became a ship owner.

And when my mother-in-law recently died,

my husband, who's a keen sailor, said he would like all the boats in the house - there were quite a few.

The most important aspect of this very decorative object is the ship,

and it's done in quite good detail.

What I particularly like, though, is the background,

with the houses, the palm trees, the church.

The bottle itself - it's got some marks on the bottom here.

If we have a look, we can just make out

-"Co, Limited."

-Well, I think it's "& Co, Limited".

-So that would indicate that it is a British bottle.

-Yes.

It was always a lovely thought that the sailors themselves made this - I don't think actually sailors did.

Not all of them, by any means, and I think they were often sold as souvenirs

in ports and harbours all around the world.

So what we have is a very nice ship in bottle, good size, good condition,

with this very pretty and evocative background.

It's an object which collectors would in fact be willing to pay

probably £300 for, so it's worth looking after.

-Thank you very much for bringing it.

-Thank you.

I have to admit that this vase is not the sort of thing

I would love to have at home.

-No, neither do I. I hate it.

-You hate it?

-I hate it.

How did you come by this monstrous object, then?

Well, we were emptying my mother-in-law's house and she had got it from HER mother.

My husband said we should keep it, and I said no, but he won.

-Normally, these come in pairs... You've got a pair?

-Yes.

Now, I have to defend it, because actually this is a masterpiece -

a sort of technical virtuosity.

They've done amazing things with this pot.

It was made in Germany in about 1880 in a place called Mettlach.

And they specialised

in producing these vases in a sort of historical style.

They were trying to make them look sort of Renaissance, but they failed,

because they put elements together that never happened together before.

But, as a result, you get incised decoration here

with inlaid colour,

and you get rococo decoration done with layers of grey stoneware slip

and then the handles are done in a sort of maiolica technique,

all covered with tin glaze.

This is obviously the heroine offering the hero

a glass of something

and on the other side, another scene from German legend,

a sort of Viking with a winged helmet.

I don't know what this chap - oh, it's a chapess, it's a lady.

-I think it's a lady.

-A lady with a horse.

Oh, I think one has to say

-that this pot wins en enormous number of prizes for effort.

-Right.

But I would agree with you, at the same time,

that it isn't everybody's cup of tea, but there are people who like this sort of thing.

-Really?

-And somebody might well pay you

between £1,000 and £1,500 for the pair.

Well, I only wanted to... I was proving a point to my husband.

I said they were worth nothing and if that was the point, they were going in the bin.

-Well, I wouldn't do that because, of their kind, they're extremely good.

-Thank you.

-A strange round box with skulls on - do you know what it's for?

-No idea.

Well, it's a simple snuff box. It looks as though it's been carved.

But in fact it couldn't have been carved with that much detail -

you can just see these numbers on the skulls, and the little circles.

-It's actually been moulded.

-Ah.

Rather like an early form of plastic,

-but plastic wasn't around in the 1850s or 1860s when this was made.

-I see.

So the actual technique interests me,

but also what interests me is it says along here,

"the cranium du Docteur Gall".

Dr Gall was the person in the late 18th century who came up with the idea of phrenology,

-that your characteristics were to be found by prodding around on your skull.

-Yes.

-Various parts of your skull related to parts of your personality.

-I see.

-Where did you get it from?

-Well, my father left it to me

and he got it from his great-aunt...

roughly 50 years ago.

-See, the lining here is tortoiseshell.

-Mm.

And, again, back on the outside,

three images of the skull and the various numbers.

And then if you look at the bottom of the case,

here are the numbers with the various characteristics.

So if you look at number 24 it says "l'amour",

so that's where all your love tendencies came.

-You could actually see where that was on your skull.

-Oh, I see. I had absolutely no idea at all.

I think he was born around 1750 and died around about 1828,

-but phrenology items were made up to the end of the 19th century.

-Yes.

This has a dual interest.

-Not only would a snuff box collector like it, but also somebody interested in phrenology.

-Yes, I see.

A lot of doctors collect phrenology.

-I would see this at auction somewhere in the region of £600-800.

-Oh.

It's a very nice piece.

There's a wrist watch - let's have a look.

You have to look very carefully at old wrist watches to make sure the movement

isn't by someone like Rolex, which will push the value right up.

If not, sadly, they're worth very little. ..What else have we got?

A thimble there... What's this?

Where did you get this?

It's just as I inherited the box, just a mixture of bits and pieces.

-I didn't think it had any value...

-Did you think the mount might have been gold?

-No, no.

-It is.

-Is it?

-And did you think the stones might have been...? You thought they were paste.

-Paste, yes.

They're real stones.

All these are real gems - topaz here at the bottom, wings here.

They're all foiled to enhance their colour

and they did this quite frequently round about the late Regency period,

-so it probably goes back to round about late Regency times.

-Amazing.

-1825, maybe, at the very latest.

-Really?

-Yes.

-That one, in the box of costume pieces, is worth about £400-500.

-£400-500?

-Mm.

-It's been in that box for the last two years.

-Is it going to keep on living in there?

-No.

Well, there she is, churning away at her butter,

as she's done year after year, poor thing. Now, is she yours?

It belonged to my husband's grandmother.

-Oh, right.

-Who died about 20 years ago. She was a lovely little lady.

She had some treasures and this was one of them.

-And this was something that you knew as a child?

-Yes.

This used to stand on the dresser in the kitchen.

And when I went to dinner with her,

-I asked for it to be brought down.

-And you'd be allowed to wind the handle.

Here we've got a little china doll, glazed china doll,

dressed in this printed cotton which looks as if it's probably faded a bit

but the kitchen itself is made out of paper and cardboard

with these rather sweet little accessories

which are labelled "dairy" and so on.

And the little doll herself would probably date

-from the 1860s, 1870s - she COULD be as early as that.

-Oh, right.

It doesn't mean to say that this was made at the time,

but I don't see any reason why it couldn't have been made in perhaps the 1870s or 1880s.

So it's a lovely evocative scene of a time gone by.

I would have thought, in auction, we'd be talking about £300.

It's a lovely object and one which...

-Well, you obviously do treasure it.

-I love it.

-1774.

-Mm.

-That was before they were nationalised.

-Yes. Yes it was.

-And was it any different running it one way or the other?

-I wasn't in it before, so...

There was a lot of rules under the state management system.

One man could not buy another man a drink, women were not allowed in pubs, and lots of rules like that.

-No treating?

-No treating - wouldn't go down too well these days.

These things aren't always considered to be that politically correct now.

But it does have a value

-and I suspect at auction it would make about £300 or £400.

-Not bad.

-These are all empties, aren't they?

-Yes.

Now, we have full bottles. What's the story of these?

Well, these are produced by Carlisle & District State Control - that one's got the address

19 Castle St, Carlisle, which is about 800 metres away from here.

It was Demerara rum produced by the State Control,

which came about in about 1917, I think, and then was disbanded

in about 1970.

I believe it was one of the few nationalised industries

that made a regular profit, about £500,000 each year.

That one, and the bottle of whisky, belonged to me mum. She worked for Carlisle State Control.

I presume your mother would have tasted the contents - was it good stuff?

She was a teetotaller, actually. She didn't like drink at all.

She sold many bottles and pints of it, but she would never drink.

I was related to a Small...

It's inscribed "James Small At Ye" - there we have the sign of the ship -

"bound for" - this is the interesting bit -

"bound for Virginia."

-"At St Neots."

-Yes.

And then the date, 1730.

There is a curious thing straight away.

1730, we're into the reign of George II - is that right?

-I couldn't tell you.

-He would have been three years on the throne then.

But what have we got here? We've got the impression

of the Customs and Excise mark for William III - he died in 1702.

So there's 28 years between the last official use of this mark -

-this should have a George II inscription.

-Yes.

It's a humble pottery and they were simply using old marks, they couldn't be bothered to get new ones cut.

Because this inscription is genuine, 1730 is the date

and this is the mark that would have been put on a tankard

made for James Small, who would have drunk regularly at the sign of the ship.

-Ah.

-And pub signs are always showing things much older than the present.

-So, do you not think that he actually did travel?

-I don't know.

Only you can establish that by going through the Small side of your family

because, to make an inscription "bound to Virginia"

suggests very strongly that's what he was going to do.

Maybe he didn't like it, maybe he came back.

The material is salt-glazed stone ware. It could have been made in a number of factories.

There were factories in Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire,

but it could also have been from London.

It's more likely to have been local to where this Ship pub is - is there a Ship at St Neots?

-It would be interesting to find out.

-I wouldn't know.

So you've got tons of history

-for you to carry on researching here.

-Yes.

-And is it going to go down the family line?

Better had do!

Because pottery usually goes down the female line, so you're in business, I hope.

-Well, it comes from my father's side of the family.

-OK.

-So, you would certainly have to insure for between £3,000 and £5,000.

-Really?

-God!

Because the big thing is Virginia.

-Yes.

-You only need an eccentric, but rich, collector of English ceramics

in the States - preferably in Virginia - to say,

"Gee, that's a real swell tankard," you know.

And it is!

My initial reaction looking at this, is one of horror, because of the top.

-Sure.

-Let's open this out and we'll see the top in its full ghastliness.

-Yes. I believe the top to be later than the underneath.

-I think you're absolutely right -

the colour is quite extraordinary in the surface.

It just looks utterly false.

Most people call this a credence table. Is that how you know it?

It was known in the family as the zebra table - why, I do not know. But I believe it's a credence table.

Most unusually, we've got two cupboard doors in the frieze here.

Can we get that one open?

And these are hinged on metal pins which are still in situ

and on the edge of each door we can see where the tongue of the lock engaged.

So my guess is that we had a single lock in the centre - here is the escutcheon -

-and the same lock engaged both doors.

-Yes.

And then below we've got

this marvellous ribbed, or gadrooned, leg

coming down to this rather unusual cross stretcher.

Most tables of this type

have a stretcher round the periphery but this is most unusual.

It's got a repaired but substantially original joint.

-And the colour is great.

-What age do you reckon it to be?

-I was going to ask YOU that.

-We've always reckoned it to be Jacobean,

early Jacobean, but that again...

Possibly earlier. This style of ribbed decoration

on these doors, the gadrooning on the turned legs, these are all consistent

with a late Elizabethan or Jacobean date,

-so any time from about 1580...

-Really?

-Possibly as late as 1640 but my guess is around 1600.

-Yes.

And it's all there, really. It's a marvellous base.

I suppose you MIGHT be able to buy this

in its present condition, with this later top,

for...between £2,500 and £3,500.

-But with an original top, something like this would be worth in excess of £15,000.

-Yeah?

Never thought of putting a clock in a bucket.

It was a way of bringing it down.

This is a beautiful electro-mechanical clock.

It LOOKS like a conventional skeleton clock,

but the electrical part is winding the mechanical part.

Instead of having a main spring in the normal way,

it's got a very small main spring

-and then uses an electric motor to rewind it.

-Yes.

-The advantage of that

is that the spring is rewound quite frequently.

When it's rewound, it maintains a more constant force.

-Now, it's got a maker's name on it, called...

-Harwood.

-Yes...

who I don't know. Can you help me?

-He was my great-uncle.

-That's a good start.

-Yes.

-Do you know when he made this one?

-No idea.

I knew him when I was about ten years old

and I wasn't interested in what he did. Now I would have been.

-He died just before the war.

-Yes.

-Died before the war.

-Before the Second World War.

OK, I'm wiring this thing up...

Is it going?

-What it's theoretically supposed to do...

-It DID do.

-It lights up...

-It lights up.

-..as it winds up.

-Now watch the light.

-It SHOULD come on.

And the escape is working...

There's a light but we have no light.

Most likely find the bulb's gone or something.

It's worth taking a little time to look at the quality of the mechanism.

It's a pierced fretwork -

conventional skeleton clock practice, which was to pierce out the frame -

but you can see that it's been spotted or knurled

all over the plates.

It's actually done with a small scraper.

Now, the screws have all been blued.

-They've all been highly polished and then blued over.

-Yes.

And the pillars are beautiful.

They've been polished, circulared and lacquered,

and the whole base has this machining pattern or scraping pattern.

It is stunning. It's a sophisticated and complicated clock.

He was very able. Some of the clocks he made were absolutely beautiful.

-Have you got it insured?

-Our son has because it's really his.

-He should have it insured for £5,000.

-Five?

I don't think he's got it insured for that.

The connection is the Hudson Scotts branch of the Metal Box Company where I worked from 1968.

We had our own artists' studio,

and these pictures were part of it.

We'd pick the designs off paintings

-and transport them onto tins.

-So these belonged to your company?

-Absolutely.

When they closed the studio down in '69, the paintings were offered to the staff.

-How wonderful. And you purchased these?

-I liked these two.

And others. I can't remember what happened to them.

-Have you liked looking at the paintings?

-Yeah, I really like that one.

-Because of the dogs?

-Yes.

-Yes, this has a more serious subject,

and it's decorative in colour but it's...it's rather poignant.

The painting at the top is signed by Arthur Wardle,

a very well-known animal painter.

I think it's a particularly good group of dogs,

and you've got the guns and the pheasants.

I think anybody would be enchanted by the sympathetic studies of the dogs.

The way that the broken-down fence and the landscape is painted

is beautifully observed and rendered.

-How much did you pay?

-We'd to give...

-This one.

-Well, it was BOTH of them

because they came as a job lot.

We had to give a donation to the Sports and Social Club and I think both of them cost me nearly a pound.

-Gosh. And that didn't surprise you at the time?

-No.

How incredible.

This watercolour...

it's signed here

Septimus Scott, and he worked at the beginning of the 20th century.

In this, what appears to be a rather cheery scene,

we have these soldiers going off to war,

and the young boy waving happily.

And we have to really consider the relationship

between him and the older gentleman.

I believe that this must be his grandfather

and that this boy's father probably would be going off to war.

He could be waving him goodbye.

So it's a much more thought-provoking painting

-and its value would be probably in the region of £2,000 to £2,500.

-Good heavens.

This wonderful painting of the dogs

should be valued between £10,000 and £15,000

and should be insured for as much as £20,000.

-That one?

-Yes.

-Good heavens!

Earlier, Lars Tharp was looking at an 18th-century stoneware tankard

which seemed to be linked to a Ship Inn at St Neots and he wondered if such a place existed.

Well, there is no Ship Inn at St Neots, but there WAS,

from the early 17th century until well into the 20th century.

If you think our theme of public houses has become an obsession,

all I can say is, to the people of Cumbria, your very good health

and from Carlisle, goodbye.

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