Whitchurch Antiques Roadshow

Today we're in a town which is proud to be the oldest in Shropshire

and perhaps even prouder to have had four names along the way.

The Romans had a name for it. The Saxons had theirs. The Normans called it something else.

It finally got a name that stuck - Whitchurch.

The faces of this clock in the town centre lists all its titles

and it was made here by the oldest firm of clockmakers in the world - JB Joyce.

From Shropshire to Shanghai, Joyce's tower clocks have been keeping the world on time since 1690.

Business gathered momentum in the 19th century when the new railway system carried clock parts

all over Britain, together with the engineers to install them - quite often at railway stations.

One of the largest clocks ever made by JB Joyce was installed in the Shanghai Custom House in 1930.

The dials alone weigh one and a half tons, and the minute hand is 10 feet 6 inches long.

Turn the clock back to the end of the 14th century

and we find that dynamic Whitchurch character, John Talbot, the first Earl of Shrewsbury.

A man of action, he spent his life fighting the Welsh, the Irish,

and, for 30 years, his favourite foe - the French.

He fought Joan of Arc at the Siege of Orleans and held the Bastille,

but was driven out and taken prisoner.

Shakespeare depicted him in Henry VI, Part I as "the scourge of France,

"the Talbot, so much fear'd, that with his name the mothers still their babies."

The old warrior fought on relentlessly into his 70s

and met a suitably heroic end in the final engagement of the Hundred Years War at Castignon.

His heart was brought back here to Whitchurch and is buried under the church porch.

An ancestor of the great man founded the Sir John Talbot School

in a quest to cure youth of sloth and idleness, a noble ideal.

It's still a seat of learning for Shropshire lads and lasses,

and today for the Antiques Roadshow.

Hi, there. Tell me, did you have an uncle called Henry?

-Years ago?

-Henry Wonnacott?

-No, Henry Ford.

-Oh, Henry Ford.

-Yes.

-Now, could be, yes.

-Henry Ford, my mother's brother.

-Your mother's brother?

-Yes.

-Then that is your grandfather.

-Oh, my Lord.

-That is your great grandfather.

-Yes.

-That is MY father.

-How extraordinary.

-Now then...

"Ladies' old-fashioned shoes with 11 illustrations from originals." Whose was this book?

It belonged to my father, who spent all his working life in shoes. He acquired it, I know not where.

Let's have a look and enjoy it. Here we go.

"The following illustrations of old shoes

"are intended to preserve in an intelligent form what is fast crumbling into dust."

Here we start.

"The shoe that belonged to Mary, Queen of Scots. Smallness of size, black satin..."

The quality of this colour printing is just remarkable, isn't it?

-Incredible, given the age of the book.

-Exactly.

And also the detail in the shoe itself with the stitching and so on.

Now we go on to Miss Langley, who lived in the reign of Charles II.

-Ohhhh! I mean, I love shoes.

-They're breathtaking.

-They are, absolutely.

-Beautiful.

-And do you have a favourite?

-Oh, I... There is a reference

to a Mrs Brown, who is unknown other than it was a Mrs Brown's shoe and I always think rather charming.

-Here we go. Mrs Brown.

-Mrs Brown.

-"Nothing can be ascertained about Mrs Brown." Poor Mrs Brown!

-I know.

The shoe was worn...it dates about the time of Queen Elizabeth.

Well, that should be - oh, look at that. Fantastic.

What I find particularly praiseworthy with this book

is the reason that somebody made it. It was expensive to commission a book with this quality of illustration.

Presumably they're a sort of lithograph type...

-Exactly, exactly, but it's surprising that somebody has looked at shoes in that way.

-Yes, indeed.

Wonderful. Well, it is collectable.

I have seen them in really good condition fetch as much as £500.

-Really?

-But I think one's got to be aware that there is a little bit of damage.

-Indeed.

-But even so, I would say, er...

-between £300 and £500.

-Is that so? Really?

-At auction, yes.

Obviously, something happened to this drawer.

Has it been restored or is it a completely new one?

It was a new drawer made about...

in the 1990s when I had the whole piece of furniture restored.

I was a bit alarmed at the price, actually. It cost me £100, just that little drawer.

It's been beautifully made. Compare the dovetails.

You've got the older one in this hand, slightly darker.

It's had lots more wear and use and everything and it's been more exposed to the air and oxidised a bit.

They're both walnut sides and the colour of the -

300-year-old wood and the fairly recent cut of walnut, but it's very nicely made.

The front was re-veneered as well? Oh yes, you can see.

The difference in colour, jolly good cabinet working

-and seems very reasonable to me. It's lovely.

-Thank you.

-What a lovely piece of furniture.

-I inherited it from my mother in about 1985.

-Right, right.

The probate value of it then was £4,000.

And how long had she had it?

She didn't have it for long because she inherited it from her aunt

who would have been born in the 1880s

and we think it's been in the family longer than that.

It's called a secretaire chest or a secretaire chest on chest.

-Chest on chest, I've heard.

-This lovely writing desk, and what I like about this is when you close it up...

..you wouldn't know it was a secretaire, would you?

-No.

-You'd think it was just a chest on chest.

-That's how I've heard it described.

-Sometimes called a tallboy.

-Yes.

It's the most wonderful colour wood.

The interior has burr elm with those finely pointed little burrs,

but the outside is walnut - a lovely contrast, using indigenous English woods.

So what date would you call this?

The gentleman who restored it for me in the 1990s suggested George I...

Um...1720. 1715-1720.

Right, which I think is fair enough but it's very difficult for us to be sure.

-This is the high point of English cabinet making.

-Mm-hm.

There was not really a better time than this early Georgian period of making wonderful proportions.

There's something about the line and proportion of this

which is just perfect, the scale of it.

It's all been done the hard way. No machinery.

-Well, there wasn't any.

-No, there WAS no machinery.

One feature which lifts this above - apart from the glorious colour and patination -

is this canted side with these lovely fluted, reeded pilasters here and it leads down

to this marvellous - don't know what to call that - it's like a leaf or a tongue sticking out.

-Mm.

-Lovely shape. It's so simple, but what a difference it makes

to the piece - it lifts it into a new category of furniture.

I'm very fond of it.

-An inherited piece and you had it valued at £4,000 for probate.

-Yes. That was 1985.

-What's the insurance figure on it at the moment?

-£15,000, I think.

-Fifteen?

-I think so, yes.

-I'm delighted to say that you're desperately under-insured.

-Oh.

I think this would make easily at auction - easily between £20,000 and £30,000

-and possibly even a bit more.

-Goodness!

So if you wanted a proper insurance price on it,

raise the 15 to at least £45,000 or £50,000.

Oh, my goodness!

I've been collecting ever since I've been in the fire brigade,

which has been 18 years - I collect fire memorabilia in general

but I just took a fancy to all the helmets.

When it comes to value of these things, condition is important.

I notice that this one in particular -

I mean, there's hardly a dent in it. Beautiful condition.

Now, one was sold in, um... only about four years ago

in mint condition.

That made £500.

But the most important one of all -

the chief's - and of course...

Liverpool...

-it's got the Liver Bird on the top, so you're right down to A fire brigade, which is great.

-Yes.

So you're looking at £700, £800, even more.

-Well, I bought it actually in the 1950s.

-Right. OK. What was it that attracted you to her?

She was just in an antique shop window where I worked opposite

and I used to look at her...

many days, and I thought, "I would like that."

She's so typical of the sort of 1920s, 1930s, and she's a very streamlined girl,

but the give-away from the sculptor's point of view are the legs.

Because in all fairness, these legs go on for ever.

When I see a figure like that, I think it's got to be Joseph Lorenzl,

because all his ladies have got these long limbs. Not only the legs,

but arms as well - very willowy maidens.

The signature itself is down there

and I'm pleased to say it is obviously right as rain, but there are a few fakes around

because he's been making a bit of money - but before we talk about money, a nice base.

Good onyx base. A lot of fakes fail because they've got very substandard bases.

Now this is obviously, you know, a good quality cast bronze.

It's been given this silvered appearance but believe me, it is bronze.

Again, if one looks at the face, this woman's got character.

The hair's nicely finished, because every good bronze is finished by a chiseller,

who puts in the detail.

So, back in the 1950s, how much did you pay for it? You can tell me.

-Dare I?

-Yes, go on.

-£25.

-£25?

-Which was a lot of money then.

-It WAS a lot of money, so you really wanted her, didn't you?

-I did.

Well, I suppose if you wanted her today,

you'd have to fork out a bit more.

In fact, the last one I saw in a gallery

-was actually priced at £1,500.

-Really?

I've seen some snapshots, but this beats the lot.

a parade of Hollywood - whose is this?

It belonged to my father, my late father, who died two years ago now.

-It was his pride and joy. When anyone came to the house, they had to be shown.

-What was his job?

He was a purser on the Queen Mary, just after the war.

That explains why all these famous faces are here. Noel Coward, Charles Boyer, Paul Muni.

Snaps of the stars and your father with the stars -

"To Ray from Clark Gable" - not bad.

Not bad at all, no.

It's a really interesting collection of English drinking glasses. Have you assembled it?

It was given to me by my mother and my late father.

They both collected them over many, many years.

Well, we clearly haven't got time to go through the lot. They are -

with one or two exceptions - English,

and - with one or two exceptions -

18th or 19th century in date.

Many of them have got stems like these

which are either cotton twist, which is the white enamel,

or air twist or mercury twist, which we've got here.

If I feel this one...

that has been trimmed.

It's quite common for dealers,

when they're selling glass, if it's got a chip, to grind...

the whole of the rim to remove the chip.

And, of course, as far as a collector is concerned, that's bad news.

-This is - do you know what this is?

-No.

It's a rummer. Er...it's a corruption of the German word Roemer, which is...

a large drinking glass - nothing to do with rum.

These were used for ale in the 18th century and into the 19th. Do you notice something about the glass?

-Isn't the colour a bit different from the others?

-Very good.

That's what a glass collector is looking at

and that's perfectly all right, but it is a very yellow glass and that will affect the price a bit.

Instead of, perhaps, being £85, it might be £65 because it's a bit yellow.

And finally, this one - that's a rhythm one. We call this rhythm when it goes round like that.

It's early 19th century and jolly nice.

One like that today is somewhere in the region of £30 to £40,

something like that, but moving up.

Overall, it's a really very nice and interesting little collection.

My guess is - I haven't examined them in any detail -

is that you've probably got around

-£1,000 to £1,500 worth here.

-Lovely.

-Mother Goose.

-That's right.

S Carter. Now, I know who that is.

That's Samuel John Carter. He's a Norfolk artist.

He lived in Swaffham and he's an animal painter.

He's really particularly known for pictures of dogs and of puppies.

-Particularly puppies.

-Yes.

-Can you tell me how you acquired it?

Did you buy it...or inherit it?

Er, well, it was left to my father in 1952

by his aunt, and then it came to me in 1969.

Yes. Well, it's beautifully painted. I mean, Samuel Carter's not as famous an artist, let's say,

as Landseer or somebody like that - he's another late Victorian,

charming painter of animals but wherever you look, the details are extremely good.

-You know, the eyes...

-The eyes.

-Good.

I love the way the little goslings are done and this chap standing up and flapping his wings.

And also the landscape's nice, the river and the background

with all the detail there. A bit cracked.

-Yes.

-Here...

along this side, little bit cracked in the varnish but that's not too serious.

-I mean, really, I would recommend having this picture cleaned and taking the glass off.

-Yes.

And the picture's signed as well, down here.

Very faint and rather hard to see but it is signed, isn't it? SJ Carter.

There's a date. Looks like 1888.

This type of animal picture, obviously, is a very popular subject.

Very saleable, I would say, in a sale...

-£3,000 to £4,000. You should insure it for £5,000.

-Yes.

-So, a charming thing. Thank you for bringing it.

-Thank you.

My husband bought them in the early '60s because we liked them.

We paid £50 for them, which we thought was rather a lot in those days.

-£50?

-Yes.

Right, yes.

First of all,

the condition is absolutely stunning.

Everything is as crisp as the day it was made.

The glass is just so sharp. Everything is just as you would want it be.

Finding a PAIR of claret jugs is unusual.

-They turn up, but most often you simply find A claret jug.

-Yes.

We've got a wonderful fruiting vine

spreading across the lid and the vines intertwined.

You see how they just cross over and then go down into the base there.

So often when you get something like this, it's been dulled with polishing over the...

-Well, I've only cleaned it four times since I've had them.

-Four times. Right. Have you used them?

-Not for wine, no.

-No. What have you used them for?

We have them where we can see them, in a glass case.

-Right, just to enjoy.

-Yes, yes.

-Just to enjoy.

Well, they're made in London and...

we've got a date here of 1838...

but the maker - and really, it could not be better.

-Oh.

-The maker in this case is Paul Storr.

Oh, fabulous! I have heard of him!

-Certainly a name to conjure with.

-Yes.

-One of the greatest, um... of the silversmiths

that has ever been, and it is an early date for claret jugs.

-Oh.

-They started to get going in the Regency period.

You don't see many until you get a little later into the reign of Queen Victoria.

So we've got an absolutely top maker. We've got a pair.

We should be looking at a value

of somewhere...

around £30,000 plus.

What?!

Wow! That's fabulous.

So, a little improvement on the £50.

Oh, that's wonderful! I do wish my husband was here to hear that.

We've got an 18th-century herbal -

"Primitive Physic", by John Wesley,

but it's the 22nd edition so although it was printed in 1788,

-it's a long way from a first edition and in that sort of condition, maybe worth £20 or something.

-I see.

We've got a teapot, a pewter teapot on a spirit stand.

-It looks as if it has been through several world wars, frankly.

-Yes.

-Well and truly bashed. That's worth about £20.

-Right.

I always liked to think it was a North American tomahawk.

-Tomahawk pipe, of course.

-Yes.

-So this is the sort of thing they pass around in the wigwam.

-Like a peace thing?

-You can call it a pipe of peace because it was used in a friendly situation.

If you smoke with the chief and other elders of the tribe,

you are a friendly person and they called them a pipe of peace.

-Ah, yes.

-But this is a late one, around the latter part of the 19th century.

-I see.

-The mouthpiece in here...

-This is made of bone.

-I thought it might be.

-I imagine it's been used quite extensively.

-It looks it.

It makes you wonder how it gets to England.

That, to a collector today,

would be worth something in the region of £750 and as much as £1,000.

-Would it really? Would it really?

-Yes.

-Ooh.

Oh, yes, who's this down here? Oh, that's great, isn't it?

-Lovely, isn't it?

-What do you call him?

-Twit.

Twit. Well, this is great.

It's Austrian and cold painted bronze.

We see quite a few of these but not usually of a sort of novelty type.

It says "Bergmann" stamped on it and the wise old owl - Twit -

would sit on your desk

and you'd open up his lid like that and there would be not a piece of paper inside, but an inkwell.

-Twit's great, isn't he?

-Lovely!

-He dates from about 1870-1880. Something like that.

Right.

And because it's novelty and nicely coloured and useful,

-I think it would bring, at auction, about £400.

-Oh, gosh!

-What else have you got? Let's have a look.

-And in here we have this.

Now, that is nice. Good.

We don't really see that many rubies on the Roadshow. I don't know why.

But for some reason, we always seem to get

three-stone rings set with sapphires and I've been waiting for someone to bring along

a really pretty ruby.

These are brilliant cut diamonds.

We've got a ruby in the centre and brilliants on each side.

Look at the side of the mount -

all this very fine scrolling here

and then the claw settings here.

I would date it round about 1900.

Burmese rubies are the best. I'm not sure it comes from Burma.

It's probably from Thailand or maybe one of these countries

that also produce very good quality rubies, but that's a very sweet ring

and that's probably worth, in auction, £1,500 to £2,000.

It's very sweet indeed. I like that.

They're Irish turf buckets.

They've been in our family for a long time.

The family had settled in Ireland in the 1600s.

I believe that they came from the family property in County Laois, from Lauderdale House, um...

Probably mid-1700s but I'm not absolutely certain. Maybe you can...

Right. I don't think they're 18th century in the sense - well, not mid-1700s, anyway.

The style of this, and really this wonderful ribbing here,

is much more typical of the Regency period, so 1810-1820.

And...Ireland being a little bit far away from the centre of fashion, perhaps even a little bit later.

-Certainly the early part of the 19th century.

-Right.

I don't know when they were made and I don't have any record in any of the family albums we've got.

Right, right, right. But I just love the way they're made.

This coopering is fantastic. Just two very simple brass strands going right round, top and bottom,

holding what is a barrel, effectively, with these slats.

They're just so wonderfully ribbed and they're strong.

-They're almost what, three feet high?

-About that, yes.

-We still use this one for logs.

-For logs?

-Yes.

-Unfortunately we don't get much turf in this part of the world.

-I'm just imagining these.

Imagine a big hall of a big 18th-century classical house.

-You'd need two of these to keep probably one fire going all evening.

-I would think so.

I don't want you using those for logs because...

with the damage we've got here, this rather intricate and expensive restoration you've had done...

Absolutely, yes. Farmer's friend.

-It's not difficult to restore. It looks dramatic but it's not difficult.

-Would it be worthwhile?

Yes. It's not a difficult job. It may show, but that doesn't matter.

It's a wonderful part of Irish history - everything is Irish because this brass handle here is...

I'd like to think, if you showed me out of context, I'd say it's Irish.

A sophisticated classical leaf moulding, but a little bit naive compared with top London makers.

And it adds to the charm.

Would it have been a rural craftsman that made these or would it just come out of a bigger city?

Oh, I think a bigger city. Probably Dublin, I think.

They're a very sophisticated design and this swirling strong shape is a very smart London type design.

You get it on small objects and even turned legs and things like that, in London in the early 1800s.

But it's that Irishness which is important and the fact that

you've had them in the family since they were made - is fantastic.

-I'd like to think so.

-The Irishness is part of their value and the provenance helps a lot.

They're quite difficult to value. Have you got any preconceived ideas of the value?

Um...as a pair as they stand, um...

-£5,000 to 7,000, maybe?

-Even in this condition?

Yes.

The market is not easy at the moment because...

But there are a lot of very wealthy

Irish people around, people with Irish connections around,

who on a good market would pay, I think, a fantastically heavy price for this -

but the market conditions are a bit uncertain at the moment. And I'm going to have to be conservative.

You said £5,000-£7,000.

I certainly think they're worth £50,000.

-Right.

-And I think that is very conservative.

-Right.

On a good day, these are worth the price of a small house.

I'm glad I'm holding on to it.

-Yeah...thank you.

-They're brilliant objects.

It has been handed down generation after generation

-of my mother's side of the family.

-Can you work out how many generations?

-I think it's about four greats.

-So you know the lady that it belonged to?

-Yes, yes.

Do you know anything about her life or whether she was from this part of the world?

-I don't know her date of birth, but she did die in 1804.

-Well, that's a help.

Let's just look at it and enjoy the treat - it really is a treat.

The dress itself is made of a silk damask in this wonderful, vibrant emerald green,

which really has kept its colour incredibly.

There's no fading on it. It's almost as fresh as the day that it was made.

I would have thought it could well be French damask

because it wasn't until 1766

that there was an import control put on the importation of French silks,

so it could well be a French silk damask.

It's called an open robe and here we have the open robe.

What we're looking at underneath is a sort of everyday,

the quilted underskirt that would be worn with it,

with embroidery that's almost reminiscent of quite sort of simple Indian embroidery.

There was quite a lot of Indian influence at this time with the, um...East India Company.

All the sort of motifs, the Indian motifs were coming back and being used.

I'd like to turn it round and have a look at the back here.

We've got such a very attractive darted back

into this narrow seamed section here

and then out into a really quite full train at the back.

Very handsome. So often with these, you find

that if they've been in the family for any length of time at all,

they end up in the dressing-up box

and very often then cut down and used for fancy dress parties and so on.

This has seemed to have managed to escape that fate, and to have survived

with the central section here, the stomacher,

such wonderful quality of stitchwork with this silver thread.

-Do you know how long it took?

-Months.

Years, probably, but you can imagine a girl working on that for a special occasion.

Do you have any idea when this might have been worn?

It was thought to have been made for her to have tea with the Queen.

Tea with the Queen! How wonderful!

-Well, it's grand enough, isn't it?

-I think...that, I can't confirm.

-No. Oh, well.

-That is why it was supposed to be so special.

Such a splendid gown, fit for tea with the Queen. Today, when we're talking about value,

I would have thought we're talking in the £2,000 to £3,000 price range.

It's very handsome indeed.

Well, I bought it about, um...1970.

-Yes.

-From my chiropodist in Shrewsbury who...

-From your chiropodist?

-Yes.

-How wonderful!

-He sort of did paintings as a sideline.

-He had paintings on the wall while he was cutting up your feet?

-So you could look at them.

-Did he threaten to cut your toe off if you didn't buy one?

-No, but I was so taken with it that I...

I've always been very fond of sheep and so I bought it for £22.

Well, they were really great, these Victorian sheep painters.

Thomas Sidney Cooper, who did this, was a pupil of Eugene Verboeckhoven,

-also a great sheep painter.

-Was he Dutch?

-He was Belgian, actually.

-Belgian, yes.

There's this wonderful story -

that a collector had been saving up for many, many years to buy a Verboeckhoven,

and he went to Verboeckhoven's studio with 1,000 guilders in his pocket

and was told that the picture he was looking at, which he very much liked and which showed four sheep,

was 1,200 guilders, so he couldn't afford it.

But Verboeckhoven took pity on him and said, "I'll give you it for 1,000

"but I'll have to do one thing."

He painted out one of the sheep so there were only three in the picture, so he could afford it.

I see!

So this is the sort of background that Thomas Sidney Cooper came from.

I mean, he was the most sought after painter of sheep in England in the Victorian era.

And it's in very good preservation. The colours are still there,

the sheep are nicely arranged.

-It's a very good late Cooper watercolour.

-Oh, very good.

-Very pleased to hear it.

-Are you a farmer?

-Yes, always been farming in Shropshire.

So, the sheep is a nice thing to have on the wall for a farmer.

-We didn't have sheep. We were dairy.

-Right.

-But I've always been fond of sheep.

Right, well, it's a jolly nice one and I would have thought that at auction,

it would be worth between £1,500 and £2,000,

and insure it for £3,000 - is that more than you paid at the chiropodist?

Yes, that was £22, so we've done all right, haven't we?

-£22. Well done.

-That's only about the price of having your feet done now, isn't it?

-Right, yes.

Why would a stool - which is what it appears to be - have a hole in the middle?

It's not a stool. It's actually a very old cheese press,

which would have been used in the agriculture industry when the cheeses were put in the moulds.

It would have been put on that with a weight on top

and the residues would have drained through the hole in the bottom - the whey.

How did you find out what it was?

-I knew what it was, because we've got more modern versions of it around the farm.

-Ah.

Sort of being as we made cheese years ago,

I presume it was probably used originally in the farmhouse.

-My parents collected them.

-Right.

-Mum and Dad.

-Then we inherited them, you see.

-So, I mean, what an inheritance!

Where does one start with a group like this?

This is absolutely super - the card case.

Card cases are terribly collectable today and the most collectable are those with scenes on them.

Palace of Westminster is quite a rare one.

Let's see who we've got as a maker on this one. It should be - yes, it is - Nathaniel Mills.

He is the maker you want as well,

so your parents were obviously really quite discerning in their collecting.

Have you had any thoughts on values on any of them?

Um...I realised some are more valuable than the others.

That's certainly very true. That, on its own,

I would expect to be going for about £1,000 - £1,500.

-For that one?

-For that one, yes.

That - help! It's rattling!

There's more!

Right, yes, it does, yes - it's...

how many of these have you got?

We've never counted them.

So, I mean this snuff box is a wonderful, wonderful snuff box,

the casket form - and see, the sides are sort of bulging -

The most beautiful mounts there.

I bet you this one's Mills as well. Yes, it is.

So...and Mills, of course, working in Birmingham.

Date-wise, around the 1830s.

But a box like that, again...

you've got to be talking in excess of £1,000 - for that quality of box.

And they're not all of quite the same quality.

That one is going a little bit down-market,

but a box like that, you could easily be talking £300 - £400 or so...

and...where do we go from there?

They belonged to my wife's mother

and it was her father, Richard Maddox, who was quite a well-known book collector of the '50s,

who actually collected these,

but he was also a personal friend of Shaw because we believe his wife was...

lived locally, and that's how the association started.

We've got a card which is great fun,

because he says, "Gracious, you call that a small cheese?"

-He must have sent them a rather large one.

-He must have done.

-That's right.

"What must your big ones be like? It will last for the rest of our lives. Our best thanks."

"The 27th is a Wednesday, and there will be a matinee.

"Would you drop a card to my secretary to say whether you prefer matinee or evening?"

This is dated 10th November 1929 and here is a picture of Shaw in 1931.

That's it. He'd just come back from Russia, it said, didn't it?

He was a bit of a socialist so he'd obviously gone to Russia

and was impressed with how they did things in Russia, because...

-it was one of the things of his life, wasn't it, socialism?

-Yes.

He was a very important thinker and that's how people remember him,

as well as being a leading dramatist.

-His socialism, his vegetarianism - interesting in the light of the cheese!

-Yes!

Perhaps he felt he had to eat a lot of cheese!

-He was also very keen on language. He really wanted to revise the alphabet.

-Did he?

-That was one of his obsessions - with words.

-Yes.

-And here, Miss Patch, his secretary -

"Your letter's been forwarded to me. I've not seen Mr Shaw since he got back from Russia

"and I do not think he will be back in London until September. Thank you for the offer of cheese."

So he was still - he must have eaten more than the one, mustn't he?

-He must have had a regular supply.

-A regular supply, yes.

These are first editions of Shaw's books.

-That's right.

-And I see from up the front...

That is the oldest, isn't it?

-This is 1924 and I see from the front that this is also inscribed to our Mr Richard Maddox.

-That's right.

By George Bernard Shaw on 24th November 1933.

-That's right.

-Shaw died in 1950, so this was towards the end of his life and it's quite interesting

that he signed this book later, as if it was a token of friendship.

-That's right.

-The others are signed as well, are they?

-Yes.

I would imagine that on the market,

they might be worth between £2,500 and £3,500 for all three copies,

-inscribed, and the cards.

-Ah, so that's very nice.

-Very nice indeed. Thank you very much for bringing it.

-Thank you.

This one is unusual, with the agate set into the lid,

Let's see what this one's about.

-Ah, it gets better, actually.

-Good!

-It's unusual, with the agate set into the lid.

It's an 18th century box in this case but it's actually Newcastle and you don't see many Newcastle snuff boxes

so that's quite a rarity. That one, I would have thought, maybe £700 - £800.

The vinaigrette...

um...Windsor Castle - that is highly sought after,

and again, I bet it's got to be Mills.

Let's just see where we are.

Yes, Nathaniel Mills and again you're looking at the best part of £1,000 on that.

-Just for a tiny little box like that?

-Tiny little box like that.

Ah. Yes. Now, that is quite an exceptional grille.

Let's see the maker. It's Mills. Oh, it gets better and better.

I've never seen that form of grille before.

That, just as it is, with an engine-turned top by Mills around 1830 or so,

would be about £150 to £200, maybe, but with that,

it's going to be certainly in excess of £500.

Well, it's been in my possession a good many years

and I wanted to find out more about the origins of this type of vase.

OK, well. It was made in Austria and is quite typical of the type of art pottery

that was coming out of Austria in and around 1895-1905,

that turn of the century period,

because this is an Austrian interpretation of Art Nouveau.

-I understand.

-If you look at this glaze here,

it's just very gently lustred,

and also in this web design you've got more of this lustring.

It's something that you find on glass of the period.

-Yes.

-In Loetz, the glassworks are making iridescent glass,

-in America, Tiffany is making iridescent glass and...

-What can you tell me about these?

These little jewels, these little cabochons are ceramic. OK?

They're part of the design and there is every possibility that in the make-up they've been applied.

It is, as we can see, a spider's web and beneath that we've got this frieze of moths,

some of which are pendant,

they've been entangled and they're suspended from the web.

The actual decoration is moulded in low relief and it's heightened with gilt

and then the actual moths themselves

are sort of highlighted and detailed in this very fine gilt slip.

It just adds that extra jewel-like quality to it. As for the maker...

If we look underneath we find a mark that says "Made in Austria". There are some initials there.

-And they're R, S, T & K.

-Yes.

-Now that is for a firm

-called Reissner, Stellmacher and Kessel.

-I see.

OK? Um, now there's another mark...

which is very indistinct, which is impressed, but I can tell you that should read "Amphora".

This was the range of wares that Reissner, Stellmacher and Kessel were making at that time.

It's the sort of vase that an Art Nouveau collector would be very happy to own.

Um, I suppose...

The burning question is - how much would they have to pay for it?

I think that if they were to go to a top gallery,

-they wouldn't get much change out of £400 or £500 for this vase.

-Yes, I see.

-You haven't got a pair, by any chance?

-No.

-Would have been nice.

-No, I haven't got a pair.

-No.

And that, now, that's interesting.

Let's see - oh - that's a very rare vinaigrette.

With the clock face.

Again, around 1800 but that one - you should be talking probably the best part of £1,000 on that one.

-For that!

-For that, yes. It's a rarity.

I mean, just the boxes alone, just as a guesstimate,

there's probably £50,000 sitting there.

But then we've got the candlesticks.

When we had these, Jean didn't like them at all.

-"They're ugly." "We don't want them."

-Well, we didn't think they were...pretty.

-Right.

Well, I don't think "pretty" is necessarily a word to be put on them, I agree.

But they are terribly exciting because they are a very rare form of candlestick.

They're cast candlesticks - when you look underneath, you can actually see the casting.

Most candlesticks, when you turn them over, you just see it green underneath and there's filling inside

and they're made of sheet metal,

but these are made in the very best way...

By casting, which, in the Regency period, when they were produced,

you don't get that many, other than, say, at the top end of the market.

Let's have a look and see what...

There it is.

Hiding amongst all the vinaigrettes.

SW is the maker's mark.

That...is a chap called Samuel Whitford, who I think was probably more a retailer than anything else,

and 1819 is the date.

-So had you any thought of value on those?

-We honestly have no idea.

Um...

Those I could see quite easily

um, on the market for at least...

£25,000.

-It is a lot, isn't it?

-Never!

-Just for those four candlesticks?

-For those four candlesticks.

After this show I think Whitchurch - a town that's had four names -

might have another one, something like "Rainbow's End".

There's been so much to admire,

from glorious silver to those giant peat buckets, worth the price of a small house.

To Shropshire, thank you very much and until next week, goodbye.

Subtitles by BBC - 2002