Hayward's Heath Antiques Roadshow

Welcome to what was once known as the Metropolis of Mid-Sussex.

Legend has it that Haywards Heath

was named after the highwayman, Jack Hayward,

but the coaches Jack robbed gave way to trains.

The town of Haywards Heath was created by the railway.

Engineers wanted to connect London, the "Flower of cities all",

with Brighton, "Queen of the watering holes" and favourite of the Prince Regent.

Even before the line opened in 1841, a local businessman had an idea...

He advertised a house for rent within a ten minute walk of Haywards Heath Station.

The idea of working in London and living in a rural area caught on.

It was the birth of the commuter.

A few miles north of the town, straddling the Ouse Valley,

is a spectacular example of Victorian railway architecture,

the Balcombe Viaduct.

Its eight Italianate miniature pavilions would have been safety shelters for the men working on it.

During World War II, the viaduct was used as a look-out to warn of air raids. It survived.

Today's trains rattle safely over the 11 million bricks that were brought from Holland to build it.

The 36,000 commuters from Sussex who pile out of their trains every morning and into the London tube

might be interested to know that the typeface used for London Underground nameplates was designed here.

Edward Johnston was the creator of that lovely lettering.

In the '20s, Johnston's former pupil Eric Gill formed a group of artists,

the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, and worked here in Ditchling, near Haywards Heath.

Eric Gill was one of the 20C's finest engravers, known for his wood carvings of religious subjects.

Such was his standing that he was invited to provide architectural sculptures for the BBC.

Huge panels representing Ariel and Prospero adorn Broadcasting House,

where "Nation shall speak peace unto nation".

Back in Haywards Heath, the Dolphin Leisure Centre is the venue for this week's Antiques Roadshow.

This is a mechanical wine cradle, a decanting cradle.

It's called an elutriator.

-And there we are... There's the mark inside, the label.

-Yes, uh-huh.

And it's patented by Ellis and Adams.

I happen to know that Joseph Ellis lived not a million miles from here.

He was in Brighton and he invented this particular device in 1857.

-Is it something you use?

-My father was a wine merchant and wine taster.

-Was he?

-And he was manager of Ellis, Wilson and Bacon.

Well, of course, the word "elutriate" actually means to decant.

-Are you secret decanters?

-No, not really.

-This is only for a very expensive...very old...

-Special, for special wines?

-Vintage, vintage wine, yes, that's right.

-To me, it's actually almost a piece of sculpture.

-Yes, exactly.

It's very attractive. If one looks at this scrolling metalwork here, the shape of the cradle...

The cradle is nicely edged here with a piece of leather, it feels like,

so that the neck of the bottle wouldn't be damaged,

-and when you're decanting, you want to have a very easy gentle pressure upwards...

-..Because of the lees.

-Because of the lees. You don't want it to slip back down again.

-No, no.

By turning this screw, the spring would act as resistance,

so that you could never push it back down, mix the residue of the wine with the lees...

-I've seen him do it many times.

-You remember that?

-Yes.

-So you'd have this constant gentle upward motion.

The bottles would have been lying flat in the cellar,

and there was white paint along the top to show which way up the bottle was.

-It would be carefully brought up.

-Yes.

-Kept in that way.

-By the old cellar man.

-Placed into the cradle.

-That's right.

-And then poured.

This is an object which dates back to the middle of the 19C,

-and in a way I feel it should look like it.

-Yes.

-Now, have you ever thought about value?

-No.

-It's just been sitting at home and there it is.

-Very good, there it is and uncleaned.

-We'd like to know...

-YOU would.

Well, of course the younger generation want to know!

I would say that we're talking about...

between perhaps £800 and £1,000, and it would have to be in a very specialised auction.

-He'd be tickled pink if he knew...

-Good.

We ought to raise a toast to your father and thank him for looking after it and passing it down to you.

I bought it at a silent charity auction. I think I paid about £4.

Oh, right. Did you know what you were buying?

We'd been to an exhibition of the Queen's china at Buckingham Palace.

And in there was this magnificent Sevres dinner service

-in this beautiful turquoise blue...

-It's that colour.

-..and gold.

-I know the one, with flowers in the panels.

-Beautiful, magnificent.

-Yes. Let's see if this is the same.

-There's the mark of the Sevres factory.

-Yes.

-The great French factory and that's the monogram of - the letter L mirrored, for Louis XV.

-Oh, I see.

And that mark is painted as it should be, in the early part of the Sevres factory, around about 1750-1760.

-Good gracious.

-Now, is it real Sevres porcelain?

It's got a tiny hole in the foot rim.

That was the way they hung it in the kiln to stop the glaze spreading and sticking it to the kiln shelf.

-I see.

-That hole is where it should be and it has the black speck inside.

That tells me it's Sevres porcelain. It was fired in the correct way. This is Sevres porcelain from 1750.

-Goodness me.

-The service which the Queen has in this colour is later...

-1780, I think that one was.

-Oh.

And this particular painting doesn't look quite as early as 1750.

I think something is a little bit up. The colouring looks good, the porcelain is absolutely right,

-but it didn't leave Sevres looking like this.

-Ah.

-Someone's changed it.

Looking very closely at these lovely figures in sort of Watteau style,

-I can see a hint of green in the background of the panel.

-Yes.

-That's part of a leaf spray. The original decoration was flowers.

-Oh!

-This had little flower sprigs all over it.

-Well, I never!

-When it left Sevres in the 1750s,

flowers on a white ground were simple, everyday decoration.

but in 1830 when George IV was collecting the Sevres,

-he was paying a fortune for pieces with figure subjects on a bleu-celeste ground.

-Goodness.

There wasn't enough real Sevres to go around, so they bought the tea sets with simple flowers and changed them.

-Oh, I see.

-When you look closely, there are signs.

Often you can see a little scratch across the middle of the turquoise.

-Can you just see a little line?

-Yes.

That was a scratch in the glaze on the original cup and saucer.

-When they put the turquoise over it, it went into that scratch.

-Goodness!

And at the same time it burned. This black speckling is a sign that it was burnt in the kiln and went wrong.

-Fascinating.

-But that affects the value.

-Yes.

-A real one, you're looking at £5,000 for.

-Yes.

-But even as a wrong 'un,

even as a copy, it's beautiful.

The quality of this, when it was made as a fake, was superb

-and, even as a fake, it's probably worth £600 or £700.

-Goodness. Oh, thank you. Well, I love it.

-She is Amy Sawyer.

-She was an artist of some considerable repute.

-Yes.

-Yes, yes. Not just a painter...

-No.

-..but an artist in all forms.

-You mean she carved?

-She carved.

-I know she carved.

-She did embroidery.

-Yes.

-She was an eccentric as well, but she has paintings too.

-In what way was she eccentric?

-She didn't believe in electricity or gas. She cooked in a hay box.

-She lived in Ditchling?

-Yes, in the blue house.

-I suspect you know more about the Ditchling artists than I,

but I've always known it as a great centre for artists,

not necessarily talking about the commune that Eric Gill started there.

Artists went to live there because they enjoyed each other's company.

-It wasn't so much a colony as a place that artists enjoyed living.

-Yes.

-There was her and there were many, many others, weren't there?

-Yes, Louis Ginnett who did the portrait.

Oh, it's clearly signed by him here.

-This is a very penetrating portrait.

-It's very like her.

-I feel fixed by the gimlet eyes boring through me.

-Yes, wherever you stand, they're there.

-It's a wonderful portrait.

I'm not quite sure what it is about it, but it's frank and powerful

-and it seems to get to the heart of the woman's character.

-Yes.

-It's perhaps rather thinly painted here,

-and something has happened to the paint surface.

-Damp.

-It's probably restorable.

-Yes.

-But, at the moment it's looking a little bit ropey around the edges.

-Mm.

-You want that done.

But, as a very good portrait, by an artist who is quite well known, a Louis Ginnett,

-then it's probably worth £1,200 to £1,500.

-Goodness me.

-As much as that.

This has been in my husband's family for about 100 years.

His great-grandparents were great travellers round the world.

He thinks that this was picked up on the continent and we've been told it may be Flemish.

Right, but I think it's actually French.

-What do you use it for?

-We haven't used it to put anything in it.

It's just an ornamental piece.

If it was meant for bread, we're curious to know why it's got a key for instance.

Right, they're called "panetiere".

-Yes.

-So, a bread cupboard.

This looks like an early key. It's certainly an early escutcheon here,

this lovely asymmetric typical Louis XV shape.

-The hinge seems quite crude.

-The hinge is glorious. I think the lock is later.

It may not have had a key originally. But this is a typical original long charniere or hinge.

But this glorious shape... all over central France you see that.

What about the carving? That's rather interesting.

You've got this serpentine outline which would have become popular in France around 1770.

That fits in nicely with this type of carving which is transitional.

You've got Rococo feeling to the foliage and to the shape, but a Neoclassical urn or vase here.

So it's this transitional period when Louis XV was starting the discovery of Pompeii in 1754,

this mad foliate idea of Rococo was giving way to Neoclassical.

-It's a nicely made, expensively made piece of furniture in walnut.

-Walnut.

That's much more typical of France. Had it been Flemish, which is not quite right for this shape anyway,

-it would be more likely to be in beech or oak.

-Yes.

-Valuing it isn't easy. You don't see many of these.

-I can see it being in a French antique shop, retail, for about £5,000.

-Could you?

-But more if you want to insure it.

-Yes.

Look at that! Isn't it...?

Cor...! I tell you what, he must have been in there a good few years. He absolutely pongs.

Well, if you and I had been in a box that long, we'd be that bad as well!

Crikey, he's really musty. How long has he been in the box?

-Well, he's getting on for 30 years since he's seen the light of day.

-Really?

-Yes.

-He's quite an extraordinary creature.

-He is a bit, yes.

-I'm not quite sure how old he is. Have you any idea?

-My father bought him in 1956.

-Right.

-For me when I was about ten,

from a theatrical shop in Nottingham and we did shows in old people's homes and that sort of thing.

My father used to do a magic show with my younger brother and I used to do a ventriloquist's turn.

He was probably made in the 1920s by an individual maker of ventriloquist's dummies.

-The eyes are probably real false eyes.

-Really?

-They're not painted. They are very good eyes.

That's what really makes the difference between a poorly made dummy and a really well-made dummy,

so he would have been made for a professional. He'd have a value

-of £200 to £300 today.

-Really?

-Yes. He's a very, very nice object.

It was in the late '60s and we were in Paris. It was the wintertime and we wanted to light a fire,

so we lit it and smoke was coming back all the time, so we realised something was blocking the chimney,

so we extinguished the fire and then we pulled out all sorts of things.

There were old books and china, silver and those two coffee pots.

-Gosh.

-"They're obviously not very valuable," said Mr Pickford,

but I like them and they remind me of my youth.

-This was in Paris. Could it have been someone hiding family bits from the Nazis?

-We don't know.

-We thought maybe they were from the French Revolution or something.

-No such luck.

-But it's a great memory.

Yes. Perhaps if we rub this, the genie will tell us everything!

It's a doll book, where you press out the dolls

-and then dress them in different clothes for different occasions.

-Great.

So this relates to Charles and Diana...

and being married, and their first baby. Who have we got here?

-The visitors.

-Barbara Cartland, Margaret Thatcher, teddy bears...

A boomerang... Why's it never been used?

I bought it for five pence and I've sat and had many hours just browsing through,

-but never used.

-That's the great thing about it,

because obviously any child this was given to, the first thing they'd want to do

is tear it up, cut it out and play with it.

So, for a bit of royal memento, it's fantastic. It must be quite rare. More rare because of its condition.

-You paid 5p for it.

-Five pence.

-I wouldn't sell it for less than £50.

-Really?

-But in time it'll be worth a lot more.

-Looks like a typical mid-18th century English side table.

-Right.

Is it English? I look at this overhang here,

this very wide overhang. It almost looks like the top has been replaced.

It does look a different colour, but I believe it's always been like this.

I love the colour, by the way. But it's the overhang which fascinates me, with this lovely re-entrant...

and this moulded feature. Cabriole leg is fairly normal,

leading to this very unusual foot with this little line here.

I think it could be American.

Well, that would fit in with the family background.

My great grandfather lived in Syracuse in New York State. He was actually in music hall.

He was an acrobat and a juggler. I know they bought quite a few things

before they settled back into England again.

That's really fascinating. The drawer, the drawer lining,

is very like the English drawers of the mid-18th century, very thin in oak with a lovely little rounded top,

but it's not quite the same. It's got a sort of Dutch thinness and quality to it.

-Right.

-It's more sophisticated almost than the English ones,

but in the Eastern seaboard, especially Philadelphia, Delaware... they did use oak linings.

This again... You see this sort of knob here?

In English William and Mary furniture from the late 17C, circa 1700,

it's unusual to get this in what is probably 1750 shape.

Again, I think this slightly drawn-out shape to the brass knob is American.

This is not an English casting.

If you just look at the drawers with the frieze,

you've got a position here of this normal drawer, but a bit short,

and this funny little thing here and this great, empty space.

When I first saw it, I thought English mid-18C,

and then something rang a bell and drew me to it perhaps being American.

-It's almost like a Shaker feeling.

-Yes.

American furniture's a completely different discipline, I don't know of any experts

resident in Europe who know about American furniture.

We'd have to take photographs of it, send it to New York or the Eastern seaboard

to get an expert to verify what I'm about to say.

If that's English, mid-18C, it's worth £2,000 to £3,000.

But if it's American, a minimum of £15,000 to £20,000.

Right.

Well, that's wonderful, lovely.

At first glance, this appears to be an innocent silver-topped walking stick.

But with a twist of the handle,

we have nearly two feet of deadly Toledo Spanish steel. Where did you come by this lovely object?

It's been in the house ever since I can remember. When my father died, I particularly wanted it.

It was just part of the household.

I believe he got it from his father before him.

This would be carried by a Victorian gentleman for self protection.

-Its blade is made in Spain, in Toledo, which is the great Spanish sword cutlery capital.

-Right.

-They still make them today.

-Do they?

They've been making blades there for hundreds of years. We can see on the blade...

"Fabricado Para la Casa Sangster & Co Ltd, Londres."

That means that Sangster's - whoever they were - would have had this made in Spain and then brought over here.

The top is silver, it's assay-marked and there's a nice little London mark on it...

-for 1891.

-Oh, right.

So that gives you the sort of time period

-in which this was in use.

-Yes.

-Just at the end of Victoria's reign.

-Yes.

It's a very nice object. The body is cane

-and it's absolutely top quality.

-Oh, right.

And there's also a certain amount of interest in it, from the point of view of its legality.

-Did that come into your mind when you brought it?

-Well, I hesitated

even before bringing it, because of the legality. I didn't know how I stood on that.

Although sword sticks are prohibited weapons, there is an exemption for those which are over 100 years old.

-So you're home and dry at 1891.

-I see, yes.

It still remains an offensive weapon to wander around with.

-Yes, sure.

-And you would have to show that you had reasonable excuse for doing it,

but no court would say that bringing a beautiful thing like this to the Roadshow

-wasn't reasonable excuse! Have you thought about what it might be worth?

-No idea.

-A thing of this quality,

which has the cache of being over 100 years old, and, consequently, not prohibited, bangs the value up.

-I think somewhere between £500 to £750.

-Right. Thank you very much.

It's been with us for the last 70 years. I remember it hanging on the wall as a child.

-I'm told that I used to wave to it as I passed it in the hall.

-Every day?

-Yes.

What I love about this soulful portrait, it comes straight out of Landseer,

who is, without doubt, the champion

of the almost human-like portrait of a dog.

It's a sort of 19th century...

-Disneyfication.

-Yes.

Where the animal becomes totally anthropomorphic, I suppose.

What makes life really interesting about this object, which is certainly by a pupil of Landseer,

is the signature on the bottom.

And for the life of me, I cannot read it!

-I've never been able to.

-A lot of artists could draw,

but could not write their name.

It looks like George Irwin, possibly Fred...

but I can find no record of the artist.

But whatever it is, it's a picture that you just have to love.

Its doleful look at you is just so wonderful.

I think its value...

because it's always commercial - is around £1,000-£1,200.

-Good Lord!

-I know, it's amazing.

-It is indeed.

You can salute it every day now.

-Thank you. I wasn't even sure whether to bring it in.

-I'm really glad you did.

-So am I!

It's come down through the family from my great-great-uncle, who had a paper mill in Cookham.

That's really about all I know about it.

-Also he's actually on the list of subscribers here.

-He is indeed. Charles Venables.

"The Mill, Cookham, near Maidenhead."

He would probably have paid quite a lot of money

-to subscribe to a book like this.

-Yes.

-But it's absolutely fabulous.

"A Monograph Of The Alcedinidae, Or Family Of Kingfishers, By RB Sharpe"

It's published by the author between 1868 and 1871.

Books of this quality with these wonderful plates in

are incredibly expensive to produce.

And by the late 19th century, these sort of books were virtually extinct,

-because they were such high quality.

-Yes.

None of this colouring here could have been done by an amateur.

It had to be done by a professional. Absolutely beautiful.

Look at this one. This one's just absolutely glorious.

But what has happened, what I suspect, with the handling over the years is...

The reason I've put it on a block is so that I don't have to open it up completely,

which will put an added strain on the gutta-percha binding.

This gutta-percha binding was an early form of glue that came from Malaya.

They thought the idea was that they could actually bind books quicker by using this glue.

They would thrust the books in - all the single pages.

And, inevitably, it rotted and they'd fall apart.

So this book, although it looks in poor condition,

is, in fact, not in such poor condition. It can be put back together.

It WILL cost a bit. The binding is holding. It does need refurbishing.

But a good bookbinder should be able to do that.

It's worth in the region of £5,000.

-It was a christening bowl.

-Lovely. But what went in it? Punch?

-Well, no. Apparently it held rum butter.

-Rum butter?

-Rum butter was handed round...

at the christening.

-It contained rum, obviously.

-Yes.

-Eh, butter...

for the fats of life, rum for the spirit,

Sugar for the sweetness and spices for the spice of life.

Everybody presumably had some and then once the bowl was empty

-and presumably clean, it was handed round and people put in money for the child.

-What a wonderful idea!

We've got the initials, haven't we? So it's a family piece.

But it's rather more. We've got, "Nelson's Glory,

"August 2nd, 1798" which is the Battle of the Nile.

The great defeat of the French there, all on a bowl.

It doesn't look Staffordshire to me.

-Well, it belonged to a north country family.

-That makes sense.

-Newcastle.

Fell was a great family of potters in Newcastle,

and these glorious colours, they're all underglazed and that took a lot of doing.

They're high-fired colours, but this is one of the finest examples.

It won't have a mark on, I'm sure. Let's have a look.

-It's mere earthenware, it's pearlware, but 1798.

-Pearlware.

That would have been about the date, it can't be before, maybe just after.

But a bowl like that I would have thought

-is certainly worth £4,000 to £5,000. It's the finest bowl that I've seen in earthenware.

-Lovely!

I'm a porcelain man, but that really turns me on!

Picture backs - when did you collect these?

About 20 years ago, and I stopped about 10 years ago,

because, frankly, I just never saw anything as good as this.

I go along with that.

I mean, it's very rarely that one sees such good examples. In this case, what have we got?

We've got the heron, looking at a date there around the 1750 mark.

-As old as that?

-And herons are rare.

It is thought actually to be one of the Jacobite spoons.

-Never knew that.

-Of course, to declare...

that you were a Jacobite in England in the mid-18th century was a hazardous thing,

so they had secret Jacobite societies and various symbols by which they were known.

But the teapot...

I can't remember when I last saw a teapot -

that is one of the great rarities.

Little bit later in date - you've gone on to the old English after 1760.

When did I last see a Masonic?

I mean that is just so rare.

Just seeing one of those, I would be quite excited about.

So, I mean, today, those, I would be thinking certainly

well in excess of £1,000 for the set.

The herons at least £600 to £800. The teapots, those have got to be...

-£200 or £300 each.

-Rather sad I haven't got six,

isn't it?

-Now how come you've ended up with a little puritan spoon...?

-I just bought it

because I thought it was old. It was incredibly dirty,

and I thought...

I had seen that shape before somewhere but I just couldn't remember where.

-Right.

-And I've been trying to find who made it.

-Ah, right.

There's a maker's mark - "AG."

That actually is one that we haven't tracked down to actual location yet.

We're about 1650 with this spoon. This particular form...

is the transition between the early English and the more modern spoon. Lovely condition. How much was it?

It was next to nothing, you know, £30-£40, probably.

Yeah, I would say that spoon today, you're looking in excess of £700-£800.

It's been such a pleasure looking at them.

I've always fancied using one of these to shave with.

-I don't think my husband would fancy it.

-You've got no family tradition of using them?

-No.

They've only ever been on a wall.

-Hanging from the holes in the top presumably?

-Yes.

-They go back an awful long way to the end of the 17C. We're looking about 300 years old.

-Lovely.

-These were made in about 1690-1700...

-Yes.

-..in Japan.

-I thought maybe China.

-No, these are Japanese ones. That's what makes them more special. The Imari colours...

which is this red, blue and gold, the typical Imari colours of old Japan.

So this one is in lovely condition, no cracks, so worth at least £1,000.

-Nice.

-That one's got a little crack,

so we're going to be £600 there.

Oh, that's nice though. I just enjoy them, I think they're lovely.

-Well, actually, I bought these from an auction in New York.

-In New York? Right.

And when you bought them,

-what did the catalogue say they were?

-Just ivory pieces.

-Did they give them a country?

-No.

-Right. What did you pay for them?

-Just over a thousand dollars.

£700.

Well...

-Well, what they're trying to be is Japanese.

-Yes.

-These are the seven gods of good fortune.

-Right.

-This one is obviously a fisherman.

But they are of a type which is being carved in China.

-And they are absolutely new. They were new when you bought them.

-That's OK.

There is a convention, CITES, against trade in endangered species...

-..and one should not be buying ivory at all.

-Right.

Unless you can be absolutely sure that what you're buying is of age - 50 years old or more.

Now, when you brought them from New York, did you declare them?

-Yes.

-And what did they say?

Well, when I say I brought them into the country, I paid for the shipping from the States.

-So they would have had a certificate?

-Yes. Well, as far as I'm aware.

Really? Well, that's really an outrage, because the person...

that signed this one, allowing its movement across the ocean,

was breaking the law.

He could lose his certificate

by signing these of age when they're clearly not.

-It's supported by the fact that we liked it.

-Yeah.

-And you use a reputable firm...

-Exactly.

You are free from blame. You bought them in good faith.

You are not at fault.

My daughter was given this object

-about six or seven years ago, just as a gift.

-It's in immaculate condition.

-Do you know what it's for?

-I believe it's for debutantes,

for writing their partners' names in for the next dance.

I disagree slightly with that

because I think it's more likely just an aide memoire which opens up like that...

and it has these little ivory slips inside on which you can write with a pencil and rub that off.

But usually at a ball they used to have a little printed paper,

rather than something of this sort. This was more likely to fit in your reticule

than be carried on your wrist at a ball, but it's a beautiful thing.

Made of mother-of-pearl and gold, and these beautiful little. ..

-It's gold?

-Oh yes. Mother of pearl back, lovely lustre on the shell.

And little turquoises which represent forget-me-nots.

The period would be around 1840 or thereabouts.

So it's quite old and it has survived in the most amazing condition.

There's not a chip or a mark on it...

which is, I think, really quite extraordinary.

Probably should be insured for around £1,000.

-Oh!

-Absolutely.

-Amazing.

-You've gone pink!

Here we have a 20th century antique.

A Barbie doll - a speaking Barbie doll.

-Listen carefully and she will say...

-"Which new dress shall I wear?"

-It's my voice.

-What's the story?

The agent called me one day and said they wanted a voice inside a doll and would I go for an interview?

So I went to a recording studio in Greek Street in 1968, and my voice was chosen for the doll,

and I had to go back a couple of weeks later and record 15 different sentences, and six were used.

Here's you in 1968...

-"Which new dress shall I wear?"

-..saying the same old thing!

I can't believe...

how bright and colourful a funeral procession is.

Here is the carriage of Her Majesty the Queen...

This is so colourful. The British army, the Highlanders...

You must have kept this extremely well, out of the way...

Look at this colour, it's absolutely magnificent for a funeral service.

And here, chief mourner, the Duke of Wellington. Well, this, of course, is the Duke of Wellington's funeral.

And here is the man himself. That is the most incredible plate.

-You know all this is cast iron?

-No. Is it really?

When I was a boy, you could go and see this in St Paul's Cathedral, where he was buried.

The legend goes that it was so heavy that they couldn't get it up Ludgate Hill.

He was two hours late for his own funeral, which I think is wonderful.

-Why not?!

-And so it goes on. It really is absolutely magnificent.

-So, tell me about it.

-My... I must get the right number of greats. ..great-great-grandfather,

through a friend, had a ticket somewhere on Ludgate Hill in order to see this procession.

I think this was produced a year later.

It probably took a long time to produce. He bought it. I think the receipt is in the front.

I find this absolutely fascinating,

because I've never seen a receipt from Ackerman's before - "One panorama, Duke's funeral".

-Not Duke of Wellington's. 31/6d.

-Expensive.

Incredible. And this note, "My father James Passmore saw this procession

"from a window in Ludgate Hill and paid 20 guineas for their seats."

-That must have been a lot of money in 1852.

-Couldn't you buy a house in 1852 for that sort of money?

I just think it's quite incredible. It does need some repair.

Inevitably, as time has gone on, it's fallen apart in a few of the folds,

but it is an absolutely wonderful thing and, of course, stretching out to ten whole feet.

Well, I suspect that, even in the condition it's in now, it's probably about £1,500 to £2,000.

-It is magnificent. Thank you so much.

-Thank you.

This picture is by A Mollica who painted in Napoli - Naples - in 1888.

-So how did this Italian picture get into your house?

-My grandmother went to a house sale around 1920.

I gather that she brought it home by pony and cart, but that's about all I know.

It is a huge picture and it's got a typical 19th century Victorian frame to make it look grander and bigger.

What I like about these sort of pictures is they're very honest, beautifully painted.

Look at the quality of it. It's absolutely beautiful.

The embroidery on her shoulder here and this wonderful shawl is so beautifully painted,

for an artist that in most dictionaries gets one line or two lines of information.

He's actually called Achille Mollica

and we know that he was from Naples and really didn't move that often outside his native town.

He exhibited occasionally, sometimes in Turin, sometimes in Rome. He's known to have exhibited in London.

You would never get this subject matter in the 18th century.

It's a 19C phenomenon, to see a work which is rather trivial, in a way.

It's like a sort of snapshot of, um, a passing moment and I think he's captured it beautifully.

The slightly lecherous expression of the man and the demure expression of the girl are, I think, without fault,

and for a minor Italian painter, I think we have a superb work.

Works like this are highly desirable, and although Naples is a particularly poor part of Europe,

they're very proud of their art and there is a big market for Neapolitan works of art.

-I think if it came up for auction, it could make between £5,000 and £7,000.

-That's lovely, thank you.

-What does one pay for six monkeys in a Sussex jumble sale?

-50p comes to mind.

-I'm never at the right place!

-How long ago was this?

-About 15 years ago.

-That makes me feel a bit better.

Because what you have is a very nice little group of Schuco chimps,

made by the German company Schuco.

Made in about 1930, so they're perhaps older than you'd imagine, by looking at their colours, and so on.

And they've got these very sweet pressed tin faces which gives them all the expression.

-They're charming. As you can see, they came in different sizes.

-Yes.

That being one of the largest,

and this tiny one being the smallest chimp they made.

They're all very collectable these days.

-The little ones would be worth perhaps £50 to £60 each.

-Really?

And the large one perhaps as much as £75, so your 50p's worth has actually done quite well.

I got it from my grandmother's flat. She moved into a nursing home...

I saw a very similar one on your show earlier in the year.

Right, that is true, yes. In fact, we had Judy as well.

He is a very nice Mr Punch

-and the simple answer to your question is, yes, he is the same.

-OK.

In fact, this one is a tad earlier

than the one we had, and actually in slightly better condition as well.

It's by Hemmel, it's from the 1850s.

It's everything you want in a Mr Punch.

So the one we had before, Punch and Judy together,

-I put £15,000 on.

-Right.

And Mr Punch is the more valuable of the two.

So the very good news is... In fact there was one that came on the market very shortly after that one came up,

and that sold at auction for just over £10,000.

-Blimey.

-And this one, I have no hesitation in saying it's got to be at least that.

-Thank you very much.

-We have it hanging at Christmas.

-At Christmas?

Yes, every Christmas since I can remember, we just bring it out.

-You treat it like a Xmas decoration?

-Yes, it comes out with the decs.

-Extraordinary. If I owned this, I'd want to look at it all the year round but it's a nice thing to do.

-Yes.

-How long have you had this?

-About 20 years, I think.

My husband actually bought it from a book dealer in Edinburgh,

and, when he died, his wife wrote to my husband to say how much they loved having it in their family

and they hoped we'd get as much pleasure.

-It's obviously a watercolour that charms. It generates that kind of personal interest.

-Yes.

-So do you know about the artist Kate Greenaway?

-A little, yes.

-She was a Victorian watercolour. Didn't she paint a lot of children?

-That was her thing.

-Yes.

She grew up in London, in Hoxton, in fact.

A very urban upbringing, and it made her long for the countryside.

And a lot of her figures are of children in the countryside.

She has this very clever way of capturing the homeliness and domesticity of the life of children.

The comfort and safety and also the dreams of them.

I love that detail of the child asleep and the way the light is falling on her, presumably moonlight,

falling on her face, and it's caught the features of her face and lovely eyelashes.

-It's beautifully done.

-Yes, it is.

-Really sweet. She has a particular facility of watercolour.

-Yes.

-She's better than most illustrators, in that she was classically trained,

and, later in her life, she was championed by no less a figure than John Ruskin.

-Through this, she attained a stature in the world of painters, perhaps denied to other illustrators.

-Yes.

-It's interesting that it was bought from a book dealer. It is possible this was a book illustration.

-Right.

-It might even have been a design for a Christmas card.

-Yes.

-We actually had a Xmas card made.

-For yourself?

-Yes. And sent it out.

-Can you recall how much you bought it for? I know it's 20 years ago.

-Um...

-I think a few hundred pounds. It was about £300 or £400, possibly.

-Quite a lot of money.

-It was.

-Well, in my opinion, it's worth at least £6,000 to £8,000.

-Is it? Right.

-Gosh.

-Yes.

-That's amazing. That really is, isn't it, Laura?

-Brilliant.

-That's wonderful.

We've enjoyed our day's outing to West Sussex

and if the local highwayman, Jack Hayward, had been around today, his eyes would have been popping

especially at those silver spoons!

Thanks to the law-abiding people of Haywards Heath. Goodbye.