Victoria and Albert Museum Antiques Roadshow

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Welcome to a special Roadshow from London's Victoria and Albert Museum,

one of the finest museums in the world, full of treasures.

There are magnificent pieces of silver, ancient glass, delicate ivories, beautiful pottery

and delicious sculptures. The Museum was founded after the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Many items were purchased from the Exhibition to start this collection and in 150 years,

the V&A has grown to around four million objects, housed in seven miles of galleries.

The place, it seems, is full of faces watching you.

But this isn't just a museum of the old.

It also houses modern design from costume like Vivienne Westwood's famous shoe

to the hanging chandelier in the entrance hall,

made of many pieces of blown glass, erected here in 1999.

So let's see what our experts have found to interest them today.

They're my mother's, but were previously my grandmother's, given to her by a titled lady

who she worked for and I understand that they were in their family for a very long time before that.

Other than that, I know nothing.

I come across a lot of things that have been given by titled ladies to people in their employ.

In most cases, what titled ladies give away are not of great value,

but in this case, I think your relative was given quite a nice little present.

A descriptive term for these two objects would be tazzas or comports.

If you prefer more plain English, footed fruit stands, as they went on the Victorian dining-room table

and they would be festooned with all different types of fruit.

Today, we are fascinated with dolphins and the Victorians had the same fascination.

If you think you've seen something like that before, if you walk along the Embankment here in London,

you'll see lampposts with twin dolphins supporting them.

Date-wise, this one has everything I need to know under there.

There are lots of marks to go for. The important one is Minton.

This propeller-like device is the year symbol for 1861.

Ten years later, Minton added an "s". Consequently, anything that's marked "Mintons",

is after 1871.

So here we are in the middle of what you might call the height of Victoriana.

Majolica, very, very popular, these glazes.

Nothing to do with maiolica that came out of Renaissance Italy

in the 15th century. These are lead-glazed. They're not tin-glazed

as the Renaissance examples, but do you like these objects?

-I do, but my mother who owns them doesn't.

-She doesn't?

-No.

I'm tempted to whisper the valuation to you in case she's watching!

If I was to insure these today,

-it would be for the princely sum of £4,000.

-Really?

-I don't mince words

when I'm talking money!

-They would find a lot of favour, if not on this side of the Atlantic, then the other.

-Oh, my goodness!

They belonged to my great-grandmother and she was a very stylish and elegant lady.

She grew up in Paris and it came through my grandmother to me.

The finest Art Deco jewellery came from Paris and this is Art Deco.

It's a word that's over-used in the jewellery world. Anything with an angular style is called Art Deco.

Very often it misses the point and it's much later than people think.

This is a very exciting discovery because of the beauty of the design

and the materials which were great favourites - black onyx and coral,

and heightened with diamond work in the form

of neo-Egyptian feathered sceptres or something like that.

The top makers for these sorts of jewels are Cartier, Boucheron and Fouquet.

We don't know who has made this example,

but I think I can see on the tongue that there is a mark where we'd expect to find it.

It is a maker's mark. It reads "DL".

That doesn't correspond with any great retailer's initials.

That's not surprising because they did use outworkers at the time

and the absence of an impressed signature for a jewel is not worrying.

With a bit of research, and in this museum such research should go on,

-it may be possible to fix a name on it. Did you know it was a very valuable object?

-No.

It's almost sad to hear that! Because it's coral and black onyx

which are worthless materials and the diamonds are not enormous,

but it's the style that people really search for.

It's like an Odeon cinema, a Chrysler building

that you can wear on your wrist and anybody with any sensitivity to beauty would want that very much,

so it would smoke them out to the degree of £5,000.

-Worth every penny, but not the point at all.

-No.

-It's great for you, very beautiful.

-It's exciting when something like this comes in.

-It could be anything.

I think that's fine, actually. It gives us a very good indication.

It appears to be painted on linoleum.

Or very... Or some sort of plasticky substance, isn't it?

-Not seen one of those?

-I've never seen one.

And this is yours? This lovely lady?

-This is Mummy's.

-Mummy's?

Has she got a name?

-Matilda.

-Matilda? What a lovely name! Isn't she a lovely girl?

A lovely smiling face and she's made in Austria.

She's been living in Australia for about the past 50 years.

-That's why she's called Matilda.

-Waltzing Matilda?

-I understand why. She's very, very beautiful.

-She's very sentimental.

Made about 1895, 1900.

And now made - pieces like this

are getting very collectable - by a firm that's called Amphora.

-Have you got any idea of the value?

-No idea whatsoever.

It's my grandmother's bust.

Would you be surprised at a value of £1,000 to £1,200?

For Matilda?

-She'll waltz...

-She'll waltz home with me now!

-She's very beautiful.

I got it at a boot sale about a year ago in Highgate.

I was just looking around. I saw this and I thought it was beautiful.

-It is beautiful. Did you give a lot for it?

-I paid £1.50.

It's a muffin dish. That's its function.

It's designed by CR Ashby who is a very well-known designer

who was one of the most important figures of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Their philosophy was hand-making things and you see this hammered effect.

You can't reproduce that on a machine. You have to do that with a hammer and go all the way round.

It's silver-plated and this particular one has an amethyst.

Sometimes they have a green stone, but they always have these scrolls.

-Have you ever given a thought as to what it might be worth?

-I honestly have no clue.

For £1.50, you've done pretty well

-because I estimate the value of this at somewhere between £800 and £1,000.

-Wow!

In about 1952,

I went to a little old antiques shop in Holborn.

It had a few Japanese things and people hated the Japanese, so everything was cheap.

I found this lovely comb and bought that, then did nothing much until I went back to Japan in about '58.

I started collecting very seriously in the mid '70s

through maybe to the mid '90s when I left Japan.

-Shall we start with this one which intrigues me? I believe it is a marriage...

-It is a wedding one.

It is worn on the front of the head and it is coral with silver and gold.

-It has turtle...

-Longevity.

-Cherry blossom and pine

which are good luck and longevity.

-That is splendid. Did you get that in Japan?

-Yes, everything except that comb.

I've seen a good many papier-mache trays and I'm criticised for saying, "This is the best I've ever seen,"

but it is as good as I've ever seen.

It's a lovely early example and is rare as it's in perfect condition.

This material is very fragile and it's immaculate.

It's got the original decoration in the centre.

It's never been used as a tray, so it has its original decoration

with these little raised figures and they've never been rubbed at all.

I've just found hanging at the back two little hooks.

-It always hung on a wall in my parents' house. There it is.

-Excellent.

Well, well, well! I say, what a lovely room! That's marvellous.

-I have to ask you. Do you have it separately valued?

-No, I don't.

Today it would cost about £3,500.

-Would it really?

-So make sure the wire is very strong, won't you?

-Yes.

This is a comb by Mitsukoshi, the most famous... the Harrods of Japan.

It's gold and silver and pearls on tortoiseshell.

-That was very expensive.

-Even when you bought it?

Even when I bought it,

but in the very late '20s to mid '30s, it would have been expensive.

-So that is one of your modern, most expensive ones.

-That is the most modern one.

-I love these.

-Kanoko.

-I didn't know how to pronounce it.

This is the finest tie-dye you've ever seen anywhere.

-This is the most incredible work.

-Yes.

This is worn tied around at the back. Then they wore the hairpins here and the comb in the front.

Speedy rider, isn't he?

A toy, obviously. Made in tin plate,

probably in the late '20s and this is based on a German manufactured toy called Lehmann.

The toy was a Halloh tin plate toy.

But who made this one? It's got no marks on it.

-What do you know?

-It was bought at an auction in Brussels.

They didn't give a make for it.

It's in fine condition, but it's a Japanese copy of a German toy.

-What makes you think it's Japanese?

-The style of the face and the hair.

You would never see that in a European manufacturer.

And this extraordinary spray paint. You'd never see that in a German manufacturer

which makes it much rarer than the German one. How much did you pay for it?

-I think about £600.

-To a collector, this is exquisite, extraordinary rarity.

-A Japanese manufacturer made it and today it's probably worth about £4,000 or £5,000.

-Ooh!

This is for a very old lady. Most of her hair has gone, so she only needs a very small one.

Probably I'll have to use it.

Oh, my goodness! The interesting thing to me about your collection

and I could go on looking at all these things... The more you look at it, the more detail you see.

-What I love about it is it spans from here which is 200 to 300 years ago...

-300, yeah.

..almost to the present day and it is a history... It really is domestic history of Japan.

That is what's clever and you have here alone...

We're talking about this as not more than £100 for the pair.

So they're not of great value. This certainly would be more.

But if you add it all up, you have got several thousand pounds' worth of ornamental hairpins.

-I've hardly space to display them.

-You'll have to buy another house!

-Yes.

-Thank you

-for bringing them in.

-My pleasure.

His name is Jabez Hughes, the photographer to Queen Victoria

and he photographed her when she went to Osborne.

When I took the picture out of the frame, I found some scraps of loose paper talking about the Crimean War.

-I think that's 1854.

-Cornelius Jabez Hughes then went on to write

a very useful book called The Principles And Practice Of Photography in 1859

which went to 14 editions, so he was a man who was much respected in photography.

-You'll have to get a copy.

-I will.

Here we have a portrait of him about the time he wrote the book.

-The case is from Scotland. Was he living there?

-Yes, he had a practice

-in Buchanan Street in Glasgow for five years.

-The next year, in 1860,

he went to Ryde to set up his studio at Regina Studios.

This is an absolutely delightful letter

written on Osborne paper.

"The Queen wishes you to come to Osborne Cottage

"to photograph the children of the Crown Princess of Prussia."

-He's picked up a lot of mementos. Do you have any particular favourite?

-The ballet shoes

of Princess Alice. I think they're Princess Alice's ballet shoes.

Yes, scored on the bottom to stop her slipping. A lovely little touch.

1st of May, 1864. They're very sweet.

The piece of carpet is an extraordinary thing.

Apparently, it's an off-cut from the carpet of the bridal suite of the Prince of Wales, Edward VII.

This was cut off at some point by Hughes on the quiet.

It's a piece of Brussels carpet and what's really nice is this orange blossom on it.

Prince Albert gave Victoria a nice brooch of orange blossom made in precious jewels.

Brides very often wore orange blossom in their headdresses.

The significance of orange blossom on the carpet is lovely.

The colours are still as they were. You've kept them out of sunlight.

These things are terribly difficult to value because individually they're not of enormous value.

A little pair of ballet shoes worn by a Royal princess,

one's talking of probably no more than £50, £60, I suppose.

Put the whole lot together, maybe £1,000, £1,500.

So a really lovely lot. Thank you so much for bringing it along.

It came from Spain. It actually belonged to my mother

who in about 1930 or 1931

went down to Spain

and I'm sure was given that with the understanding that it was used

-to frighten poachers in orange orchards.

-It would be ideal for that.

Blunderbusses are close-range, anti-personnel weapons, normally loaded

with a big handful of lead pellets and this could only have come from Spain.

The lock is a flint lock and it's very distinctive to the Iberian Peninsula. It's a Miquelet lock.

The main spring is on the outside of the lock plate, not the inside.

And the top jaw of the cock which holds the flint has this lovely oval ring in it.

That meant you didn't have to have a screwdriver and you could just stick the ramrod through it.

If we go down towards the back end of the gun, to the butt, that again is a very distinctive Spanish shape,

a Madrid style of butt. And then on the top of the barrel, there is a little inscription

in Spanish. My Spanish isn't good.

It says something like, "Soy defensora de mi dueno,"

which I think means, "I will defend my owner."

Often with English blunderbusses you get, "Happy is he that escapes my breath."

-That is a Spanish equivalent.

-What is that?

That is what is known as a belt hook

and if you were perhaps on horseback with a broad leather belt, you would drop it into there

-and it would sit quite nicely as...

-Pulled you off your horse!

-A lot of Spanish firearms have those hooks.

They're very distinctive. It's in good condition,

just slightly dirty. It could do with a very gentle clean to take the dirt off it,

but it's a very nice original, completely untouched.

An early 19th century piece like this in very good condition

with all the romance of the Iberian Peninsula, made about the time

of the Napoleonic Wars, is going to make between £1,500 and £2,000.

That's very good. That's worth several crates of oranges!

I inherited it when my mother died last year. She was given it for looking after an elderly neighbour.

It's beautiful. It's signed by the artist,

William Barlow. He's not a painter known to me, I must admit,

but he's obviously a professionally trained artist, presumably in the Potteries, in Stoke-on-Trent.

It's got the skill of a china painter and the flowers are exquisitely done.

I love these petals wriggling off like that. They're tremendous.

As such, in its original frame, of about 1830,

I think the painting has a fair value.

I suppose this will be something like £1,000.

-Gosh!

-So a very nice gift.

-It certainly was.

Every picture tells a story. There is a story attached to this one.

Not so much as regards the subject of the painting

which, as we can see, is cupids playing or disporting, as they might have said in old catalogues.

What kind of painting is that? That very pale, colourless...?

It's what's called a grisaille, a French word which means painting in these grey and white tones.

It was popular in the 18th century, particularly for decorative use. It might have been painted

to fit in a panel of a room, on a staircase, over a door.

-What is the story about this painting?

-There is another version

of this painting in the museum which you found.

I came one day to look at the Jones exhibition which is part of the V&A.

In about the third room, I saw it hanging on the wall.

I thought, "That's extraordinary. I've got that painting."

It is a coincidence, though it does happen in art history that there are second versions, copies.

It keeps art historians occupied and the V&A picture is attributed to a French 18th century artist, Sauvage.

It's not signed, nor is this one, so we can't be sure that either picture is by Sauvage.

What I feel is that looking at the technique of this and the canvas and the quality of it,

it is probably a later copy, maybe done at the end of the 18th century.

Sauvage was early 18th century.

Are they worth identical money?

I think as this is a later version, it is probably worth less than the one in the Jones collection.

-Can you tell me where you acquired this?

-We bought it at a sale in the mid 1960s.

-Do you remember what you paid?

-We paid £120 for it.

-I think you did well.

-Now, in a sale, you'd get £2,000 to £3,000 for it.

-I wouldn't sell it, but thank you.

Thank you for bringing it.

The most important feature here is that particular scroll,

first drawn by a man called George Smith in a book published in the early 1800s.

He published another in 1826 with an acanthus leaf

like that, so the combination of those two gives us a date for the table of 1826 to 1830.

It's got this lovely rosewood in such good condition, nice and untouched.

These wonderful scrolls come down here, all complementing that date.

-Is it a family table?

-Yes.

-It has the feel of it.

I remember as a small child sitting round the table at Christmas playing cards.

Wonderful. It's a tilt-top table. The type is known as a loo table

because it was invented for playing the card game of loo,

but it became synonymous with any large round table.

I'm going to lower this down and you've got these marvellous panels

of inlaid marquetry brass.

This was a feature which began in the 18th century and then was revived after 1815 in London.

This has been stripped down which is a great shame. What happened?

-They had a fire in the house before I got it. It didn't get burnt, but...

-Smoke damage,

smoke damage. Yes, that is a shame

because the base is in virtually untouched condition.

Stripping it off like that is a pity,

but nevertheless, it is still a most interesting table and quite a valuable table.

-A table like this would cost you about £15,000 to replace.

-Would it?

Yes, it does look nice when you see it down, looking at it like this. Hmm.

What is this dreadful electric thing doing sticking out of your vase?

Well, I bought this at Nairobi

-at an antiques sale.

-Uh-huh.

Well, I won't tell you what I paid for it,

but I thought it was a lovely vase

and, er, then...

when I came to...live in London

in 1983,

I brought it with me.

I thought it would make a nice lamp, so I took it to a lamp place

and they put this on and a lovely big shade and it makes a lovely lamp for my drawing room.

Sitting here next to it, it should be Chinese. It really does look Chinese.

-But it's not.

-No, it isn't.

I thought it was Persian when I first bought it.

I can understand that from these designs. You've got patterns,

a pattern called Kashmir pattern influenced from the Middle East,

but the clue to the origin are all these chips at the bottom. Underneath it is what we call delft.

It is fake Chinese porcelain and on the bottom should be the clue to who produced it.

It's heavy, isn't it?

What a weight!

There's the mark. It's upside down. "VE" or "LVE".

That's the mark of Lambertus van Eenhoorn, one of the great Dutch potters,

the monogram there telling proudly that this isn't Chinese,

but a Dutch copy of the Chinese porcelain

that was precious in the homes. We're going back to around 1700, 1710.

Chinese vases were in the big palaces and were worth a lot of money, so they wanted imitations

that looked as good, but were a bit cheaper.

It does look Chinese. These antiques are unusual on delft.

And it wasn't Persian

-because there are figures, faces on it.

-This is a little angel's head.

That's a lovely European touch.

They've taken a Chinese shape. These are pure Chinese, but that isn't.

A little winged cherub's head. He's a little Dutch boy. Goodness knows what these creatures are!

-Some horned devil or dragon. There's a lot of work in there. It's beautifully painted.

-Yes, it is.

The Eenhoorn family produced some of the best Dutch delft.

This would have been for a palace, probably a pair, either side of a great fireplace.

-Today it's probably worth £2,500 to £3,000.

-Really?

I thought it might be that much.

Tell me about this rather nice pair of candlesticks you've brought in.

My husband's brother bought them in Oxford,

somewhere around 45 years ago or longer because I've been married for 45 years.

He bought them for £75 each.

That sounds like a good investment.

How many of them were there?

There were four. He gave us a pair for a wedding present and kept a pair for himself.

They're a very nice pair of Georgian candlesticks, called the six-shell design for obvious reasons.

They were made in 1750. That's the date letter "P" for 1750.

Leopard's head for London, lion for sterling, maker's mark of John Cafe.

-John Cafe?

-Cafe. C-A-F-E. He was a very prolific candlestick maker.

He doesn't seem to have made anything else much.

-He made rather beautiful ones.

-He had a lot of practice.

They've got very nice original coats of arms in this rococo cartouche of the period.

And all the matching nozzles that go with them...

..one of which I think has a mark on. Anyway, a jolly nice pair.

A pair of candlesticks like this should be insured for about £3,500.

As a set of four, they'd be worth considerably more than twice two.

Probably £8,000-£9,000 for a set of four.

What can you tell me about your salon suite?

-Is that what it is?

-Yes.

-We bought it a year ago in Suffolk,

-so it hasn't been in the family.

-It's very new to us. We don't know much about it, except we think it's French Art Nouveau.

-OK.

You're on the right track because the wood in question is pear wood.

The great thing about Art Nouveau design is that it tends to use organic forms.

Look at the way this top rail gives almost a whiplash effect.

Then look at this. The cabinet maker has actually contorted that arm rest

because the inspiration here is obviously organic.

Look at the way that this foot runs down there.

It's almost like it's growing out of the floor.

Then these little details of trailing ivy.

When it comes to the designer, tricky.

You're right to say it's Art Nouveau, but I should point out

that there are lots of different interpretations of Art Nouveau. In France,

there were two schools - the Paris School and the Nancy School. I think this is the Nancy School

because if there was a name to say it's in the style of, it would be Louis Majorelle.

It's got a Majorelle feel to it.

Where it really falls apart is in the quality of the carving.

It's not quite up to Monsieur Majorelle's standard.

I need to ask you a question. Have you had it upholstered yourselves?

No, it was like that when we bought it and I assumed that it had been re-upholstered totally wrongly.

You're correct in your assumption.

It's an interesting Regency stripe. It's nice, it's relatively tasteful,

had it been put on a chair that dated from 1800

-and not 1900.

-Wrong for this.

-I'm afraid it's totally wrong. You'll have a lot of fun putting it right.

If I was to go out and buy this today, I would expect to pay around £2,500.

-I hope that comes within the parameters of acceptability.

-Yes.

Since you only bought it a year ago!

Well, there are 12 dishes.

About six of these,

two sort of cake stands on pillars

and an enormous 18-inch sort of fruit tureen, I suppose.

This is wonderful. It's John Ridgway, potter to Queen Victoria.

This was made probably for the 1851 Exhibition.

-The quality of the painting is superb. Each piece has a different composition.

-No two are the same.

The common denominator is the pattern number. We have no factory mark,

but we've got a fractional pattern number.

-They all have the same number?

-Yes, that is the Ridgway pattern number for that.

It would've been a very expensive service,

-£20, £30, something like that, but today...

-In those days.

-What would it be today?

-I have no idea.

Each plate is going to be worth £200 or £300. Nearer £300, actually.

The dishes, we're talking about £400, the comports £500.

We've mentioned a big centre piece. We're into several thousand pounds.

Probably £10,000. It's absolutely tremendous.

In the 1930s, there were attempts made to say, "Let's get modern design into tableware."

One or two manufacturers said, "Well, let's go to modern artists.

"He or she must know about design, so they can design tableware."

This design was by Duncan Grant, the Bloomsbury artist, friend of Vanessa Bell.

In a sense, it's confusing because it's Bizarre Ware by Clarice Cliff.

This tureen is about £150, £200. I don't think it works. You do?

-Yes.

-It's all about taste.

-Thanks.

This belonged to my great-aunt who's been dead some 30 years now.

And she said it was a tea caddy.

Boulle, I think. Brass and tortoiseshell.

And I don't know its earlier history.

I think she may have been given it possibly at a time when it was completely out of fashion.

It's no use for keeping tea in as the metal lining has corroded.

It's interesting you say that these things go in and out of fashion. Boullework did just that.

It first appeared in France and is named after the original designer of this decorative work,

Andre Charles Boulle, in the 17th century, and it's been through various phases of fashion.

-This is from around 1840.

-Can you tell from the pattern, the design?

A combination of both. The size of the tea caddy, if it was 18th century, would be much smaller.

Later on in the 19th century, they tended to be larger than this, too.

It's in excellent condition and something of this quality of this sort of date

-would fetch something in the region of £1,500 to £2,000.

-Gracious!

I had no idea it was worth that.

My mother was fond of antiques, right back from the war years when people were burning things

and she just loved them and learned a lot about them.

I can always remember her having this stool as her dressing table stool, so I remember her...

Where it came from, you have no idea?

I imagine either an antiques shop or an auction sale. She loved auction sales.

-Well, she had a good eye.

-She did.

Now...its date is 1775.

-Good Lord! Really?

-Yeah. And it's not difficult to tell

because certain features came into fashionable furniture quickly and went out again and evolved.

It's that extraordinary shape, great, elegant shape,

taken off of the ancient, classic decorations and artefacts

that we discovered in the 1750s and '60s. This is an astragal moulding

with two flat planes on each side of the half circle. It makes the difference.

It finishes like the braid on a coat or a chair trim.

That makes it special. Then at each corner, you have a tapered leg and this curious collar.

If you designed a leg today, you wouldn't put that on, but it works. It's taken from an ancient design.

So you have a stool which is very fashionable. This period of furniture is much in demand.

It has a wonderful colour, but it has these curious "C" scrolls put together

which create a handle. Most of these stools just had a hole in that you put your hand through to lift it.

Let's have a look underneath.

Absolutely wonderful.

See how the colour here is created by people just holding it like this, like a polish of its own.

That's a sort of patina you can't fake.

These are the original wooden fillets which cover the peg holes which join this.

-It almost looks organic.

-Doesn't it?

Then this has a dry surface to it, typical of what you'd expect to see,

plus these pine blocks - this is all mahogany - in the corner.

1775, little saddle stool, but if you wanted to buy this again,

it would cost you about £4,000.

-No?

-Yes, yes.

-Golly! I know it's nice.

-You know it's nice, but now you know why, I hope!

-It's got all those special features.

-You can take it anywhere.

-I'd love to. Can I?

-Please don't!

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-How old do you think it is?

-I don't know at all.

-Would it surprise you to find out it was 100 years old?

-Very much so.

If we divided it from the necklace, would it surprise you to know

that these faience beads are 4,000 years old?

They were used to decorate Egyptian mummies.

They would be stitched onto the linen bands in which the mummy was wrapped.

They must have been found in the 19th century and mounted up in gold.

They're threaded onto loop-in-loop chainwork, decorated with filigree,

and it makes a fantastically modern, yet ancient object.

-Where is it from?

-It's a 19th century English necklace in the archaeological taste

and very fashionable with the Victorians who loved everything old.

-If you didn't know that it was old, that it was seriously old, you don't know what it's worth?

-Not at all.

Well, £1,500 to £2,000.

Great. Wonderful.

There are many wonderful mirrors that I can try this looking-glass writing out on.

This is Lewis Carroll, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He has written it in French.

The only words I can read clearly are "pour l'ete" - "for the summer",

so I don't know what he was writing about. This is to Miss EM Miller. Who was she?

Miss Miller was a first cousin of my grandmother.

When the correspondence started, she appears to have been in her teens,

but most of these letters and so on date from the 1890s when she was in her 20s.

That's unusual because he was not known for writing to older ladies.

He liked to write to younger ladies.

You have a wonderful collection.

Lovely books, signed copies. Not first editions, but they are signed

by the author. You have wonderful mathematical equations

all sent to Miss Edith Miller of Eastbourne.

This letter here is extraordinary.

This is another game or the answers to one of his equations.

Four pages of it. It's absolutely staggering!

There, "Your ever loving friend, CLD." Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

And I've hardly ever seen this particular title, A Tangled Tale by Lewis Carroll.

That one doesn't come up often.

Again beautifully inscribed from the author. It is amazing.

-You've got how many letters?

-About 13 letters.

And you've got one, two, three, four, five, six of his own books, one of one other.

And you've also got this "in memoriam" card for Lutwidge Dodgson

who "fell asleep January 14, 1898".

-Do you have these insured?

-No.

-Any idea of their value?

-No.

-It is a remarkable collection. A four-page letter by Lewis Carroll

would nowadays make somewhere in the region of £3,000.

A single card like this possibly £1,500, £2,000.

A signed book, not a first edition, would make the best part of £1,000. And you've got 13 letters,

-these six books and another signed by him. We're talking about £50,000.

-Good heavens!

And to find it here right in the centre of London is delightful!

I hope you've enjoyed our visit to the Victoria And Albert Museum. You could browse here for a week.

In fact, I think I will! Until next time, goodbye.

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