Sherborne 2 Antiques Roadshow

As promised, we return to Sherborne in Dorset

for a second helping of the delights laid before us last time.

We might have anticipated such riches from a town with a history

and tradition of antique shops.

The museum is home to this splendid Victorian doll's house.

It's furnished in the style of the 1830s and '40s, though the dolls are thought to be a little earlier.

It once featured in a sister programme of ours called

The Antiques Inspectors - does that ring a bell?

I can't hear a word I'm saying now, so I hope this makes sense.

That is the world's heaviest peal of eight bells.

They average a ton apiece and they hang out here at Sherborne Abbey.

The abbey was consecrated nearly 1,300 years ago.

Beneath the oldest fan-vaulted ceiling in England, there's a beautiful medieval church interior,

that was the final resting place of two Saxon kings - Ethelbald and Ethelbert.

There can't be many places with two famous Ethels!

From Norman times until the Reformation, the abbey was a Benedictine monastery,

and part of that great building is now the heart of Sherborne School.

St Benedict's life was saved by a raven who took the poisoned loaf.

Oddly enough the collective term for that species is "an unkindness of".

There was a famous raven here at the school in the early 1900s,

who was kept as a pet by the boys,

and he used to destroy hymn books and dive-bomb the headmaster's dog!

Let's find out what more treasures the magpies of Sherborne have got.

A lovely "automaton" picture, it's called.

And we have lots of movement on it. The train going along the back,

the windmill with the turning sails, and the water wheel down here.

The essence of this really is amusement and fun.

Does it amuse you and give you fun?

It does. And the children who come to my house are fascinated by it.

I'm sure they're enchanted.

Well, now, let's just have a look at this in detail.

Um, there's the - at the back here,

there's a lovely painted background of a castle and a romantic view.

The buildings, and so on, are made out of papier-mache and cardboard that has then been painted.

-If I open this - how's your hand, holding this?

-OK.

-If I open this up,

I can see there's a maker's mark -

H Marc. Henri Marc of Paris, who was the maker of the clock movement.

-And I know that he was working in Paris from 1800.

-Mm.

Er, there's a nice little musical box down here,

which is a cylinder musical box.

That's quite a lot later in date.

So I think I'm going to put the lid down and we can talk about date and other points.

The frame is in original condition.

If we look at the bottom of the frame down here,

-it's got a lovely sort of distressed look to it.

-Yes, it has.

And I mean that in a positive way. So many owners would say...

"It's beginning to look tatty, let's get it re-gilded" or whatever.

You've held back - thank goodness.

And what we have is a lovely plaster-gilt frame in good, original condition.

-So congratulations on not having it restored.

-Thank you.

-As far as the working mechanism is concerned, these are notoriously temperamental.

-Temperamental, yes.

It's not surprising when we consider the date, which I'd put at 1860.

And I'm basing that, um, on the style of the musical box,

-which was popular in the 1860s-70s.

-Yes.

-So that's where the date...

That's right, because my mother and aunt played with it

-and my mother was born in 1891, so it's about...

-Oh, good...

-so this is a family piece.

-Yes, I inherited it when they died.

-And did you play with it as a child, too?

-Yes, mm, loved it.

It is a valuable piece. They're popular with collectors,

not really in England, but in Europe and the States - they love these.

So I would have said a value of around £4,000 to, perhaps, £5,000.

-And, please, keep it as it is.

-Oh, yes...

-Don't be tempted...

-I won't.

..to restore it because it is in truly good, original condition,

-and it's just how it ought to be...

-Yes.

-..being 140-odd years old.

-How long have you been interested in blue and white?

-I suppose the last 40 years.

-Yes.

-40 years.

-Yes, this is a cider mug.

-Yes.

-It's great. Cider is, they say -

the great experts say - cider is better from a pottery vessel.

-So they say.

-You drink a lot of cider?

-Yes, I like my little tipple.

Oh, jolly nice Staffordshire. Now this is not a cider pot,

it's a little cream boat or milk boat,

and transfer printed with a pattern called "fisherman and cormorant".

-It looks like the Caughley factory, common in Caughley, Shropshire.

-Yes.

-This one is a Worcester one.

-Is it?

-At one time this was thought to be the Caughley factory.

-Yeah.

But I found it in great numbers on the Worcester site, so it's a disguised numeral mark,

but Worcester through and through.

-Yeah.

-The handle's been damaged here - have you re-stuck...?

-No, this is how we've always known it.

-It's been repaired here.

-It's changing its colour.

-I see.

-So the white is a yellowish colour there, from the repair.

-Yeah.

So the value wouldn't be very great. I mean, perfect we're looking at...

-quite a lot of money for a Worcester cream boat.

-Yeah.

-But with the repair, and damage, it's around about £100.

-Yeah.

-Which is reasonable...

-For that.

..for a piece of 18th-century blue and white.

I think it's lovely, but this is the... This, to me, is the...

-is the super pot - I love it. It's decorated in the Chinese style or the chinoiserie style...

-Right.

-..with funny little Chinamen doing all sorts of things around it. Right. And masks on the side.

-Yes.

Which looks like a piece of porcelain, but it isn't.

One realises instantly, when you see this chip here which shows

the earthenware body underneath, that it's actually pearlware,

and made somewhere around about the 1780s - 1785 perhaps.

In fact, not far removed from the date of the little cream jug, but totally different.

This is porcelain, this is pearlware, earthenware.

And the problem is to know quite where it was made.

-The shape of this is very like a piece of Bristol delftware.

-Delftware, yes.

-There's a pot in the Bristol Museum which is Bristol delft.

-Yes.

-Which has got very similar masks on the side, and also decorated in this Chinese-like style.

-Yes.

-It looks almost brand new.

-Yeah.

-Lovely. How long have you had it?

Oh, it's just been handed down through the family. A good few years I can remember it, anyway.

-Yes, where were the family from?

-Um, Somerset.

-Somerset.

-Somerset.

-Yes, so that's likely that it comes down from Bristol down to the family there.

-Yes, yes.

-And passed on down the generations to you.

-That's right.

-1785 is a long time to be in one family.

-Yes.

-It's absolutely beautiful. It's such an important piece

-that you ought to insure it for £1,500.

-Really? As much as that?

-I love it very much.

-Lovely.

-Thanks for bringing it in.

-Thank you.

This is a standard World War II Japanese officer's sword,

but I want to take this peg out...

..and have a look at the tang of the sword.

-Now this is good news.

-Right.

-You see these three holes?

-Yes.

Now this signifies that it's been mounted possibly two to three times,

-so that suggests that the blade is very old.

-Right.

-Could be 2-300 years old.

-As old as that?

-Oh, yes. In World War II mount, so I find this very exciting.

Now what you must do, you must get some white chalk,

-and go in all the crevices of this signature.

-Yes.

-And then clean it off nicely and you put it onto a copying machine - the blade.

-Yes.

And you have this sort of result.

Send it to the Metal Department, Victoria & Albert Museum.

-Yes.

-And they will send you, possibly, this man's working dates.

-Will they really?

-Yes.

So once you have his working dates, you're halfway there, you know,

to understand your sword.

-Now, supposing it was a World War II officer's sword, right?

-Right.

-So you're looking at £2-300.

-Right.

-But if this turns out to be a winner - a nice early blade...

-Yes.

-..you could be looking at £2-3,000.

-Really?

-Oh, yes.

-There you are.

-Thank you very much.

Can I ask you where you got it?

Yes, I bought it in 1961, from a well-known antique dealer at that time, called Wolsey.

-Yes, Bert or Sam Wolsey?

-Sam.

-Absolutely.

-Yes, SW Wolsey.

-Yes.

Their word on a piece of oak furniture meant total authenticity, and they were right, of course.

I'm just going to have a look at this because if we tip it back,

I mean, that is stunning.

When you see the 19th century put together, it's covered with dirt, and bruising in the wrong places.

-And here you've got this wonderful, clean patina.

-Yes.

And almost a crisp look to these edges. And yet you've got these marvellous old iron hinges,

-but it is a curious thing that the older something looks, the more you have to be careful about it.

-Yes.

-Because it's done for effect of age. Oak or any timber doesn't go dirty and bashed about like that.

-No, no.

It remains clean and sharp, and look at the colour on this, this top -

this wonderful pale goldy colour.

And then you've got this lovely moulded edge here,

which gives a date with all the features that we've mentioned -

late 16th century, sort of 1580-1600.

Well now...

..a plain box-type, totally genuine monk's bench -

-I wonder how much you paid for it?

-I haven't got the receipt, but I paid £175 for it in 1961.

-1961. We're certainly in the region today of between £10-12,000.

-Really?

-So just add a few noughts.

-That's fantastic.

Well, this is gorgeous. Have you had it a long time?

Yes, quite a long time, since I was 25, which was a long time ago.

-Well, we shan't ask how long.

-It came from, really a grandmother, great-grandmother,

-I'm not totally sure before that.

-Right.

-But I think it, it's always been in the family.

-It's...

-How old do you think it is?

-That's a very good question and it's actually 18th century.

-Oh, really.

At the front, it's all set with these old cut diamonds in the way they cut them in the 18th century.

-Yes.

-But what is the real giveaway, is the back.

-Yes.

If you look at modern jewellery, you see the stone through the setting.

Whereas, this is all set in silver with clay settings, and this really stopped being done around 1780.

-Yes, so that dates it.

-And apart from which, this is very much...

a style that was very popular - these so-called Maltese crosses

were very fashionable and probably this originally hung

on a diamond necklace composed of stones this size.

Goodness me, I wish I had that.

Yes, because I don't think this loop is original.

The setting is a little different and the technique which is a little different. It's a fabulous piece.

I've been running over what it's worth, because you've got five quite big diamonds here on the ends,

and the centre, five which I think -

probably weigh about four carats and there's extra weight in it and it's not directly related,

but you should insure this for around...

-£8,000.

-Good heavens!

-It's lovely.

-How terrifying!

Simon, you're the headmaster of Sherborne. This must be valuable.

Well, it is to us, not inherently valuable, but certainly as far as the school's history is concerned.

Because Edward VI, who you see on his throne up here,

gave to the school the means by which it could develop into what it is today.

This document dates from 1550,

and is, therefore, over 450 years old and it's absolutely as it was at the time -

with the illuminations up here,

the original silks and this wonderful wax seal at the bottom.

And what did this document commit the authors to?

It set up a structure by which there were to be 20 governors,

there was to be a headmaster appointed,

and some lands which had come from the dissolution of the monasteries

were handed over to the school and the rent helped set it up.

Did it dictate the subjects to be taught?

No, it's a practical document of the setting up of the school.

-What a wonderful document.

-It certainly is.

-He's a very handsome bear.

-He is.

-In good condition. Does he have a name?

-Bruno.

-Good, well, every bear deserves a name.

He's got a fair amount of age, but he is in fantastic condition,

so can you explain that for me?

Well, I just look after him.

-I mean, I haven't had him long - I bought him in auction.

-Did you?

-What, locally?

-Yeah. In Sherborne.

-And I give him a good clean up because he smelt.

-They do smell!

-I was told he'd come from an attic...

-Yes.

-So I cleaned him up and sat him in the sitting room.

-What did you use to clean him? You didn't wet him, did you?

-Not really.

I got a damp cloth and give him a rub because he looked a bit black.

-Doing that takes a lot of the dust out.

-It made him look shiny.

-Yes.

This mohair, which is what the plush is made of,

does have a sheen to it when it is shiny. And he really does look new.

-He's lovely, yeah.

-So where do you think he was made?

-I thought he was English.

-What made you think that?

-I don't know.

He does have that English look. You're dead right - well done, you.

I fell in love with him.

-The maker of this bear, which is almost certainly Farnell...

-Farnell.

..Is not so widely known, but you can see by looking at him that the quality is as good as German bears.

-Good.

-And perhaps what is little known, and it's Farnell's great claim to fame,

is that Winnie the Pooh is a Farnell bear.

-Is he? Oh.

-He is, from this period. This bear is dating from the 1920s.

Now is the question - putting you on the spot - what did you pay for him?

I paid £210 plus commission.

-So that came up to, 250-ish?

-Something like that, yes.

-You had a very good buy.

-Did I?

-I think you did.

-In the right auction today, you'd be looking at between £700 and £900.

-Really? But I would never sell him.

This is part of the R100 airship,

which...my grandfather was a member of the crew.

-Really?

-Yes, yes.

-So he flew on this?

-Yeah, he flew on this, yeah,

from Bedford across to Canada and back again in 1930.

-So this is part of the structure of that airship?

-Yes.

-Incredibly light, isn't it?

-Yes.

-There were Meccano-like extensions that made up the frame?

-Yes.

After the accident of the R101,

they decided to dismantle the R100,

and obviously because he was a crew member and he was taking part in dismantling it, he kept a piece.

-They could have souvenirs?

-Yes.

It's a wonderful story, but there was a straight competition

between private constructors and the government-sponsored construction.

-The R101 was the government airship.

-Yes.

-The R100 was built by Vickers, but designed by Barnes Wallis -

-of the bouncing bomb fame.

-Yes.

-One of the people who worked with him was the novelist Nevil Shute.

-Yes.

Who was at that point Nevil Shute Norway - an engineer.

The problem was that the R100,

was so much a better ship. As you say, it flew across the Atlantic...

-Yes.

-..Perfectly safely.

-Yes.

-This was the great era when the airship

was seen to be the luxury flying conveyance of the future.

We had the German ships developing out of the Zeppelin line,

but the R100 actually cracked it - Barnes Wallis was a good designer, he got the weight ratios right.

It was correctly engineered. The R101 was a disaster from day one.

It didn't fly properly, they chose diesel engines which were too heavy.

It was unstable, so they extended it and put a new section in the middle.

And under pressure from the government, its first flight was the proving flight to India,

with the ministers and politicians on board, because the government had to prove they'd got it right.

And in October, 1930, in a storm,

it drove into a field in Beauvais, in Northern France.

Not only was it the end of the R101, but the end of airships in Britain.

-So what was he? A crew member.

-He was a rigger.

A rigger. So he would have known how to twist that to tortion the wires, he would have been adapting it.

It was very lightweight,

-but structurally strong and it had to be flexible.

-Yes.

It would bend and twist in the winds.

-Yes.

-And, of course, the gasbags were inside,

held in place by the rigid but very light framework.

-You've got this as a souvenir.

-Yes.

-You knew him when you were a child?

-I knew my grandfather, yeah, but not for many years.

-Did he talk about this?

-No, because I was young,

but my father did. He was very proud that his father flew...

-With that connection.

-And he flew across to Canada.

Yes, well that must have been an extraordinary experience.

-It was a pioneering voyage.

-Yes.

-They must have thought they were mapping out the future.

-Yes.

-You went in great comfort. It was a wonderful way to travel.

-Yes.

-It was also very dangerous.

-Yes, it was.

It's a pity because that and the later crash of the Hindenburg

brought it all to an end,

although it had potential to be an immensely popular and effective means of transport.

Now, airship memorabilia is rare, simply because nothing survived.

As a piece of airship memorabilia, I think it has a considerable value.

A piece like this...

-might be £500 to an enthusiast, maybe more.

-Crikey!

George Hodgson was my great uncle,

and he was the eldest son of William Hodgson,

who was a Nottingham lace manufacturer.

-Ah, yes, Nottingham lace.

-He was to take over the business.

He became the manager, then gave up and became a painter, so my grandfather took over the business.

There was two sides of the family,

so this is just half a collection.

I don't know what happened to the other half, but this was our half.

And George Hodgson is well-known in Nottingham.

-Yes.

-He exhibited in Nottingham Art Society. What about the museum?

He was a president of the Society Of The Artists. He exhibited twice at the Royal Academy in London.

-And what about the museum?

-They have got some at the Castle Museum.

He painted all over the British Isles. Here's these two of Chepstow,

-and then we've got another one here of Cornwall.

-Cornwall.

This is Mevagissey inscribed here.

Big, bold, strong landscapes, they're really good. I must say, I'm impressed with George Hodgson,

but he's not an artist that really I have known about before.

You've got an enormous collection here, you've got an archive.

These, a whole lot more, there's a box full, and here's another one.

Again, rather different sort of Hodgson this. This is a figurative subject

with the classical-looking girl, the tiger and the peacock.

And I particularly like this little one of Brighton - Brighton Beach.

I think that's really charming. It's very bright and crisp and clear.

How many things do you think there are here?

-Oh, on our side of the family there must be...

-200.

-200.

Although, individually, these may not be very valuable, I mean a big watercolour like that,

might be worth £1,000, and the other ones £500 to £1,000.

The little Brighton Beach about £4-500 maybe,

but cumulatively we're looking at...

10 or £20,000.

-So, a very fascinating archive. Thank you very much for bringing the whole lot along.

-Thank you.

My father was an avid collector, he was also a dealer.

When he died, I shared with my two brothers, part of the collection.

-So your brothers have more snuff boxes?

-Yes.

-Let's have a look.

This one particularly caught my eye. It's just the quality of it is absolutely wonderful.

-The wood is burr maple.

-Right.

Which is nice wood and this wonderful decoration on the top -

a carved flower within a cartouche with a banding round the edge.

Just a nice quality snuff box, probably dating, I would think, from early 19th century, 1800-1810.

-Is that English?

-Yes, that would be English, certainly, yes.

This a brass one with a figure on the front,

and it's titled "Old Q". Now, who is Old Q?

This one fascinates me. Apart from the fact, it's brass...

-Yes.

-..it's terribly finely made.

Old Q - I've always wondered who he was, and who the character is.

Looks rather Roland-ish.

-Yes, the only Old Q I can recall is the Marquess of Queensberry.

-Ah.

And he was the one whose son, Lord Alfred Douglas, had an affair with Oscar Wilde.

He sued Oscar Wilde. That's why he left the country and died in France.

But I think this is too early for him

because this dates from late 18th - early 19th century.

-Really?

-Absolutely terrific, so we don't know exactly who Old Q was,

and if you look at the costume,

-that is of the Regency period, isn't it?

-Yeah.

So perhaps early 19th century.

Is that also a snuff box?

-Yes, that would have been, yes, yes.

-It seems to me it would fall out a bit.

-Yes.

-It's a tight-fitting lid.

They were carried around or found on the table, to take after a meal.

-This is a lovely little scene of Sherborne church, called "church", now it's the abbey, isn't it?

-Yes.

But super building, wonderful. And on the other side,

I suppose the china shop from which the little pot was bought,

-Belben's of glass, china and furniture - perhaps bought from there.

-Yes.

-How does it come to you?

It came through my grandparents' family down to my parents.

-Yes.

-And then they passed on and I've now got it.

-It's left to you.

I suppose in date, 1860-1870, so 130-odd years old.

-Marvellous to see a representation of the place as it was then.

-Yes.

-So look after that, won't you?

-Yes.

-Not of enormous value. Something like £100.

-That's nice.

There's a couple more which we might look at, which are not snuff boxes.

Were they also your father's?

-No, these came from my godfather.

-Right.

-I think they represent his unusual taste.

Oh, right, I see, well, yes.

Here we have a meerschaum pipe - meerschaum is a very porous mineral

found in the Black Sea.

And pipes were made - mainly it was exported to Germany and Austria -

and they were very popular in this country.

And this one has Leda and the swan.

-Yes.

-In an amorous embrace, shall we put it that way?

-Yes.

It's got its original leather case, which is nice. Super quality, so...

yes, probably about 1880-1890.

-Been well used, not by me.

-Was your godfather a pipe smoker?

He smoked a bit. There's little room for tobacco, it wouldn't last!

No, absolutely not. Perhaps you got tired of looking at Leda!

An interesting thing is it's got a white dot.

-Oh, yes.

-Which is similar to a dot which is used by a proprietary pipemaker even today. I don't...

That particular tobacco manufacturer was going at the time this was made,

so it could well be

that it was made and retailed by a particular manufacturer in London.

-Yes, what date was that, did you say?

-Er, 1880-1890.

Well, here we have a William IV sea service pistol.

-Flintlock, but a belt pistol - see the belt clip on the side?

-Yes.

So this is to thrust into the top of their trousers or their belt.

-Right.

-And there you go, but this is the last of the flintlock types.

-Right.

-In no time at all, after William's reign,

-they started having percussion weapons.

-Right.

-So this is the last pick of flintlock weapons.

-Did they have balls?

-Oh, yes, balls straight down there and then you've got a captive ramrod,

-with which you rammed it down.

-Yeah.

-The action, there's the action,

and there's the pan where you put the powder in.

And you close the pan, it's nicely sealed, the powder won't come out.

And then, when you pull the trigger,

-away she goes, sparks go into the pan.

-And you fire.

-There you are.

-Were they dangerous?

-Oh, yes, nasty.

-Right.

-But the whole point is that this is in remarkable condition.

-Good.

-There's the Board Of Ordinance mark.

-Yeah, I wondered what that was.

Today, a pistol like this in auction would fetch something like

£1,200 - £1,250.

-Good Lord!

-It's in such lovely condition.

-Brilliant.

-I can't find any hallmarks. It comes up well with polish.

-Right.

-It might be Britannia metal.

It's definitely silver. No hallmarks indicates it's probably Continental.

-Right.

-And not English, so it was probably made in Germany or Austria,

and then I see it has another little lever here and I think I know...

-Ah, that's right, yes.

-Well, there we have it.

Well, that's very interesting because that confirms that it is a Continental cigarette case -

English women of the period would not be depicted with underarm hair.

So probably German or Austrian.

Um, under normal circumstances, that cigarette box, without the enamel,

would not be of great value. We have to talk about values, and if we go back

to this snuff box, the first one...

-In a shop you would probably pay £500, £600, £700.

-Really? As much as that?

Yes, lovely quality. The brass one with Old Q - it might add to the value if you could find out

who Old Q was, but that's a few hundred pounds.

The Meerschaum pipe with Leda and the swan,

that would probably be worth...

-£600 to £800, maybe £1,000 on a good day.

-As high as that?

And, lastly, the cigarette box,

without the enamel - that would probably be worth £10 or £20 -

with the enamel, it turns it into a cigarette box probably worth...

£1,500 - £2,000.

-I can't believe it! Fascinating.

-There are a number of collectors

-for a charming cigarette box, and a charming lady.

-I'm sure she was.

-It belongs to a friend of mine.

-Right.

-And it was inherited by her late husband in the 1940s

and I presume it had been in the family for quite a long time.

-A long time.

-That's all I know.

Be interesting to see how far back in that family... It has that look of something

-that's been in a home for a long time.

-Yes.

-An aura about it.

-Yes.

It's a cupboard with - some oval panels in the door,

a fairly shallow bow front,

and you could walk past it. It doesn't stand

and say something until you DO stop and look -

and then one starts to realise that these oval panels are in the centre of a rectangle,

which has this lovely mitred corner of veneer.

When you look at that, you realise that it's not just any veneer - this is satinwood,

which was an extremely expensive exotic veneer from the last quarter of the 18th century

when we first started to import it, but it is the most expensive sort,

which, ironically, was unstable, so a man was using this, almost in the knowledge

-that with time it would crinkle.

-Really?

-And crack.

Here he had to put a piece in. At the top

you will see these wonderful, almost as dark as a conker look to this.

Almost a chestnutty colour, and yet it's this rippling deep satinwood effect.

Deep satin effect.

Damage to the top with a watermark, but that's cosmetic.

You then come to the oval panels themselves and they are bordered and delineated with rosewood,

a thin piece of ebony and a piece of boxwood to give it a black-white line. It's repeated on there.

There's a good example that goes all the way round.

When this was new, the satinwood was bright yellow, pale yellow and dark,

then black, white and this grained satinwood forming cross-banding.

At the end of the 18th century, there were two designers of furniture in the classic style,

both Hepplewhite, George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton.

Sheraton comes to mind

because of the use of the satinwood.

You have what could be straight out of Hepplewhite's drawing book,

rather than Sheraton. The use of mahogany inside here

with two drawers,

which are 1775-1795 in period,

in shape, with a cock-bead original handle,

and then for ultimate use - you have adjustable slides,

faced up with mahogany, the back of which is pine,

absolutely traditional.

And there it is, simplicity itself, but total use.

So what, at first, looks like just a nice well-designed cabinet,

is, in fact, an exceptional piece of furniture, so goodness knows -

this was made by an important maker,

it could be someone like Ince and Mayhew - it's as good as that.

It's really quite remarkable.

If one went into a good gallery, where you'd have to go to buy such a piece as this today,

you'd have to give between

-£25,000 and £30,000.

-She'll be stunned. I hope she'll be pleased.

We have here a collection of letters by CL Dodgson,

better known as Lewis Carroll - can you tell me anything about them?

Well, only that my aunt received them as a little girl.

-Um, now Gladys Bailey - that was your aunt?

-Yes.

Right, well let's have a look.

We've got some rather nice embossed crabs, and it says here...

"Some day you'll be a great artist, and when you have a picture exhibited in London

"about 15 yards long and full of the loveliest people and hoards,

"I shall proudly say to the people,

"as they stand round it, with their eyes and their mouths wide open,

"Do you know, I knew the lady who did that picture

"when she was quite a little girl,

"and I've got some of the very first pictures that she ever did."

But if I move very quickly to this letter over here...

"I do most earnestly hope

"she will be kept from spoiling it by conceit and hunger for praise.

"A beautiful child when conceited is disagreeable to all around her".

He, at the same time while encouraging the little girl,

was cautioning the parents against the little girl becoming conceited.

Well, Lewis Carroll is an attractive figure - very, very collectable.

In auction these letters might well fetch about...

£5,000 or so. If you insure them, you've got to put that up somewhat.

-Thank you for bringing them in. I've enjoyed them.

-Thank you.

..Two, three, four, right?

-Right, yeah.

-Now those four are 18th century,

everything else is 19-20th century.

And the interesting thing - this collection's fascinating -

is three of them are all tortoiseshell.

-Veneer, very anti-whatever, I'm afraid, these days.

-Yes.

But they're either tortoiseshell or possibly under-painted horn.

This final one is plain horn,

almost like a translucent plastic, grubby plastic.

And they've used a decoration underneath, of a village scene.

What's unusual about them is

that you can imagine with contraction and expansion of metal,

they usually split, and these have survived in excellent condition.

They've been locked away for about four years.

-They haven't seen the light of day.

-They've survived well.

Me father was a blacksmith and welder and loved mechanical things.

He had big hands, and how he could play with these things in the evenings totally surprised me.

Some of the best watchmakers had hands like butchers.

It's true that very large hands tend to have a very delicate touch.

So what are we saying for these?

250, 350, 250.

-Right.

-250.

-So that's... Well, that's a grand there about.

-Really?

-Oh.

-Right.

-WG, so, Wilfred de Glen, I think. Is that right?

-Yes.

-How did you get it?

-My husband bought it for me about 10 years ago as a Christmas present and...

-He chose it for you?

-Yes, for me,

but I think he really wanted it for himself - she has pride of place in our home so...

I'm not surprised. She's lovely.

He's interesting. He's a German, but born in England,

so that makes him English, but his father was German.

-Right.

-He was born Wilfred von Glen, in about 1870,

so by the war, one could forgive him for changing his name to de Glen.

-A lot of people did at that time.

-I think it was a sensible thing to do.

I think she's got such a lovely face.

Very pretty.

She's got an Italianate hill town in the background.

-It's lovely. Did you know that he also designed stained glass?

-Yes.

That may account for that luminous quality in this picture.

Yes, yes, yes, I suppose it could.

In our dark hall, it's luminous, and I'm always caught by the light.

-It's almost back-lit, isn't it? It's almost radiant.

-Mm, yes.

It's so powerful. It does have a drawback...

It's painted quickly and thickly, and there's been some cracking in the paint.

Which has been covered up with some really quite crude overpainting.

If you hold it up in a raking light, you can see that overpainting and it's rather spoiling the picture.

It should be cleaned off. It would benefit from a clean and a re-varnish

with a matter varnish, so it wasn't so shiny.

Then you would see how beautiful it is. It'd go "ping" off the wall.

-What do you think it's worth, any ideas?

-I don't know.

-I know what my husband paid for it.

-Which was?

-£350.

-And, when, again?

About ten years, we can't be sure.

-Yes, it's probably worth about £6,000 now.

-Heavens, how wonderful.

Emerald green shagreen case containing...

..a miniature writing set.

And in incredible condition.

How - when I tell you the date, which I think -

looking at this serpentine shape,

it's really rococo in a way,

it's sort of mid-18th century.

And these are very typical mid-18th century

sort of rococo styled or influenced little tops to the pounce pot and the ink pot,

but I think it's later than that.

My feeling is it would be between about 1775-1790, that period.

-Is this a family thing?

-My mother-in-law gave it to me

and told me that it came from her mother-in-law, who was American.

-Right.

-She was a Logan.

-A Logan?

-Yes.

-Now that's a name that sounds familiar.

Yes, well, Corey might be able to tell you more...

My five times grandfather was James Logan of Philadelphia,

who was William Penn's agent, secretary, et al.

How interesting. And that would fit in with the date, wouldn't it?

-Well, he went there in 1699.

-The family were there.

-Oh, yes.

-Almost certainly this was made in London.

-Oh?

-Not American.

So let's just.. Oh, I love things like this - let's just investigate.

Here there is a little pen...

or a pen holder, I should say.

Onto it...

you can screw various nibs.

So that's a great bit of engineering, really.

Engineering and ingenuity.

And this is for ink, this is for pounce.

Um, so, yes, it's a lovely example of not only the silversmith's art,

but also of the boxmaker's art. This box is absolutely delicious.

-What is the skin, do you think?

-It's fish skin.

-Fish?

-Fish skin.

-Shagreen, it's fish skin.

-I thought it was lizard, I don't know why.

No, it's much too hard-wearing for that.

If you wanted to replace this, you'd have to pay a great deal for it.

I think this needs to be insured for £4,500.

Wonderful, thank you so much.

We've learned a lot today, but that's a tradition which goes back centuries in Sherborne.

Some famous faces have chewed on their pencils here - difficult to imagine John Le Mesurier

and Jeremy Irons in a school cap - so I won't try!

Many thanks to today's Sherbornians for letting us have our work-out in their sports centre.

From Dorset, until the next time, goodbye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd