Mount Stewart 2 Antiques Roadshow

Welcome back to County Down in Northern Ireland

for the second part of our visit to Mount Stewart,

the magnificent home of the Londonderry family, now managed by the National Trust.

Before we rejoin our experts in the Italian garden,

there are one or two intriguing things elsewhere in the grounds.

These statues are meant to represent members of the Ark Club,

a top-dog social club formed in 1915 by Edith, Lady Londonderry.

Edith played the part of Circe the Sorceress

and she gave each member an animal nickname. Stone me!

The Ark became a refuge for such people as Ramsay MacDonald, Winston Churchill, Harold Macmillan,

Nancy Astor, Sean O'Casey, the Duke of...

Another part of the grounds and another statue.

The white stag points to the family burial ground known as Tir Nan Og,

taken from an Irish legend in which a stag carried people to a place

where they remained forever young.

An enchanting example of perpetual youth is this statue of Lady Mairi,

who still lives and farms here at Mount Stewart.

It's on a fountain which marks the spot

where she was brought as a baby for her daily nap.

There are botanical delights throughout the nine formal gardens

and 97 acres of the Mount Stewart estate that are open to visitors.

Plants, trees and shrubs from every continent seem to flourish here,

earning the gardens a World Heritage site nomination.

Among the exotics - possibly the world's most northerly banana tree.

The outline of the Shamrock Garden resembles a giant ace of clubs

and here some powerful local symbols a topiary in the shape of an Irish harp

and a bed of begonias forming the Red Hand of Ulster.

Now it's time to see whether the gardeners among our experts

have scrubbed their fingernails.

-So tell me about your stove.

-Well, it's a family thing.

My mother lived with my great aunt, and her grandmother

and we don't know whether it was there then,

-but it's certainly been there in our lifetime.

-OK.

-Which is a fair number of years.

-OK.

-Have you ever seen it up and running?

-No, we haven't.

-No.

-It just sat, as an ornament, in the porch.

-Well, it IS very ornamental...

-Yes.

-Yes.

..just to look at it.

The first thing you've got to say, it's made of pottery.

It is to a certain extent copying the sort of thing that you would have expected in metal.

If this stove could speak,

-it would talk to you in a very broad Yorkshire accent.

-Oh?

-Oh?

That's very interesting.

This is the pride of Leeds.

It shouts, "I was made at Burmantofts."

Now, Burmantofts is an area of south Leeds,

and that's where you would have found the Leeds Fireclay Company,

This is a heat-resistant clay.

-Oh.

-Let's look at the construction because I think it's fantastic.

The first thing that hits you is this lovely warm, tomato-red glaze

which runs over yellow. And what's clever about it is the piercing,

because you've got this almost Japanese feel to the actual cover.

So there's a lot of, you know, man-hours gone into making it,

and then you look at the handles

which are typical Victorian naturalistic motifs with shells,

and then more of a Japanese feel about this pierced tracery

takes you down to this sort of chevron design,

and then these almost Norman arches.

So it's borrowing all sorts.

And then looking at the working parts,

-you've still got the original burner in there.

-Yes.

And I can't help but think that it wouldn't give off that much heat,

-because it originally would have taken a chimney in there, so there would be illumination.

-Right.

This would be quite magical in an evening, in an alcove or whatever,

and it would just get that glimmer of light through the tracery.

-Right.

-So it's a decorative object, it's a useful object,

-it's just classic Victoriana.

-Right.

I wouldn't be surprised, if it was estimated at auction,

-at between sort of £500 and £800.

-Gosh!

So I suppose the big question is can you get it working again?

If we have any more of those winters of discontent

we're old enough to remember those -

this is perfect to bring out.

Well, I was given it, a present from my mother over 20 years ago.

She was given it by Lord Younger's daughter as a present to her

and we wondered if it had anything to do with Mary Queen of Scots -

it says "Mary Stewart" on the back with number "2".

So my daughter has encouraged me to come today

because she's hoping to get a cruise and a new house out of this!

I don't think so, but it is very, very interesting. It may not be as old you think.

You might think this is a 16th-century jewel, but it isn't,

it's 19th-century, when the Mary Queen of Scots cult was popular.

She almost turned into a saint.

There's a man who used to carve these in Paris called Bissinger,

and it's typical of his work. Do you wear it?

-No.

-Not at all.

-Because I'm just missing two little stones from it.

Well, absolutely no trouble in doing that.

Anyway, we have a pristine piece of 19th-century jewellery

in homage to Mary Queen of Scots, and it'd be rather sought after.

It won't take us round the world, but it will take us a small way.

-Um, what shall I say? £2,000.

-Wow!

That's wonderful.

I'm famous, if not notorious,

-for hating Clarice Cliff.

-Oh!

But it's not entirely true.

Um...I think the truth of the matter is that Clarice Cliff had

a number of really amazing design ideas,

but she also produced rafts of unmitigated awfulness,

of no merit whatsoever.

But there are things that one likes,

and that work as a ceramic object, and this is one of them.

-Good.

-You knew it was Clarice Cliff

because we've got the standard mark -

-"Bizarre by Clarice Cliff..."

-Yes.

-"Fantasque" - which is the range.

One has to be extremely careful

-because there are a lot of duds of these coming on the market.

-Right.

And some are very deceptive. How long have you had this one?

Well, I know that it was a wedding present to my mother and father,

before their wedding, and they were married in 1939.

Right. So this was about 1938.

Yes. And I think at the time, it was regarded as one of the lesser presents given to her, perhaps,

by a friend who was in the Guides with her, or something like that.

It may even not have been new when she got it.

I'm not sure about the date...

-'20s, '30s is certainly when it dates from.

-Yes.

This is a pattern called "Secrets"

and it's a really nice object.

-It's obviously a sugar caster, you realise that?

-Sugar shaker, yes.

-Do you use it?

-It was used by my mother and father.

Now they're in an nursing home. It came out of the sideboard and everybody else said, "Ugh,"

and I always liked this as a child.

I remember it in my home and being used,

and for various reasons we haven't used it -

-sugar shakers seem to have slightly gone out of fashion.

-They have.

-I suppose it's because...

-Teeth. I've got a sister-in-law who's a dentist.

-And stomachs.

-Yes!

-Well, I wouldn't recommend using it, it's too good.

-Oh, right.

-Yes.

-To chip it would be a tragedy.

-Yes.

We're looking at around...

£800 to £1,200.

Oh, that's lovely, that really is. I'll tell my mother.

I must have had perhaps 50 or even 100 fakes

by this artist on the Roadshow, but at last, I've got a real one.

I'm talking about Birket Foster.

Here's the dreaded monogram which is imitated so frequently,

but this time it's the real thing,

and how nice it is to see how good Birket Foster can really be.

It's just a watercolour of astounding quality, isn't it?

-Everywhere you look. Is he an artist you've always liked?

-Yes.

-The detail is fantastic and I've always admired him as an artist. It's the only one I have.

-It is?

Well, it's a beauty.

Well, of course he was enormously popular in his own lifetime

and particularly admired, I suppose,

firstly for his technique

which was incredibly minute, and he must have used very small brushes.

His technique was to build up the watercolour almost in dots.

If you look closely,

it's a series of tiny little touches built up in watercolour,

and he used body colour as well to get this strength of colour,

but also to get the fantastic detail.

He was born in North Shields. He started life as wood engraver -

and worked in the engraving trade

and I think that gave him this extraordinary eye for minute detail

which he was so brilliantly good at.

And I think the other thing about Birket Foster that...

makes him so extraordinary and so special

is the image he projects of the English countryside -

-it's, of course...it's idyllic.

-Yes.

-Everything's perfect.

Perhaps it's slightly too perfect,

a sanitised view of the Victorian countryside,

but that's what the Victorians liked.

And so there's children playing,

there's this sort of rick, big hay-rick there,

the sheep look fat and healthy - there they are, all in the fold.

Everything looks perfect. The sun shines and the sky is blue

and this is England as we'd all like to think it perpetually is, and always will be.

-When did you buy the picture?

-About 15 years ago.

-I purchased it privately.

-Privately?

-Yes.

-Here in Ireland?

-Yes.

And what did you pay for it?

It cost me £10,000, yes.

Yes, well, you see, that's not surprising,

-Birket Foster certainly would have cost that sort of amount 15 years ago, but he has gone up.

-Yes.

Birket Foster's always going up, so I would say -

value now £20,000, £25,000.

-Insurance - you must think £30,000.

-Thank you very much.

So it was a wonderful buy,

and one of the nicest and finest Birket Fosters you could ever see.

Nearly every grand country house from ancient times

had one of these narwhal tusks.

It was probably brought back as a part of the spoils of the whaling fleet.

But years and years and years ago, in Tudor times,

country houses had them, for they thought they came from a unicorn.

They couldn't understand that they came from a whale. The unicorn doesn't exist,

but they thought they came from unicorns and they thought they had magical properties,

and all old country houses just had to have one of these narwhal tusks.

It's on a very smart rosewood base which dates from about 1820 or 1830

and smart gilt-wood claw feet

and it all goes together nicely. Lovely. Do you love it to bits?

Definitely, definitely.

You're shaking your head there. Anyway, no, it's a great object,

useless but decorative, with a good bit of history behind it.

If you wanted to sell it, I guess it would probably bring at auction

between £2,000 and £3,000.

Is that a lot of money?

What have you got here?

Well, my understanding is that is a potato ring in Irish silver.

I have always known of it as a potato ring and it is 100 years old.

My grandfather won it playing golf in Greenore, as you can see.

-Ah, an inscription there.

-It's got a date on it - 1903,

but I think it has a Chinese design on it, which, um...

-seems strange, I think, for an Irish silver potato ring.

-Right.

This is actually a copy of a mid-18th century example.

Now the original of this would have been about 1760-1770...

-Yes.

-..When there was a fashion for Chinese decoration.

-Now the next thing is - it's not a potato ring.

-Ah, really?

-Really.

Everybody CALLS them potato rings.

-My goodness!

-It's actually a dish ring.

-Yes.

-The term potato ring is actually one of those things

that developed in the late-Victorian period

and ever since, everybody has referred to them as potato rings.

Their original function

was actually to literally to protect the table tops.

Once you got into the age of walnut, mahogany,

putting a hot thing on top of those surfaces would damage it,

and throughout the British Isles,

-they developed this idea of little rings to protect the table.

-Yes.

Now in England, what happened was

that these fell out of fashion in the mid-18th century

and you get things known as dish crosses then.

But in Ireland, they continued to develop and became much taller.

-Yes.

-And all references to these in the 18th century are to dish rings.

There's no 18th-century reference to a potato ring.

-The dish sitting on top may have had potatoes in it.

-Right!

-It was basically whatever you wanted to go inside.

-Yes.

And that, today, is going to be worth -

-£1,000, £1,500.

-Really?

-Yes.

-Oh, I thought it might be worth a couple of hundred.

In date, around about 1815-1820

pushing towards 200 years ago. And very, very lovely.

-Have you any idea what the value is?

-I've no idea.

£1,000 - which is very nice.

I'd like to show this to John. ..Lovely piece of Wedgwood.

-Three coloured jasper, isn't it?

-Nice quality.

-Beautiful.

-Super.

-What have you got?

-Unusual thing.

Looks nothing that way, but put a light behind and it's transformed.

-Good Lord, yes.

-A lithophane. Terribly difficult things to make.

Very few factories produced them, and this one is a Belleek one.

It's nice to see a Belleek one. They did make lithophanes...

So when did you get this one?

I bought it about eight years ago, at a private auction.

And what date was it given then?

It was given here... It's a Madonna and Child.

1865 - when these were produced.

Lithophanes, of course, are very rare in early Belleek

-and do fetch considerable amounts of money. What did it cost?

-£125.

Well, that wasn't bad for an 1865 lithophane.

Should be worth more. But we have one problem.

One has the Belleek factory mark, but next to the Belleek,

there is a letter "r" in a circle. That mark came in the 1950s.

This is a reissued one. A modern version of the Victorian original.

So an early lithophane - you're talking £2,000 - would have been a great buy.

Instead you've got a modern one, worth what you paid.

But you can display it like this,

with a nice light behind. What super quality.

What a lovely Viennese wall clock.

We've got a lovely one-piece white enamel dial

with beautiful blue numerals.

Now I have to be quite honest and Mr F Dietze -

I don't know him or this town either. But the great thing is

you've got the three weights, so we know it's grande-sonnerie striking,

so it does not only the quarter,

-but at each quarter it does the preceding hour as well. Does that drive you mad?

-No, I enjoy it.

You've got a lovely steel-rodded pendulum.

It is so much better quality than the average ebonised wooden rod

that you'd get on a lesser clock.

It has six-light construction - the front glass and the sides

have a small panel on the top and then a full panel below.

I rather like these capitals...

..this serpentine moulding is nice,

and you've got some more moulding here

and a rather nice gilt brass bit of frieze around there, rather rather nice altogether.

The case is rosewood, and again you've got satinwood inlay here -

very, very nice little bit of bevelled satinwood in there

and double satinwood lines here.

It's a great quality thing.

Here you have a repeat button...

repeat knob, I should say,

and this is the noise that you'll get out of it for the whole time.

-GENTLE CHIMING

-The quarters and the hours.

Very pleasing. What did you pay for it?

-Er, £4,200.

-£4,200?

You did very well, you did very well indeed,

because I think you'd have no hesitation

to see that on a clock dealer's stand at a good fair

for anything between about £9,000 and £12,000.

-Thank you very much.

-So you've doubled your money in a year.

-Yeah, although it's a keeper.

-Oh, absolutely, you've got to keep it -

you won't find another in a hurry.

Lieutenant William Hannah

was on the ship Mars in the Battle of Trafalgar.

The captain was decapitated, and he obviously took over the ship

and this was what he got at the end of the battle.

And this was presented by the other officers and men out of respect.

-Now, the silver itself is hallmarked for 1805-1806.

-Yes.

The Battle of Trafalgar was that year. It doesn't mean to say that it was immediately presented.

It could have been a few years old,

but it was made at that time of the Battle of Trafalgar and then presented afterwards.

Because this engraving here -

-he is THEN a captain, but he was a lieutenant on the Mars.

-Yes.

Right. Well, of course, you see,

we're entering now a wonderful phase for the anniversary again

of the Battle of Trafalgar, and in 2005,

you're going to hear a lot about Nelson and his battle.

And if you were to part with it, that would be the year to do so,

-because there will be all sorts of things happening in 2005, I know this for a fact.

-Yes.

Now, as a silver tea service, without any inscriptions,

you're looking at something possibly not worth £1,000.

But because it is what it is,

then we're talking about a few thousand pounds

because Nelson and the Nelson period was magical.

-So you like them?

-I love them.

-Do you clean them?

-Never cleaned, only dusted.

-Good!

I'm all for washing porcelain, because you'd be surprised

at the condition of some of the objects that come on the Roadshow.

-Bacon and egg and custard.

-Right.

-Um, but bronzes like this...

on the whole are best left. Dusting - fine,

but otherwise you can do so much damage to them. These are Japanese

and they're absolutely typical of the late-19th century.

They're bronze, patinated

and then they've been inlaid and onlaid

in gold and silver and shibuichi

with various birds.

This is leading on...

These designs lead through to Art Nouveau.

This is where Europe got Art Nouveau from - looking at Japanese objects like this.

These were imported from Japan...

..one would say in huge quantities in the 1870s and 1880s.

Most of them were of no great merit

but some - they absolutely pushed the boat out.

-Japanese - enormously skilled at metalwork.

-Right.

Great swordsmen,

and when they did the hilts of the swords and the scabbards,

they put little bits of metal bronze, inlaid in gold and silver.

When the swords were given up in the 1870s,

those metalworkers turned to making these vases for the Western market.

We've got geese coming in here,

flying in over a stream,

grasses, chrysanthemums...

more geese on here.

On the neck, we've got a very unusual feature

which is silver against green enamel

and that's a really nice touch - unusual.

Their condition is unspoiled.

It is all too easy to ruin these. We see them coming in -

people look at that and say, "dirty".

Out with the polish and they wreck them.

I think they're really very nice.

What are that pair going to make? They're going to make around, er...

-£1,800 to £2,500.

-Oh, goodness gracious!

-Good Lord.

-It's broken on the end.

-Is it medical?

-Could be.

-What do you mean "could be"?

-Well, sort of.

OK, do you put it in your ear?

-Is it for washing out your ear?

-No.

Is it for something down round the nether regions?

No, but you're getting warmer.

-OK, tell me what it is.

-It's a breast reliever.

-A what?

A breast reliever.

Unfortunately, the box is just a bit... It's very very old.

-You've got the original box?

-Yes.

-A "reliever"? So it's for expressing milk?

-Yes.

-For pregnant ladies?

-Yes.

Fascinating dish ring, this one.

Decoration there is sort of based on early-18th century,

but we've got Dublin marks for the latter part of the 18th century.

-What's the history behind it?

-It was my aunt's. An old family...

-So it's not one you've bought?

-No.

Because what's happened here

is that somebody has actually made this -

not in the 18th century,

-but in the late 19th century...

-Right.

-..early 20th.

They've taken marks which were probably on a gravy spoon, right,

and they've set those marks in. In fact, if you look just there,

-there's the solder line.

-Ah, yes.

And just there is the other solder line.

That's where the strip of metal's been let in.

-It's an illegal piece.

-Oh, right.

It's about ten years' imprisonment for transposition of hallmarks.

-Thank you!

-Not for you.

-That's OK, it wasn't me.

It wasn't you, no, no, this was done some time ago.

But what you should do with this is send it to the Assay Office,

which could be done in London, then it can be legally sold

-and then it'll be worth £1,000, or so.

-Oh, nice.

-OK?

For an illegal object, great!

It's a Newton's celestial globe - 1860.

Now, the thing is that these globes from the 17th and 18th century

were brought up to date

when they discovered more about the world, the globe, the hemispheres,

and they repapered them.

So while this is dated 1860,

the globe inside is actually much earlier than that,

because this little globe started life round about the 1770s...

-almost 100 years earlier than the paper on here.

-Yes.

-It's one of a pair, so there would have been the terrestrial and the celestial.

-Yes.

There should be a compass under it, which is no longer there...

we're just going to check. There you are -

three little places where the three little struts went to hold the round compass in the centre.

And this base is mahogany -

it's a colour to die for, this is as good as it ever gets.

And the little spine down here and that little tiny shaped foot,

then to this spiral lobing, we call that,

little vase there... is 1770-1790 at the latest.

So this was one of a pair, treasured,

and by someone who was very interested in study, they've brought it up to date -

it's probably had five or six different papers on here, until 1860.

-I wonder where the other one is?

-I wish we knew.

-My wife bought this as a one-off.

-Did you?

-Yes.

-How much did you pay?

-£60 about 28 years ago.

-Did you really?

Today, um...a celestial

is obviously less valuable commercially than a terrestrial one

but nevertheless as a piece of furniture, an object of interest,

-today's value - £3,500 to £4,000.

-You should be proud of me!

-Not bad!

-Not bad!

-Next time we're having a party, we'll remove it from the room!

-I would indeed.

It's a very fragile thing.

..Who or what is this?

-Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars.

-Was he in Star Wars?

-Yes.

-Don't remember.

But what is more important is what Binksie is hiding.

Tell me about this.

It's for cigarettes, cigars,

and at the bottom there's a pipe holder.

-The pipe holder goes here?

-Yes.

-Cigarettes go in there?

-Yes.

-And cigars in there. Very clever.

-But you don't smoke a lot, do you?

-No.

-So how did you get it?

My nanny and papa had it years ago...

Well, kind of for a long time, cos my great-grandad got it.

-Your great-grandfather?

-Yes.

-How did he get it?

Some Jewish prisoners gave it to him

for giving them food for the children.

-So this was in the Second World War?

-Yeah.

-In one of the concentration camps?

-Yes.

-You've heard of those?

So your great-grandfather gave food to Jewish children

-in a concentration camp and they were so grateful...

-They gave him this.

-..they made that.

-And now you've got it.

-Yeah.

-How many years later is that?

-60.

-60.

That's fantastic. That is an historic piece of work

-and that's yours now.

-Yes.

"English, French, Turks and Russians. One dozen.

"William Pigit," I think. "Victoria Avenue, 1857".

That's enough to whet anyone's appetite.

1857 - Crimean War.

Look at that, absolutely superb.

I'll be quite frank with you,

I have never seen such a superb set of soldiers from that period.

Most people expect 19th-century figures to be lead...

these are, in fact, wooden figures,

although they do, obviously, have some lead elements.

Their firearms are, in fact, lead.

You've got a mixture of all the sides that were in the campaign in this box,

which is completely original, with its original packing, and to me that is absolutely incredible.

-How do you happen to have them?

-I was left them by my great-uncle.

-And I know very little else about them other than his father, grandfather maybe, had them.

-Right.

Never opened them, really.

It was one of the first wars to have correspondents on site

that relayed everything back to the masses.

People went on a tour - you could anchor offshore and watch the battle in progress.

I feel, in all honesty, that it's going to be worth between

-£1,000 and £1,500.

-Yes.

-And, frankly, it's so nice,

it wouldn't surprise me if it bettered that at auction.

This lady had this box of drawings and sketches and just basically knick-knacks,

-and I bought the box for a few punts.

-Right.

And amongst the drawings was this picture.

It's by George Weatherill.

He was an artist who is best known for his views of Whitby area,

and on the back of the watercolour we have an inscription for "Robin Hood's Bay",

which is just south of Whitby.

-I think it's a quite valuable watercolour.

-Do you?

-Worth more than the few punts you paid.

At auction - probably worth nearly £2,000 to £3,000.

-Really? Goodness, a surprise.

-So that was a wise investment.

-It was, very!

My grandmother was very interested in porcelain

and she must have read about the existence of these eggs

and wrote off and got three of them, in fact.

Two of this size and a larger one as well,

so I suppose in the 1920s, sometime, she wrote off and bought three.

Well, in 1920 it wasn't terribly old.

We know that because this is the cypher of the Empress of Russia,

Alexandra Theodorovna, the last Empress of Russia.

Easter was a terribly important part of Russian life,

more important than even Christmas is to us.

It was the greatest religious festival,

and they exchanged chickens' eggs, or perhaps wooden eggs.

As one moved up in society, they turned into porcelain, then gold.

This is a porcelain Easter egg made by the Imperial Porcelain Factory

for the last Tsarina to give as a presentation piece.

We, actually, until very recently,

thought that they were made in very large quantities and weren't terribly personal objects.

But a biography of Grand Duchess Olga tells us that actually they WERE very personal

and the Empress and the Dowager Empress would hand these out.

So we're almost certain that this is a souvenir of Alexandra, the last Tsarina of Russia

a terribly romantic object.

The Russians are coming over to England to buy back their heritage,

so you should try and value this object. And it IS valuable.

Beautifully made by the Imperial Porcelain Factory.

I think we can confidently say this would go between £800 and £1,200.

Oh, my goodness! I hadn't expected it to be as valuable as that!

Well, it was my father's.

My mother and he were married in 1927 and he actually had it at that time,

-and my mother didn't know how long he had had it. So it has been in the family for years.

-How interesting.

-You've no idea where he might have got it from?

-No.

-We know he worked in France as well as in Northern Ireland.

-Really?

That's extremely interesting that he worked in France,

because you've only got to look at this, to know immediately where it came from,

-and that is from Nancy in France.

-Right.

Nancy is one of the centres of Art Nouveau, French Art Nouveau.

And all the curves and interest in nature that you've got here

really suggest that period - around 1900,

and particularly Nancy where you find that the designers were very interested in nature,

and being inspired by plant forms.

And apart from the little pictorial scene there, you've got this spray,

a sort of asymmetrical spray of flowers and leaves

on the flat part of this little desk or table.

I like the way it's, in some ways, taken its inspiration from Japan.

And you have these tendrils which go all the way down into this little curlicue down here.

-Now, have you ever looked at this closely?

-Well, I've looked at it, but I didn't realise...

-Well, it actually says "Galle".

-Oh, right.

And Galle, of course,

was one of the masters of French Art Nouveau who lived in Nancy,

and he is known for his glass,

but also for this wonderful, inlaid furniture.

Galle had a factory which made glass, and a factory which made furniture,

and he supplied very, very high-quality furniture to big exhibitions.

But he also had quite a substantial workshop

which made commercial furniture, if you like, using this amazing inlay.

Now you've had it in your family for a long time, so I don't know if you have any idea of its value?

Not in the slightest. My mother never really liked it - we were the ones that loved it.

Mother would have parted with it, only we wouldn't let her.

I haven't the slightest idea.

It's not going to be worth as much as one of the very high-quality exhibition pieces,

but nevertheless it would be, I think, in auction around...

-£1,200 - £1,500.

-Right.

-So I'm very glad you didn't let your mother get rid of it.

-So am I!

For more about Emile Galle and his influence on French art-glass makers,

watch Inside Antiques on BBC4 immediately after this programme.

I've seen a lot of Royal Worcester, but I've never seen

a complete set of the Indian figures by Fred Gertner.

They're incredible - four of them.

-This is a spare one?

-Yes.

-How did you get them?

-They really belong to my mum,

-but I'm looking after them.

-Ah, so they're going to descend to you

and to the boys - if they're very, very good, and tidy their bedrooms -

I know what boys are like! But it's wonderful.

The modeller was Fred Gertner. It's well named on the back there -

"Gertner", and the set are Red Indians...

or should we call them Native Americans now?

Used to be Red Indians when Fred modelled these.

They're made in the 1930 period,

and they're wonderful colours of the Art-Deco period.

The reds and the blacks, wonderful colours indeed, and the modelling is splendid.

They turn up very, very rarely - in singles. They're superbly modelled

and irrespective of the value, they're wonderful.

Especially to see this Indian with his feather on the back.

I've never seen one with the feather intact, and this is perfect, isn't it?

How has that survived? You've looked after it very carefully.

Been told not to touch them!

I should think so! Don't play football around them!

But it's incredible that they have survived.

And the ladies have papooses on - little babies on their backs.

That is the Indian Chief

and these are their squaws and this is the brave. And that's the set of four.

-Have you any idea of their value?

-No. I just know they're interesting and they're Royal Worcester.

-Yes, never had them valued?

-No.

No, if a dealer bought them at auction, he'd probably have to pay,

for the set of four, irrespective of the single one,

-something like about £2,000.

-Oooh!

They would be in his shop at about £3,000 or something like that.

So I think you should insure them for £3,000, at any rate.

Oh, thank you very much.

-He hasn't been out of the bag for 40 years at least.

-In a bag?!

I haven't been keeping him, my daughter has kept him in a bag.

When she was a baby... she got it as a present

and her grandmother done a very foolish thing -

-she took the little Steiff badge out of the ear...

-Ohh.

She was scared of the baby swallowing it.

Of course, then, she didn't think about value...

-Of course not.

-She was thinking more of safety.

I've actually been to the Steiff factory in Germany where they put these buttons in,

-and it is put in with a machine and it's jolly difficult to take out.

-She had it out!

-But having said that, he's known as a teddy clown, obviously.

-Yes.

They were produced on 28th February 1926,

-they were introduced at the Leipzig Trade Fair...

-Yes.

-..as the Joker.

Now, 30,000 of them were made

and very few remain, particularly in good condition.

His pads are remarkably good, they haven't even been moth-eaten,

which so often is the case,

so your daughter must have put it in a moth-proof bag or something.

The colour is an unusual colour.

Usually, they're either pink and yellow, or red and blue,

and this is a lovely, what some people call mauve, I call purple...

-I would call it mauve.

-Right, good, mauve.

His ruff would have been the same colour,

and, for some reason, because it's different material, it's faded a bit more.

-Now, have you got any idea of his worth?

-Well, we...

-Some months ago I had an approximate valuation.

-How long ago?

-Oh, January.

-This January?

This January. Off a dealer.

-A dealer?

-Well, an antique dealer.

-He offered you some money?

-He didn't. Oh, no. He thought it was worth between £2,000 and £3,000.

-Did he?

-Yes.

And he didn't offer you that?

No. He wanted to take it to London and have a valuation done there

and put it in an auction there,

and he said that I would have to pay his expenses to London

and he wanted 10%, and then the auctioneers would be in London.

So I told my daughter and she says "Well, I've done without for many years and I'm not going to part".

Well... I would put a nought on that.

Is there a wheelchair to take me out of here?

So, what I'm saying is, if you were to buy him,

you'd have to pay £20,000 at least, at least.

Now, if he went into auction, obviously it would be less,

not a great deal less - we could be talking about £15,000, even at auction and going up.

That's the other thing - going up, so good investment.

It's well worth the journey here, well worth the wait.

Well, there's no doubt about it, Mount Stewart is a magical place,

it makes you feel small and insignificant. We've had a wonderful time in Northern Ireland.

Thanks to Lady Mairi Bury and the National Trust for making us so welcome.

With apologies to Ronnie Corbett, it's goodnight from me, as I close the book of another show.

'Goodbye!'

Subtitles by Gillian Frazer BBC Broadcast 2003

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