Dartington Hall 2 Antiques Roadshow

Early morning in Devon.

Another gentle start to the day, except in one corner of the county.

Still two hours to go till the start of another Roadshow

and already the queue is forming

for our second visit to Dartington Hall.

It looks as though the experts are in for a very busy day.

A typical Roadshow means each and every expert will comb through

thousands of items searching for treasures.

For the team, a hearty breakfast is essential.

Can you open that for me?

EXPERTS CHAT

Thank you.

Oh! That's interesting.

-Dishwasher proof, I'm afraid.

-Oh, well.

-Very nice...

->

-Good, what have you got, sir?

->

Have you ever seen one with a fluted handle and the finger grips?

Finger grips... it may be a musical instrument, you know. You never know.

Meanwhile, last minute checks are being made to our cameras,

getting ready to roll on the action.

The doors are open. Have a good day!

-That's for the dolls.

-Thank you.

-He's always been chubby and happy.

-I bet...

-and he's a money box.

-It's a money box, yes.

My wife wanted a money box, she had a little one,

you know, this size, but she wanted a bigger one.

I don't think she dreamed of anything like this.

I bet he held a lot of money.

Well, at one point we had enough money in him, that we went to America for a holiday.

-Good heavens.

-Yes, yes. He's a wonderful size, isn't he?

He is, isn't he?

He should be marked underneath the bottom, yes, there we are, it says, "Plichta, London, England."

But not made in London, made locally here in Bovey Tracey.

-Yes.

-Which is extraordinary.

London was where Plichta had his sale room, his show room,

he dealt in these, but made by Nekola, after he left Wemyss - up in Scotland,

he came down to Bovey Tracey in the 1930s to make these wonderful porkers

for, I suppose, the local market.

-You bought this locally?

-Yes, in Torquay.

Because it's very unusual to have a Bovey Tracey money box.

They're usually just happy pigs,

but this one is terribly rare in being a money box.

Yes, and it's been so useful.

Yes, I always think it's silly

to have roses painted on the sides of a pig,

but it just makes him happy and jolly, doesn't it?

Yeah, I paid seven pound ten shillings for him... that was in 1950, yes.

-A lot of money then...

-Quite a lot of money...

-..two weeks' wages.

Two weeks' wages, three weeks with me, but he's gone up a bit in value.

Nowadays, his price is going to be about...

about £1200 - £1500...

-1750, something like that... 1500 - £1750.

-You're kidding!

Yes, so you've got to start collecting.

I don't think I need to collect, I mean I've got him.

< This is a very beautiful vase.

Is it something that you've owned for a long time?

It's been in the family a long time, it's been in since about 1930.

My grandfather bought it at a house sale back in...

-up in Staffordshire, I believe.

-In Staffordshire?

-Yes.

When he died, it was passed... well we've got two...

it was passed to my mother and my aunt.

Do you know what it is, where it was made?

Not really, er, all we know - it's oriental, Japanese.

-It is Japanese, but it's Japanese made for the European market.

-Right.

So you've got a Japanese blue and white vase

that has been over-decorated, and the term for that is called clobbering.

-Clobbering?

-Clobbering...and so this is lacquer, done in Japan,

but to meet European taste.

And in the 1850s, when Japan opened to the West, there was a mania for all things Japanese,

and this vase absolutely falls squarely into that sort of taste.

-Right.

-The amount of decoration, if we just turn it round.

The lacquer is almost more beautiful than the porcelain...

The porcelain is standard, that wouldn't have appealed to Japanese taste,

but this would have gone very well into aesthetic interiors in the 1870s and '80s in England.

Oh, right.

What's also nice is that it's standing on its original base.

The proportion of the base to the vase

makes me feel that the base was made in England when the vase came over.

-Yes.

-I just want to, if I may... Can I take this off?

-Yes, yes, feel free.

-Let me just put this down.

-Yeah.

And let's just have a look at the...

put that down as well... have a look under the base.

-The top does come off.

-OK, we'll be very careful.

This is ebonised with a yew wood panel here

and Adamesque decoration.

I want to see, sometimes they're labelled underneath.

Yes. Let's just do this very carefully.

-Oh! Never looked underneath it before.

-Underneath here...

you've got the label of James Edgar, and interestingly he describes himself as "Art Cabinet Factory."

And art furniture is the term that people used in the 1870s

for artistic furniture.

Not just standard cabinet making, but things which were meant to have an artistic feel to them.

And he was in Liverpool.

Now, Liverpool's exactly the sort of area

where many houses were being built.

There were people like Lloyd Raynor,

like John Grant Morris, who had Allerton Priory,

and we know, from catalogues of sales of theirs,

that not only did they buy contemporary paintings,

-but they also bought oriental pots, as well.

-Yeah.

-So one can picture this as part of a classic interior at that period.

-Yes.

Let me put the vase back on top.

Absolutely beautiful as a pair...

As a vase, on its own, you're probably looking...

As a single vase...

-something at auction that might fetch £500, £800, for one vase.

-Yeah.

But assuming the other one is in more or less the same condition...

Perhaps just a little bit more of the glaze missing where -

my auntie had a grocer's shop, she used to keep the eggs on top of the vase.

-Probably not the best idea...

-No, no, but never mind.

As a pair of vases...

-..on stands, so really they become works of art in themselves, more than just individual vases.

-Yes.

I think that you would need to insure these today for something like

£5,000 or £6,000 for the pair.

-Really? Gosh!

-They're beautiful and very evocative of that particular period.

-Yes, yes.

-Try and keep the two of them together in the family.

I'm sure you've heard it before...

-I'm very pleasantly surprised by that.

-Thank you for bringing it.

-Thank you.

Well, in English Georgian silver, this is a very, very unusual object.

Do you know very much about its background or anything about it?

Very little, only that it belongs to a very good friend of mine

who's a retired naval gentleman

and it was actually left to him

by his mother's sister who worked for a gentleman in Hampshire.

-Right, so that's about it.

-That's about it.

-OK.

Well, in that case it's up to me.

As you can see, it's beautifully hallmarked

and it was made in London in 1818, but this is such an unusual piece

to be English that I imagine that it was specifically commissioned.

I mean, apart from the owl, which is a lovely thing,

the base is all chased with animals,

there's a tortoise there and lizards and a snail

and it's all very nicely hallmarked

-on the lid as well, on the top...

-Yeah.

..and on the base. Now these were originally drinking cups,

although you might not want to drink out of it,

because it's unhygienic.

And the idea goes right back to the 16th century

and usually they're continental

and they used to just put them down on the table as decorations

and so I would imagine that someone had seen a continental one

and decided that he would like an English one.

-You obviously have no idea of its value?

-No.

-Do you want to hazard a guess?

-Yes, I would.

-Go on then.

Um...a couple of thousand?

-It's probably more £8,000 - £10,000.

-Really?

-Because it is such a rare object.

-Crikey.

And it is charming and delightful and people love owls.

-Yes, I do, I love owls.

-So I think it...it's great.

-Thank you for bringing it.

-Thank you.

-What do you know about this? >

-Very little really,

it's been in the family a long time and I use it as a desk.

-So it's inherited through the family?

-Yeah.

Um, no idea where it came from originally?

It might have come from a house they bought in Torquay many years ago

that belonged to Lord Lascelles

who was, I think, somewhere in line to the royal family.

-Right, so it might have some...

-He was a traveller and soldier so he might have brought it back.

Right, because it immediately speaks to me of something continental,

but also somewhat medieval, it has this amazing hasp here,

which is almost like a little castle on its own with all its turrets and pinnacles.

Extraordinary, and then ironwork, covered in ironwork,

which had originally red velvet behind it,

so it would really have shone out against the walnut,

these big, big planks of walnut.

Er, on a stand, open stand and...

Do you think was meant to go with this? Because we were never sure whether...

Absolutely, I think this is a later stand, so I'm already suggesting

-that this, this could be earlier, I think this is a 19th-century stand.

-Right.

Which has been...has copied really a style that is earlier.

And that style, to me, is Spanish,

and it's a form that goes back to the 16th century

and the term that's used for this form is a vargueno.

The inside, I think, as you know, is extremely...

surprising perhaps...

Thank you very much.

So the very, very heavy front

drops down and reveals an absolutely delightful interior.

Wonderful interior, lots of geometrical inlay of bone,

lots of gilding, these little twisted columns that flank each of the drawers.

Now to me, what's exciting is that this kind of thing,

this Spanish cabinet, this vargueno

is one of the prototypes, one of the fore-runners

of the English escritoire, the English fall-front writing desk and also the cabinet on stand.

The influence and the decoration here is from North Africa, it's really coming from the Moors.

This one, I think, is a 17th century one.

Now, of course, all these little drawers

are fascinating and sometimes these pieces have little, not hidden drawers, but concealed drawers.

-Anything going on here that I don't know about?

-A little one here.

-I didn't know about that one. Anything else?

-One more below...

Oh, right, so you've got this wonderful progression of drawers

in the centre, coming out from this central architectural feature.

I think that's lovely and I can also see here that the drawer linings

are all made of walnut, so the whole thing is made of walnut.

Well, it's not the kind of thing that everybody could give room to, so there's a slightly limited market.

Now probably...

£3,500 - £4,500, which might seem not enough for such an elaborate...

No, that's around about what we had thought.

That's good - no disappointment there.

-No. Oh, we love it.

-We'll give it a polish.

-Excellent.

Now, this is a very valuable dish.

-Is it?

-Did you know that?

-No I didn't, no.

And so when you have a large and valuable dish like this,

you have to do what I do...

hold it by both hands, otherwise you could have a disaster.

-Yes.

-So where did you get it from?

It belongs to my mother and my grandfather bought it in a sale

in 1940 from a large house in North Finchley in London.

This dish was painted by W S Coleman,

who was the leading light of the Minton's Pottery studios

operating in London in the 1870s

and he was quite closely connected with Whistler

and various members of the Pre-Raphaelites.

You get the sort of Whistler...

these peacocks and...

orientally inspired decoration on the surface.

In many ways, of course, all we've got here

is...the pottery dish

as a support...for a painting

and Coleman was really a painter,

so this is unusual, to the extent that it's...

firstly a painting on pottery.

-Yeah.

-But still, it's very collectable.

The Minton studio is immensely admired and this is a very good one.

Coleman was much copied

and people in the studio sometimes painted designs by him,

but this is HIM.

-This is him.

-I told you at the beginning it was quite valuable.

-Yes.

-I think if you wanted to buy one,

you'd probably have to spend

-about £4,000.

-Blimey.

Do you know...

I don't say this very frequently...

it doesn't pay to get too enthusiastic about things,

but what an emerald you have brought along here today.

This is a fantastic looking gem.

Please tell me where it came from.

It belonged to my aunt, um, who died three years ago,

she was born about 1915, I think.

I know it's difficult because if you don't know very much about them,

it's difficult to really sort of convey the sort of person that she might have been,

but would she have been the kind of woman

that would have worn a gem like this and shown the thing off?

I think she, they would have worn it,

all of them wore stuff like that in their social life.

Now first of all, I think we can appreciate the intensity,

what you might call, the saturation of colour,

it's very deep green.

Now, you often find these where they're very pale,

where they're very washed out,

and they can be quite large,

but actually, they're ever so slightly, um, pastelly.

-The valuable ones are the ones that have a great deal of dark blue-green colour.

-Right.

The quality of this stone

is the kind of stone

that would have been mined and cut in around about say 1910-1915.

That was the zenith, if you like, of the pre-First World War period of jewellery design

where firms like Cartier, firms like Tiffany,

-were making jewellery like this, which is extremely pretty, easy to wear.

-Yes.

And also with the calibre of gem that is peerless.

It's just what they did, that's how they made their reputation.

The colour of the stone is also set off

by the little diamonds around the square frame.

That square shape works very well.

So we know it's this Colombian stone, it comes from one of these two mines

which were the Chivor or Muzo mines, in Columbia, which had this kind of terrific gem.

-Right.

-They often have little fissures running through them.

-Right.

There we are, we've got some fissures

going through the stone itself, um, it weighs...

And looking at it, I would estimate the weight of the stone,

-maybe around about three and a half carats.

-Right.

It's not very deep, but it spreads very beautifully. It's a lovely ring.

I would suggest to you that if it was offered in an auction,

it would be estimated at around

£8,000 - £10,000.

I think it's one of the loveliest stones of its type

I've seen on the Antiques Roadshow, it's lovely.

-That's very nice.

-Thank you for bringing it in.

I think everybody would agree,

this is a very, very pretty picture, this lovely, young girl

standing at the terrace looking somewhat reverential,

eyes cast down, and I believe wearing a mantilla...

Just over the terrace here, lightly touching there a white handkerchief.

Now, who is she?

-She is the artist's sister.

-Right, how do you know that?

My mother had it from the actual lady who's in the picture

-and it was her brother that painted it.

-How wonderful.

-Well, the artist, the signature here...

-Yes.

..is William Bennett and it's dated 1901.

Now, he's not a very, very well known artist, in fact, he's a very little known artist.

But occasionally, you know, you come up with great works by artists

who perhaps very few people have heard of.

It's in its original mount and original frame.

Where do you hang this picture?

-It's been behind the wardrobe for several years.

-Why was that?

Because I had a picture painted for my husband, of his dog, and I put that up instead.

So what...

explain it a little bit more...

I mean were you happy with that?

There's lots of light in our house and I didn't want that to get the light on it too much.

Well, that's admirable to do that because...

-if it had been hung for a long time...

-Drains the colour...

..it would have just faded and it wouldn't be as nice.

-That's right.

-I think, looking at the technique,

it's interesting, the variety of techniques...

here with the railings and the bar there on the terrace

and even the painting of the handkerchief...

quite loosely painted, but when we look at the face,

it is not just pedantically painted in miniature,

but it's a different way of painting - much more detail, softer

to give a contrast between the human portrait

and the representation of a face, and also the drapery.

What I am quite interested in is certainly the kind of iconography.

I mean, why is she dressed like this?

Her brother, the artist, seeing his sister in some really rather innocent way

and the ivy has a kind of iconography with fidelity and so on,

so I'm sure it's a kind of brother's idealised viewpoint of, of his sister.

Well, I believe he was accepted for the Academy in London

and I think he might have took that and had it...

-As a possible exhibited work, yes.

-Yes.

Well, I think it's absolutely beautiful

and I think most people would agree.

It has a sweetness about it,

-but I don't think it's over-sentimental.

-No.

But together, the frame, the original frame and the mount,

we must come to think of its value...

And I would have thought,

because he's not a very well known artist,

-but a beautiful picture, somewhere between £3,000 and £5,000.

-Oh, right.

Didn't realise as much as that.

-No, well it's a lovely thing, thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you.

Bunny, you've brought us your personal menagerie, isn't that wonderful?

Childhood memories - but before you tell us about them,

remember in Northern Ireland, Mount Stewart, you came across that rare Steiff bear?

-Never forget it.

-It went on to be sold for £23,000.

Did they only make bears, Steiff?

No they didn't, they, in fact, started off, um, with a little miniature elephant

and then the bears were on wheels

and then they started making teddy bears in 1903,

but they make every animal in the book, and they still do.

Any animal you think of, they make, including this lovely rooster here,

who is not mine, I have to say, he came in today and I asked them if I could borrow him for...to show you.

He's got lovely cut felt body and he would have had, in the comb,

a little button which showed he was by Steiff.

So it's very clever to have a label. But they also made...

and I've got this here, they made pigs...

I've got a pig here,

but I've also got my personal weasel.

He's got his button in his ear here, he's missing his tail

and I've got to send him off to Steiff to see if they'll put another one on.

But just to give you an idea of the range...

But they made all those animals, but they're not the only people.

And we jumped on the bandwagon,

the British, and Chad Valley and Farnell and various other makes.

But what about everyone who's got old toys up in the attic or whatever, stuffed toys.

What's the most valuable? What should they...

Well, I think what they could have in the attic, which is more likely,

is something like this, which is...

This is a Merrythought, he's lost one eye, he's actually a rattle.

He's not particularly valuable, but he will go up in value if he's looked after.

That's another thing we've got to worry about because a lot of these...

the earlier ones are stuffed with this wood shavings and, of course,

then you get woodworm.

Then you get the felt coats, they get moth-eaten.

And you can see this one here, um,

he's a very valuable Steiff, but look he's got moth-eaten,

even while he's been sitting on my dressing table.

Even while we've been talking.

That's very sad... So they're old and they get musty and dusty.

Do they get sort of infested with things?

Um, quite often, mine don't, but if they did...

I'd put them in the freezer

for 72 hours and it kills the little blighters.

Which is the most expensive one? The most valuable, rather?

Um, one I was given,

and that is a Steiff.

I'm afraid the Steiff are still the most valuable.

Now, he's only particularly valuable because he's also made of lamb's wool,

rather than anything else - very unusual, very rare.

Peter Rabbit, which Beatrix Potter commissioned Steiff,

because she couldn't find anybody to make a soft toy like Peter Rabbit of her drawings.

She commissioned Steiff

and he's one of the first Peter Rabbits. He's got a black Steiff button in his ear...

-Yeah.

-..um, which means he's 1905. He's very early and, I have to say,

-I was offered £10,000 for him.

-Gosh!

-And I couldn't sell him, because I was given him.

-Yes.

This is a collection of Quentin Crisp.

Tell me what do you think of when you think of Quentin Crisp?

Well, he was my uncle, so I...

you know, I have family recollections of him, but he was an amazing person because he always...

stood up for his own principles, in spite of everything.

And he was a very talented, clever man,

he was an artist, he was a writer and a raconteur.

To me, I associate him with the period in the '70s when he made...

when a film was made of this book - The Naked Civil Servant -

-for which he's very well known.

-Yes.

And inside, he's inscribed it to you.

-Yeah.

-And up here we've got this lovely etching of him,

in a characteristic pose, I think.

-Something of a dandy, wasn't he?

-Absolutely, yes.

And very precise about the way he wanted to present himself.

-Oh, yes.

-Lovely, lovely detail on this. And tell me about this one.

Well, this one he did for my mother and it must have been in the 1930s

and he gave it to her for a Christmas present, I think, one year.

But the lovely thing to me, is that it's very 1930s...

-Absolutely, isn't it?

-..in style, as is the dog.

-That was my dog when I was little, he was called Walker.

-Walker.

He was a mongrel. He drew that for me for one Christmas, I think,

in straight lines, and I always thought it was so lovely.

To me, he also became a public figure

because he was outspoken about his views about homosexuality

and in a way he didn't fit into the normal mould, is that right?

Oh, that's right and in New York he was completely accepted,

but, I think, even if he'd stayed in London,

-by that time, people of his type were more accepted.

-Yes.

But when we walked with him in New York...

he was revered, everyone said, "Good morning, Quentin. Morning.

"How nice to see you," you know.

You have a lovely pile of letters here and I can hear his voice, that acerbic tone.

"And now, I suppose," he says "you're away sitting on the prom eating a box of chocs,"

I can hear him say "chocs",

"during the hols. I hope you have a jolly time and return fully refreshed."

-So he sent you a lot of letters?

-Yes, he was a great cor...

He always answered letters. I was the bad correspondent,

but if ever I wrote, I always got a letter by return of post.

I think it's a wonderful collection, it really is stunning

and I get a very strong feeling of the man and his humour and his, his...

In a way, his impishness... it's quite difficult to value

-because it is an entirety and to put separate values on it wouldn't work.

-No.

I think you're talking about £2,000 for the whole thing.

Yes, well I've got a lot more sort of memorabilia and things at home.

-Have you?

-Yes.

-Well, it could be more because he had...

he lived in America...there are lots of collectors.

Thank you so much for bringing them in, it's a great collection.

They were made by my grandfather who was a sculptor,

Charles Sargeant Jagger and...

Fantastic, I never knew he did jewellery.

Well, not many people did, I think.

Before the First World War,

his work was quite soft and like this,

and then he, through his experience in the war,

his work changed completely and...

You mention the war, because you know,

now you've mentioned his name, Charles Sargeant Jagger,

I'm sure most people that have heard that name will be aware of

his wonderful sculpture for war memorials.

-This involvement in the war obviously gave him that sort of eye and passion to represent it in some way.

-Yes.

There's a wonderful memorial at Hyde Park Corner.

Um, fantastically well known model of a soldier at Paddington Station

and some people probably walk past that statue, rushing to get a train home

without really appreciating how, how important it is. So with all that knowledge of his sculpture

I'm absolutely, you know, amazed that these jewellery pieces are by him.

These are just superb...

It's just this lovely delicate ring,

-we have a little moonstone, little conical sort of moonstone...

-Yes.

with little leaves and typically - Arts and Crafts this would be called.

Did he used to have a little workshop somewhere?

I don't know, all I know is

that his wife gave up her career as a concert singer

to also make jewellery.

-I say.

-And I believe that she made the other ring.

-This might be by his wife?

-I think so.

-It's not as delicate as the other one.

-No.

-And this... I'm not entirely sure whether this is a stone of some sort like a jasper

or it could almost be a piece of ceramic.

-This piece would be by him as well, no doubt, wouldn't it?

-Yes.

-I mean this is just wonderful.

-I guess that he made that for her.

She was also a psychic

and, and whether there's any connection with the crystal ball,

because she had a crystal ball that she used to read.

-So this is a miniature crystal ball.

-I'd like to think that.

-Nice if she could see into the future with that.

-Yes.

It's lovely the way this, this rose,

this very simple rose with leaves and such on it,

and then this lovely, lovely drop hanging from it.

-Mm.

-Wonderful!

Have you ever thought about what value these would be?

Well, I've wondered, I mean...

I don't want to sell them, but...

I certainly understand that.

Yes, but I'm interested to know, you know.

-I mean this ring might be by his wife you said, didn't you?

-Yes. Mm.

I'd have thought that might be £300 - £500, something like that perhaps.

-Gosh, mm.

-This one, which is beautiful, and being by him,

-I'd have thought that one might be £700 or £800 perhaps, that one.

-Yes.

And this piece, I'd have thought might be £1,500, £2,000...

I'm pleased you brought them, thank you.

Oh, thank you.

It was loved at some time because it's all been mended with a lovely set of rivets, joining it together.

-Look at those rivets, John.

-Yes.

I love riveted things, I find them fascinating.

It kept the pot together, otherwise it could have been thrown away...

before they had fine glues they used to use rivets.

I don't think we ever saw... you never saw a riveter at work,

but he used to come up Grandpa's street.

And Grandpa would bring out the pots and, um, and he had a treadle on his bicycle.

Treadled away and drilled little tiny holes either side of the crack,

and then he had a hot box in front of him,

took out metal wires,

put them into the holes and pulled them together and as they cooled,

they clamped the piece shut.

And there it is, as perfect as the day it was riveted...

I...probably a hundred, two hundred years ago, those rivets.

But would you leave those rivets alone?

I mean modern restoration could hide that damage invisibly.

I'd leave the rivets, they're part of its life.

-You've always loved rivets, haven't you?

-Some of my favourite pots are riveted.

CROWD LAUGHS

Underneath the damage, you've got a splendid bit of Chinese porcelain

and quite a rare shape and displayed properly clean...

-a couple of hundred pounds, isn't it?

-The rivets cost about sixpence each.

-They belonged to my father.

-Right.

And I believe that he inherited them from his father

because my grandfather, in the early part of the 20th century,

was an avid collector.

-Right.

-And went to auction sales almost weekly

and after my grandfather died,

which was 1966,

my grandmother tried to dispense things that he had acquired...

-Scattering it...

-..throughout the family.

Eventually, there was a load left that went to sale

and I think this was something that my father took.

-So it came to your father?

-It came to my father.

Right, there's a lot of sort of mythology about scrimshaw, I love it

because I think there is this basis of accuracy about the stories,

which is that pieces were made by sailors in their idle moments.

Now, a lot of it is fake. Another mass of it has been decorated later.

You can find an early tooth, there's nothing to stop you engraving a scene on now.

And you get many pieces which have simply far too much going on,

there's the name of the ship, there's a whale hunt, er, there's a date,

there's flags and bells and the whole thing's over the top.

These are fantastic because they're simple,

there's no... you can see these have been done very early indeed.

We're early in the 19th century

and they have a primitiveness that I think has enormous appeal.

Many of the subjects, as you can see here on this piece,

and here, are sort of from popular imagery.

The sailor didn't sit thinking, "Oh, I'll do Britannia."

-No.

-He had something to copy, so this piece represents that tradition

-and in fact there's a walrus about to be slaughtered there.

-Yes.

Some of these come from the same popular imagery as a Staffordshire figure.

That's the same date probably as a Staffordshire pottery figure, the 1840s,

-and the popular imagery is from a similar printed source.

-Right.

So that in a sense is, is very nice, but what one would expect.

I mean this is the one that I find particularly exciting,

those images I'm used to...

This is quite different because you've got these primitive matchstick men...

it's really very crude.

You've got people in boats,

you've got all sorts of things going on, these very, very crude ships.

These could be earlier.

-We could be going back to the 1820s with this.

-Really?

The other thing is, what is it?

Now this is probably a stay busk and this is what sailors gave their girls

and it was inserted into their stays and so it had intimate contact.

-Oh.

-So it was like a love token.

So you sat there out in the Arctic North carving away,

then you rushed home and you gave it to your girl,

-who immediately plunged it...

-It would be near your sweetheart's heart.

-Exactly.

So that's what that is. They are expensive these things, there is no doubt.

I mean a group like this is going to be...

£2,000, something like that.

That really is amazing.

-Where did you dig this thing up?

-In my back garden.

I think it's extraordinary, and where is your back garden?

It's in a farmhouse on the edge of Dartmoor.

So this you found in Dartmoor?

-On Dartmoor, yes.

-On Dartmoor.

-In the garden...

-It's what's called a char dish for potted fish,

-and they were made in Lancashire.

-Oh!

It was this, the char dish generally is made in the Liverpool area,

either in delft or in this case,

I think in pearlware which is a slightly blue glazed earthenware.

-Yes.

-But an exciting thing of discovering a 1790s dish like this,

-in your garden, it's amazing.

-Yes.

I think you should do some more digging.

I mean I'm afraid the condition is poor, but you could have it tidied up

and it would then be worth £200 or £300...

-But you didn't dig this up?

-No I didn't dig that up.

That belonged to my grandfather and then passed down to my parents

and eventually came to me.

It used to frighten me because of the face of the monkey.

-I think he's quite benign.

-Well, I didn't when I was four.

Oh, I see, yes, yes, yes.

Er, this was made in China in 1760-1770.

Oh, as early as that?

Yes, for export to Europe, er, and they normally come in twos.

Yes, I've got another one.

And what's the condition of the other one?

The other one has a broken arm.

The arm that is clasping in the front, the elbow's missing.

-Actually missing?

-Yes.

-That's a great pity.

People love them because they're really quite zany animals, aren't they?

-Yes.

-They have a naive charm.

Slightly curious that they both face the same way.

It would be better if they didn't,

and if they both face different ways they will be worth more than they are now,

-which is still about £3,000 - for the two of them.

-Good grief!

And now we come to the third element of this wonderful group.

This is made of enamel,

enamel on copper and, of course,

the great centre for making these pieces was Limoges.

-Yes.

-And this is a 16th-century piece,

down there it says, "Aoust" - August.

It's lost, it's lost the "s" nowadays in French

because they put a circumflex on the top, don't they?

-Yes.

-Er, its surface is a bit mucky

and it's suffered a little bit round the edge,

but it is basically in very nice condition.

These were very much collector's pieces that they had in their cabinets.

So we've got August with the harvest going on, these are very expensive.

This one, as I say, is a bit nibbled round the edge,

but I still think you're looking at...

£2,000 or £3,000 for this as well.

-Yes, well, well, well.

-So...

What an amazing gamut of things, I mean, brilliant!

Is it something you've had a while or not?

Um, about three and half years, since my grandfather died.

-So he left it to you?

-That's right.

-And you've done nothing to it because...

-No.

..it's fairly... I won't use the word "rough"

because that sounds rude, but it's in untouched condition.

Do you have it going at home?

Er, no, no, we don't.

So do you know what sort of date it is?

Well, um, we have had it valued back in '91

and my understanding was that it was approximately 1780.

I think that's a pretty good guess, give or take five years.

Here we are, signed by William Allam of London who was a very nice maker,

made some superb watches and also good English bracket clocks.

He started work in the 1740s right through until about the 1780s.

We've got twin subsidiaries, one is fairly obviously strike

and silent to switch off the strike.

And do you know what this one here is?

No, not really, no.

It sort of goes from zero to 60, some people might be tempted to think it's seconds.

It's not, it's actually, it's what we call a rise and fall

that works on a cam that lifts the pendulum up and down.

We've got the mock pendulum here and I'll show you how that works.

Literally like this, now... Oh, gosh, why have you...

why have you got this paper in here?

I put that wadding in to keep that pendulum from swinging about

because it was knocking in the car.

-Look, here's the pendulum lock, so you just pop it in there.

-Oh, right.

That's it, it's rigid and you can move the clock, it's locked there for ever.

-Fantastic, yeah.

-But if I release that,

and then I can show you just by moving the pendulum

how that mock pendulum is working now

and do you see there it's just swinging within that aperture?

Right, yeah.

And that meant in the old days

that if it was sitting on a table or a mantelpiece,

you could see at a glance that it was running.

-Right.

-So there we are...

It's, I think, a very pretty clock,

it has an anchor escapement and, in all honesty, with that mock,

that mock pendulum, it is more likely that it was verge

and it's been converted to anchor.

The case is what we call an inverted bell top

and it's ebony-veneered, it's not too big,

-you know the joy of these bracket clocks is the small size.

-Yeah.

If it was significantly bigger, it would be less value.

So what was the valuation that you mentioned in 1991?

I believe it was just over £2,000.

Right, so what do you reckon it could be today?

Um, possibly £2,500 maybe £3,000, tops, I would imagine.

Well, I think you'll be pretty pleased because in this state,

at auction it would make between £5,000 and £6,000.

-Right.

-And in full retail condition,

I could see it retailing for just over £10,000.

Wow.

This is a wonderful and very grand piece of furniture.

It's a side cabinet of a form that's known in France as a meuble d'appui -

-a side cabinet.

-Oh, right.

It looks as though it's fallen straight out of a French palace.

Can you tell me anything about it, how you came by it?

Well, basically it was in the house when my father-in-law bought it, back in 1958.

And an antique collector had lived there for several years,

he died and we just kept it and then my mother-in-law,

back in 1980, brought down this copy

and she said, "There, it looks identical,"

and it was in the Palace of Monaco.

So it did come out of a nearly French palace.

But we really didn't know anything about it...

other than we thought it's obviously a copy.

But then a few years back, on Christmas Eve,

um, I was taking some glasses out of it and the hinges were broken on this side

and as I opened the door, the other side, this door fell out, there was a newspaper in French...

-Yes.

-..behind the door.

So we took it to someone and they translated it,

we read a bit about it, but it appeared

that there were two made for the French Exhibition in 1851.

Are you sure it's 1851 or is it 1855?

It might have been 1855, I know it was the 1850s.

There was an exhibition in Paris in 1855 and that's exactly the period of this piece.

-Really.

-So it's quite feasible.

When I was working in France, South of France, I went to Monaco,

to actually go and see the piece that was in the palace there

and you can see it in the postcard there.

-Fascinating, yes, absolutely.

-And I asked them for some information about it...

which they weren't very forthcoming with...

but on the historical tour, on the headset,

they talked about a Japanese piece with some semi-precious stones.

So whether that one is Japanese and then this was a French copy

made of it for the Exhibition, we don't know.

-We're hoping you can tell us some more.

-OK, not Japanese...

I'm not sure where that came from. Um, it's, it is French.

It's in Napoleon III style.

It very likely dates from precisely when you said, from the 1850s.

In style, it owes to earlier French furniture,

things from the late 17th century, made in the Gobelin factory in Paris.

Designs by people like Andre Charles Boulle who was a cabinet maker to Louis Quatorze, to Louis XIV.

And there are many features on this which you actually find on 17th and early 18th-century furniture.

This, however, is made, as I said, in the mid-19th century

and I think it is undoubtedly made by the same cabinet maker as this piece

that's in Monte Carlo, um...

That one's in a lot better condition, very shiny as against this one.

With all the bits fallen off...

We can come onto the condition questions with this,

you obviously have lost quite a lot of the hard stones.

We've got a few of them at home.

Keep them and they can be re-applied. It can certainly be restored.

The mounts here are absolutely comparable to the ones you find on 18th-century furniture.

It's got a wooden top and one would expect this to have a marble top -

a thick marble slab. And I notice...

-I think that one did.

-Looking at this one, it's got mottling on, that's missing, that can be replaced,

but it would undoubtedly benefit from a considerable amount of tender loving care.

It's just, it's looking a little sad and if you can imagine it just brought back.

Er, the little bits of brass inlay that are lifting at the side, that I noticed,

-the bits of veneer are missing, if those could be returned...

-Yes.

..you would have something that looked, you know, palatial as I guessed at the beginning.

Um, once it's restored...

I think it's something that really ought to be insured

-for something like £15,000.

-Really?

-I think in its present state, it's probably worth about half of that.

-Yes, right.

-Thank you for bringing it in.

-Thank you very much.

-OK.

And with that, I do believe we've come to the end of the road

for this particular season.

We all need a fresh set of tyres.

But for now, from Dartington Hall in Devon, goodbye.