Hornsea Antiques Roadshow

This is the east coast of Yorkshire, where between the white chalk arms of Flamborough Head

and the lowland spit at Spurn, we find the seaside town of Hornsea.

Well, I knew it was small...

they said it was sleepy, but this is rather...

spooky.

Where is everyone?

Normally people flock here for the beach or for the wildlife on the freshwater lake, The Mere...

..or to admire the famous collection of Hornsea Pottery.

But not it seems today.

There used to be a spot of smuggling round here once...

you don't think they've all...? No.

Wait a minute...

I wonder.

Of course, I should have guessed, the word's gone round the Antiques Roadshow's in town,

and they've all headed for the Leisure Centre. Let's meet the population.

-These girls are obviously Art Deco dancers.

-Yes, yes. Lovely.

So are you an Art Deco collector?

Um, a little bit. I bought this one in auction, um,

it was a household auction and I don't think this should have been in it,

so I dragged my husband in and the auctioneer at one point was saying,

"The bid is with the gentleman with the very excited lady on the bed",

because I was nudging him, "Keep bidding, keep bidding!"

So we got this and then we had a shop,

and somebody came in with this one and I loved them and then we went to another auction, I got this one

-from under the nose of a local dealer, which is even better.

-Let's start with the one nearest you.

-Yes.

The great thing about Deco figures is, for some reason best known to the modellers, the sculptors of the day,

they always show them standing on one leg, don't they?

That's how we always stand, us women.

-Is that? Is that right?

-Oh, God, yes.

When we're excited we always go on one leg, yes. Have you not noticed?

-You obviously haven't got a woman excited, Eric.

-No.

-No, well, there you go.

-Well, I'll pay more attention in future.

-Exactly, yes.

-I've always thought it rude to look down when I'm talking to somebody.

-Yes, well.

Anyway...well, this particular one, the minute I see a piece like this, I want to do this.

-I mean, it could be on the head, I want to tap it.

-Yes, yes.

-And if I was to do the same with the twins over here.

-Yes, yes.

Give them a quick tap because it gives a sort of a dull sound when you tap.

I've got no doubt, without actually scratching them underneath,

to say that these are actually spelter.

-Yes.

-Which, without being unkind, is often referred to as a poor man's bronze.

-Yeah, yeah.

In terms of alloy, it's primarily zinc.

-Yes.

-And you can cast with it, but heaven forbid it breaks because it's a nightmare to repair.

-Yes.

-Because it fractures rather jaggedly.

-Brittle, yeah.

-This particular figure date-wise...

-I would say we're looking around about 1925, 1930.

-Really?

-As early as that?

-And I think that these two here are also 1925, 1930.

As for the shades, it's difficult to know whether that's original because there are lots of repros being made.

-Yes.

-In fact there are lots of repros of this type of figure.

-Yes.

Um, but what I find interesting is THIS shape,

for the simple reason that it's emulating, or simulating veined alabaster.

-Oh, right.

-I mean, that definitely adds to the value of that figure.

Yeah, yeah. It is a lovely shape. I like that one, yes.

When it comes to price, if I wanted to go and buy one of these today,

-I would probably be asked somewhere in the region of around about £200.

-Right.

And for the twins, I would probably expect to have to pay

-around about £400 or £500.

-Yes.

-Which brings us to this particular figure.

-Right, yes.

So, once again I need to give it a bit of a tap.

It's got slightly more resonance to it, that particular figure,

-which is good news because that suggests that we are dealing with bronze as opposed to spelter.

-Wow.

And if I can just give her a quick, a quick twirl,

the first thing that springs to mind is the condition -

she's in lovely condition.

-The way that she's been given this lovely green, little, almost like a kimono-type gown, isn't it?

-Yes, yes.

And, you know, we're talking in terms of...

in an age when a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking.

-Shocking, yes.

-That amount of leg...

-Ooh!

-I mean, that predates Mary Quant, doesn't it?

-Yes, exactly.

I can see the name here, Teleska.

-Yes.

-And I can tell you now, I've not come across his name before.

-Oh, right.

-But it's so true of so many East European sculptors in the '20s and '30s -

you see the piece and you see the name...

you wait ten years before you find another piece by that person.

-What did you pay at auction for it?

-We're talking about 20 years ago,

so we thought we were really daring to pay about perhaps £75 for it maybe, something like that.

-Daring?

-Mmm.

-OK. Well, if I was going to be daring today,

I wouldn't hesitate to spend the better part of £1,000 to put her on my mantel shelf.

Good grief!

I really thought that this would be less than these two.

-Well, there you are...

-That just shows you.

-Is it Columbo who says, "It's always the one you least suspect."

-Exactly.

You either love it or you hate it, which is it?

-Love it.

-Why?

Just pure intriguement - the way it's made, the textures,

the thought of somebody sitting there and actually making the bits and all the shapes.

Well, how it was made is actually quite interesting.

Let's go back to the mid-1500s and to a French potter called Bernard Palissy.

If you were a piece of wildlife running around the country you'd be in severe danger

because he liked the look of reptiles, snakes, frogs, newts -

he would take them into his studio and he would actually make casts of them,

so this piece was made in the Bernard Palissy style.

These animals were probably hopping around the French countryside

when some French potter said, "Ah, we could make one of these into a nice big dish."

So this comes out of the Bernard Palissy tradition,

and again it was made in France, but in the 19th century.

So how long have you had it?

Er, it's been in my family for about 100 years that I know of.

And where did it come from?

It was a gift to a great-aunt when she retired from service.

She was housekeeper, cook for one of the big families in London or on the outskirts of London.

-So you think it could have come from quite a large house?

-Yes.

Because objects like this are very imposing. You stand back when you see this,

you think "Oh, my goodness!"

You need a big space to show this in. Where does it live at home?

At the moment it's in storage but for most of its life

it's hung above the fireplace in what used to be the family home

for at least 70 years, but I put claim to it.

You need a sturdy wall. It's massively heavy.

It used to have a very large Victorian six-inch nail that went with it to hang it from.

Well, looking on the back, we can see it always was intended to be hung, those holes are glazed through,

and here's the mark of the maker.

Now, sadly this is not by Bernard Palissy. It is not getting on for 500 years old, I'm afraid.

It's a 19th-century piece and we have a wonderful toad, my goodness even when you stroke him he...

-..he makes a noise, doesn't he?

-He's hollow.

He's lovely.

Broadly speaking, it belongs to the tradition we call majolica ware.

It's lead-glazed earthenware and sadly...

Well, if it were 16th-century it would be worth thousands of pounds, but it ain't, it ain't 16th-century.

It's probably worth somewhere in the region of £2,000 to £3,500.

Me husband, he dug it up.

-He was doing a job for the farmer, you know, where he worked, near a duck pond.

-Was he?

And he dug this up.

At first he thought it was just an old... Then when he cleaned it up and saw what it was,

he showed his boss and his boss says, "Well, keep it".

Well, that was jolly nice. Do you wear it?

Er, well, I did, and then somebody said it might be valuable so I put in me jewellery box.

Very sensible, and I think they were right.

I do think it is quite valuable, but more than valuable, it's a very interesting thing.

-Shall I tell you why?

-Yes.

-Let's have a little look inside here.

In a little script that tells me

that this ring is made in the 17th or early 18th century.

Goodness me!

In the 17th or early 18th century this was engraved with the following...

-It says "Love pure will endure".

-Yes.

And that's what we call a posy.

The word "posy" is a corruption of the word poesy which is an old term for poetry.

-Yes.

-So this is a poetry ring, and this is the most lovely message, a covert message...

It's lovely. I think so, yes.

..of love, absolutely, and it's hidden inside the ring like this.

-So nobody else can see it.

-I think almost certainly, yeah.

-Yes.

And, um, no, a brilliant thing, but very collectable.

I think probably about £600, £700.

Lovely. Smashing.

-I thought maybe it was snake skin.

-That's not a bad guess. It's actually fish skin.

-Oh, right.

-But it's treated in a certain way,

it's probably the skin of one of the shark or ray families.

-Right.

-And if you take the skin - it's knobbly.

-Yes, right.

-And if you dye it and then you polish it, or vice versa,

you polish the tops off the knobbles and you end up with this almost pepper and salt effect.

This case, which is more difficult to see,

this is actually very, very fine fish skin and they haven't polished it.

It's the finer part of a...

of a smaller version of the ray fin.

They're very popular in the end of the 18th century as a decorative technique.

And in fact, this is exactly the date of these two pieces.

Now, if I open them up, they are actually fascinating

because what we've got is a small set of travelling instruments.

-Lay out the bits and they're basically a simple geometry set.

-Mmm.

This I've never seen, this little protective piece on the end.

That's the first time I've seen it. And here you have a pair of dividers

with steel points, adjustable,

-which would have been used for taking dimensions off a map.

-Yes.

And there's a neat little touch on them, if you turn that one round,

-put it back in the end, and you've actually got a compass.

-Right, fine.

Now, it's not finished there

-because you can pull apart these. I don't think these have ever been used.

-No, no, no,

-well, I wondered about that, yes, yes.

-I was going to ask you that.

And then you can dismantle them again and you can place...

these pieces inside, that goes in there.

-I didn't actually know that.

-That goes in...there, like that,

-and they're even bigger.

-Oh, amazing, I didn't know that they did that.

They've got an ivory rule

which is graduated with various scales.

And the best bit about it is on this side...

we have a name.

-Oh, really?

-Have you seen that?

-Adams - London.

-Oh, yeah, right.

Now, there were a big family of Adams and I would date this instrument

at around about, say 1765, 1770.

Really?! I really didn't think it was that old.

But hang on, we haven't finished.

This one, which is undoubtedly later, probably in the 1790s I think, late '80s or '90s,

you can see from the design, the leather, it has a later feeling, doesn't it?

It is, in my opinion,

by the second generation of the family.

It's unsigned, but you've got very similar detail and very similar features.

So it looks as if we have a set by let's say the father, and a further set by the son.

Anything on the history in the family?

Um, all I really know about them is that I believe they belonged

to my great-grandfather and then to my grandfather on my father's side,

and came down to my dad, and really that's all I know about them. I really don't know anything else.

No great, sort of, nautical history or anything?

Not as far as I know.

Usually these instruments are not... not that rare...

but by Adams who was one of the best instrument makers of the period...

..and being absolutely complete, and that is quite rare,

I suppose I'd say £1,500 to £2,000 for that one.

But probably only half for this set.

Oh, that's amazing, that really is.

I'm really surprised.

I didn't think, although I can see that that was stylish, I really didn't think it was that valuable.

These are the biggest pair of blunderbuss pistols I've ever seen.

Can you tell me where you got them from?

They were bought by my father, about 40 years ago at a house sale not far from the Humber.

Because these are the sort of things

that would have been used by anybody who needed firearms like this for personal protection,

and because they're all brass, or perhaps gun metal I'm not quite sure of what the alloy is,

but it's a copper rich alloy, they would be very, very resistant to corrosion,

and that really does shout to me, for on board ship.

And one of these in close quarters, you'd probably shoot two or three people with them,

and that would give you a hell of an advantage in a situation where you were faced with several attackers.

They date from about 1820 and they have on the bottom these little marks there,

those are from the Birmingham proof house and that was consumer safety -

one of the earliest ones. And every gun had to go there and be test fired with a whopping great load,

double the charge, full of powder.

Whack a whole load of shot on the top of it and if it stood that then it would stand a normal load.

At the moment because things like this are so unusual

and the market's very, very strong, I think about £3,000.

-Fantastic.

-Yeah, they are fantastic. Thanks for bringing them.

-Excellent.

As you'll know by now, this is a series with a mission.

We are scouring the country for champion collectors,

the men, women and children who've worked hardest putting a collection together,

and we're finding that there's a fisherman with over 3,000 flies, a woman with 200 egg timers.

They're a passionate lot out there.

But we're moving up a gear today, literally.

The owner of this collection can't come to us, so I'm leaving the Roadshow just for a little while.

-The owner and driver of this magnificent machine is Alan Marshall. Morning, Alan.

-Morning.

We'll be back at the Roadshow very soon.

Well, I'd love to be asked to pass the toast in this,

I think that's great fun.

Tell me what you know about it and where it came from.

It belongs to my daughter-in-law Sarah and it was given to her by her grandma,

she got it as a wedding present in the 1930s,

and all my daughter-in-law knows it's a toast rack

and it's based on the replica of Amy Johnson's plane.

Of course, these aeronautical things are very sought-after,

but I slightly query the date of it,

because, in fact, I think it's much earlier. You see, here you've got a design registry mark,

but this design registry mark comes within a range that finished in 1919.

-Oh.

-So this was probably actually made during the First World War,

but I could see this being worth anything between £500 on a bad day to about £1,500 on a really good day.

-Well, that'll cheer her up no end.

-Yeah.

You're going to take these home and take these horrible wires off. They are very bad for the plate.

They were on... Always been on.

That is no excuse.

Our contender for most devoted collector this week, Alan Marshall,

has a passion for Humber vintage motor cars.

He's rescued 40 of them from going on the scrap heap.

They were once the monarch's favourite mode of transport.

George VI once owned 47 of them.

This is Humber heaven.

# Heaven I'm in heaven

# And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak... #

So this is what started your love affair with Humber?

This was the first car my father bought for the princely sum of £90 in 1960.

After that, he learned me how to drive in this car.

It became my own personal wedding car for me and my wife,

and I brought my children up from the maternity home in it and took them to the christening,

so she really was a family car.

They were always known as the poor man's Rolls Royce in some respects,

and never really got to the esteem of Rolls Royce,

but certainly the gentry loved the cars. Every prime minister of the day would have a Humber Pullman.

Grand cars for grand people.

Certainly. 50 years ago, ladies went out every evening with large gowns and hats, and high hairstyles.

This sort of coachwork really suited the fashions of the day.

If you were looking for privacy in 1932, you'd buy yourself a Snipe 80.

This one belonged to Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson.

Humbers have got the lowest survival rate of any make of car.

Whereas perhaps 80% of Rolls Royces survived, only 1% of Humbers survived,

so I've built up the collection. People have actually almost donated cars to me

because they know I have a passion for them,

and they know I'll never sell them or give them up to anybody else.

This looks almost unrecognisable as a Humber - it's a bit flash, a bit American.

Well, certainly, by... This is a 1967 Humber Imperial,

and at this time the American Chrysler Corporation had taken over shares in the company.

They do have that American look to them on the outside but I think you'll agree it's a very...

It's like an English boardroom, the interior of the car.

We have Connolly hide, mahogany cappings, West of England cloth-roof linings.

Room for a bowler hat?

Certainly room for a bowler hat.

And what exactly is this?

Oh, this was the latest innovation in 1967

which was a Phillips radio cassette with fitted Dictaphone.

You were perhaps stuck in a traffic jam, you could still put your cassette into the radio

and dictate messages for your secretary to type at a later time.

Who'd have thought it!

Michael Aspel in a Humber Imperial, and now back to the Antiques Roadshow.

I have to say, the first inkling that I got that this was something other than it appears

-was when it was lifted from there down to here.

-Right.

-And it took three people.

-Very heavy.

-Very heavy and unusual for what really looks like a bedside cupboard.

-Yes.

So...

inside you've got this extraordinary mirror...

-Yeah.

-..with a lock in the middle.

When you pull it open...

it's a safe.

And the interior's absolutely gorgeous.

The most wonderful purple silk velvet interior.

And really because it's been protected from the light, it's as rich and as strong as it was...

And the drawers themselves are made of metal - they're very heavy.

-They are heavy.

-And this would have been a domestic safe -

something somebody would have had in their bedroom with jewellery in it.

It's not an industrial-looking piece. It's meant to blend in with the household.

-Do you use it yourself?

-I do.

-For its proper purpose?

-I do, yes.

That's very good. That's excellent. How did you come by it?

-Um, it was a wedding present from my parents to my husband and I about 12 years ago.

-Right.

-I've always loved it. Dad bought it a while ago, in about the 1960s, I think.

-Yes.

It's just always been there and...

So you know of no earlier history? It was acquired in the '60s...

None at all, no, nothing other than that and because it has the initials on the inside door,

that's something I've always wondered about as well.

I noticed this - very interesting.

It's got the initials here which look to me to be an "I" probably a "G",

-and the main initial...

-I couldn't make it out.

..is an "A" so I think it's "IGA".

-Right.

-Or something like that.

And done in enamel and that would undoubtedly have been for the person it was made for,

and this here is not mirror glass but it's actually polished steel.

And then it's been etched,

so it gets a very high shine.

But the piece itself dates from the 1860s.

There was a man called Henry Lawford

who published designs of marquetry furniture and boulle furniture at around that date,

and it's typical of the sort of thing that was seen in the 1862 exhibition in London.

-And it's clearly French influenced, but made in England.

-Right.

-Um, you've got these very pretty mounts going down the side here.

-Yes.

This inlay and then here a Sevres, or an imitation probably Sevres plaque -

so a French plaque of two lovers,

but imported and then incorporated into the piece of furniture.

-And underneath here, interestingly, can you see it says "IG Appleby".

-Oh.

And those are the initials on the inside.

Oh, gosh! I didn't even realise.

-So I think that whoever Mr Appleby was...

-Yes.

..is the person for whom the piece of furniture was made.

-Right.

-And I think also whilst we have this off,

there's a label here from a depository in Kingston-on-Thames.

So it's the sort of thing one could probably find out if there was a family called Appleby in that area.

And this is dated 1924,

-so at some stage maybe a big house was broken up and the things went into storage.

-Yes.

-Oh, gosh.

-But it's an exceptionally fine piece of furniture,

but it's obviously something to treasure for ever.

It's just something that I've loved and I've been fascinated by.

Well, as an indication, from an insurance point of view,

it's something you should insure because it's so unusual.

I have never seen an elaborate safe like this,

-and it's a dual purpose thing because it's a very useful cabinet which I'm sure you use.

-Yeah, I do use it.

-But from an insurance point of view I would say a figure of something like £6,000 would be sensible.

-Gosh.

This is a lovely rarity for the Roadshow,

we've got someone who was at a pottery factory at the beginning,

or more or less, and someone who was there when it finished.

-You were both at the Hornsea.

-Yes. Yes.

-Did you work together?

-No.

-No.

Tell me how it started for you.

I left school, had to get a job, Hornsea pottery was the main thing in those days.

It was late '50s so I went there when I was 15.

-Because the pottery itself started in 1949.

-Yes.

Two brothers starting painting plaster-of-Paris souvenirs,

and then somebody had the bright idea that they could do it in pottery instead.

And then you joined at a time... just when it was all...

-When it was all coming together.

-Now, what did you do?

Most jobs in the factory, but I started at sponge and fettling.

Now, you're going to have to explain that.

-When the items come out of the mould, after they've been cast...

-Like this?

-Like that one, for instance.

-Yes, OK.

-Where the moulds are joined, they have a ridge,

and that has to be gently lifted off with a knife and sponged with an actual sponge.

Where were the mould lines? Can we see them?

-I hope not! If I've done my job properly you won't be able to see them!

-Absolutely.

-There, you can't see them.

-You've got the good job.

-They were stuck on with slip afterwards.

-No, so probably there, but you can't see those.

-No, you've done a good job.

-I must have done, yes.

-So that was made in the late 1950s.

-Yes, 1950s-60s.

-And the rest of these pieces on this side of the table belong to you?

-Well, yes.

-Do you have any fond feelings for any of them in particular?

-This one, called a doe jug.

-A doe jug?

-A doe jug.

-And there's the doe in the bottom.

-Yes,

and I bought that with my first week's wages - it cost me seven and six, and that was with a discount.

And these pieces on this side of the table were made under your period there?

Under my dad's period, actually. I mean, which was in the '70s,

-and that mug especially, there isn't many of them.

-This mug here?

-Yes, they were made for the Jubilee.

-Yes.

-But they were...

If I remember right, they only had one handle, whereas that one was actually made for my brother.

-But it didn't go into production?

-No, not the double-handed one, no. I think they only made five or six.

-This is a real rarity.

-Yes.

But I think something that's even rarer is these... I've never seen these boxes.

Yes, they were never released for sale, as far as I know.

-And why was that, do you suppose?

-I think it was too modern for its time.

I'm going to disagree with you there,

I think that Hornsea at its really best, was absolutely at the cutting edge of modern design.

They made a lot of things which would fall into the sentimental souvenir bracket,

-let's be honest about it.

-Yes.

-Yes.

But they did, when they were really good, they came top-notch designers.

I think the reason they didn't make this is it is incredibly difficult to do.

-Yes.

-This is basically like making a stick of rock, isn't it?

Um, and that would have been a very expensive process,

so I suspect these are really probably quite expensive objects to a Hornsea collector

-because they never came on the market.

-Yes.

-Mm-hmm.

Um, I have a particular soft spot for the period that YOU were there,

because I don't know if you knew him... Did you know John Clappison?

-John Clappison. Yes, I did.

-Well, John Clappison was one of the leading lights.

-He was, definitely, yes.

-And I fished out of the queue something that really did appeal to me.

-Oh, yes.

-And here it is.

-And this was actually designed by John Clappison.

-Yes, yes.

-Now, isn't that fantastic?

-Lovely.

-Yes.

Now, some people say, "What?! I wouldn't give that house room!"

But it's... One of the questions we really get asked on the Roadshow is,

"What do you recommend that we buy for a future investment?"

I say, "Buy something that speaks of its period".

Now, we know that Clappison designed this in 1959, it went into production in...

Yes, I remember, I've fettled a few of those.

-You might even have fettled these?

-Yes.

-Good heavens, isn't that wonderful?

-Yes.

And they are typical of the early '60s when they were in production.

They were in production for about three years.

That conical shape, that sort of abstracted tree design,

alpine and spruce are the two patterns, and I think that's a really glorious design.

-Yes.

-I think that's where the money should go.

-Yes.

-Do you remember what this retailed for? Early '60s.

-Now you're asking.

-Give it a guess.

-No, I can't. Well, if that was seven and six...

-That would be...

-A bit more.

-£1 10 shillings or something?

£1, something like that, yes.

£1 10 shillings. That would be £1.50...

in 1960-63.

Stick two noughts on the end and today you'd have £150.

But it shows you what a tremendous variety Hornsea was responsible for producing.

My son had stored quite a bit of stuff in his loft in the house he'd lived in for what, 10-15 years.

-They found another house, they were moving.

-Yes.

And as they went to empty the loft they saw a black bag.

"What's that?" "I don't know." And there we are.

And there it was, voila, as they say. But it never belonged to your family?

-No.

-How brilliant! Well, let me tell you a little bit about this picture.

Now, have you noticed that it's signed or anything?

-No, I've looked for a signature. I can't see anything.

-It's just here.

It's Edmund Gill.

-1879, it looks like there.

-Oh.

Now, Edmund Gill was called Waterfall Gill because he only...

by and large...painted waterfalls

and he painted mainly in Wales and Yorkshire.

But, funnily enough, according to an old label on the back,

this is in fact North Wales, it says.

So we have a wonderfully typical work

by this Victorian artist, Edmund "Waterfall" Gill.

But it has been a bit battered, hasn't it?

Oh, yes, forgotten.

-Forgotten.

-Mice?

Mice, scratches, we don't know what it was.

I think you're going to get a bit of a windfall from a waterfall,

-if you...if you excuse the pun.

-Yes.

-But I would say something like this was worth between £1,500 and £2,000.

-Good heavens!

-So, not bad.

-Not bad.

-So you'd do, like, a handkerchief or...?

-Yeah. And dusters.

-Dusters?

-Yes.

-Dusters?! This is just fantastic.

So this is a sewing machine... We can tell the age of it.

-It's got the patent details on the side here.

-Yes.

-So, 18... "Patented in 1875."

-Was it?

-Yes.

So you are using a sewing machine from 1875,

over 100 years ago, to do your hemming on your dusters.

-Yes.

-Right.

Most people who have these are avid collectors of sewing machines.

-They don't necessarily still use them.

-No.

-It's actually got the maker's name on it.

-Yes.

-Taylor's of Driffield, which is near here, isn't it?

-Yes, not far.

Only about 10 mile up the road.

And then, of course, it was... also made for a Cheapside firm.

That was a big centre for tailoring.

-We need to see the sewing in action.

-Well, I'll try.

-Can you give us a demonstration?

-I'll try.

-Here goes.

-Here goes.

That's it.

That's tremendous.

Look at that long stitch, that's wonderful.

I'm not sure how straight you're going there.

Oh, no, just left of the mark.

That's brilliant. So, still in use today.

Value-wise to a collector of sewing machines,

I expect they'd be happy to part with as much as £100 for it.

Ah! Oh, I like that.

But I think they'd pay more if it came with one of your pre-sewn dusters.

Maybe!

Bill, if someone inherits an old firearm and it's been lying around for ages,

how do they know that it's safe to handle?

Well, the first thing that you should do whenever you pick up any firearm

is to assume that it's loaded.

It's not very easy to tell with a muzzle-loading firearm.

A sure-fire way of doing it is to use the ramrod,

or another rod if it hasn't got one, and to drop it down the barrel.

If it goes in a good, long way

and you then pull it out and measure it off against the barrel,

you can see that's gone right down to the bottom,

so there's nothing in there.

Now, if I take this one and drop it in, you see it sticks out.

-Are you telling me that's loaded?

-Yes, it is.

I loaded it with lavatory paper

to give the impression that there was a charge in there.

That sticking out the top should ring some alarm bells.

If you have a firearm that you think is loaded,

you must always keep your fingers away from the trigger and the mechanism

until you can find some way of unloading it or getting someone to unload it.

As a general principle, guns don't go off until you pull the triggers.

If I was suspicious about this,

I would make sure this was put somewhere it wouldn't do any harm,

locked away. And, you see, I'm always pointing it

in a way where the worst that's going to suffer is a light if it goes off.

But suppose, after all these reassurances, they simply are too worried to keep it,

-how do they get rid of it?

-You can own antique firearms legitimately

and there are plenty of ways of disposing it, through auctions, through the local gunsmith.

Local gunsmiths are very useful for working out whether things are loaded,

because they do it on a daily basis.

If you have any doubts, look in the telephone directory, find the local gunsmith.

You could also try and get in touch with a local shooting club

or phone the police firearms licensing department.

When I was doing my National Service, I always kept the musket clean, no spiders down the barrel.

What's the feeling about cleaning weapons? I mean swords and guns?

I have very mixed views about cleaning it.

If we look at this rather nice Prussian bayonet.

It's got a brass hilt and I haven't cleaned that deliberately

and it's got what is very clearly the sort of patina of ages on it,

and I've left that because I like that colour.

Rather than that shiny brass on this modern replica.

And I don't intend to clean that. The best, I think, that you can do

if you are uncertain as to whether to clean something is don't clean it.

We get people bringing Grandad's medals and they say, "We cleaned them specially last night."

And I say, "Oh, I wish you hadn't."

Every time you clean metal, you actually take some of it away.

Modern pastes and polishes are highly abrasive.

The only thing that I would consider using on metalwork like this

is this very fine chalk paste.

It takes it off very, very slowly and you can control the process.

That's about as abrasive as talcum powder.

That's conservation-grade paste that's used in museums.

-You're going to make someone a wonderful housewife.

-Thank you!

Kind of you to say so. I have been known to hoover on one occasion.

Very rare. But I do enjoy a bit of dusting.

My grandfather bought a raffle ticket

at a church garden party in about...

-..1880, I would think.

-No!

I wasn't there but I think it would be about 1880.

And...it...was a prize...

that had been donated to the garden party

by a missionary from Japan who was home on leave.

What puzzles me slightly

is that these prints are not on Japanese paper, as you would expect,

they are on crepe paper.

-Mm.

-Now, the crepe paper was generally for export.

Yes.

Now, I would suspect one of two things -

either they got hold of, in Japan, some crepe-paper prints

and that this lacework was done by Japanese in the mission,

and being taught to do lace in the mission,

or that the prints came back with the missionary

-and the whole thing was put together in England.

-Oh.

I wonder whether we've got anything on the...?

Now, you see, this IS Japanese.

-This whole thing was put together in Japan.

-Ah, yes?

-Undoubtedly, yeah.

Right. Now, that's fascinating.

-1880, we can go back to.

-Well, round about 1880...

Well, that's as early as it could be.

You don't get these crepe paper much earlier than that.

This would have appealed enormously to somebody in England in 1880.

We are in the Aesthetic Movement period

when the whole country is Japanese mad.

Anything Japanese...BIG time.

The prints are of a late date, as you would expect.

The only ones I know here are by Kunisada,

who was a well-known print-maker.

But they're all of a high standard

and illustrate scenes of Japanese life

or from stories, mythology, that sort of thing.

If I were putting an exhibition on

at a major London museum

and I wanted to illustrate

this period...

-I'd put this in it.

-I see, yes.

-This would be in it.

Putting a value on it is actually jolly difficult because it doesn't fit into any category.

It's just a novelty.

But I think it's a novelty which, if it did come up for sale and it were written up properly,

would make between £2,000 and £3,000.

Oh.

-A quite expensive novelty, eh?

-Yes.

"With love and kisses for a happy Geburtstag to Val, (34 today) from Mike".

Who Val, who Mike?

I'm Val, Mike McCartney.

-Brother of Paul.

-Yes.

-This is something that he made for you on your 34th birthday...?! I don't think so.

-19th.

That sounds more like it. And when was that? What year?

1961.

Amazing! So, you and Mike were what, girlfriend/boyfriend, friends?

Well, friends really. We were both students in Liverpool at the same time.

Fantastic. And this reads through a kind of who's who and what's what

-in Liverpool in '61 in the Jacaranda Coffee Bar.

-Yes.

Everybody knows about the Cavern probably. But the Jacaranda was a great venue.

-Bit scruffy, I've been told.

-Yes.

-And the Cavern.

-Yes.

I mean, one can't look at a Cavern Club membership card

-without sort of feeling a sort of thrill of excitement.

-Yes.

-And did you go often?

-Yes, quite a lot.

On Mike McCartney's arm?

-Yes.

-Very good.

-Sometimes.

-You were sort of waved through probably.

-Yes, yes, absolutely, yes.

-And how good were they?

-Excellent, wonderful.

I've spoken to a lot of people who went to those early concerts

and they've said that, you know, the sort of sexiness of it, the sort of rawness of it

was something that they kind of lost when they went to bigger venues and were more...

Because this was originally a jazz club.

Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball and all those sort of bands played there.

And did you feel that you were at the sort of start of something big?

-Yes, definitely.

-And how...?

-Absolutely, yes.

-So they were definitely a cut above everybody else.

-Yes.

Wonderful. And in those early days, of course, they had a completely different line-up.

This shows you that early line-up.

You had George Harrison, John Lennon,

-Paul McCartney and Pete Best, who was the drummer.

-Pete Best.

-How did you get that?

-Well, there's a story attached to that.

I was down in the Cavern with them, with Mike, and they weren't really very famous at the time,

so for a joke actually

I picked this old Senior Service packet up from the Cavern floor

-and said, "Right, boys, sign that for me."

-"One day you'll be famous."

-And...

-A true story.

And it's so sweet the way they've written "The Beatles",

-just in case you forgot which band it was.

-Yes.

But I like the look of some of these letters here.

It says here "In the Cavern the other day,

"660 came to see them in the lunch break..." The Beatles.

"..while the Shadows got approximately 700 and the Temperance Seven about 800, both at night."

So suddenly it was a lunch-time venue.

-Lunch time.

-How interesting!

This is a nice little bit of history. What date's that? July '61. And what else have we got in here?

I'm waiting... This is like the Holy Grail here, handling these.

Oh, how sweet!

"Dad has just found your letter in a bunch of fan mail.

"You see, Paul gets between 40 and 70 letters a day now and some of it hasn't been sorted."

I think that's great. From the really early days again, 1961.

-Yes.

-I mean this is just wonderful.

-And the fact that you were right in there, right at the sort of... in the middle of it all.

-Yes.

This is going to stack up really nicely.

Let's do a little bit of adding here.

Well, the poster itself, even though it's got a little bit of damage,

-that's probably around £250.

-Really?

-Yes.

And then these...

little pieces of printed memorabilia,

well, these are probably going...

A ticket like that is probably going to be £250.

And another £250. Jacaranda Club...

You very seldom see the Jacaranda, that's probably another £250.

The Cavern for the 1963 season, THE ultimate season!

-£400, £500 maybe.

-Really?

-Letters... I mean, not that you could ever think about selling these.

-Oh, no.

-These are...

-Hundreds a-piece.

-Really?

-Hundreds a-piece,

-because they relate to The Beatles.

-Yes.

And as for this little joke from the floor of the Cavern,

I would have thought we're talking about probably £3,000...£4,000.

Gosh, wonderful.

-So it's a very nice little group of memories really.

-Yes.

-But more than memories.

-Absolutely.

-Because they actually tell the story of the early days

-of probably the most important band of the 20th century.

-Yes, wonderful.

-Good for you.

Thank you very much. That was really interesting.

No wonder the streets of Hornsea were empty earlier,

I think everyone was eager to get out of the cold into the embrace of a nice, warm expert.

Folk here are very used to fighting the elements.

This town used to be 14 miles from the sea

and now it's just a quarter of a mile away. Fingers crossed!

Until the next time, from the coast of Yorkshire, goodbye.

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