Ventnor Antiques Roadshow

The Antiques Roadshow in the tropics? Not quite.

We have left the British mainland behind,

but the English Channel is just a short trek through the jungle from here.

In fact, we've done a bit of island hopping

and at 787 feet above sea level,

St Boniface Down is the highest point on this particular blessed plot.

During World War II when France was occupied, enemy forces were just 70 miles away.

Yes, it is the Isle of Wight, and we've set our sights

on the resort and health spa of Ventnor, 787 feet down there.

At the turn of the 19th century, Ventnor consisted of

a couple of farmhouses and a few fishing shacks.

It was a difficult place to reach,

but three events would dramatically change its face and fortune.

Firstly, the coming of the railway.

That got here in 1866 and brought visitors from Ryde, Newport and other towns on the island,

plus holiday makers from much further afield.

20 years later, a substantial pier was built

offering deep-water mooring for steamers.

And taking advantage of the mild climate and fresh sea air,

an enormous hospital was built for people with chest ailments.

With all these benefits, Ventnor's heyday had arrived...

the population soared, and crowds flocked to the now fashionable resort.

Today, Ventnor's Victorian beauty is well preserved

and despite greatly improved communications,

there's still a feeling of splendid isolation.

So what do we have? An island that looks tropical, but isn't...

where there are needles you can't thread,

and a resort called Ryde where you walk.

Not to mention Cowes that you can't milk...

and Ventnor's Art Deco Winter Gardens, which have a distinctly summery feel.

And in this relaxed holiday atmosphere, it's time for our experts to get to work.

What treasures have you got?

No self-respecting seaside town would not have Mr Whippy,

but I didn't expect to find it on a girandole like this.

Where has this fantastic piece of whimsy hung for the last few years?

-Well, it hung above the fireplace in my mother's house.

-Right.

And now it hangs over the lounge fireplace in my house, which is also being used as a guest house.

-Oh, right.

-Yes.

It is the most exuberant bit of carving I've seen for a long time.

What's very amusing is...

down in the bottom here you've got a rather stylised pineapple.

Which is the symbol of hospitality.

That's interesting, I didn't know anything at all about it.

Well, it's perfect. I mean, this is all bells and whistles,

everything's been thrown at it, it's a really interesting example

of a late-19th-century revival of everything from mid-18th-century Chippendale

with these extraordinary Rococo sea scrolls, the parcel gilding,

and then the summit of the whole thing is this fantastic, almost heraldic cresting.

Sometimes you get a bird or symbol which is a family heraldic symbol.

-This is actually a carving of a pelican.

-Oh, is it?

In its piety and it's rather a sort of wonderful tale of how a pelican came back to find that its young

were undernourished and underfed, so it actually starts to feed its children from its own breast.

-That's interesting.

-So echoing this idea of the hospitality, you've also got this pelican,

prepared to sacrifice everything for their young. Any idea of its date?

I have no idea at all, the only thing I know, that my mother was putting it out by the dustbin one day.

-Oh, no.

-And I retrieved it, because I thought it was too nice to go

with the dustman, and I don't know anything else.

I'm very glad it didn't go in the dustbin

because it's a perfect example of this late-19th-century revival

where they throw everything at it. I love this idea of having...

In the 18th century, girandoles had candle branches, but you've got these latest mod cons

which would have been with gas, then electricity. They're hollow right through.

Made of mahogany, it's got one or two little losses

on these panels here which are a bit pounced.

-Yes.

-They had applied bits of carving, where it's not pounced in these central bits of the field,

which I think must have been further bits of parcel gilding,

little gilt sprays of flowers which would have enriched these corners.

I've never looked at it that closely.

I love the fact that you've even got these wonderful old cobwebs

-that have been there for some time.

-Yes, yes.

-It's really fun.

Now, it nearly went in the dustbin.

-Yes.

-I'm glad it didn't, but it's got some value.

If you tried to replace that, you might have to spend

£2,000.

Crikey.

That does surprise me.

I came to the Isle of Wight as a child, and like all children,

I was fascinated by things typically to do with the island, such as Alum Bay and coloured sands.

I found that extraordinary.

I didn't collect things like this then, but of course these are sand pictures, aren't they?

Are you an Isle of Wight person?

No, I'm from the mainland, but I have an interest in the Isle of Wight and these I find very curious.

They're from a long time ago because the times I've started coming to the Isle of Wight,

there doesn't seem to be coloured sand at Alum Bay, or very little. These show the colours...

These colours really were there, today they're stained and dyed colours.

The Isle of Wight is a Victorian invention.

I'll offend people by saying that, but it's largely true,

Queen Victoria and Osborne and all that, and the souvenir to take home was something to do with the sand,

and many manufacturers were set up making pictures like this.

Here we have the Needles, here we have Carisbrooke Castle,

familiar view,

and here we have... oh, I don't know, where's that?

Well, we think it's probably Steephill Cove, just a little way down the coast from here.

This was a production line basis,

lots of people in workshops and studios spreading glue on the paper

and scattering the sand on to make the pictures which were then sold

to visiting tourists.

They're not particularly rare, but to me they're absolutely essential.

We couldn't do a Roadshow in the Isle of Wight without sand paintings. Where did you find them?

Unfortunately, car boot sales on the mainland, these, two.

-They didn't sell here, they sold to trippers who took them home.

-That's right.

-What did you pay?

These two for £5 the pair.

The pair. And the other one, 50 pence.

-50 pence, jolly good.

-Which I think is the best.

I like that very much, nice colours.

You're doing all right. In the right market they'd be £20-£30 each.

-It's not the value, though.

-It's not the value.

You can assemble the story of the Isle of Wight through these tourist artefacts, so keep looking.

I'm feeling a bit of an ass

because I almost called this a donkey actually,

but how could I make the mistake with a pair of ears like that?

It's absolutely wonderful.

-I thought it was a donkey.

-No, look, look at those ears.

-You don't get ears that long on a donkey?

-Don't you?

-It really is a beautiful stick.

-Yes.

It's made by one of the best manufacturers - Brigg.

-It's clearly marked on the reverse here.

-Yes.

-Also it has a London hallmark for 1898.

-Yes.

That is reflected by the initials and the date on the front of it - SL 1898.

It's technically an "in-date" because the date and initials on the front match the hallmark.

-Yes.

-This top is ivory, it's beautifully realistic.

-Yes.

Beautifully executed. I have to be honest with you, it's one of the best canes I've seen for a while.

-And I can't help but giggle every time I do that.

-Yes, yes.

That's what makes it such a rare survivor. How fragile!

I don't think it could have ever seriously been used.

-Only when the grandchildren came.

-Did it amuse them?

-One was frightened.

-Yes?

-Yes, and backed off.

It's beautiful. Have you ever considered a value?

-We don't know.

-You don't know.

-That's why we came here, to get an indication.

How about £1,000-£1,500?

What!

-Oh, no! You're joking.

-Absolutely no problem.

-It's absolutely beautiful.

-Good heavens!

I have no hesitation of putting that price on a cane like that

in such beautiful condition.

-Oh, my God!

-I hope it keeps amusing the grandchildren.

-Thank you for bringing it along.

-Yes, thank you very much.

I feel like the Grand Old Duke of York, up and down hills all day,

I've left the Winter Gardens and I'm back up the top of St Boniface Down.

I've come here to meet this week's collector, or collectors, there's a whole bunch of them.

Meet the Isle of Wight Austins. Hello, everyone.

Hello, Michael.

What a jolly lot. How many of you are there?

There's 75 of us, Michael, and about 99 cars, all Austins, on the island.

-So somebody's got more than one?

-They have.

-And when did you form the club?

-1996.

We didn't actually form the club, what happened was that, I appeared

with an Austin Seven, somebody saw me and it grew like Topsy from there.

What is the big appeal of Austins then?

Well, with modern motorways, Austins are not really suitable, but here on the island...

We do have a motorway, it's actually about 400 yards long, but it's the only bit we've got.

The rest of the island is lovely country roads to drive on,

what the Austin Seven was made for back in the '20s.

Not all the cars are from the island. Where do they get them?

It's grown because they've seen us out and about doing our little trips

and every Sunday morning having a picnic, heard the champagne corks flying,

they've all just wanted to join and it's just grown and grown, it's wonderful.

Have you got a whole range of cars?

Oh, yes, right from the very small little Austin Seven,

which was the car really which saved the Austin Motor Company many years ago,

right up to big limousines and even a London taxi.

Do you take the cars off the island at all?

Yes, Mike here has been the big organiser in the past,

and we've been to France several times for holidays,

round Normandy, and had wonderful times, absolutely wonderful times,

and the cars have behaved faultlessly.

They're obviously much loved. That's a sweet little one.

Ah, that's Elvis, that's actually my wife's car.

My wife has always loved Elvis Presley and so I bought her that car

and we called it Elvis because it was a lot cheaper

than me actually having plastic surgery, you see, so...

The prices are coming down now, she could have had both.

-Yes.

-I love the way you bought it for your wife, called it Elvis and called it a "she".

-Yes.

Absolutely, yes.

Which is the oldest car you've got here?

The oldest car's a 1924 Austin 12

which is a touring car, which has a remarkable history, it was actually found under a dust sheet in Australia

and re-imported back into this country and restored, and it's the most beautiful example.

-This is historically an important time for the make.

-True, Michael.

This is the centenary of the Austin make of motor car which remained at Longbridge,

-outside Birmingham, and tragically, recently the Longbridge works has closed down.

-Speaking of which,

the weather is closing down. I'd better get back to the Winter Gardens. Any chance of a lift?

Sure, I can give you a lift in my taxi.

-Perfect.

-The meter might be running.

Now here we are in the Isle of Wight, but actually

-with this piece of furniture we're in Scotland, aren't we?

-Indeed yes.

So how does Scotland come so far south?

Well, the escritoire, as we were told, came down from my aunt and uncle who lived in Bearsden.

-Where's that?

-Just outside Glasgow.

-Oh, yes.

-North of Glasgow. It was a wedding present to my parents in, I think, around about 1928.

-Right.

And before it came to my aunt and uncle I believed it belonged to

my uncle's parents who also lived in Bearsden so that was...

-So it's got a very good Glasgow ancestry?

-Yes, yes.

Well, that all makes sense because of course it is a Glasgow piece.

Now if I say to you, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

-Yes.

-How do you react?

-I'd be delighted if it was a design of his.

-Don't get too excited because obviously, in modern terms,

he is the great hero of that period,

-architect, designer, in a sense the man who put modern Glasgow on the map in design terms.

-Yes.

What he and his reputation have overshadowed is a vast sub-structure of Glasgow furniture makers

who were actually very good, very exciting, very dynamic and very modern, and we've tended to forget

about them because he was the great hero, or he's become the great hero

and I think in a sense, a piece like this gives us an opportunity to readdress history.

I think this is just lovely, it's a lovely shape, scale, proportion,

nice simple Art Nouveau-style inlay,

we're looking at 1900-1910, exactly the period of Mackintosh, beautifully made...

when you drop the full front down, look, isn't that lovely?

-Yes, yes.

-It's just such a contrast.

All this dark wood, mahogany, suddenly you get this light wood,

you get ivory handles, it's a beautiful, practical piece to me.

-Yes.

-It has all that sense of Glasgow modernism.

Look at the way these are curved, they expand,

and then they flare out again at the feet. It's pure Glasgow.

This is sophisticated and modern and urban.

If we take the drawer out,

-there we've got the key. You knew that I'm sure.

-Yes, indeed.

-Do you know anything about Gardners?

No, I tried to find out but I guess they're no longer in existence.

A Gardner and Son were a manufacturer of furniture, a retailer of furniture,

it started in 1832, Gardners remained in business until 1985 and they were then bought out,

so here we have a piece made by a primary maker.

They were the leaders of the furniture trade in Glasgow. Who's heard of them?

This is exactly my case, you know, Mackintosh is great,

but forget Mackintosh. If this was Mackintosh

I'd be saying to you, £150,000, and it's nonsense! A lot of Mackintosh furniture is not well made.

So you've got a great piece, in value terms this is probably £1,000. And to me that's ridiculous.

Mackintosh is great, but a Mackintosh chair, not very well made, for £250,000, or this?

Well, money apart, I'd rather have this.

Here are two gesunking great shells.

How did they fall into your life? With a clatter, I imagine.

Well, I found, I found them in the garden just tucked under the hedge

and I thought they looked interesting so I took them indoors and cleaned them up and give them a scrub.

When you took the moss and grime away,

did these rather haunting scenes reveal themselves to you?

Yes, but I couldn't understand what was going on in the pictures at all.

I was looking at the sort of quality, and some are

very elaborate and yet the poor old elephant's got great big feet on him that's out of context.

Well, he is out of context in a way,

but what we need to do is look immediately at the subject matter of these two.

They're Neo-Classical scenes, probably derived from Greek and Roman iconography

but seen in a strangely Renaissance way too, so that's important

because they were carved in Italy not far away from Rome itself, in Naples

and the skill of the cameo carvers, better known in jewellery design,

and less frequently in these very monumental shapes.

They were probably brought back by the person that lived in your house,

or perhaps their antecedents, in the 1880s,

which was a very high point of this.

-Are you pleased to have them in your house?

-Yes, we quite like them.

They decorate the room, they add to the ambience of the room quite nicely.

I think it'd be even nicer having a drink in bed.

That's true. It's an inspiration to get a good party going.

Maybe you should have a party when you bring them back because the valuation

is the good news, and a tiny bit of bad news too.

In perfect order, they might have been worth in the region of

£800 to £1,000, but, in my view, they're still worth

maybe £400, £600 the pair because they're great curiosities and very rarely seen.

Thanks for bringing them.

You look very comfortable perched there. I can only assume

-you've spent many hours gazing at ships through this telescope.

-I certainly have.

It's a wonderful telescope, and what first attracted me to it was this incredibly ornate mount here.

Looking at it, initially I'm drawn to the maker's mark which I always look for with a telescope.

R & J Beck Ltd, London, England, established 1837.

Richard and Joseph Beck Limited, very good London makers.

The "limited" allows me to date it very easily

because that was used after around about 1894.

Did you have an idea of the age of it?

No, because I bought the telescope with a chair when I bought the house I live in now 18 years ago.

-So it came with the house?

-Yes.

-Do you have a sea view?

-Uninterrupted.

-Uninterrupted sea view. So this really belongs with the house. Is it an old house?

It's 1829.

1829, a very old house. Who was the original owner of the house? Who did you inherit this telescope from?

-It was Major Parr and Mrs Parr of Parr's Bank.

-Right.

-I hoped you were going to say an admiral.

-No.

-An admiral would have been better than a major here.

-Of course.

But having said that, it really is a very beautiful telescope,

in fact it was meant to look good because it is a real marine kind of gazer's telescope.

It's on a lovely teak stand which has got these lovely scroll-work ties at the top here.

It looks earlier than 1894-95 to me, this makes it look earlier,

but this really dates it definitively.

-It looks powerful. What sort of distance do you get?

-You can see to the horizon with it.

-Really?

Yes, I can't always see the names on the ships.

-I think it needs a little bit of TLC to the glass.

-Does it focus well?

-Very well, yes.

It's a wonderful looking thing. What's very good, apart from its very original condition,

you've got original lacquer which is lacking in certain parts around the scroll work here,

but very original condition, teak stand with lovely revets down the side here,

-the cross members with engraved decoration.

-Same as the top.

This is all decoration I don't generally expect on a telescope

but obviously it was made to look good. That's its main attraction.

Because it's a good-looking telescope, it's the kind

that looks superb in a gentleman's library or on a terrace

-and there are many reproductions around but this is a really good original version.

-Lovely, isn't it?

Lots of people would be very happy to own this.

Have you ever thought about value on it?

I was offered a certain amount a while back,

but I knew it was worth more than he offered, it was a dealer.

-Do you mind me asking how much he offered?

-£600.

I think that was a bit on the stingy side.

-I can see this going into auction and without any hesitation making £2,000 at auction.

-Really?

-It's a lovely thing.

-It is.

-Great decorator's piece.

-I've got to sell it, I'm moving and won't have any sea views, so it's got to go.

-That's a shame.

-It needs a sea view, I think.

-It does, it's lovely.

-Thank you for bringing it along.

-Thank you very much, thanks.

It's a really special picture, isn't it?

Yes, it has got quite a history and my grandmother actually

got off a bus in the middle of a Zeppelin raid in the First World War

and it saved her life.

Saved her life? How can a picture save someone's life?

Well, she was on the bus and she was in a traffic jam and she saw it,

and she jumped off the bus on impulse to go and buy it,

it was in the middle of a Zeppelin raid, she was pulled to the back of the shop, later on when they emerged

from the shop they discovered that all the glass was broken but the picture was intact, they went out

onto the road and the bus was blown up, just a hole in the road.

-Really?

-Yes, she always told me I wouldn't have been here if it hadn't been for the picture.

I was about seven when she gave it to me.

That's quite a remarkable story.

-Yes.

-So it's not the Christmas association at all really.

-No.

But this picture effectively saved her life.

Well, yes, my daughters and I, and my mother,

would never have been around if it hadn't been for, for that.

It's quite interesting, you've just caught a glimpse of this,

-you've cut out this picture from what..?

-It was the Daily Record.

Yeah, it was 1916, this is September 19, 1916, isn't it?

She goes out, she's heading towards Liverpool Street and this terrible tragedy occurs.

-How can you put a price on something that saved your life?

-You can't, can you?

It's impossible but really special for you, tremendous piece to bring in.

-Do you want to tell me what it is?

-Yes, it's a car mascot.

It is a car mascot and that begs the question - where is the car these days?

Well, unfortunately it was sold, it was an Alvis, it was my father's Alvis.

-What date are we talking about, that car?

-Oh, he had the Alvis in the middle of the 1960s

and he had it up until about 1997.

-So the car was a '60s car, or was it older?

-The car was earlier than that, yes.

OK, because this car mascot would have been on a car

that would have been around, initially in the late 1920s, early 1930s,

and the fact it's a glass car mascot, well, there are no prizes for guessing who it's by.

It has a very nice signature which we can see engraved

on here that tells us of course that it's by that great man Rene Lalique.

But what a strange-looking mount!

I mean, this is Lalique from here...to here, OK?

So just describe this rather strange-looking wooden mount.

What is this thing here?

After my father could no longer have it on the car,

he dismounted it and my grandfather made the plinth for it, it's the inside of a 1960s television.

-This bit here?

-Yes, the glass bit.

-So what is that?

-I believe that's part of the photon tube from a television of that period.

I'll believe you. So is this a device that allows you to illuminate this mascot?

It used to light up, yes, it used to light up a nice mauve purply colour.

Lovely, that was the great virtue of Lalique's car mascots.

First of all, let's just say that this particular one was known simply, in this country,

as the large dragonfly, and of course there's a small dragonfly.

This I find the most interesting, it's in remarkable condition.

Date-wise I would say around about 1928-1930.

You would have paid either three guineas,

or four guineas if you wanted it fitted for illumination.

Not bad. If I was to go out and put a mascot like this on my car, I would have to dig deep

because I saw one of these mascots sold

only a couple of months ago, in London, um...

and it made just short of £3,000.

-Oh, that's very nice.

-It makes you wonder what the Alvis is worth today, doesn't it?

-Yeah,

I wish he'd kept it.

I probably wouldn't have chosen it, but it has a nice story behind it.

It was left to my husband's grandfather by two great aunts,

who'd done lots of travelling and were extraordinary women. Their father died when they were young,

they had little money and set up two businesses,

a creche and a laundry, and they built things up from that and then they'd gone travelling.

-Apparently went round the world twice and even got shipwrecked off New Zealand.

-When was this?

Well, um...it must have been late 1800s but I don't know the exact...

-Late 19th century.

-Yes.

That would actually make perfect sense for the date of this cabinet.

If they'd done well in their businesses and they did a world trip,

just as today, if you do a cruise, you were taken on a tour when you landed in...

wherever it was, you would be taken to the manufacturers

to see whether you wanted to buy something

and so it was in the 19th century. Nothing has changed.

And this could well have been picked up in where?

I assume China or...

You assume wrong.

-Um, it's actually Japanese.

-Oh.

The Chinese, in centuries gone by, have produced wonderful things.

But when it came to the late 19th century, almost nothing.

The emphasis had switched to Japan.

And this...I mean, I've been dealing with Japanese objects for nearly 40 years

and this is as good as it gets,

this is magnificent.

The quality of the carving that's been thrown at this is phenomenal.

Everywhere you look, it's just brilliant.

-We've got a typical Japanese scene here of quail in millet.

-Yes.

They loved quail in millet.

-The landscapes here are actually Chinese in style, this is taken from Sung painting.

-Right.

In China. And they've translated it to Japan. Flocks of birds...

you find these carved on vases

made of wood...

panels here, shi-shi, these Buddhist lion leaping about on here, wonderfully done.

Arthur Negus... do you remember Arthur Negus?

Arthur, although he was into 18th-century furniture,

wood was his great love and I think he would have seen this and he would have gone,

you know, this would have turned him on.

I can see him saying,

"Oh, just look at the carving of that, it's wonderful.

"Just look at the way that dragon comes round like that,

"oh, you can feel it." All Arthur.

It's great. The eyes are inlaid in horn to give them life,

it's a splendid, splendid thing.

We've got doors that open, we've got doors that slide

in characteristically Japanese style.

I don't want to be rude

but it is filthy.

-I tried to dust it, nervous about certainly the detail.

-I'll tell you what you do.

-You get a one-inch house-painting brush.

-Yeah.

And you go like that and all that dust will fly out.

-Fine.

-And it'll look a hundred times better.

So, do we have it insured?

Um, I'd have to check with my husband, I've got no idea.

If you haven't, you jolly well should.

Um, even in these depressed times,

and the market is not strong for Japanese things at the moment,

I think you wouldn't have any difficulty getting £10,000 to £15,000 for it.

-So that means £20,000 for insurance.

-Right.

-I'll speak to my husband.

-Thank you very much for bringing this over.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

So these beguiling faces normally hang on your dining-room wall and are part of your extended family?

-Yes, they are.

-How does that work?

It was left to my husband, this painting, by this gentleman here.

The strutting young man.

Yes. Because he grew up to be Speaker of the House of Commons in the war

and he was with Churchill all that time...

absolutely hectic life as you can imagine.

-If only coping with Churchill during the war.

-Yes, exactly. That was an enormous task.

And so the two girls are... this lady is

Elsie, Lady Bradford, my husband's mother

and that's his aunt, Isla.

And then Douglas, he was a colonel in the army before that and then of course he was adopted to the Speaker.

This is a very interesting picture, entwined with a very illustrious history, a great provenance,

and is itself I think a rather glorious example of late 19th century society portraiture.

-That's right.

-I mean it's actually a very good picture

to look at and you can't always say that about ancestral portraits, they can be quite strong medicine.

The artist, Alfred Emslie, was quite sophisticated, a portrait painter,

-but also a genre painter, he was aware of greater ideas in art.

-Oh.

And this painting has running through its canvas all sorts of ideas and influences from the past,

bombarding down upon it and you've got this magnificent curtain,

this swag, which one sees in Rubens and Titian.

very good way of filling the back of a picture.

-It's a good, important, elevating way of suggesting that this is a good society image.

-Yes.

And then of course - I love this - the speaker-to-be standing there with...

and that's a crib from Van Dyck.

-Really?

-Yeah. Lord Bernard Stuart in the National Gallery, and it's a way of suggesting

that this person has a little bit of attitude, will go places, this is a portentous sign of what's to come.

-Yes.

-And there he is, the speaker-to-be... I love that.

I might explain that they were a very wealthy family living where the airport is now, London airport,

had thousands of acres and they were considered rather like royalty.

I see what you mean actually, yes, he's got that look.

Yes, he has, hasn't he?

And conversely, the girls are far more feminine,

they derive from 18th-century ideas of portraiture seen in

Fragonard and Boucher.

The artist, Alfred Emslie, do you know anything about him?

I don't know enough about him.

He's important, not top rank, one might have imagined they'd have chosen

a slightly grander painter but he was none the less a significant portraitist and genre painter.

It's a lovely work, it's got a great history, it's an interesting artist,

illustrious sitters, all sorts of references, Old Master references.

-Yes.

-It's got a lot going on in it.

Whatever you do with it and wherever it ends up, you'll need to insure for about £15,000.

I see.

Right, thank you very much, it's very interesting to hear about the artist.

I'm not quite sure which is the more hideous, your vase or my tie.

-I think something can be done about my vase, but not a lot can be done about your tie.

-That's true.

-This is a Troika vase, you see on the bottom.

-Right.

But I've never ever seen this weird and wonderful colour way

with this glitter effect on the top, can you explain that to me?

Well, I found it in a local store. And I was attracted by the shape.

So for 20 pence, I bought it but I really didn't like

-the colouring which was very dark, dismal blue and orangey colour.

-Yes.

One Christmas I thought I'd quite like it to go into my bathroom

which was a new bathroom and very aqua and turquoise bathroom.

-Right.

-So I just got a bit creative and stuck in the bathroom with a Christmas decoration in it

-and then years after that I heard the name Troika.

-So you painted it?

-I did, yes.

-You painted it to match the bathroom.

-I did.

-Then you sprinkled glitter over it.

-Absolutely.

-Which is coming off.

-Absolutely, yeah.

-And created a unique piece of Troika.

-I've never seen one like it.

-No, neither have I.

Absolutely amazing.

It's marked on the bottom Troika Cornwall and the letters AB which is a lady called Alison Brigdon

-who was working at Troika between 1976 and 1983.

-Right, OK.

So there we are. Before its redecoration as you could call it,

its coat of paint, it was worth about £200.

-Great.

-Now I think probably the paint won't come off, we could try paint stripper

and get the paint stripped off, you get the £200 but I suspect that it's not going to happen.

Thank you, yes, I feel sick, again.

-Oh.

-Still.

It was my mother's,

she had it I think round about the very early 1900s.

And then it came to my sister, my eldest sister, and then to me, the youngest one of the family.

Yes, how marvellous and in fact 1900's a perfect date for this

because at that time the Art Nouveau Movement was felt

and this is an Art Nouveau jewel, it's got a very sinuous line, hasn't it?

-Very asymmetrical.

-Yes.

-And that's really a sort of visual signpost to me

that it does date from about 1900.

There are several other visual signposts. It's gold and silver,

and we can say with confidence that it's an English jewel, an English jewel set with diamonds, isn't it?

Yes, I treasure it very much.

I'm sure you do. Do you ever wear it?

Yes, I do, I wore it...um, six weeks ago on my 90th birthday.

-On your 90th birthday, I can't believe that. How marvellous!

-Yes.

That's what it's all about. People say wearing diamonds is like having champagne, it lifts the spirits.

-Does it do that for you?

-Yes, it does, yes.

-How fantastic.

Especially when people admire it on you, yes.

Rarely seen today, this degree of craftsmanship, because in 1900 this level of expertise,

-this level of design, was expected almost everywhere, and today it's hard to find.

-Yes.

That's the fascination with older things, so we're lucky to have them.

-A pretty English jewel from 1900.

-I think I'm very fortunate to have it.

Well, heaven knows, and in a sense its value is sort of limitless to you because it's family.

It is, yes, it will go down the family so far as I'm concerned, I'd never sell it.

That's the point of it. It's unchanging, it'll never fade, it will be exactly the same

as it was for your mother and for your sister and for you

in all the generations it's hoping to pass down through.

I suppose we do have to consider its value because everybody's madly curious, so we mustn't cheat them.

-No.

-And it's very concentrated and it's exactly the right scale for today and I think really everybody

would be pleased to give £2,500 to £3,000 for it today.

Really?

Gracious, I didn't expect that.

Brilliant, well, I didn't expect to see you, and you've really been absolutely marvellous, a real star.

-Thank you very much.

-Fantastic, thanks for bringing it.

Thank you, lovely.

This could be the most exciting discovery of the day. Tell us what it is and where you found it.

We have here a poster from the 1987 Antiques Roadshow when it came to Ventnor and I was working

doing the interiors of a new building up the road, we took over an old office next door

and I found this in the back room and I thought that it was rather a lovely poster

since I'm a fan of the show and I had it framed

and it now hangs in pride of place in our family pub in Ventnor.

-Soon there'll be another alongside it from today's show.

-Exactly.

8th October 1987, they worked a short day, 10am to 4pm.

-We work longer hours now.

-Yes.

Thank you for having us here.

From everyone on the Roadshow to everyone in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, thank you and goodbye.