Ventnor Antiques Roadshow


Ventnor

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The Antiques Roadshow in the tropics? Not quite.

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We have left the British mainland behind,

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

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

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and at 787 feet above sea level,

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

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

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

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

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

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a couple of farmhouses and a few fishing shacks.

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It was a difficult place to reach,

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but three events would dramatically change its face and fortune.

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Firstly, the coming of the railway.

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

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plus holiday makers from much further afield.

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20 years later, a substantial pier was built

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offering deep-water mooring for steamers.

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

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an enormous hospital was built for people with chest ailments.

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

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

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Today, Ventnor's Victorian beauty is well preserved

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and despite greatly improved communications,

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there's still a feeling of splendid isolation.

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

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where there are needles you can't thread,

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and a resort called Ryde where you walk.

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

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

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

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What treasures have you got?

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

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

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

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

-Right.

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

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-Oh, right.

-Yes.

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

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What's very amusing is...

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

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Which is the symbol of hospitality.

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

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

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

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

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with these extraordinary Rococo sea scrolls, the parcel gilding,

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

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

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-This is actually a carving of a pelican.

-Oh, is it?

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

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

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-That's interesting.

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

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

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

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-Oh, no.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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on these panels here which are a bit pounced.

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-Yes.

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

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

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

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I've never looked at it that closely.

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

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-that have been there for some time.

-Yes, yes.

-It's really fun.

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Now, it nearly went in the dustbin.

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-Yes.

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

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

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£2,000.

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Crikey.

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That does surprise me.

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

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

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I found that extraordinary.

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

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Are you an Isle of Wight person?

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

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

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

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

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The Isle of Wight is a Victorian invention.

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

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

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and many manufacturers were set up making pictures like this.

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

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familiar view,

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

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

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This was a production line basis,

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

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

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to visiting tourists.

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

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

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

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

-That's right.

-What did you pay?

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These two for £5 the pair.

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The pair. And the other one, 50 pence.

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-50 pence, jolly good.

-Which I think is the best.

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I like that very much, nice colours.

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

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-It's not the value, though.

-It's not the value.

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

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I'm feeling a bit of an ass

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because I almost called this a donkey actually,

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

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It's absolutely wonderful.

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-I thought it was a donkey.

-No, look, look at those ears.

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

-Don't you?

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-It really is a beautiful stick.

-Yes.

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

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-It's clearly marked on the reverse here.

-Yes.

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-Also it has a London hallmark for 1898.

-Yes.

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

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

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-Yes.

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

-Yes.

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

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

-Yes, yes.

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

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

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-Only when the grandchildren came.

-Did it amuse them?

-One was frightened.

-Yes?

-Yes, and backed off.

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

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-We don't know.

-You don't know.

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

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How about £1,000-£1,500?

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What!

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-Oh, no! You're joking.

-Absolutely no problem.

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-It's absolutely beautiful.

-Good heavens!

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

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in such beautiful condition.

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-Oh, my God!

-I hope it keeps amusing the grandchildren.

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-Thank you for bringing it along.

-Yes, thank you very much.

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

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

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

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Meet the Isle of Wight Austins. Hello, everyone.

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Hello, Michael.

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

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

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-So somebody's got more than one?

-They have.

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-And when did you form the club?

-1996.

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

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

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What is the big appeal of Austins then?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Have you got a whole range of cars?

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

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

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right up to big limousines and even a London taxi.

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Do you take the cars off the island at all?

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

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

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

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and the cars have behaved faultlessly.

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

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

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

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and we called it Elvis because it was a lot cheaper

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

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

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-Yes.

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

-Yes.

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Absolutely, yes.

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Which is the oldest car you've got here?

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The oldest car's a 1924 Austin 12

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

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

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-This is historically an important time for the make.

-True, Michael.

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

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

-Speaking of which,

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

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

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-Perfect.

-The meter might be running.

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

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

-Indeed yes.

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So how does Scotland come so far south?

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

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-Where's that?

-Just outside Glasgow.

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-Oh, yes.

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

-Right.

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

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

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

-Yes, yes.

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

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Now if I say to you, Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

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-Yes.

-How do you react?

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

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

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he is the great hero of that period,

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

-Yes.

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

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

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

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

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

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nice simple Art Nouveau-style inlay,

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

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

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-Yes, yes.

-It's just such a contrast.

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

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

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-Yes.

-It has all that sense of Glasgow modernism.

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Look at the way these are curved, they expand,

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

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This is sophisticated and modern and urban.

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If we take the drawer out,

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

-Yes, indeed.

-Do you know anything about Gardners?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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but forget Mackintosh. If this was Mackintosh

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

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

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

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

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Here are two gesunking great shells.

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

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

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

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When you took the moss and grime away,

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did these rather haunting scenes reveal themselves to you?

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

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

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

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Well, he is out of context in a way,

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

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

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

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

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

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and less frequently in these very monumental shapes.

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

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or perhaps their antecedents, in the 1880s,

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which was a very high point of this.

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-Are you pleased to have them in your house?

-Yes, we quite like them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Thanks for bringing them.

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You look very comfortable perched there. I can only assume

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

-I certainly have.

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

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

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

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Richard and Joseph Beck Limited, very good London makers.

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The "limited" allows me to date it very easily

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because that was used after around about 1894.

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Did you have an idea of the age of it?

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

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-So it came with the house?

-Yes.

-Do you have a sea view?

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-Uninterrupted.

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

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It's 1829.

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

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

-Right.

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-I hoped you were going to say an admiral.

-No.

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

-Of course.

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

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

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

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

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but this really dates it definitively.

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

-You can see to the horizon with it.

-Really?

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

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

-Does it focus well?

-Very well, yes.

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

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

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

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-the cross members with engraved decoration.

-Same as the top.

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

0:21:050:21:09

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

0:21:090:21:12

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

0:21:120:21:16

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

0:21:160:21:20

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

-Lovely, isn't it?

0:21:200:21:25

Lots of people would be very happy to own this.

0:21:250:21:28

Have you ever thought about value on it?

0:21:280:21:31

I was offered a certain amount a while back,

0:21:310:21:33

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

0:21:330:21:36

-Do you mind me asking how much he offered?

-£600.

0:21:360:21:39

I think that was a bit on the stingy side.

0:21:390:21:42

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

-Really?

0:21:420:21:48

-It's a lovely thing.

-It is.

-Great decorator's piece.

0:21:480:21:52

-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.

0:21:520:21:57

-It needs a sea view, I think.

-It does, it's lovely.

0:21:570:22:00

-Thank you for bringing it along.

-Thank you very much, thanks.

0:22:000:22:04

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

0:22:040:22:06

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

0:22:060:22:11

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

0:22:110:22:16

and it saved her life.

0:22:160:22:19

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

0:22:190:22:23

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

0:22:230:22:27

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

0:22:270:22:31

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

0:22:310:22:36

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

0:22:360:22:42

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

0:22:420:22:47

-Really?

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

0:22:470:22:53

I was about seven when she gave it to me.

0:22:530:22:56

That's quite a remarkable story.

0:22:560:22:58

-Yes.

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

-No.

0:22:580:23:02

But this picture effectively saved her life.

0:23:020:23:05

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

0:23:050:23:08

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

0:23:080:23:12

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

0:23:120:23:16

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

-It was the Daily Record.

0:23:160:23:21

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

0:23:210:23:25

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

0:23:250:23:32

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

-You can't, can you?

0:23:320:23:36

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

0:23:360:23:41

-Do you want to tell me what it is?

-Yes, it's a car mascot.

0:23:410:23:45

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

0:23:450:23:52

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

0:23:520:23:58

-What date are we talking about, that car?

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

0:23:580:24:03

and he had it up until about 1997.

0:24:030:24:06

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

-The car was earlier than that, yes.

0:24:060:24:11

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

0:24:110:24:15

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

0:24:150:24:22

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

0:24:220:24:28

It has a very nice signature which we can see engraved

0:24:280:24:31

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

0:24:310:24:36

But what a strange-looking mount!

0:24:360:24:39

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

0:24:390:24:44

So just describe this rather strange-looking wooden mount.

0:24:440:24:48

What is this thing here?

0:24:480:24:50

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

0:24:500:24:53

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

0:24:530:24:59

-This bit here?

-Yes, the glass bit.

0:24:590:25:02

-So what is that?

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

0:25:020:25:07

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

0:25:070:25:12

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

0:25:120:25:17

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

0:25:170:25:21

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

0:25:210:25:27

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

0:25:270:25:31

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

0:25:310:25:36

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

0:25:360:25:42

You would have paid either three guineas,

0:25:420:25:45

or four guineas if you wanted it fitted for illumination.

0:25:450:25:48

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

0:25:480:25:55

because I saw one of these mascots sold

0:25:550:25:59

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

0:25:590:26:03

and it made just short of £3,000.

0:26:030:26:07

-Oh, that's very nice.

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

-Yeah,

0:26:070:26:13

I wish he'd kept it.

0:26:130:26:15

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

0:26:160:26:20

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

0:26:200:26:24

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

0:26:240:26:29

they had little money and set up two businesses,

0:26:290:26:32

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

0:26:320:26:37

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

-When was this?

0:26:370:26:43

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

0:26:430:26:49

-Late 19th century.

-Yes.

0:26:490:26:52

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

0:26:520:26:56

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

0:26:560:27:00

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

0:27:000:27:06

wherever it was, you would be taken to the manufacturers

0:27:060:27:10

to see whether you wanted to buy something

0:27:100:27:14

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

0:27:140:27:17

And this could well have been picked up in where?

0:27:170:27:22

I assume China or...

0:27:220:27:24

You assume wrong.

0:27:240:27:27

-Um, it's actually Japanese.

-Oh.

0:27:270:27:30

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

0:27:300:27:34

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

0:27:340:27:40

The emphasis had switched to Japan.

0:27:400:27:44

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

0:27:440:27:50

and this is as good as it gets,

0:27:500:27:54

this is magnificent.

0:27:540:27:56

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

0:27:560:28:02

Everywhere you look, it's just brilliant.

0:28:020:28:06

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

-Yes.

0:28:060:28:11

They loved quail in millet.

0:28:110:28:13

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

-Right.

0:28:130:28:19

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

0:28:190:28:24

you find these carved on vases

0:28:240:28:28

made of wood...

0:28:280:28:31

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

0:28:310:28:38

Arthur Negus... do you remember Arthur Negus?

0:28:380:28:40

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

0:28:400:28:45

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

0:28:450:28:52

you know, this would have turned him on.

0:28:520:28:54

I can see him saying,

0:28:540:28:57

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

0:28:570:29:01

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

0:29:010:29:04

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

0:29:040:29:08

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

0:29:080:29:11

it's a splendid, splendid thing.

0:29:110:29:14

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

0:29:140:29:18

in characteristically Japanese style.

0:29:180:29:22

I don't want to be rude

0:29:220:29:25

but it is filthy.

0:29:250:29:27

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

-I'll tell you what you do.

0:29:270:29:32

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

-Yeah.

0:29:320:29:36

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

0:29:360:29:41

-Fine.

-And it'll look a hundred times better.

0:29:410:29:44

So, do we have it insured?

0:29:440:29:47

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

0:29:470:29:50

If you haven't, you jolly well should.

0:29:500:29:53

Um, even in these depressed times,

0:29:530:29:56

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

0:29:560:30:01

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

0:30:010:30:06

-So that means £20,000 for insurance.

-Right.

0:30:060:30:10

-I'll speak to my husband.

-Thank you very much for bringing this over.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

0:30:100:30:15

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

0:30:160:30:22

-Yes, they are.

-How does that work?

0:30:220:30:24

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

0:30:240:30:30

The strutting young man.

0:30:300:30:31

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

0:30:310:30:38

and he was with Churchill all that time...

0:30:380:30:41

absolutely hectic life as you can imagine.

0:30:410:30:44

-If only coping with Churchill during the war.

-Yes, exactly. That was an enormous task.

0:30:440:30:50

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

0:30:500:30:55

Elsie, Lady Bradford, my husband's mother

0:30:550:31:00

and that's his aunt, Isla.

0:31:000:31:04

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

0:31:040:31:11

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

0:31:110:31:17

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

0:31:170:31:23

-That's right.

-I mean it's actually a very good picture

0:31:230:31:26

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

0:31:260:31:31

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

0:31:310:31:35

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

-Oh.

0:31:350:31:40

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

0:31:400:31:47

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

0:31:470:31:50

this swag, which one sees in Rubens and Titian.

0:31:500:31:54

very good way of filling the back of a picture.

0:31:540:31:57

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

-Yes.

0:31:570:32:03

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

0:32:030:32:08

and that's a crib from Van Dyck.

0:32:080:32:11

-Really?

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

0:32:110:32:17

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

0:32:170:32:24

-Yes.

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

0:32:240:32:27

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

0:32:270:32:34

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

0:32:340:32:39

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

0:32:390:32:43

Yes, he has, hasn't he?

0:32:430:32:45

And conversely, the girls are far more feminine,

0:32:450:32:48

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

0:32:480:32:52

Fragonard and Boucher.

0:32:520:32:54

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

0:32:540:32:57

I don't know enough about him.

0:32:570:32:59

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

0:32:590:33:03

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

0:33:030:33:09

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

0:33:090:33:14

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

0:33:140:33:17

-Yes.

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

0:33:170:33:19

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

0:33:190:33:25

I see.

0:33:250:33:27

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

0:33:270:33:31

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

0:33:330:33:38

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

-That's true.

0:33:380:33:44

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

-Right.

0:33:440:33:48

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

0:33:480:33:51

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

0:33:510:33:56

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

0:33:560:34:00

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

0:34:000:34:03

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

-Yes.

0:34:030:34:07

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

0:34:070:34:11

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

0:34:110:34:16

-Right.

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

0:34:160:34:23

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

-So you painted it?

0:34:230:34:27

-I did, yes.

-You painted it to match the bathroom.

-I did.

0:34:270:34:30

-Then you sprinkled glitter over it.

-Absolutely.

-Which is coming off.

-Absolutely, yeah.

0:34:300:34:36

-And created a unique piece of Troika.

-I've never seen one like it.

-No, neither have I.

0:34:360:34:41

Absolutely amazing.

0:34:410:34:43

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

0:34:430:34:50

-who was working at Troika between 1976 and 1983.

-Right, OK.

0:34:500:34:55

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

0:34:550:35:00

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

0:35:000:35:03

-Great.

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

0:35:030:35:09

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

0:35:090:35:15

Thank you, yes, I feel sick, again.

0:35:150:35:18

-Oh.

-Still.

0:35:180:35:20

It was my mother's,

0:35:200:35:23

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

0:35:230:35:28

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

0:35:280:35:35

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

0:35:350:35:39

because at that time the Art Nouveau Movement was felt

0:35:390:35:42

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

0:35:420:35:46

-Very asymmetrical.

-Yes.

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

0:35:460:35:52

that it does date from about 1900.

0:35:520:35:55

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

0:35:550:35:59

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

0:35:590:36:06

Yes, I treasure it very much.

0:36:060:36:08

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

0:36:080:36:10

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

0:36:100:36:16

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

-Yes.

0:36:160:36:21

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

0:36:210:36:27

-Does it do that for you?

-Yes, it does, yes.

-How fantastic.

0:36:270:36:30

Especially when people admire it on you, yes.

0:36:300:36:33

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

0:36:330:36:39

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

-Yes.

0:36:390:36:44

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

0:36:440:36:49

-A pretty English jewel from 1900.

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

0:36:490:36:53

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

0:36:530:36:58

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

0:36:580:37:03

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

0:37:030:37:08

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

0:37:080:37:11

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

0:37:110:37:15

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

0:37:150:37:21

-No.

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

0:37:210:37:29

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

0:37:290:37:34

Really?

0:37:340:37:35

Gracious, I didn't expect that.

0:37:380:37:42

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

0:37:420:37:48

-Thank you very much.

-Fantastic, thanks for bringing it.

0:37:480:37:51

Thank you, lovely.

0:37:510:37:53

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

0:37:530:37:58

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

0:37:580:38:05

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

0:38:050:38:10

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

0:38:100:38:15

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

0:38:150:38:18

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

0:38:180:38:23

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

-Exactly.

0:38:230:38:26

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

0:38:260:38:30

-We work longer hours now.

-Yes.

0:38:300:38:32

Thank you for having us here.

0:38:320:38:35

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

0:38:350:38:40

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