Compilation Antiques Roadshow

We are being allowed a brief glimpse into the nerve centre of the Roadshow...

the scanner. Inside this small vehicle, parked in a corner of

the location, the directors are calling the shots on the items being recorded by the experts.

DIRECTOR: Can we have a shot on camera three, please, and come in camera one next.

With up to six people in there, I can tell you you'll find out

who your friends are... it can get very cosy.

It's a lovely move. Two, can I just have a look at close-ups of medallion, please, on the table?

Well, while they get a sneak preview of the day's best finds,

let me show you some unscreened gems from recent shows.

Tonight we visit England, Scotland and Wales in our quest for prize pieces, a journey that begins

in the time warp that is Beamish Open Air Museum in County Durham.

Well, I don't know Newcastle particularly well but this seems quite familiar somehow.

-Can you tell me where it is?

-Well, this is the Black Middens Rocks.

-Notorious to seafarers in Victorian periods.

-Yes.

It's the entrance of the Tyne, we're looking through the piers.

Black Middens is here which the people are standing on,

-er, you've got South Shields on the left here.

-Right.

You've got North Shields with the two lighthouses, one at the bottom.

Oh, yes, and has it changed a lot in 150 years or so?

-I think it has, it has, yes.

-Are there houses in the Middens like this now?

The Middens, you can still go there, I do believe...

me wife and I have been there and we can still see this rock.

-This rock?

-This rock is still...

-Has been weathered.

Yes, a bit but it was a big rock and we believe it's still there.

Marvellous, yes, so the artist has really got it right.

He's captured the moment.

Well, what I like about this picture is that it is a local scene,

but you know, when you look on the front it's not signed and who's it by?

We know vaguely, don't we, because if you look on the back, just round here

there's this lovely old label

which says "Matthew White Ridley",

the painter, but Matthew White Ridley

is not that well known. He was born in Newcastle on Tyne, and then I think he came to London

to make his fame and fortune and he exhibited at the Royal Academy.

-That's right.

-And this was exhibited in the Royal Academy, I think in 1863, something like that.

-Correct.

And the title of the picture is...

"Two strings to the bow".

..To the bow, so he's got two friends...

Perfect, perfect. I think it's got great charm and I think,

actually, for me, the value is in the fact that it's a local scene.

The best bit of the picture I think is the landscape in the background.

-Yes.

-Although the figures are well done, they're not as good as perhaps

this sort of area here. It's just so beautifully done...

Have you ever had it valued?

-Not really, no, I'm not particularly interested...

-In the value.

In the value, I've always wanted a north-east oil painting

and one that displayed that vista of the Tyne.

-Yeah.

-And when I seen it, I was standing with me back to it,

and me wife says, "Have you seen this picture?"

-And I turned round and I couldn't believe it.

-Amazing.

-I fell in love with it.

-Yeah.

That's the best reason for buying anything. When was this?

It was about three or four year ago.

-OK.

-It was in an auction.

-Tell us what you paid.

I paid at the time, I believe...

-A world record price(!)

-£3,000.

Oh £3,000, oh, well I think that's good. I mean, I honestly, without knowing that,

I was going to say £5,000 or £6,000 now because I just think that, you know, because of the local

interest and because of the topography of this picture, you've got a wonderful work.

So a musical jug...

It plays Here's A Health Unto His Majesty.

The words are round the back.

The words... Oh, the words here. Yes, Here's A Health Unto...

You can join in if you like. With a fa-la-la-la-la. Great, isn't it?

Made to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VIII...

How did you come by the jug then?

It belonged to my great-grandmother and came down through the family to my mother.

-And now it passed to you?

-It will do, yes.

It will do to you. It's jolly nice,

made by Fieldings of Crown Devon Pottery

and of course 1937 but of course the...

Although, "long may he reign"...!

He hardly ever reigned at all, did he?

I mean, he sort of abdicated and people think therefore that

things that show the coronation of Edward VIII are very, very rare...

Mostly they're very common.

But the fascinating thing about this one is that it says here

"abdicated December 10th 1936".

That was when he went off with his love affair, didn't he, really?

Mrs Simpson, wasn't it?

-It was, yes.

-But it's wonderful to have that, that is terribly unusual.

Well, I suppose if this was just a normal coronation jug in good condition, it would be worth

something about £400 to £500,

but this abdication detail puts it into a different league altogether

and I suppose we're looking at £700 to £800 for it.

-Really?

-So that's the important thing to know.

-I thought about £20.

-Whoa...

those days are past.

-Now you called it a wine cabinet.

-Yes.

-Because if I open this door...

It's interesting because we can see that it's actually fitted out

for wine bottles and an interesting circle in the middle -

which I suspect was for a soda siphon.

That's right, that's what we normally have in.

-Because I wouldn't call it a wine cabinet.

-What would you call it?

Well, opening up the top here,

I call that a cocktail cabinet.

-Exactly, you've got your cocktail sticks.

-Absolutely.

For me to call it a cocktail cabinet puts it into a different period,

-it puts it between the wars, between the First and Second World Wars to me.

-Yes.

That was the jazz age, that was the age of the bright young things...

I'm not quite sure when Thoroughly Modern Millie was,

but it kind of suggests that idea. Did it come with glasses?

Just odd glasses. Not very...

-Didn't have all its original glasses?

-No.

-But it... Was this inside it?

-Yes, I bought these...

-Cocktail sticks.

-Yes, these were all with it.

-Lemon squeezer and strainer - all essential for making cocktails.

-Yes.

Something missing here. Was there ever anything there?

No, and I've always wondered what it should be.

Well, I'm not absolutely sure.

I know that the essential bits of kit were a nutmeg grater, measuring cups,

but also long-handled spoons, they would have been certainly around somewhere in this, in this piece.

-Yes.

-But what's so fascinating in a way is that when you look at it

-close up, you don't know it's a cocktail cabinet.

-No.

It's only really when you open it up that everything

becomes revealed and so it's not being absolutely modern

in terms of its presentation on the outside,

but on the inside it's saying "We're very much up to date, we know how to have a good time in a modern way".

In 1930, the Savoy Cocktail Book came out

and it was absolutely, you know, the height of modernity and jazziness to have that.

Now do you enjoy this? Do you have... enjoy a little bit of a tipple?

Not really, it's not used to its full potential, no.

Well, I think it's a great thing, I have to say that it's a bit of a problem because there are people

who collect cocktail cabinets but often they will want that to reflect the Deco period,

that between-the-wars period, and this in a sense doesn't do that,

this is more conventional, so it wouldn't necessarily fetch

an enormous amount on the open market.

We're perhaps looking at around £300 which is maybe a bit disappointing,

but I think it's a great thing.

I wasn't really interested in the value,

just what it was all about really, that I wanted it to come on the show.

So had your bananas in this bowl this morning?

Yes, I did, I had to take them out to bring it down here.

-And that's what you usually use it for?

-Oh, yes.

And how do you come to own it?

My mum bought it from a charity shop and one of her friends was wanting

to buy it, to have it, and when I'd seen it, I said, "No, I like it",

-so I won.

-And why do you like it?

The colours, the green and the gold fleck's lovely and when you hold it

up to the light you can see through it. And, and...

-Can I, can I do that?

-Yes.

Because it is a wonderful design,

with the gold, which is actually not gold, it's filings, so with

the light passing through, you can see this gold effect which you like and this imitates a natural stone

called aventurine, and the gold flecks in aventurine normally are on a green ground rather like this.

The effect is lovely, I think.

And here you can see the pontil mark which shows that it's been handmade.

The maker of this glass is a man called Augustine Ysart

and he came to work for the Moncrieff family and they traded under Monart

-for selling this type of Scottish glass before the war.

-Right.

-The Second World War.

-So it is old.

It is old, it is old and they achieved all sorts of wonderful effects in this glass

and it's very much collected.

-If this went to auction, it would make between £150 and £250.

-Right.

So are the bananas going back into it this evening?

No!

-So what do you keep in this?

-Nothing.

-Nothing?

-Nothing.

That's a waste of a box that, isn't it?

I say a waste of a box, I suppose it's too grand to be called a box, wouldn't you agree?

-I think it's grand.

-I don't.

-You don't care for it too much?

-No.

-You don't? I'm dying to have a look inside.

-Oh, right.

-OK, and it's not good news, is it? When you look in there.

-No.

It's in a bit of a state, but at least it's the original lining

with the original sort of pea green silk

and I agree, that's not everybody's favourite colour.

-No.

-So let's have a look at the construction of it.

-It's a strange looking thing, isn't it?

-It is.

-In every respect

because technically this is something that goes by the name of Jugendstill.

Now Jugendstill is the German and Austrian approach to Art Nouveau.

-This is their interpretation.

-Yes.

So it makes use of lots of angularity

and it also includes sort of very stylised features rather like these,

these flower heads

and then you've got this amazing frieze here which is totally...

-The only bit I like about it.

-You like that?

-Yes.

-The children's faces.

-Yes.

Which is almost like a contradiction to the rest of it

and then at the sides you've got these panels with very sort of stylised organic ornament.

Now the people who almost certainly made this

were the Wurttemberg metal workshops and they used to put a tiny mark -

it's so tiny that often you miss it. And I've missed it...

so I'm hoping that I've got it right.

So, there are plenty of collectors out there

-who would be happy to take that off your hands for £500.

-Ooh!

It's nothing to you people from Beamish, I realise that, but you know, that is a desirable casket.

-Is it?

-Yes, do you like it any more? For it being worth that bit more?

I like the £500.

We've got a lot of jewellery here, so is there a period of rest between

buying pieces of jewellery or do you just...?

I only rest as long as it takes me to save up enough cash to go out and buy the next thing, yes.

-So when she falls in love with a piece she's just got to have it?

-Yes.

Well, I think she asks me to be the little voice of reason, but I don't try very hard.

But she asks when she's already bought them and then she shows me.

And I just leave her to say yes. You have to have it.

Now one thing about it all, she's got unfailingly good taste hasn't she?

-Absolutely.

-She knows what she's going for so if I was to ask you

which piece has got the greatest age, would you know?

I think that.

Well, it's a collection that spans something in the region of about 50 years.

-Oh, really?

-That is, I would say, made in around about the 1880s with a cluster of diamonds

in the centre on a typical gold narrow knife-edge back,

made in this country, very much a late-Victorian piece,

as incidentally is our swallow-in-flight brooch.

Did the swallow have a significance in the Victorian period?

Well, they were one of the most potently sentimental things.

If you give a swallow... What do swallows do?

-They always come back.

-Yeah.

So if I give you a diamond swallow it means you're going to come back.

-You hope.

-Um, this piece here, this is continental, made in around

the 1890s. Now tell me about this piece here

-because this is not the original necklace for this piece.

-No.

That came on a sort of silver chain but I thought it looked

particularly attractive worn on the pearls, I wear a lot of pearls.

Yes, well this is a piece that we call, it goes by the

style of the Garland look, belle epoch, as we call it.

And it's that Art Nouveau period of around about 1910-1915.

Typified by these swirly scrolly flowery pieces.

Then you move through into the 20th century

and this piece here is 1915, a straightforward, very standard

-almost utilitarian looking diamond bar brooch.

-I think it's stylish though in its simplicity.

-Yes.

I feel the passion you have for jewellery.

-Oh, yes, I love it.

-You would wear that on the slant on your lapel.

-Yeah.

-Then right straight forward into Deco, Art Deco which are these

two pieces here, now this one at the front is a rigid diamond plaque,

but this one has got the feature of so much of the Art Deco period,

which means it's a double clip that you can split into two

and wear one on each lapel of your jacket.

Imagine that nipped-in jacket and on each lapel you've got a diamond clip and that is a very, very nice clip.

Now if you've bought all this jewellery over the past

10 or 15 years... I'm assuming you keep it all safely.

Absolutely, it's kept in a safety deposit box in the bank.

-Good, that's very important because that's the best place for it.

-Yes.

So let's just talk a little bit about what you paid for them.

-This is the first piece you bought?

-Yes.

-And you paid? Do you remember?

£2,200 I think.

OK, well, it's unlikely you might get quite as much as you paid for it, curiously enough.

-What about the belle epoch diamond brooch here?

-I think that was £950.

That would make £1,200 today. Now my personal favourite.

I love that, I love the shape of the stones.

We both share the same feeling about Art Deco diamond jewellery you see.

-Oh, yes.

-So, what did you pay?

-£1,450.

-£2,500.

-Oh, lovely.

Now if we top that up, very, very approximately, I think therefore

you're talking about the best level of around about...

-£10,000 to £15,000.

-That's great.

-Well done.

-What a pleasure to see someone who is so avid about jewellery.

-Oh, yes, I do.

She gets so much joy out of it.

-Well, we all enjoy it.

-I can see that, thank you ladies, thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

More absolute gems came to light in the sunshine that welcomed us

recently to the University of Wales in Lampeter.

It was handed down from my great grandfather and he died in 1900

and it's been coming down through the family all the way down.

There are lots and lots of different periods represented which in some senses perhaps relates to, you know,

the way it's come through the family, but if you start at the bottom, it kind of goes right back

to the later part of the 17th century, the shape of the legs,

the turning here, these mushroom caps there,

it's very sort of 17th century in character

and then you come up to the stand, it's almost a sort of Gothic feature in the middle there

which perhaps takes you into the 18th century.

And then the chest with its cross banding is also very 18th century,

-and then you have these curious handles.

-Yes.

-Do you know anything about the handles?

-No, I don't, I'm sorry.

That doesn't matter, but they're just very incongruous

because they come from the late 19th century,

they're slightly aesthetic movement in character, very angular,

they don't stylistically go with the piece. When I first looked at it, I thought it was quite

complicated and if you look at the top drawers here, you've got the little black sort of arrowhead

into the scroll and then these little dots of inlay,

and then I realised, hang on, those aren't part of the inlay originally,

they're little plugs that have been put in, to show where handles have been changed.

-Oh.

-We know these are not original handles.

-Yes.

And actually you can see there are handles there,

and the pairs there,

and on another one you can see there was another handle in the middle somewhere.

Here you can see that there were handles there, so I was thinking that this in a way,

it's a bit like modern kitchens, the doors of the cabinets date terribly quickly, so in order

to update your kitchen, you change the doors of the units.

Here they've changed the handles fairly consistently through time,

-to give it a slightly more, up-to-date look.

-Yes.

Lovely colour, it's looked after and loved by the looks of it.

Yes, my mother used to polish it regularly.

Brilliant, yes, well, she obviously cherished it and I think that's paid off.

In terms of valuation, well, I think because it's so decorative,

£6,000... £7,000 at a sale.

Fancy, my father was offered £100 for it in the 1940s.

-It's a long time ago... £100 could buy a house actually.

-Yes.

-So somebody appreciated it then, and I'm sure there are lots of people who would appreciate it now.

-Yes.

"As there is no Elton John fan club and no future plans to officiate one,

"I am writing on Elton's behalf to thank you for showing

"such an interest in his music. I have enclosed an autographed photo. Yours sincerely, Helen Walters.

"PS: Elton will be touring America until early July."

-Now I kind of can't quite envisage Elton John not having a fan club really.

-No, that's right.

-So this shows how early on we are in his career.

-Absolutely.

It also shows obviously... That's why he looks the way he does, I suppose.

Far less follicly challenged than he is today and also much slimmer,

so I mean, had you always been an Elton John fan from the early days?

I mean, what prompted you into writing off?

-I actually met Elton John. I grew up in Portobello Road.

-Right.

And I came home from work one day and it was raining and himself and Bernie Taupin were standing

in my porchway I had at the time, sheltering from the rain and we got talking.

-So you had to push past him to get into your house, did you?

-Almost yes, yes.

-So what did you say, "Oh, Elton I'm a fan of yours".

-Well, I wasn't at the time.

-Oh, I see.

-But he said to me they were into music, both of them.

-So at that point you didn't actually realise who he was.

-No, he was virtually unheard of then.

Oh, how amazing, so that was your kind of first encounter.

-Mm, that's it.

-Have you met him again since?

-No.

-Or was that the one and only meeting?

-The one and only.

-You've watched him progress through his career.

My friend and I used to go to all the concerts. This is a Crystal Palace one in July '71...

-that's the programme.

-Well, that's interesting because I actually

lived just next to Crystal Palace for many years and I see it's Crystal Palace Bowl Garden Party '71.

-In fact the Crystal Palace Bowl is still there, um, but it wouldn't be hosting this kind of event.

-No, no.

It's generally classical music now, but it's still there and it looks exactly the same as this.

-Exactly the same.

-It's got the lake in front of it, fascinating.

At the end of the day it's quite difficult pricing things like this

but because it's early and it's at the beginning of his career,

I find that more interesting. I mean, the fact that he hasn't got a fan club here I think is, is fascinating.

Well, that's one of the reasons I brought it to you.

-Yeah, and I suspect... I mean this is actually really only a cheap reproduction.

-That's right.

It's not even a well produced...

-A proper copy.

-Copy glossy photograph.

But it is actually signed by him. that's fine, there's no problem with that and I suspect that if

you were to sell this as a package, we'd be looking at maybe around about £100... £150 at auction.

-Right.

-Not enormously high value but interesting to a collector.

-They're value to me too.

-Absolutely.

-So I'm not so sure I'd sell them anyway.

-What's your favourite album, by the way?

-It's Tumbleweed Connection.

Yeah, the early Elton John was my favourite, no doubt about that.

Good, good, well fascinating little item and nice to see Elton there.

-Yes.

-Thanks for bringing it along. You're welcome.

-You inherited these watercolours from your great aunts.

-Yes.

-And then looked into their lives.

Yes, I had them for about 30 years and framed a few up that I liked.

They were spinster artists who probably had a small income

but basically painted for their living. One of them, Eta, the family history said she studied

at the Sorbonne. The other one, Bridget... I think probably, both, started off studying at Glasgow.

We have a letter which shows that Eta Jardine who was the more conventional watercolourist

of the two, was commissioned by the North East London Railways, I think it was,

to provide pictures for their first-class carriages.

Well, I've never heard of the Jardine sisters,

but I'm absolutely delighted to have seen these works because

they're really very, very good, and emerging are two unknown artists, well, relatively unknown,

spinster sisters living on their own who are producing exciting things.

Now I take it that this one is a bit of the railway aunt?

Well, I don't know exactly what they did provide, but I think

all Eta Jardine's work was of this character

of being watercolours of scenery,

I don't think she went into figurative art or details.

-So if we call Eta the railway sister then...

-Yes, perhaps we should.

You can imagine jolting along, can't you, long journeys, seeing this up

-in an old railway track, railway station.

-Yes.

But where life gets really interesting is with the sister

and I think we have a watercolour of the sister, or at least one of them.

It's... Well, we're guessing here.

So we think this one might be by Eta?

This one might be by Eta and it maybe of her sister Jez.

It would be interesting to know because I think she's beginning to emerge as a very significant artist.

-Yes.

-Because there's sides to her character which come out in her art.

-This is a particularly good example of it here.

-Yes.

This is not a cosy old lady sitting at home doing watercolours of roses,

these are vicious gossips that she's decided to...

Yes, absolutely and they're all sepia, they're all in

these awful neutral colours, I think it's a very judgmental picture.

-It is, they look deeply malevolent.

-Yes.

And then you've got this one, also by Bridget -

a very subversive looking image of motherhood.

Indeed, entitled "Modern Ma"

and with the cigarette, not exactly drooping...

Even the cat has an extremely malign appearance

and might easily jump onto the baby.

But I think she occupied a world which was full of lateral thinking.

Some shades of Little Britain here, isn't it?

But where it all seems to come together really well is in the watercolours

that she produced simultaneously which is so arresting, so enticing.

Yes, but you either hate or love.

And do you love or hate?

Well, I rather like them but all the members of the family probably have at least a few goblins

and amongst my uncles and aunts they were equally divided between the loathers and the lovers.

In this work here, entitled rather appropriately, Full House,

you see I think real accomplishment, you're getting a combination here

of the softer illustrative side of her character

and also the subversive malevolent side that comes out in those satirical images that

we've just been talking about, but here it blends together beautifully.

These are wonderful watercolours and were you to exhibit them as a whole,

I think you would really put Bridget on the map.

-Right.

-I don't know about her sister at the moment, I think we need to know more about her.

-Yes.

These drawings that you've shown me are worth, probably, £500, £600, £700, £800 each - the goblins.

-Good heavens!

-If we could put the whole lot together and build her up.

-Yes.

-Because I think she deserves a voice, we could be talking up to £1,000 each.

-Really?

-Yes.

-I'm really delighted to have seen them, thank you.

-Thank you very much.

So what's all this blue sticky stuff up here?

I had a wooden plug made up for a lampshade to turn it into a light.

I didn't have the hole drilled in the bottom, to keep its value up.

Well, that's good thinking.

Drilling a hole in a good vase is a bad idea, but the other problem

with adhesives is that adhesives very often take off gilding, and that's what's happened on the rim.

-Right.

-So I mean you win some, you lose some.

Now what do you know about this piece? My father brought it back from the Far East during...

at the end of the war, he brought a big big box of stuff, that's just one bit I picked up.

Where from out there I've no idea.

-Right, and you haven't done any research on this since then?

-No.

-OK, well that's why we're here.

-Lovely, thank you.

First of all I'm going to look at the design. I decided to have a look at it

because I am fascinated by how a two-dimensional graphic design

gets put onto a vase.

-Right.

-And my judgement of what is a good design

is a design that makes you want to rotate the vase,

and the Japanese...

because this is Japanese... the Japanese are great masters

at doing this. The scene we've got here is a group

of elderly gentlemen, bewhiskered gentlemen all studying hard a text...

there it is, it's impossible to read it, it's written in a cursive script,

now then, we instantly, looking at that, we see

that there are two levels of design, there's underglazed blue -

the blue pigment, all of the blue pigment here was put onto the vase before they put a glaze on.

-Right.

-But it was fired, it came out as a blue and white vase.

It was then sent to the enamelling workshops and then the other colours were added on top of the glaze

and the result is that you have a depth of colour which your eye senses, you get a sense of depth

in the design and it's something you only expect to see

on the best factories when you see it of this quality.

So there they are, the sages, one, two, three, four sages

studying their scroll and behind them a wee laddie, an acolyte

bringing a dish of pomegranates or apples, some sort of fruit.

Another acolyte here is arriving with another group of, in this case,

three sages who are also studying a script.

And then another acolyte brings a musical instrument, this is a koto.

-A koto?

-Yes, so it's basically a scholars' party, they're enjoying scholarly scripts, they're going

to enjoy music and they all live in a bamboo grove.

These are the seven sages of the bamboo grove beautifully rendered

and then to add to all of that you've got the difference of the

glazed surface, this lovely glassy surface, with the ground colour,

which is matt. You've felt this?

-Oh, yes, it's beautiful. Very tactile.

-Isn't it, so you've got everything going for this.

This is a really good piece of design.

It makes you want to rotate it and it tells a story

and we're almost participants in the party,

-so the vase is just getting on for 100 years old. It may have been one of a pair.

-Right.

But it works in its own right.

-Yes.

-I would not want to see another one quite frankly, I think this works on its own and what's it worth?

I think that if you were to put it up for auction today, it would fetch somewhere in the region of

-£1,200 to £1,800.

-Would it? Ohh...

-You almost look surprised.

-I AM surprised actually.

It frightens me what I've done with it now, in the past.

This really is a pretty gorgeous looking album, isn't it?

It says everything about the Art Nouveau period with these swirls and what not.

How did it come into your possession?

My mum and dad decided to move into a house, back in 1973.

The house was built in 1897 and when they moved in, this was in the attic.

-So it came free with the house, did it?

-It did.

Well, the amazing thing about postcards as a collectable is

that they come in all forms, so you could, for example, like saucy ones, or you could like

ones with animals, or buildings, or you could do perhaps military

collections, or seaside collections,

collections of lovers, collections of flowers, babies, trains,

almost any subject is a collectable within the postcard genre,

which is what makes it really interesting.

Now in a mixed bag like this, some of these postcards are going to be worth

10p, 50p, £1, but for the more unusual ones, you really need to find something like this...

Here we've got a postcard in mint condition of the Lusitania.

Now this postcard dates from 1911

and the Lusitania was sunk during the First World War so it's when it was

-still sailing perfectly happily, but a collector would pay perhaps £15 or £20 for that card.

-Oh.

But what I particularly like about this series of cards is the story that it tells about one young girl,

and this particular postcard is what they call a suggestive card.

I mean it's very risky and daring

because before the First World War if you got a glimpse of a girl's ankle

you were very, very lucky and here we've got almost her entire lower leg

and the gentleman is enjoying it very much.

Anyway, it's sent to a Miss Evans of Buck Cottage in Liverpool

and the message on it says, "Dear Miss Evans. I have just received your postcard

"and pleased to hear you are well

"and will meet you this evening in Holt Road about six.

"I'm longing to see you and it seems ages since we met."

This earnest young man called J Pye

can't wait to get his hands on Miss Evans...

Here we've got another one, this is looking pretty dodgy too.

"Yours always". The relationship is progressing.

"Two heads with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one."

As they have a session underneath the silver birch down by the river side,

a particularly special card that she received is this one which in a jokey way says,

"a Welsh rarebit".

Quite appropriate as we're in Wales.

-Yes.

-And if I turn it over, here we go,

"Dear Em, I hope you will have one of these ready when I return, hoping you're well."

-And I presume what he's talking about is a bit of toasted cheese.

-Yes.

-Pretty naughty though, isn't it?

-It is!

From Welsh Rarebit to Scottish splendour now. Manderston, the ancestral home of

Lord Palmer, near Berwick on Tweed provided a stunning backdrop for some more great Roadshow finds.

A relatively plain box, but lovely opening inside,

look at that, splendid Royal Worcester coffee set.

Normally these were given as wedding presents. Do you know...?

Yes, this was a wedding gift to my mother in 1930, she was married.

That fits in. These were the popular gift at that time in the 1920s.

Royal Worcester specialised in beautifully painted sets.

When this was made, hand-painted here by Walter Sedgeley

all individual birds, a lot of work went into this and it would have been quite expensive and costly

and over the years people neglected them but now Royal Worcester collectors love these sets,

they're actually quite precious to collectors.

Having the whole set together makes it actually quite expensive,

so you've got one broken one there but apart from that, each cup and saucer today is worth £400 or £500.

-Oh, my goodness.

-So that adds up to a set worth £2,000...

-£2,500.

-It is very beautiful.

And nice that it's been used and enjoyed, thank you.

-I'm pretty certain this is a marine chronometer, am I right?

-You are indeed.

Indeed I am, look at that, Ellicot and Smith, Royal Exchange, London. But they were only working for about

ten years - 1830-ish to 1840-ish is absolutely it,

and I'm going to give you that key and then the easiest way

to get this out of its box is just to invert it like that, having of course clamped the gimbal up,

and there we can see that absolutely lovely movement and I'll just pop it there upside down,

again signed, numbered,

in good condition. Have you had this restored recently?

-About 20 years ago.

-Uh-huh.

Before that it had been in a vertical case.

-Because that brings me on the fact that in my humble opinion this is not the original box.

-No, it isn't.

Do you know what happened to the original box?

Well, it was taken to Australia in 1882

then brought back from there and then it was used in an observatory

-in Rousdon in Devon for 40 years or so.

-Why did it go to Australia?

Ah, well it went to observe the transit of Venus in 1882,

my great-grandfather went on it and they went round the Cape and to Sydney and up to Brisbane

and then up by train and then by dray and horse cart to a big house

on the Darling Downs in Queensland and they set up two observatories there to watch the transit.

Did they see it?

Well, unfortunately, they had beautiful weather until the morning

of the transit and then it poured with rain and it was cloudy and they didn't

see a thing and they'd gone all the way to Australia to see this.

So this photograph you have...

Oh, look at that, that looks like the whole thing's set up doesn't it?

That's in the grounds of the house at Jimbo in Australia.

Do you think that's the chronometer?

-I should think it is, yes.

-And I can see quite clearly that this has got proper drop handles

of the period and that is definitely the instrument.

Tell me what this other photograph is, here.

Well, when they came back from Australia, my great grandfather was given the job by this man here,

to be his private astronomer and so he was, if you like,

a sort of servant on the estate but he was the astronomer. He looked through the telescope

and measured the rainfall and the temperature and so forth, and this is him at a later age of course,

looking through the telescope at Rousdon and there is another, there is the chronometer.

-There is the chronometer without its box.

-That's right.

And there is a marked family resemblance if I might say so.

There really is. What a wonderful story, it really is.

There was a recent transit of Venus, did you observe that?

Well, I shared the experience with my great grandfather

because I also tried to watch the transit of Venus and it rained and it was cloudy

and I did not see a thing, but I could watch it on television and he couldn't.

Well, it's fascinating that this has been down to the Antipodes and back.

Of course your great grandfather used this on land...

When I called it a marine chronometer to start with...

its use was purely naval.

If I can just grab that key back off you,

which lives in there, we'll undo the gimbal lock and I can simulate

the motion of the ship, basically in a rough sea,

and the whole point of this gimbal is that this wonderfully

accurate timepiece always remains in the horizontal despite the motion of the ship.

The officer of the watch was able to open the top lid

to check the time for his star shots, sextant etc, etc

and normally the captain was the only key holder.

If it was in its original box that we saw in that first photograph with the lovely brass drop handles,

with that history, probably between £4,000 and £5,000,

but here we are in a later case with these recessed...

very nice, don't get me wrong, very nice box, but it is re-cased...

..so £2,000 to £2,500.

-Ooh, very good.

-Still good news, is it?

-Yes.

-Excellent.

You won't have seen many of these on the Antiques Roadshow in the past

and not because they're terribly rare

but because they're terribly common and a plate like that is worth £40.

Yeah.

It's Chinese, made in Jingdezhen,

the main porcelain centre, brought down by pack mule and on people's

backs and by river and by donkey and then it arrives in Canton

and in Canton they put the decoration on.

Of the 19th century, this is the most common pattern

and we call it Canton porcelain, but...

the point about this one is we've got that on the back.

-Yes.

-As I'm sure you are well aware.

-Indeed, yes.

This is a crest...

now it was common practice from the 17th century onwards to order via

somebody who went out with a ship, a service with your arms on.

To find a crest on a second half of the 19th-century dated piece is very rare.

Is this family?

Er yes, and no.

Oh, good.

Um, the family connection is Mackintosh, my great grandfather

was Mackintosh. He was a shipping agent, lived near Inverness.

He had a very close friend who was a sea captain who captained a clipper that traded with the Far East.

-Ah.

-And my great grandfather got married in 1868...

his very good friend Captain Turner said "Right, next time I'm out

"in the Far East, I'll bring you back a dinner service".

-How amazing.

-So...

unfortunately his next trip wasn't until 1869 which is why the date is 1869 rather than 1868.

-How fascinating.

-And by the time he got there, Captain Turner

couldn't remember exactly what the Mackintosh crest was.

He knew it was something to do with a cat

and he knew that the motto was roughly something about taking care,

the actual motto is "touch not the cat but a glove".

He didn't know much Latin either, did he? He's got a Y at the end...

-That's right, yes, it's sort of in between everything, it's not French, it's not Latin.

-Exactly.

-It's nothing.

-Well, it's actually difficult to put a price on it,

to be quite honest because it's out of the normal run of business.

I think a single plate would make probably £250 to £350.

-A single plate.

-A single plate.

-Yes.

The venison dish...

I think you know that could easily make

£800 to £1,200 maybe even a bit more.

-Yes.

-And the two vegetable dishes...

..I would think would make £1,000 to £3,000.

Together?

-The two together, yes, as a pair.

-We have a third one as well.

Well, you would have, wouldn't you?

-Um, that one would think of as a single and we'd probably put £800 to £1,200 on that.

-Right.

It's a great thing to see and thank you so much for bringing it in.

-Thank you very much indeed, I'm delighted to have brought it.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

And that's all for today, we'll be back next week I hope with another

stunning array of finds. Until then, happy antiquing and goodbye.

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