Lancaster Antiques Roadshow


Lancaster

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This week, the Antiques Roadshow is in red rose country, we've come to the city of Lancaster.

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Many events and many people contributed to the making of Lancaster.

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One name that pops up more often than others is Gillow, a family of

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craftsmen who did their first work from these premises back in 1720.

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Gillow's work is characterised by its originality and inventiveness - look no further than Lancaster's

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Town Hall, opened in 1909, when every child was given a box of chocolates to celebrate.

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Picture the scene - a dinner party in the Mayor's parlour with just the

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right amount of guests to fill this table, which is two metres across.

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Then the Mayor decides to bring a few extra chums.

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No problem, this table is centrifugal.

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Allow me.

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As it revolves, this mahogany marvel opens up and the gaps are filled by special leaves.

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The result? 50% more space.

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The only person not impressed would be the cook, who has to provide the extra food.

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And, if you're wanting to spread out after dinner, you may need a bit more space.

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Mr Gillow had thought of that already.

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This wall weighs two tons, but with the combination of

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a brilliant system of counterweights plus my own incredible strength...

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Voila! Let the party commence.

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The next day it's back to work.

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The Council Chamber is impressive with panelled walls and a throne fit for a...mayor.

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And, if the meeting goes on too long, the councillors can

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always take a crafty nap, courtesy of the Gillow patent recliner.

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Ah, the ayes have it.

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This is really a place for Lancaster's Harry Potter fans.

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As well as expanding tables and moving walls, there are portraits that behave very strangely.

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These hidden passages are handy for our film crew to sneak their equipment through.

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The floor of the Ashton Hall, where we're holding the show,

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is sprung for dancing, so experts, take your partners, please.

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GRAMOPHONE PLAYS

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# Little Betty Bouncer is kind to her people

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# And a nice girl, more or less

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# But at present, no joke

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# She's causing her folks No end of deep distress

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# Little Miss Bouncer loves an announcer down at the BBC... #

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-That's great.

-That was Flotsam and Jetsam in 1927.

-Wonderful!

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And it could be said about any of Michael Aspel's fans, of course.

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Now, this is a wonderful sort of time warp, a mid-1920s Columbia Grafonola

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cabinet gramophone in wonderful condition with a period record. Are you a bit of an enthusiast?

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I am really, I have about 10,000 gramophone records, mainly between the two wars, mainly.

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So, when did you get hooked?

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During my school days.

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In 1969 I bought just a few...

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-From this period?

-Yes.

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Is this the only machine you have to play? Or have you also collected some other gramophones?

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No, I have eight other gramophones, but this is one of my favourites.

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This is terrific, and I tell you one thing that is great about this.

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It's a great piece of furniture.

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-We've got the very... I like the hi tech volume control.

-Yes, the volume control.

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So this is very quiet and that's very loud, and anything in between.

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-Underneath you've got storage for...

-Space for records.

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-Space for records, but not space for 10,000.

-No, no.

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-It's a great piece of furniture.

-Yes.

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And, over the years, I have seen so many of these lovely cabinets changed into cocktail cabinets.

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The fact that this is in its original condition, and very good original

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condition, and it hasn't suffered the fate of so many others, is terrific.

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I'm seeing also other pieces of ephemera relating to records and that whole period.

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-That's right, period sheet music.

-Yeah.

-There's Amy Johnson.

-Yes.

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-And this is to commemorate her flight to Australia in 1930. George Formby...

-George Formby.

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Jack Payne...

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-Jack's the boy.

-And Jack Holbert.

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-Particularly, I like the Chinese Laundry Blues there.

-Yes.

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-With that great photographic portrait of George Formby.

-Lovely picture.

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That really brings him to life, and of course, Formby, Wigan man,

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but I suppose if you're interested in dance music, it has to be Jack Payne.

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I mean, he was the master of that period, on the Columbia record label,

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it's called either "Do Something" or "I'll always be in love with you".

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Now, as far as value's concerned,

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I'm constantly surprised at how little these fetch.

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I would have thought we're talking about £300 to £400 on a good day.

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Of course, I only have them for the enjoyment.

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Yes, you're not interested in selling.

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-So, let's just hear Jack Payne "Doing Something".

-Yes.

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OLD STYLE DANCE MUSIC

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Do you know, if we'd have been chatting about, 60 years ago,

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-the chances are that most people outside this Town Hall would have been wearing clogs.

-Yes, they would.

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Clogs are synonymous with Lancashire.

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All the old folk I used to know told me, "There's nowt so comfortable as clogs."

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So I bought a pair and I actually used to go out dancing in them, and then my wife - I nearly crippled her.

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So, I do have an affinity with clogs.

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I've also got an affinity with this pair of clogs.

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-They could never be described as Lancashire, could they?

-No.

-No.

-They've no irons on.

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No irons, that's important, but they do have, underneath, a mark.

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-Yes.

-It's all in a name, isn't it?

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-Yes, it is.

-Bizarre by Clarice Cliff.

-Yes.

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Because, in all fairness, this is a pair of clogs that,

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-stylistically, they'd look more at home on a Dutchman than they would on a Lancastrian.

-Yes.

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The interesting thing is they are decorated with this geometric design.

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-It's called Sunburst.

-Yes.

-If you look at it, it's almost like a chevron design.

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-I mean, they are colourful, aren't they?

-Mm.

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-Do you know if you've got a left or a right?

-No, it's puzzled me, that.

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-Well, the truth is, there is no left and there is no right.

-Oh.

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-It's the same clog, OK?

-Oh.

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I actually do know somebody who collects clogs of this size, and it's me mother.

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She hasn't got a pair like this, but if she wanted a pair like this,

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what do you think she'd have to pay for them?

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-About £75.

-£75... I think she'd be very lucky to get them for 75.

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I think that you could put a nought on the end of that, because these are

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-worth somewhere in the region of between £600 and £800.

-Are they?

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-Quite easily.

-Oh.

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-Oh, they're expensive clogs, aren't they?

-They are expensive clogs!

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Well, it doesn't look like much like this, does it? But look at this.

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Isn't this splendid? I think I could probably play for hours with this, but let's just start here.

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Just feast our eyes on that, while you tell me how you got hold of this.

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My father's had it for 50 years and it was passed to him by a Gillow's man.

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-Right.

-Presumably that man got it from another Gillow's man.

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-So it actually has been making Gillow's furniture?

-I suspect so.

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-Yes.

-That's perfect, so we're in Lancaster, so that's wonderful, right.

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There's such a tradition in the this area of furniture making.

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Obviously Gillow's is a big firm, later Waring and Gillow, but what I think is fantastic,

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when you see this, you imagine someone's tool box,

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like a modern plastic tool box you carry around from job to job,

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here was something handmade by the original craftsman.

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He'd make it himself for his own tools and he's put all of this love

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and care and attention into it, showing how wonderful his box was.

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You're not actually a cabinet maker yourself?

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I'm not, no, but there are tools in there from my father, my grandfather and my great grandfather.

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How wonderful. This is a maker's stamp for marking tools by the look of it.

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That's my father's.

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-And that's his stamp.

-Yes.

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Isn't that wonderful? And that's what they actually used for stamping the tools.

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Yes.

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I've seen something here which... Explain this to me, is it what I think it is?

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Well, we used to play conkers as children and one evening my father

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disappeared for several hours and came back with that.

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-He hadn't been climbing a conker tree.

-No, no, no.

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-He turned that himself.

-He made that.

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-So you've been cheating with that, have you?

-He was.

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-What, he really used it for conkers?

-Yes.

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It's almost like lignum vitae or something, it's very, very hard wood.

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-Yes, yes.

-Very, very dense.

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That for conkers would be absolutely lethal!

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It's so real, how glorious.

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But this is what's so wonderful, I mean, I've had a few minutes just to flick through this book -

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all the things he did.

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-I think this is at the end of his apprenticeship.

-Right.

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"April 15th, 1932", so we're talking about the '30s of the last century.

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-Yes.

-But, you know, sashing windows, making a coffin.

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-Yes.

-14 or 15 hours.

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Well, he was an undertaker as well, so coffin making was

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a prime part of his work.

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That's fascinating because that's not just in the 20th century.

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Thomas Chippendale and all his contemporaries worked around St Martin-in-the-Fields

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in the centre of London, and they worked around the church, why?

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Because there was a good business making coffins - when there wasn't

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an order for grand furniture, they made simple coffins and boxes.

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That's one reason why they had these big and wonderful, wonderful boxes

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because they could carry it from one job to another with a mate's help.

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You could put this on a train, you could go up to Glasgow for the sea.

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You know, working on the ships.

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This type of decoration would be early 19th century -

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mahogany with chequered stringing,

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this star device, you see on clock cases and furniture. 1800-1820,

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up to 1840 or 1850, so without any more precise family history,

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I would say it is about 1850.

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"The Lancaster Agricultural Society Challenge Cup

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"presented by Lady Ashton

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"for the best collection

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"consisting of one horse, two cattle".

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I love this! "Male or female,

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-"and three sheep".

-That's right.

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So, how do you come to have this?

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-I'm a committee member of the Lancaster and Morton Agricultural Society.

-Right.

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It was given so many years ago to the Society from Lady Ashton.

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Oh, right. I notice the inscription fizzles out in about 1999.

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Now that says something to me, and says foot-and-mouth.

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We did struggle after the foot-and-mouth event, yes, we did.

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-Right, so that's had quite a bad effect on the Society.

-It has, yes.

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-That's sad.

-Very sad because it's been going over 100 years.

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It's a large, it's an impressive cup, but it's very light.

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-Right.

-It's always been referred to, sometimes rather cruelly, as "flash for cash".

-Right.

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Somebody wanted a lot for their money. Nonetheless it's still got a value.

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It does need a bit of attention.

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In an auction I would expect it to perhaps to reach maybe £500.

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Right.

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But if you had to go out and buy a new one of similar size, it's going to be quite a lot more.

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Oh, it is, look, that's what I wanted to see, Norris.

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That's one of the Rolls-Royce plane makers.

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Now, that's worth some money in itself, that's a wonderful plane.

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It's in such nice condition, just needs a bit of a clean up.

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So, you've got three Norris planes in there.

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What else? What's this?

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Are there any moulding planes and things?

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Moulding planes are at the back of this compartment.

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-Right, how many of those have you got?

-Well, it's full.

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-Full of them, what 20 or 30 of them?

-Yeah, maybe, maybe 20.

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This is a wonderful machine with a rosewood handle on a veneer scraper.

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Really pulling, you know, taking the saw marks out...

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The old horizontal saw, and just pulling them... Oh, my gosh, what hard work that must have been.

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I haven't seen one of those before actually, it's interesting, and certainly not of that scale.

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Thank heavens you rescued it, because it's obviously quite a valuable item.

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-Right.

-Those Norris planes, at least £200 or £300 each.

-Mmm.

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You've got 30 or 40 moulding planes, well they were

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£30 each, they've gone down a bit now - probably worth about £10 each.

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Must be, must be 60 chisels, I would think.

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-So what are we going to put on it for value?

-Don't know.

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-I mean the box is worth £1,000 and you've probably got £2,000 worth of tools.

-Right.

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So a good £3,000, but more important than that, family and local history.

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-Yes.

-What a wonderful thing.

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A working man's livelihood.

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-Well, you open the lid and it speaks volumes, doesn't it?

-That's great, I could have that in my front room.

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Yes, yes, quite.

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It's considered rude to look at other people's letters,

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but I have to say that it's a thing that I do pretty regularly when I see something as interesting

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as this collection of letters from the Crimean War.

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Are they from a relative or from your family?

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Yes, they belonged to my grandfather and he got them from his cousin,

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Uncle Ken, who was a Bronskill and he lived in Brampton near Penrith.

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This letter interests me because it's headed "Camp behind Sebastopol,

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"December 20th 1854".

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The Army had the Russians under siege and they were bombing the city

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and trying to make it surrender. And you've transcribed this?

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-Yes.

-That must have taken you a long time to do - very spidery writing!

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Very difficult, yes.

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They were freezing cold in tents and he'd be sitting there with a candle,

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with a tiny travelling ink bottle and it probably took him a long time to write.

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It starts with his service in September,

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and the first battle was at the Alma and it said,

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"And warm work it was with large shots came whizzing around our ears like snowballs,

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"but did a great deal more execution, but thank God, I came clear of wounds

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"except having my regimental hat shattered to pieces by grapeshot,

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"and if I am spared, I will bring home a glazed cover which was over it, to show how my head escaped".

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If it had been a foot lower, you and I wouldn't have been speaking today!

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We then move on to Inkerman, which is another great battle, and that was appropriately on 5th November.

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He said, "Now we commenced our gunpowder plot as early as six o'clock in the morning,

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"and such destructive fireworks... was never seen in England".

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And then you get the real horror of warfare

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that his sort of jokey start really sort of tries to disguise.

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The casualties of his battery were 20%

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and over 30% of the horses put out of action,

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which effectively made it useless as a unit any more.

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By the time you get a quarter to a third of casualties, a unit

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really ceases to have its cohesion, and here he says, "After this day,

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"for the longest day I live, I shall always have occasion to remember the 5th November". I should think so.

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It's interesting as you get to the end of it, there's a slight hint about what's going to happen.

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"But now...my health is not in any way good at present and it is very cold weather to live in tents",

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and I think it must have been absolutely desperate, you know, because freezing cold,

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complete ineptitude in the supplies system, poor clothing, no winter clothes and desperate.

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-And then there's this rather sad little letter to...his mother?

-Yes.

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From her sister, who'd heard second-hand that he'd died.

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-That's right.

-And it said that he died at the hospital

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-and I think that was Scutari where Florence Nightingale was.

-Really?

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-So, you've rescued these letters.

-Yes.

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I'm delighted that you did. What do you think you want to do with them?

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Well, rather than sit in my home in this book, I'd like to give them to a museum

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and let other people enjoy them, they're charming.

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I think that's a very worthy aim. They have a commercial value.

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They're worth between sort of £300 to £500.

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-Yes.

-There's lots of interest in the Crimea, and I think

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that you should edit them and you should publish them.

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You could put them on the internet and that would be a really good resource for somebody.

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And if you then wanted to give them to a museum they'd be preserved.

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-Right.

-But what you've done, you've given this man a voice.

-Yes.

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Otherwise he would just be a statistic,

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-and that's an absolutely priceless gift. Thanks for bringing them.

-Yes, thank you, thank you.

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Now here's an artist who really understood animals

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and the English countryside.

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I love the way he's got these sheep and the cattle, and also just here

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you can see a goat coming up the hill, all together, and a farmer

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will probably tell me that didn't happen,

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but I feel that he understands his animals -

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the sheep lying down like that, it's so perfectly convincing.

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-Do you like this picture?

-It reminds me of where I live so it's...

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-Where do you live?

-Up on the fells, so we overlook all the hills.

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-Big open roaming countryside.

-Yes, it's lovely.

-Rather like this?

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-Yes.

-The artist was Thomas Sydney Cooper and he's signed it, luckily for us, just here,

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and inscribed it, "a sketch by"

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and he's dated it - 1855.

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We once had a painting by Thomas Sydney Cooper in my gallery, during Smithfield week.

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A farmer walked in and said, "That's the best bloody picture of sheep I've ever seen",

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and bought it on the spot, because he said that the artist had really understood it.

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Although this is just a sketch, I think he has - he's understood

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the countryside and the animals working in it, very well.

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If I saw this picture in an auction, I'd be very tempted to pay

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a premium, if you like, over what it might be worth, because it's so lovely.

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It's a picture that ought to get quite a few people chasing it.

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Could drive it up as far as £6,000 I feel.

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Very, very pretty picture.

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That's a nice surprise.

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There's a touch of serendipity about this week's featured

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collector because Brenda Lever was out looking to add to her

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collection of powder compacts when something else caught her fancy, and that was, Brenda, scarves.

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-Scarves, yes.

-How long ago was that?

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-About seven years ago, yeah.

-And what started you off then?

0:20:440:20:48

Mainly, I like the graphics and I just thought

0:20:480:20:52

it was a very interesting subject and they were there, they weren't very expensive and I thought, why not?

0:20:520:20:56

It's capturing the 20th century.

0:20:560:20:58

If I don't do it, maybe nobody else will do it,

0:20:580:21:02

and it just sort of mushroomed from there.

0:21:020:21:05

I just had friends, they started collecting and it's mushroomed.

0:21:050:21:08

-And how many do you have?

-Approximately 1,200.

0:21:080:21:11

And are they all posh silk scarves?

0:21:110:21:13

No, no. A large proportion are silk, but quite a few are crepe because

0:21:130:21:19

during World War Two you couldn't get the silk, so they had to use rayon.

0:21:190:21:23

Just after the war they used rayon-crepe quite a lot, and then in

0:21:230:21:27

the '50s the silk sort of came back in again because it was, you know,

0:21:270:21:32

like, during the war they had to use it for parachutes so obviously it was in short supply.

0:21:320:21:37

And you've got some top designers as well, haven't you?

0:21:370:21:40

-Oh, yeah.

-Who are the top scarf people?

0:21:400:21:42

Well, Hermes, Paris, Ferragamo...

0:21:420:21:45

This one here?

0:21:450:21:46

Pucci, Pucci.

0:21:460:21:48

That's a good weight, isn't it?

0:21:480:21:50

-That is good. That is a good quality scarf.

-And how much would that cost?

0:21:500:21:54

-Now, today, you'd be lucky to find one of these under a couple of hundred pounds.

-Right.

0:21:540:21:59

You may be lucky if you traipse around, but to buy new you're talking a heck of a lot of money.

0:21:590:22:03

So what's the oldest one you've got?

0:22:030:22:05

This one from the First World War.

0:22:050:22:09

It has the words, "It's a long way to Tipperary" printed on it.

0:22:090:22:13

As you can see, it's cotton.

0:22:130:22:15

-It's more a neckerchief.

-That's weathered very well.

0:22:150:22:17

Oh, it's weathered well and God knows where it's been, your guess is as good as mine.

0:22:170:22:23

-Perhaps it's always been wrapped up nicely.

-Yeah, possibly.

-What other historical ones have you got?

0:22:230:22:28

This was a freebie, given away with the newspapers in America,

0:22:280:22:32

celebrating the Japanese surrender in 1945. Silk.

0:22:320:22:37

Flimsy, you know, not particularly expensive, but very historical nevertheless.

0:22:370:22:44

What about the scarves of famous people? Do you have any of those?

0:22:440:22:47

Yeah. I have one with Grace Kelly.

0:22:470:22:50

Where are you, Grace?

0:22:520:22:54

This one was actually given to me by a lady

0:22:540:22:58

who had worked in Monaco alongside Grace Kelly.

0:22:580:23:03

Grace Kelly actually had a boutique, I believe, in Monaco and this lady rang me and she said, "I would like

0:23:030:23:08

"you to have the scarf because I'm getting old and I don't want it to be

0:23:080:23:12

"thrown out and I'd rather it went to a genuine collector".

0:23:120:23:15

-Grace Kelly.

-Yeah, has her initials.

0:23:150:23:18

Ah, lovely, you haven't got Isadora Duncan's, have you?

0:23:180:23:20

No, no, she was strangled by a scarf!

0:23:200:23:23

I'm afraid so! I tell you who really should

0:23:230:23:25

-be conducting this conversation, because he's a collector as well, and that's Paul Atterbury.

-Really?

0:23:250:23:31

Paul, look at this selection. Are you overwhelmed?

0:23:310:23:33

I'm completely green with envy.

0:23:330:23:35

-A fellow scarf collector.

-You've got all the ones I haven't got and I've wanted to have for years.

-Really?

0:23:350:23:41

It's a great, great thing to collect because

0:23:410:23:44

scarves are wonderfully decorative, they're period - you can say '50s, '60s whatever, straight away.

0:23:440:23:49

Most important, they're one of the few collecting areas that are still available.

0:23:490:23:53

You know, you go to a charity shop, rummage through that great bundle

0:23:530:23:57

of scarves and, who knows, what you're going to find for 50p or £1?

0:23:570:24:00

What people think when they see me rummaging through ladies' scarves, I hate to think.

0:24:000:24:04

This is amazing, you've done wonders.

0:24:040:24:06

-Thank you very much.

-Brenda, thank you very much.

0:24:060:24:08

Thank you, Michael.

0:24:080:24:10

Well, this caught my eye. How did you happen to get hold of it?

0:24:120:24:17

Well, I found it in a charity shop, Barnardo's Charity shop.

0:24:170:24:21

-Right, and how much did you pay for it?

-About £14 or £15.

0:24:210:24:25

Right, well, it caught my eye because I think that,

0:24:250:24:27

with a little bit of magic wanding, we can actually transform this.

0:24:270:24:30

So I propose that we get some silver cleaner and we have a little go at

0:24:300:24:35

-this and see what we can transform it into. Are you game?

-Yes.

-Great.

0:24:350:24:40

Well, bewitching this object certainly is.

0:24:400:24:43

Fantastic, with this diminutive bra

0:24:430:24:47

and girdle with suspenders on the bottom here.

0:24:470:24:51

It's a good job we haven't got one of the older experts here

0:24:510:24:55

because I think those chaps would be getting all hot under the collar!

0:24:550:24:59

It's a great object. What made you buy it?

0:24:590:25:02

I just fell in love with her, and I went back to the shop about four

0:25:020:25:06

times to try and barter with the man for the price and he wouldn't shift

0:25:060:25:09

-on the price, he said, "No, I love her as well".

-Oh, no.

0:25:090:25:12

So that was that, so I ended up with her in the end, so that's good.

0:25:120:25:14

OK, hit me with it, what did you have to pay?

0:25:140:25:17

-£100.

-Ten years ago.

-Yes.

0:25:170:25:19

You were buying retail, which is at the top of the market,

0:25:190:25:23

but I have to say if there's one area in the antiques business

0:25:230:25:26

which is doing OK at the moment,

0:25:260:25:29

it is 1950s, 1960s, and this sort of fits right in the middle there.

0:25:290:25:34

It's not a great piece of design.

0:25:340:25:37

What it is is a great bit of kitsch.

0:25:370:25:39

If I saw it in a shop, I'd pay £200 for it, no problem.

0:25:390:25:43

I think you got a good buy.

0:25:430:25:45

So, here we go.

0:25:480:25:50

This is just a basic silver cleaner you get from any shop and it's a question of elbow grease and just

0:25:550:26:01

work at it, and look at the filth that's dripping off it already.

0:26:010:26:05

This is oxidised silver - this is silver we're cleaning and you can

0:26:050:26:10

already see how it's coming up,

0:26:100:26:12

so with a great deal more elbow grease, I think we're onto a...

0:26:120:26:16

You'll see a pretty radical transformation.

0:26:160:26:18

This bronze rat has a bit of a waggle on its tail, why is that?

0:26:200:26:24

My wife's grandparents used to use it as a doorstop.

0:26:240:26:28

Really? What a use for it!

0:26:280:26:30

And I see also it's got a mark on the bottom, have you had that read?

0:26:300:26:33

Well, I've actually asked a Chinese friend of mine if she could read it

0:26:330:26:36

and she said it didn't make any sense to her at all.

0:26:360:26:38

-Well, you asked a Chinese and these are Japanese.

-Ah!

0:26:380:26:42

Made around 1900.

0:26:420:26:44

In Japan, the rat is a sign of good luck

0:26:440:26:48

and it's often associated with the god of good fortune, Hotei.

0:26:480:26:55

He often has a sack of good things and rats are often seen breaking into it.

0:26:550:27:01

So they're a completely different concept - in Europe we don't like

0:27:010:27:05

them so much, but in Japan they are a great object of reverence, almost.

0:27:050:27:11

Now, from doorstop to what sort of value do you think they've got?

0:27:110:27:14

Well, I wouldn't have thought an awful lot to be honest.

0:27:140:27:17

Hence the doorstop mentality!

0:27:170:27:20

-But perhaps when I tell you they're worth between £600 and £800 the pair...

-No.

0:27:200:27:27

You'll stop using them as a doorstop.

0:27:270:27:29

-Definitely!

-Thank you for bringing them.

0:27:290:27:31

Wow, thank you!

0:27:310:27:33

Well, with about five minutes of elbow grease, this is what we've arrived at.

0:27:350:27:40

This is a Renaissance revival bon-bon dish.

0:27:400:27:44

It's English,

0:27:440:27:46

dating about 1865, silver plated with a frosted glass insert.

0:27:460:27:52

-They're not really at the height of fashion these, but you paid...fifteen quid for it?

-Yeah.

0:27:520:27:57

Well, I reckon we've added at least two quid to the value by cleaning it.

0:27:570:28:01

That's lovely!

0:28:010:28:03

So there we go, a little bit of spit of polish and I think you know, I mean you can see the difference.

0:28:030:28:07

-Yes.

-Great.

0:28:070:28:09

Now it seems to me that you must be an actress or a theatrical person.

0:28:090:28:13

No, nothing of the sort.

0:28:130:28:16

Oh, why have you got all these extraordinary pictures then?

0:28:160:28:18

-Well, they actually belonged to my late husband's family.

-Right.

0:28:180:28:22

They belonged to his great-grandma,

0:28:220:28:24

who was an English lady but moved to Glasgow with her husband.

0:28:240:28:30

-So they lived in Glasgow?

-Yes, they did.

-And when are we talking about?

0:28:300:28:33

-Probably 1908.

-So, before the First World War.

-Oh, definitely, yes.

0:28:330:28:36

-So they were based in Glasgow, and what did she do?

-I know she had a boarding house.

0:28:360:28:41

Ah, so are we saying that these are all people who came to stay at her boarding house?

0:28:410:28:46

Yes, what she used to do is, people used to stay and obviously she must have made them so welcome, they used

0:28:460:28:51

to get back in touch, but obviously they didn't have the phone then,

0:28:510:28:57

so they used to send postcards ahead to book a room.

0:28:570:29:00

This troupe are coming round dressed as Girl Guides,

0:29:000:29:05

"Mrs Ferguson, we're working at Burns' Palace, Armadale this week.

0:29:050:29:10

"We'll be pleased to see you and Mr Ferguson on Saturday, if you can come".

0:29:100:29:15

-So they're not staying with her, they're just saying "here we are again".

-That's right.

0:29:150:29:20

-It's great. We're straight into the sort of the last days of the Victorian-Edwardian music hall.

-Yes.

0:29:200:29:26

These are all musical performers, singers, dancers, novelty acts.

0:29:260:29:32

What I like about this, is it brings to life that extraordinary period of popular theatre.

0:29:320:29:39

You know, the music hall was a great thing, everybody went to it.

0:29:390:29:42

We can't imagine the scale of the music hall and the popularity,

0:29:420:29:45

and every night there was a different act, a different turn.

0:29:450:29:49

-That's right.

-And all these people had their own postcards, trade cards, to promote their acts.

0:29:490:29:55

-That's right.

-And, as you say, they probably used these to say, "We're on our way, give us a room".

-Yes.

0:29:550:30:01

-Part of the novelty thing was also, I think, the dressing up.

-Yes.

0:30:010:30:05

So, whether these were actually Scottish people, or were people

0:30:050:30:08

-acting out Scottish roles,

-who knows. Yes.

0:30:080:30:13

Now, they certainly aren't Japanese, but they're doing a Japanese turn.

0:30:130:30:16

-Yes.

-Sometimes the comments are just great.

0:30:160:30:19

I love this one -

0:30:190:30:21

"In Ragtime Impressions of a Rapid Review of Modern Dance".

0:30:210:30:25

This is dated 1910.

0:30:250:30:28

-Very early.

-And look at her skirt.

-She's showing her knees.

0:30:280:30:32

Exactly.

0:30:320:30:34

-Yes.

-And that's what she did on the stage, so half the people

0:30:340:30:37

-were going there to be sort of titillated by pretty girls.

-Yes.

0:30:370:30:40

-Knees, you know, bits of things they never normally saw.

-Yes.

0:30:400:30:43

"Clarke and Davis in their clever Hebrew act".

0:30:430:30:48

I mean, you couldn't say that now.

0:30:480:30:51

-No.

-But again it's part of the sort of comedy process at that time.

0:30:510:30:55

I long to know what "educational tit-bits" are,

0:30:550:30:57

-and also "legitimate dancing".

-Yes, that's right!

0:30:570:31:00

I'd rather see the illegitimate dancing!

0:31:000:31:03

It's great, I mean obviously you never knew her.

0:31:030:31:06

I didn't, no. I have a picture in my bedroom of her. We call her "Ma".

0:31:060:31:11

-What does she look like?

-She's beautiful, she really is.

0:31:110:31:13

When we look at a collection like this, it's about bringing to life a period.

0:31:130:31:17

It's about bringing to life your late husband's history, isn't it?

0:31:170:31:20

-Yes.

-He must have been very excited by all this.

0:31:200:31:22

-He treasured them.

-If you were simply a buyer or a collector, none of these are worth much.

0:31:220:31:27

-No.

-The signed ones are interesting, they're personal, they're to Mrs Ferguson.

0:31:270:31:32

But I have to admit, there's no-one here who actually would have changed

0:31:320:31:35

the world, so the value is not there, but the history is.

0:31:350:31:39

A Britain that's completely vanished.

0:31:390:31:42

It once used to sit on Morecambe Promenade, which is very close

0:31:420:31:46

to Lancaster, and it's part of the Morecambe and Lancaster history.

0:31:460:31:51

Well, you've got the evidence to prove it, haven't you?

0:31:510:31:53

-Because you've brought along a couple of photographs.

-Yes.

0:31:530:31:56

This one... This clock tower is still there...

0:31:560:31:58

It's still situated on Morecambe promenade.

0:31:580:32:02

And there we see not just one, but we've actually got a pair of these pots, haven't we?

0:32:020:32:06

-To be frank with you, it probably needed a visa to get here.

-Right.

0:32:060:32:10

Because this has come from over the border, as we say in this part of the world.

0:32:100:32:13

This has come from Yorkshire, I think.

0:32:130:32:15

-Right.

-I can't help but think that this started off life at the Leeds Fireclay Company.

-Right.

0:32:150:32:20

Sometime in the sort of 1880s, 1890s so...

0:32:200:32:25

I reckon this weighs probably around about 500lbs or thereabouts, and I would reckon

0:32:250:32:30

a pound for pound, so if you wanted to go out and buy another one of

0:32:300:32:34

these today, if you could find one, I reckon you'd probably have to pay somewhere in the region of £500.

0:32:340:32:39

-Do you fancy the idea of owning a pair?

-Definitely.

0:32:390:32:42

Once you've got a pair, you've got to go out and get that clock tower, haven't you, to put between the two.

0:32:420:32:47

-I'm sure Morecambe's got one to spare somewhere.

-I'm sure it has.

0:32:470:32:50

It's a beautiful hand.

0:32:520:32:54

Gorgeous handwriting, very simple, very elegant.

0:32:540:32:58

It's a table of all the receipts contained in this book, so it's a recipe book.

0:32:580:33:05

Yes, and it also has remedies for illnesses.

0:33:050:33:09

-Oh, really?

-Which, of course, were homemade - you didn't

0:33:090:33:13

rush to the chemist, or buy something over the counter - you had to make your own.

0:33:130:33:18

-You boiled them up in the kitchen.

-You made them in the kitchen,

0:33:180:33:22

so I think a lot of cookery books of this time did combine recipes and remedies.

0:33:220:33:29

Indeed. When do you think this was made?

0:33:290:33:31

Well, it came from a farmhouse in Westmoreland, which belonged to my

0:33:310:33:37

husband's family, and it was passed on to us, I don't know who Mrs Buck,

0:33:370:33:43

the authoress of the book, is...

0:33:430:33:46

From the look at the handwriting, the manuscript was made either at

0:33:460:33:50

the very end of the 17th century or the beginning of the 18th century.

0:33:500:33:54

It must have taken her a long time, no rushing for a word processor.

0:33:540:33:59

Absolutely, so she's telling us to preserve walnuts,

0:33:590:34:02

to make good cheese, to preserve lemons or sweet ones.

0:34:020:34:06

-Isn't that lovely?

-That's lovely.

0:34:060:34:08

Quince cream, Spanish cream, these all sound absolutely delicious.

0:34:080:34:15

What's surprising is the sheer variety of diet.

0:34:150:34:18

I think we sometimes think that people just lived on bread and water at this time but they didn't.

0:34:180:34:22

-Not a bit of it.

-Pickling cucumbers, marinating trouts.

0:34:220:34:27

I'm fascinated by the medical side of this.

0:34:270:34:32

As you say, it's a time before the family doctor,

0:34:320:34:35

everything had to be done in the house, but there are some really quite extraordinary recipes here.

0:34:350:34:40

This is one that caught my eye - the snail water.

0:34:400:34:44

What's snail water?

0:34:440:34:46

"You take a peck of snails,

0:34:460:34:49

"newly gathered, we put them in a large pipkin

0:34:490:34:53

"and let them stand for 12 hours with three handfuls of red sage".

0:34:530:34:58

Quite what we do with snail water I don't know.

0:34:580:35:02

And does it say what it cures?

0:35:020:35:05

If it does, it's a little bit difficult to read, you're putting me on the spot here.

0:35:050:35:10

I hope it's a medicine and not a starter, don't you?

0:35:100:35:12

I hope so, yes, I hope so, might be quite delicious! One just doesn't know.

0:35:120:35:17

My hunch is that some of these recipes were passed around.

0:35:180:35:21

I think one woman would pass them to another woman,

0:35:210:35:25

that woman would copy them up in her book

0:35:250:35:27

and that's the way in which recipes were transmitted, if you like.

0:35:270:35:30

This is before printing, before recipe books were printed -

0:35:300:35:34

you're transmitting everything in manuscript.

0:35:340:35:37

So it's a wonderful insight into the way in which people shared information about food.

0:35:380:35:43

You know, there's no Jamie Oliver, Delia Smith, to tell us how to do

0:35:430:35:47

it, but they were getting on and making the most wonderful things.

0:35:470:35:50

When these things have come up at auction in the past, I guess they

0:35:500:35:53

fetched somewhere between £600 and £800, sometimes a little bit more.

0:35:530:35:59

I find this one very attractive, I must say, and it's lovely to know

0:35:590:36:03

-who it's by, it's lovely to know that it's Mrs Buck's.

-Yes.

0:36:030:36:06

-So perhaps we're talking a little bit more than that. Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

0:36:060:36:11

It was bought by my husband's father and since he died we've had it in our house since then, yes.

0:36:110:36:18

-And did you take it willingly, with open arms, or was it thrust upon you?

-Yes, we did. Yes, we did.

0:36:180:36:21

Oh good, because it is just glorious isn't it?

0:36:210:36:25

Every time you look at a corner, you see something else.

0:36:250:36:29

Domestic embroidery like this

0:36:290:36:31

really was the culmination of the training of a young girl.

0:36:310:36:36

She'd start off with plain sewing, then she might do

0:36:360:36:39

-something a little bit more complicated, but this really was the sort of scholarship piece.

-Yes.

0:36:390:36:46

And it was very, very popular,

0:36:460:36:48

this type of embroidered picture, in the 17th century.

0:36:480:36:54

It's got a lot of different stitches on it

0:36:540:36:57

and there's lovely chenille work here with the moss.

0:36:570:37:02

It has satin stitch,

0:37:020:37:05

there's couched work, which was actually very clever.

0:37:050:37:08

Here we've got couch work, which is where you laid a thread on the top

0:37:080:37:14

and just did a little catching thread every now and again, so

0:37:140:37:17

of course all the expensive thread was on the top, none of it was behind where it wouldn't be seen.

0:37:170:37:23

In the centre we've got spangles - metal discs with a hole in it,

0:37:230:37:28

with a little bead on the top,

0:37:280:37:30

and of course everywhere catching the light as I tilt it.

0:37:300:37:34

We have gold thread, we have bits of mica

0:37:340:37:38

and all in all it has...

0:37:380:37:40

If you had a tick list of all the things that you wanted

0:37:400:37:44

to see in a 17th century embroidery, this has it actually with knobs on.

0:37:440:37:49

Oh, gosh!

0:37:490:37:50

It really does, because of all this raised work.

0:37:500:37:54

Now if I put my finger in here, we can actually see the depth

0:37:540:38:00

of the raised work. Some people call it stump work.

0:38:000:38:04

-Yes.

-But actually the correct term is raised work.

-I see.

0:38:040:38:07

And you have a wadding inside,

0:38:070:38:09

probably wool, over which these stitches are created, so we have

0:38:090:38:15

this wonderful frog and then we have slimy snakes and in fact,

0:38:150:38:20

right over on my side, we have

0:38:200:38:23

a tangle of snakes. I can almost feel that they're writhing there.

0:38:230:38:28

She would not have designed the picture herself - there were lots of woodcuts and engravings

0:38:300:38:38

which then were copied by pattern makers, and those patterns then were available for the girls to use.

0:38:380:38:44

And this one, I think, it's almost certain to be a figure of Ceres,

0:38:440:38:49

-the Roman Goddess of plenty.

-Yes.

0:38:490:38:52

And of the harvest and so on, and Latin being the language of scholarship, it would mean

0:38:520:38:57

that the girl was trying to show that she was educated,

0:38:570:39:01

as well as proficient in her stitches.

0:39:010:39:03

The colours are incredibly bright still

0:39:030:39:08

and I think altogether it makes into an incredibly desirable object.

0:39:080:39:14

As far as value is concerned, I would be absolutely confident

0:39:140:39:20

it would fetch between £8,000 and £10,000 in auction.

0:39:200:39:24

I wouldn't be surprised if in a very smart shop in the middle of London,

0:39:240:39:29

-you didn't see it at a much higher price when it came to resale.

-Yes.

0:39:290:39:33

But for auction, I would have said between £8,000 and £10,000.

0:39:330:39:37

I'm so pleased that I've been able to explore this enchanted garden.

0:39:370:39:41

Thank you very much indeed, thank you.

0:39:410:39:44

A friend was moving from a big house with a garage to a small house,

0:39:440:39:48

so he had half a garage full of stuff he couldn't take with him,

0:39:480:39:51

so I bought it all off him and this was some of the things.

0:39:510:39:55

He was happy, I was happy, especially when I saw the stuff.

0:39:550:40:00

We've done a bit of jiggery-pokery.

0:40:000:40:02

Originally it would have been a lime light in there with gas.

0:40:020:40:06

-Oh, yes.

-Or an oil lamp in there,

0:40:060:40:08

a bit dangerous for health and safety today, so we've put our own

0:40:080:40:11

lamp in it, and hopefully if we switch it on it's going to work.

0:40:110:40:16

So, why is it called a magic lantern?

0:40:180:40:20

Back in the 19th century, no TV, very little to do in the evenings.

0:40:200:40:25

The only way you could project and show images was by magic lantern.

0:40:250:40:30

Your collection is interesting - it's not just views

0:40:300:40:34

from the Holy Land or nursery rhymes. These are slightly special.

0:40:340:40:38

They're all hand painted on glass and they're only about that size,

0:40:380:40:42

so by the time you've blown them up into the village hall and they're

0:40:420:40:46

a metre across, you can imagine the quality of the paint, so...

0:40:460:40:50

If we make this work, you can see why it's called a magic lantern.

0:40:500:40:55

LAUGHTER

0:40:550:40:58

So she's transformed, it's a transformation mechanical slide.

0:41:000:41:05

Makes people laugh today, it did 100 years ago.

0:41:050:41:07

It's the first time I've seen it work.

0:41:070:41:09

Well, let me show you a couple of others.

0:41:090:41:13

Here we have the young Queen Victoria,

0:41:150:41:18

again all hand painted.

0:41:180:41:21

You turn the handle...

0:41:210:41:23

She doesn't look very happy!

0:41:230:41:25

It's as though she was looking around the room

0:41:250:41:29

and to all of her subjects. But my favourite slide is this last one.

0:41:290:41:34

And again, when you consider that these were all hand painted,

0:41:360:41:40

normally by 12-14 year-old girls, they could only do it

0:41:400:41:44

for a very short time because after a while they lost their

0:41:440:41:48

eyesight, you can see what it is...

0:41:480:41:52

Can you see the sea moving?

0:41:520:41:54

I feel seasick!

0:41:560:41:57

-Now, this is 150 years old and it still entertains people today.

-Yes!

0:41:590:42:04

People still give magic lantern shows.

0:42:040:42:07

-It's got a good colour still.

-Very good. Very bright colours.

0:42:070:42:10

-So how many slides have you got in total?

-About 200 in all.

0:42:100:42:16

About 100 that work like that with the arm mechanism, and about

0:42:160:42:18

100 that you just put in and you move the glass.

0:42:180:42:22

The most desirable ones are the ones that work on the winding ones,

0:42:220:42:26

-the slipping glass ones are not worth so much.

-No.

0:42:260:42:29

But even if we average them out at, say, £30 each,

0:42:290:42:33

-30 times 100 you're talking about £3,000, could be more.

-Wow!

0:42:330:42:39

So, can you remember what you paid for the garage contents?

0:42:390:42:42

I paid £150 to £200 for the whole lot, not so bad.

0:42:420:42:45

Well, let's hope he's not watching this show, he's not going to be your friend any more.

0:42:450:42:50

No, well, thank you very much,

0:42:500:42:52

-that's great.

-It's fun, thank you.

-Thank you.

0:42:520:42:56

Looming over us all day here at the Ashton Hall has been the mighty

0:42:590:43:02

organ, which has been here since 1909 and is in need of a little TLC.

0:43:020:43:07

It should be in perfect condition for the centenary.

0:43:070:43:10

It has over 3,000 pipes and I'm told the work

0:43:100:43:13

is mostly being done by one man with a toothbrush and some vinegar.

0:43:130:43:17

Not to be tried at home.

0:43:170:43:19

Meanwhile, until the next time, from Lancaster, goodbye.

0:43:190:43:22

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