Coughton Court 2 Antiques Roadshow

In an ideal world, the Antiques Roadshow would be filmed

in a beautiful location

with a great country house in the background,

an eager crowd of visitors,

and to top it all...fine weather.

We stepped into that ideal world

when we came to Coughton Court in Warwickshire.

We quickly filmed enough lovely things to fill one programme, and

when we'd done that, we let the cameras roll on.

The result, Coughton Court Episode Two.

Well, it's wonderful to come and see a Welsh dresser

laden with Gaudy Welsh blue and white.

This is the way which one imagines Welsh dressers ought to look.

This is from South Wales, is it?

It is. It was my grandmother's, my father's mother.

And we went down to Wales to collect it.

-And it's come up here to the Midlands.

-Yes, it's been in the Midlands for about 28 years.

Yes, great isn't it, really?

But a traditional Welsh dresser, although not always made in Wales.

Many of them made up in the North of England and taken down to Wales.

And the Welsh, Gaudy Welsh,

these sorts of things are very much not Welsh at all.

-Are they not?

-They're probably made by Allertons in Stoke on Trent.

-Oh, I didn't realise that.

But they were very popular down in Wales because they were cheap and

lustrous and this copper lustre glowed in the fireplace and looked terrific.

-And the name "Gaudy Welsh" actually comes from America.

-Oh, right.

They called this Gaudy Dutch or Gaudy Welsh, and the name stuck really.

-But very little of this is actually Welsh.

-I didn't realise that.

-We collected the furniture and the pots and brought it back with us.

-Yes, I'm sure they look wonderful.

-What about the plates?

-Well, the plates can be Staffordshire.

Although they did make them down in South Wales -

Swansea area made blue and white willow pattern scenes like these.

But a jug is going to be anywhere from £50 to £100

depending on its quality and things.

-For one jug?

-Yes, and the plates are going to be £20, £30, £50.

More for the dishes. So you've got to add up those

-because there's lots more as well, isn't there?

-Yes.

And the piece of furniture

is a gem, and for insurance purposes, £5,000.

-Right.

-So that's...

That's a lot more than I thought.

-So enjoy it and look after it.

-Thank you.

Well, this is a toy that does exactly what it says on the tin.

It's a Louis Marx Merrymakers,

and here we go.

Here they are, the Marx Merrymakers Orchestra

and what merry little mice they are.

Let's give them a go and put them through their paces

because we want to see what you get for your money.

GRINDING

There we go. So, put them out of their misery.

There's an awful lot of grinding and groaning. Not much music in there.

No, there isn't music in that one, very little music.

Is this a toy that you grew up with?

It was in the family, but I didn't actually grow up with it.

When we was young, we'd never seen it.

All of a sudden it just appeared when we was older, it just appeared.

-Well, I wonder why that was.

-No idea.

-Did it appear at a time when you were no longer going to wreck it?

-Probably.

-So, it's a lovely lithographed toy, made in around 1930-1931.

-Right.

And I would have said that the company that made it,

-Louis Marx, were cashing in on the whole Mickey Mouse...

-Yes.

..excitement, because Mickey,

who first appeared in 1928, was THE character,

but they sort of got round the very tough Walt Disney copyright rules

by changing it slightly.

So he's not exactly Mickey Mouse.

But there's certainly...

the hat is being tipped in that direction, don't you think?

-Yes.

-It's survived in amazing condition and I'm going to ask,

-have you got the original box?

-No, we haven't, no.

That is surprising cos there are so many loose bits that invariably somebody's missing.

Either it's the dancer or the fiddler or somebody goes.

But you've got the whole complement.

And because of that and its condition, it's going to be worth quite a lot of money.

-Oh, right.

-Value I would have said would be around £800.

Maybe it could get into four figures, so there would be something sizeable

-there to be split, as long as there aren't 1,000 grandchildren.

-Not yet, no.

You know why I'm cradling this?

Um, because you like it?

Yeah, I want to take it home.

I don't think my mother would agree.

-It's your mother's, is it?

-Yes, it's my mother's.

-It's a great pot, do you like it too?

-Yes, I love it.

Do you know what it is?

Well, I thought it was Japanese and that's all I've assumed about it.

Well, you've got that bit right, it is Japanese.

In fact, we do have on the bottom here,

a mark, and this says "Satsuma yaki"

which means fired in Satsuma, or Satsuma kiln.

It's a type which actually date from the 1860s-1880s.

-So that's when it dates from.

-Well.

-The nice thing about this one is the glorious chrysanthemums we've got all over it.

-Yes. The colours in it...

I mean it's spectacular enamelling.

I think it's a real, real gem.

What is that?

A hole my father drilled to turn it into a lamp.

-Oh, dear.

-And my mother went mad.

-He didn't tell you he was going to do it?

-No.

-Oh.

He took it somewhere for a chap to drill it

and he refused.

So my father said, "Give me the tools and I'll do it", and he did.

Well, I think even with your father's naughty little drillage,

it's still a spectacular object.

I think the market would like it very much.

And I think we're still looking at £3,000-£5,000.

Oh, my God.

"October 5th, 1964, Greenway House, Churston Ferrers, South Devon.

"Dear Miss Bradley, your friend Miss Margaret Twigg,

"tells me you are very fond of my books.

"There will be a new one out in November, or early December, called 'The Caribbean Mysterey'".

This is a most extraordinary spelling of "mystery".

"..Best wishes to you, yours sincerely, Agatha Christie".

It's absolutely tremendous. Now, who was Miss Boardley?

Miss Boardley was our neighbour

when I was a child and she was an avid reader of Agatha Christie's.

Anxiously awaited each new work as it came out.

My mother wrote to her telling her how keen Miss Boardley was on...

her work and Agatha Christie wrote back.

It has a wonderful sort of battiness about it, doesn't it?

Yes, the letterhead you could almost imagine

Miss Marple really writing on, couldn't you?

Instead of it being Churston, it could be St Mary Mead.

-Probably was St Mary Mead.

-Probably was, yes.

But it's a very good letter.

It's all on one side and it mentions her new book.

This is what people want and it's very nice.

What sort of price?

I don't know, you tell me.

Right, well, I would say that that is good enough to be worth £800.

Goodness me.

And isn't it nice to know that you can be a bestselling author

for decades and still not be able to spell.

Well, I was in the Forces

just before the war finished

and I was posted to Trieste in Northern Italy.

-Right.

-And I was made chief clerk

to the chief of the military police in Italy, in Trieste.

We were in the Palace of Justice,

and in the next office to me was the chief clerk of the civil police.

He'd got this clock on his desk and I took a liking to it.

And for some two years, I pestered him to sell it to me.

And you saw it every day.

And I thought, well I've got to get that clock, how can I get it?

And he was desperate for English cigarettes and we struck a bargain.

I gave him 200 cigarettes and he gave me the clock.

We were issued with a tin of 50 cigarettes free each week,

so that was my rations for four weeks.

That was a month's rations.

-That's right.

-For a carriage clock.

-Yes.

What did you like most about it? Why did you like it so much?

Well, just being so small and it looked to me sort of wonderful.

-It's a gem, isn't it?

-It is, yes.

There is something about it that sings out.

-Do you have any idea when it was made?

-No, no.

It was made at the end of the 19th century, around 1890, that sort of period.

-Do you know where it was made?

-No.

Made in France.

Probably made near Dieppe

and then the porcelain panels painted and assembled in Paris.

It's made in a case that we call the bamboo style, for obvious reasons.

These cross pieces and down pieces in the bamboo style.

And it has these beautiful oriental painted plaques on the dial.

What is special about this clock is that not only is the dial porcelain,

but also the side panels and the rear door.

Now normally the rear door is glazed,

but the special ones have porcelain mounted on the rear door.

-Oh, that's a special one?

-Oh, it's a special one.

Um, the other little pointer is that

the movement is numbered

and there's a little number down at the bottom there, number 8149.

And the porcelain panels have exactly the same number on each of their panels.

You can see it on the back of this panel - it's very faded there.

Two pointers towards condition.

Firstly, it's brass, it used to be gilt

and you can see tiny little remnants where the gilding used to be.

-Some over-zealous cleaning's gone on here, but not you, I suspect.

-No.

No you've not done anything to it.

There are, sadly, a couple of little cracks, or there are four

in actual fact, one at each corner,

there on each panel, just only on that side panel, which is a shame.

It can be repaired.

If you felt like spending the money it would cost maybe £200-£300 to do.

But it's worth doing, it's worth doing.

Value? I would think that if you put that into auction today

that it would certainly fetch between £3,000-£4,000.

And on a good day, it might fetch towards the upper end.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for bringing it along. It's an absolute gem.

It says, "Presented to the Captain, officers and crew of RMS Carpathia

"in recognition of gallant and heroic services

"from the survivors of the SS Titanic, April 15th 1912".

Now the Carpathia was the ship

-that came to the aid of the survivors of the Titanic.

-Yes.

And, essentially, this is a very rare and interesting thing.

Because not a lot of these were made.

Now, if my memory serves me correctly,

I think there were 14 gold

which were given to the Captain and superior officers,

-there were 110 silver and 180 bronze.

-OK.

Now, before we go any further, I need to know how you come to have this.

Well, it came via my grandmother

and her father was a pawnbroker, as I understand it.

-So I imagine that it was left to her having not been redeemed.

-Right.

And when she died that was in her estate.

Right, OK. The bronze medals, as far as I were concerned,

were not gilded, or I didn't think they were gilded.

-This is a bronze medal that's been gilded.

-Yes.

And when I initially saw it,

my reaction was that yes, it's a contemporary medallion.

That's not a problem. But in fact when the film Titanic came out,

a gold version of this medal sold for 70,000. 70,000.

And, also after that event,

-a few bronze ones materialised which were then gilded.

-Yes.

And people tried to pass them off as gold ones.

But, of course, it's not that difficult to tell the difference.

But I wasn't aware that all the bronze ones were gilded.

So that's a little bit of an anomaly for me

to deal with in this situation. I would have to do further research.

There's also something else about it, as well.

It actually has a name engraved on the bottom which says, "Amy Quayle".

Now again, I don't know the crew roster for the Carpathia.

I'm going to be a little bit reticent about my

-pricing on this and I'm going to put £2,000 on it at the moment.

-OK, yes.

Now I might be seriously undercooking that,

because obviously we need to look at this lady and sort it out.

-We also need to look at the gilding issue as well, I think.

-Yes.

So when did you buy this fantastic bronze?

About 1953.

And where did you get it?

At a place called Beeley Hall.

A big mansion that came up for sale

-and they were selling all the interior.

-Oh, great.

And I fancied this, so I bought it.

So, it's by a man called Franz Lorenzl.

-That's right.

-And it's signed there.

-And it's an absolutely classical 1920s Art Deco figure.

-Yes.

You've got the gilt bronze, very stylish,

with the little stepped base here on this onyx column

and it is so archetypal Art Deco.

When you bought it though, was it broken?

I can see there's a bit of damage here. What's going on there?

No, no, it was complete.

But we had the burglars break in and they pinched it.

So how did you get it back then?

The police found it

in the next door's garden of the burglar who pinched it.

-So he buried it in his next door garden?

-He'd buried in next door's garden, among other things.

-Really?

And the detectives found it.

But unfortunately when they brought it back, that corner was broken off, so it had to be repaired.

Luckily they brought you back the bit as well.

Exactly, I was very fortunate really.

Absolutely. So it was a fashionable thing obviously when it was made,

became deeply unfashionable by the time you bought it in the '50s.

-And it's been a real roller coaster and they're now in fashion again today.

-Yes, yes, indeed.

And, you know, it should make somewhere between £1,200-£1,800.

So a very good return, I think.

My husband found it. He was working at an old lady's house

doing some work on the coal shed roof. The coal shed was full of rubbish.

She told him to get rid of the rubbish.

This was in there hanging on the wall.

So he said, "What are we going to do about the old man that's dying in the coal shed?"

And she said, "Oh, oh, you can have him if you want, no skip him, don't want him".

You mentioned him dying, a man dying out there.

Well, this is a man who did die, I should think, about 300 years ago.

-This is a painting that was done in about 1640, possibly '50.

-Really?

And shows strongly the influence of Van Dyke.

But it's a provincial hand, it's not a main London painter.

-This is not an artist who has all the refinements and accomplishments of the Continental painters.

-Mm.

This is quite rough, but nonetheless well-painted.

You can tell the influence of Van Dyke because in the previous generation,

these people stood rather sort of staccato with ruffs.

-Oh, yes.

-Now with Van Dyke, you begin to get this more

lyrical, theatrical timeless costume beginning to float in.

Now the problem we have here is the condition.

There's two or three issues. The first is the paint is flaking.

Some has dropped off, I have to admit, since we've had it.

-You've got to be careful because bits are flaking off as we speak.

-Yes.

This picture desperately needs to be re-lined, that's put on a new canvas.

Now canvas rots, canvas is biodegradable.

It needs every now and then to be put on a new strong, clean canvas.

The next thing you need to do is address the surface losses.

A restorer then needs to very carefully touch them in.

It's a laborious job, it's a painstakingly professional job.

-Really?

-And the third thing is, it needs a damn good clean.

-Yes.

-This colour here,

-is going to be bright white.

-Yes, gosh.

Now if that's bright white, imagine how red the red's going to be.

-How pink his flushed cheeks are going to be.

-Yes.

You're dealing with potentially a very decorative portrait.

An image of considerable impact, and then put a frame around it

and you've got something that'll look the part.

At present it's worth £2,000 - £3,000.

-Goodness.

-Cleaned up, in a good frame, I can expect it to sell for £4,000 or £5,000.

So it's worth having it done.

Well, it's my son's. He was helping to put up some scaffolding and when he went into the house,

the old lady told him to get rid of everything out of the lounge

where all the soot had fallen down the chimney.

And he said, "Are you sure?" and she said, "Yeah".

So he said, "Well, can I have this?"

and she said, "OK, be my guest".

-Jolly good.

-So he cleaned it up and he brought it home and it stands in a glass case.

Right, it's a volunteer helmet.

That is to say it's not regular army,

they are purely volunteers who later became the Territorial Army.

Now the Volunteer Movement was founded in 1860

as the Volunteer Rifles

and from 1860 on,

they gradually made these various regiments all over the country.

And this particular one,

as you know, is the First Shropshire Rifle Volunteers.

It's an other-ranks helmet, as opposed to an officer's helmet.

Now in actual fact, our police force,

-when you think about it, very similar.

-Yeah.

And this is where the policeman's helmet was formed, from this patent helmet.

And this patent helmet was introduced in 1879.

So although the Volunteer Movement, as I told you, was 1860,

it was 1879 until this shape of helmet was formed for the volunteers.

Well, if this came up for auction today in a military sale,

you would get a figure like £400, possibly more,

certainly nothing less.

Now there's a word I love, Dinky Super Toys, particularly this one.

Have you ever seen those in real life?

That's a bit before my time.

Well, camera man on top, outside broadcast.

Our camera man wouldn't know this because he's 83.

"This is the BBC bringing you an outside broadcast".

Wonderful.

"My Film Favourites".

Well, here we've got an album absolutely stuffed with photographs,

but it's this person who I don't recognise. Now, who's she?

That's Betty Torkington who's my mother-in-law.

And is SHE the reason that we're sitting here with this postcard album?

Yes, she was 13, which was 1929.

Oh, here we've got it. Betty...

-Torkington.

-Right.

And she lived in Manchester

and she started...her favourite actress was Clara Bow.

Oh, and there we have a signed postcard, here on the front cover of Clara Bow.

Now, she idolised Miss Bow, did she?

-Yes, yes.

-And why particularly?

I think she was hoping she looked like her.

SHE LAUGHS

Well, we can all hope, can't we?

But she, of course Clara Bow was known as the sort of

great femme fatale from the 1920s.

But looking through this...

..my first reaction is to say,

oh, well, they're all printed signatures, which most of

the "signed" pictures of film stars are, but actually these aren't.

I mean, we've got here Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.

So did she go to performances as a child?

Yes, her grandfather used to take her down to Drury Lane.

Oh, from Manchester?

Yes, they went to all the theatres in Manchester and they used to sit on the front row,

then go back stage and see some of the artists and that's how she got the...

And I mean, it reads like a sort of "Who's Who"

in the movie industry at that stage.

Here we've got Al Johnson...

..and Charlie Chaplin. You can't get a bigger name than Charlie Chaplin.

I mean, it's wonderful,

and a wonderful, dedicated,

signed photograph - "Our best wishes always, Betty".

Your mother-in-law. With lovely clear signatures by Laurel and Hardy.

I mean, it doesn't get much better than this.

-Again "To Betty, best wishes from all the Marx Brothers".

-Yes.

How do you feel about flicking through this?

Does it sort of give you a warm feeling?

It's strange cos she never talked about it.

It was just kept in a drawer.

-So it was a private passion?

-Oh, yes, yes.

How wonderful, and I wonder when Betty was collecting,

if she ever thought that it would be valuable?

-I don't think so.

-She just did it.

She did it for the joy of it.

Best reason of all for doing it.

-Yes, yes.

-But I have to say,

the fact that particularly those very important, those pivotal names are

signed in ink by the artistes, makes it very valuable.

-I think we're talking about a couple of thousand pounds.

-Right.

And could well be in excess of that. But that's a good bench mark.

There's no mistaking the designer of this clock, for me anyway.

-Do you know who it is?

-No, I don't have any idea at all.

Well, that's good because then I can enthuse a bit before we get to that.

I really want to know how you come to have it.

It was my grandfather's clock. I always remember he owned it.

-He had it in his study, and then he actually died about five or six years ago.

-Right.

-And, um, we were allowed to choose an item, as the grandchildren.

-Yeah.

That we remembered our grandfather by, and I always remember the clock because it was on his desk.

-Right.

-And so I chose that and I've always liked it. I love the look of it.

That's a poignant story, I like that.

It has associations for you which are nothing to do with value and nothing

to do with who it's made by, which is nice in many ways.

-I hope in some ways that I don't damage that...

-That's all right.

But having said that, it is a beautiful looking thing.

There's no mistaking the quality and design and style of this. It is very lovely.

-It's made by a designer called Archibald Knox.

-Right.

-He designed for Liberty & Co.

-Yeah.

Their things were characteristically Arts and Crafts in style.

Knox was a very good, how can I say,

sensuous kind of designer, and his styles are very, very obvious.

I mean look at this. You've got this wonderful enamel dial which, in fact,

is actually made on a copper disc.

You can't enamel on anything, in this respect, other than copper.

Which then had to be applied to this pewter case.

The pewter case, very stylish,

and in fact, if we actually quickly look at the bottom here,

we can see that there are some certain markings on the bottom.

We've got a four digit number here which is the pattern number.

It begins with a zero, so that's quite an early design number.

In fact what helps us even more is a registration number here,

which if I look at it says, "RD 488"

means that this is 1906.

Funnily enough, even though it is such a stylish and well-made thing,

if we quickly turn it round and have

a look at the inside of it, we can see that it has a very standard

mass produced movement inside it.

Does it work, have you had it running?

No. It got over-wound and it kind of exploded.

-So the workings are somewhat...

-All right, OK.

The hand at the front was snapped off.

Right, I can see that you have got a hand missing.

If the main spring's gone, that can be remedied.

-Right.

-The hand here can certainly be repaired, as well.

Would that be original?

-The hands?

-Absolutely, yes, the design is absolutely original.

-We have the other half.

-Right, that's great.

It needs to go to a clock restorer and be repaired.

In fact, a lot of people wouldn't be bothered about the fact that it doesn't work.

I find collectors of these particularly are American,

and they're not that worried about whether they work or not.

I think they really are buying these for this incredible look.

-OK.

-Had you ever considered what it might be worth?

We were perhaps thinking it might be worth a little bit of money,

but, honestly, I have no idea.

I'll be honest with you, prices on these Liberty & Co clocks

have gone down a bit in the last few years.

The American markets have dipped a bit, but I still have no hesitation,

for auction, on putting £3,000-£5,000 on this clock.

Do you play?

-I used to, haven't played for many years, I'm afraid.

-Nor have I.

You sound like an ideal opponent.

White's first move.

I bet you can't even remember which one goes first.

-Pawn to Queen four's a good one.

-That's a good one, OK.

Have you ever played with this set?

-Never, no.

-No, where did it come from?

Well, my father used to play chess for Staffordshire

and so he was very keenly interested in everything to do with chess

and, at some time during his life,

he acquired this one.

It's always been in the family as far as I can remember.

But I've got no idea where he got it from.

-OK, it is, as I'm sure you've guessed, Chinese.

-Yes.

-It was carved in Canton.

-How can you tell that?

Because they didn't carve this particular type anywhere else.

This type of set with the pierced balls was hugely popular

in the 19th century.

Yes.

They came over here in their thousands.

They range from this sort of size...

..to probably slightly larger than that.

The quality varies from absolute rubbish to...

really fantastic.

And yours here is in the region of "very good".

-This one will date around 1850-1860, somewhere around there.

-Yes.

-And, of course, they are made in bits.

-Yes.

You can...

take them apart because that was the most economic way of making the set.

There are endless numbers of these sets which are incomplete.

I don't know if you've noticed my cufflink.

Yes.

-It's actually one of these which I've cut in half.

-Yes.

Mounted onto a piano key

and then I've put a knitting needle to form the back,

from one of these which was just broken. So I made use of the piece.

-I didn't want it to go to waste.

-Yes.

Very nice set.

I think we're probably looking at

somewhere around £4,000-£6,000 for this set.

-Really?

-Yeah, yeah, very nice.

I am surprised, thank you.

-Thank you.

-That's excellent.

This is one of the classic ceramic models of all time.

Princess Elizabeth on Tommy the police horse,

taking the Trooping of the Colour in 1947

when the king was ill, because she stepped in.

This has got this plinth.

It should have the plinth, of course, and it stands off from the plinth

like that, beautiful, and it should have a certificate.

-This is the certificate?

-Yes.

-Signed by Joe Jimpson

who was the chairman of the company at the time,

and it was modelled by one of the great modellers at the Worcester factory,

-Doris Lindner.

-That's right.

Doris Lindner told me... I knew Doris as an old lady -

she was an incredible character -

that she had the Princess pose for her to get all the costume

and everything right, in the costume, and the horse posed for her as well.

So everything was absolutely incredibly accurate.

And Doris said that when she'd finished her Plasticine model, to take it back to the factory,

the King asked to see it,

because he wanted to approve it, that it was right,

and she was terribly scared cos the King might disagree.

But he expressed absolute firm approval of it, and there it is.

It's an absolute marvellous model and painted by Harry Davis.

Harry Davis, my great idol at the Worcester factory,

went to Buckingham Palace to copy

the colours of the Queen and the horse and everything,

and the thing is absolutely perfect.

How did you come by it?

Well, before I bought it, it had been exhibited in New York

-in the Royal Worcester showroom for 23 years.

-Heavens.

And a friend of mine, who deals in china,

had the opportunity to buy it.

-He bought it and sold it to me.

-It's rather nice, isn't it?

-That was in about 1975.

-So you've had it since '75?

-Yes.

Well, there were 100 only made,

an edition of 100 at a cost of 100 guineas. Do you remember 100 guineas?

A hundred pounds,

-a hundred shillings, isn't it, guineas?

-Yes.

And, it was regarded as one of the great models and I think it's a tremendous thing.

Incredibly, these models went down in value some years ago.

I don't know why.

They seemed to drop down, because I have known

Princess Elizabeth on Tommy go for £6,000 or £7,000, at stages,

but in recent years they have started to come back up again

and there have been two sold at auction recently.

One last year and one this year.

The one last year went for £2,600 and the one this year went for £2,800.

-Oh.

-So I think they are heading up.

So I think probably you might reckon that

its value is perhaps £2,000, perhaps £3,000 or something like that.

The one the Queen has, her own one,

she cleans it and dusts it herself only.

No-one else is allowed to touch it. I heard that from her herself.

So look after this, won't you?

-Yes.

-Otherwise the Queen will be after you.

Well, normally I start with the earliest of the two pieces,

-but these two are almost the same date.

-Right.

So it could either be ladies first, or age before beauty.

-What do we think?

-Ladies first.

I'm going to deal with this one first,

-but do you own them differently anyway?

-Yes, yes.

-Who owns who?

-This belongs to me.

-And that's mine.

-Right, I'll start with this one.

Is this a family piece?

Yes, it's been in the family for a great many years,

I can't tell you how long.

When you sort of handed this to me...look at the inside...

I thought it was a Victorian box.

And when I open it and I see these wonderful cut glass decanters,

and look at this here, "GR".

-Right, oh, right.

-George Rex.

-Right.

So that can't be any later than 1830.

-Right.

-And almost certainly, it could be George III but more

likely it's George IV - Prince Regent who became George IV.

1820-1830. So we can date that pretty accurately from that.

But what is exceptional, I mean why record a tea caddy,

we always see them on the Roadshow. There are two things.

One, it's got...

Certainly the original decanter's here which I have never seen really.

I mean, it must exist, I suppose occasionally they've turned up.

I haven't seen one for a long time, certainly not on the Roadshow.

-Yes.

-Um, not quite convinced about the one in the middle,

and the tea is how old?

As old as the decanter, I think.

Yes, I'll go and get some tea from the canteen later on.

But the most unusual thing about this is the four columns.

That's so Victorian-looking

and it's extremely unusual to have these columns.

I've never seen it, probably never see it again.

So that's why, to me, that's very special.

And this is special to you, is it?

Yes, my aunt left me this and it was given to her by a friend

and other than that I don't know any more.

Where's it from?

Guesses.

-Africa.

-Africa?

No, it's from India.

India. Had to be one or the other.

-So it's ivory.

-Yes.

Oh, I see this is what, Auntie's "Betty baby with love" yes, I see, yes.

1952, so that's when it was given, so that's already some time ago.

This is ivory and sandalwood.

-Right.

-Again we have to...

-smelling like the tea.

-Yes, lovely.

Doesn't smell like... oh, it does smell like...

Mmm, does smell like old sandals, yeah.

But it's a lovely, lovely box.

I mean it really is. It's from Visakhapatnam in Northern India.

A vague amount of Persian influence in it.

But what is really, really so pretty to me are these glorious tendrils here

All engraved, sort of lovely leaf tendrils

which is very typical of the Indian decoration or even Persian,

Iznik influence in Northern Italy in probably the 1830-1840 period.

Now, I'm slightly worried about this.

-Has this just happened?

-No, it was like that when I was given it.

-There's quite a buckle there.

-Yeah.

You can see how thick the ivory is there.

Really great thick pieces of veneer. Um, now what this needs...

it could be restored.

Arguably you could leave it. But what it needs is to have a drink of water.

-Really?!

-Not physically, don't put it in water.

-But if it's in a cabinet or something like that.

-Right.

-In a centrally heated room, ideally it should have a glass of water and keep topping it up.

-Right.

Now, valuations.

Which is worth the most?

-I'm going to ask Dad.

-I've no idea.

What's this one worth?

Put him on his mettle?

-I could say something, but I won't.

-Come on.

-1,500?

-Well, that's a pretty good guess.

That's off the top of my head.

-Would you have said that ten minutes ago?

-No, no, I think that's right.

-It's a lot for a tea caddy, isn't it?

-Yes.

Yes, I think it's worth £2,500.

Do you really?

-Very rare.

-Oh.

-That's terrific.

-The same grilling for you, or shall we be kinder?

Just come out with the same answer.

-What, 1,500? Would that be enough?

-Yeah.

But it's Indian, it's ivory, Visakhapatnam, very collected,

so I'm going to put £3,500 on it.

That isn't diplomatic!

And here we have some charming drawings.

These are all studies that were done in court, I assume,

by somebody who had a bit of time on their hands,

either an artist practising drawing people, or possibly

an official of the court, I have no idea,

but they are very, very competent.

This one here is labelled "The Court of the King's Bench"

and he does wonderful hands, faces.

This is one of the jury.

It's a preliminary sketch presumably for that,

and this is another one. People falling asleep and doing

all that sort of nonsense, but they're not signed.

Do you have any idea who they are?

No, none at all I'm afraid.

People loved to practise doing this sort of wonderful drawing,

but the thing that got me was this picture here

and it's labelled "Boswell, the author".

He looks incredibly uncomfortable, but the note at the bottom says,

"Boswell shelters from a shower about 1789 or before".

Boswell the great chronicler of Johnson's, Dr Johnson, Samuel Johnson of Johnson's Dictionary.

And it is incredible for the Roadshow.

I mean, one never knows what's going to turn up, but it is incredible

to find a contemporary unknown portrait

of somebody as important a literary figure as Boswell.

Where did you get them from?

Well, my grandfather was working for a colonel in Rowington,

near Warwick and he was, like, the grounds person.

He was told to clear out a barn of anything that was in there.

Told him to throw away everything and he came across two books and this is one of them.

And when he approached his boss about them, he said, "If you want them you can keep them".

And they've been in our family since early, about 1960-1961.

Yeah, and did you look at them as a boy?

-Oh, yes.

-You did?

-Yeah, definitely.

-Do you draw yourself?

-I do, yes.

And have you ever used any of these as a model or something like that?

I have, I've actually copied a few.

They are extremely good and as I say, it's very exciting to find this

18th-century contemporary portrait of Boswell.

-Now, have you any idea about value?

-None at all.

Well, I think they're competent those other drawings and mounted nicely.

They would certainly sell for a little bit of money.

But I think I'm going to concentrate...forget about those a little bit.

-OK.

-And concentrate on this Boswell.

I think this contemporary sketch of Boswell...

..is worth about £5,000.

Five... Just for that one piece?!

Just for that one piece.

-What about that?

-I'm absolutely gobsmacked.

No, this is lovely, thanks.

Thank you very much.

So, where's the saucer gone?

We've never had the saucer, it's always been like that.

-It never was with it.

-So you bought it as a cup?

-Yes.

Now one of the things I'm going to tell you about is that this cup is

transfer decorated and not hand-painted.

-OK.

-It usually means that it's worth a little bit less.

What I want you to do is just run your finger over that.

-Can you feel it slightly bumpy?

-Yes.

-So that's where the transfer has been stuck onto the body of the cup.

-OK.

Now if we look underneath it,

you'll see that there's a mark for...

-Royal Worcester.

-Yes, and is that why you chose to buy it?

Yes, because I knew that that's a quality make.

Completely right, that's fantastic.

This is in absolutely lovely condition.

-I don't think it's ever been used, do you?

-No, we definitely never used it.

Can you remember what you paid for it?

I think it was around £28, around that amount.

Right. I think I could show you a bit of a profit on that.

Really?

I think we could say £50 for that.

-That's brilliant.

-Good, now you tell me a bit about this yourself.

Well, we bought it in a shop near Stow on the Wold

and we think it's Murano glass, but we have no proof of this.

We thought it might have been an ashtray, although we found it hard to find out.

-Exactly what it was used for.

-Yes.

Well, the thing that attracts me is this wonderful vibrant colour.

-Yes.

-Lovely dark amethyst colour, very heavy, isn't it?

-Yes.

-I think you're right.

I think it is an ashtray, but the only thing I think I would

question is, I don't think personally think it comes from Murano.

-I think it's too thick and chunky.

-Right. OK.

Do you have any idea what date it might be?

Around the '60s, I'm sure.

Yeah good, very good.

-I think it's more likely to be Scandinavian.

-Oh, right.

I think it might be Swedish.

-OK.

-So does glass interest you?

Yes, glass and pottery is my main area, yes.

-How much did you pay for this?

-I think that was around £30, I think.

-And the good news is, I think it's worth £100.

-Oh, that's good news.

That's very good news, isn't it?

Well done. Well you're doing well so far. Now, what about this?

Well, it's been in the family for quite a long time.

I think it was my great grandad's.

It was kept in the farm, because we live on a farm,

and it was really abused.

But I think it's survived OK.

-Missing a bit here, do you think?

-Yes.

-There's a bit of a gaping hole down here.

-Yes.

The drawer went missing years ago.

Yeah, it would have had a drawer front across here.

Do you know what this is likely to be?

-Um, well we've seen that it's got a bit of a bronze colour, so is it copper?

-Pinky colour, it's copper.

But the copper's slightly corroded and it's all spotty.

If you run your hands up and down it feels quite rough.

-Yeah.

-It shouldn't feel like that.

But when it was new you would have had this tremendous contrast

between the pinky colour of the copper

-against the background of this wood which is oak.

-Oh, right.

-All right?

That was one of the things which I came to find out.

I'll show you how you can tell this is oak.

Do you see these little sort of shiny lines going across here?

Oh, yeah.

That's very, very typical.

When you see that in a wood, you'll know that that's oak in future.

-OK.

-And I'm going to ask if you've got any idea what the date is.

Is it around the turn of the century?

It's a little bit more modern than that. It's about 1915-1920s.

So, I think it's worth trying to find a piece of oak that will match this.

-Yes.

-And get a drawer front made.

With a little bit of good housekeeping, I think then you've got something that's worth

about £150.

Wow!

My brother said he thought it was only a bit of tat.

Well, you can tell him from me, he was wrong.

The Throckmorton family may have lived here since 1409,

but I doubt if they've had a more enjoyable garden party.

The family album of the Antiques Roadshow will be full of happy memories.

Until the next time, from Coughton Court, goodbye.