Sydney Antiques Roadshow

As you'll have learned over the years,

the Roadshow team in its search for antiques and the stories behind them

would go to the ends of the Earth.

This week, in fact, we have.

Any further, and we'd be on our way home.

Welcome to a very special edition of the Antiques Roadshow Down Under.

The first view of Sydney, one of the world's most famous skylines,

lifts the heart of every traveller.

It's a far cry from the day in 1788 when soldiers escorted ashore

a bunch of bewildered Brits, no longer welcome in their own country.

They arrived in Sydney with just enough luggage for a one-way trip.

Sydney today sums up Australia.

Vibrant, youthful and energetic.

Which doesn't quite explain the huge popularity here of the Antiques Roadshow!

But this is a young country.

Shall we see many antiques?

The short answer to that is - you bet.

When the first Europeans stumbled inland,

they found plants and creatures

the like of which they'd never seen before.

Their fascination with the exotic flora and fauna of the New World

found its way into early 19th-century art.

The work of those gifted migrants is now highly sought after Australiana.

And there's plenty of the old Georgian-Victorian stuff too.

The well-to-do people who were sent out to govern the new colony

had unlimited luggage allowances.

Sydney homes like Elizabeth Bay House were as fine as any in Europe.

Sydney is the gateway to the Pacific,

which makes it the natural habitat of collectors keen on artefacts

from Asia, Melanesia, and of course Australian Aboriginal.

The dusty open landscape, the endless variety of tribal designs

and unique wildlife are part of this country's extraordinary heritage.

On our visit we're hoping to get a flavour of it all.

Sydney University has been catering for students

from all over the world since 1850.

Today, fans of the Roadshow have flocked here to meet a bunch of British experts

and a team of Australia's top antiquarians.

When they knew we were coming, over 20,000 people applied for tickets.

We have a lot to live up to.

And all valuations will be in both the British Pound and the Australian Dollar.

Highland cattle in a Scottish Glen.

Many Australians - reminded them of home. Is this a piece that's family in that respect?

No, it's not, no, I found it actually in an opportunity shop.

-An opportunity shop. What's that?

-Like a Salvation Army shop.

-How long ago was that?

-About 12 months, yes.

And dare I say, how much you gave for it?

30.

For a vase like this? 30?

Right. And did you know what you were buying?

No, no, I didn't know. And the reason I bought it

was because I saw this as gold and I thought that's got to be gold, that's it, that's all I knew.

Wonderful. Right, looking at the piece itself - exciting to me -

because it's made at Worcester where I come from,

painted by... the signature of the artist there,

H Stinton, that's Harry Stinton.

A great generation of painters at the Worcester factory.

He specialised in Highland scenes,

Highland cattle there in the misty atmospheric scenes.

We did Antiques Roadshow up in Scotland and I saw his work there,

and it seemed at home, but somehow it really appealed to collectors in Australia.

A lot of these were bought by families

-who would have moved from Scotland.

-OK.

They probably bought this when it was new and it went out of favour.

The year it was made is from this code here,

-that's the year code for 1958.

-OK.

Harry was a grand old man by that date.

He was in his 90s then, but still painting, still doing the scenes.

His eyesight was going so his later work is a bit Impressionist.

He couldn't see so well. But that's some of his nicest work.

So bought in the 1950s, went out of fashion and given to a charity shop,

where you bought a wonderful vase. And it looks in lovely condition.

Sometimes they came as pairs, often there were two of them.

-They didn't have the other one in the shop?

-Yes, the other one is at home.

But it's not as good a condition as what that is.

It's chipped here, chipped on this part here.

-So a pair of them, at 30?

-Yes.

Shouldn't be allowed! Oh, dear, oh, dear!

I mean, these are seriously expensive now.

They were costly when they were painted. They were expensive,

they were sold in jewellers' shops and collectors' shops,

because people loved the quality of Royal Worcester.

-Today, collectors go mad for these.

-Do they?

And so, I mean, a pair with one chip are going to be 7,000, 8,000.

Oh! Sorry...

Yes, I mean, £3,000 for a pair of vases by Harry Stinton

and you got them for 30?

Yes.

-Isn't that nice?

-Yes!

-Just because you liked the gold.

-Yes.

Oh, my God!

Look at this broad and open panorama of Sydney in about 1820.

It's amazing, and we can see that it's got a nice signature down there.

Major Taylor of the 48th Regiment.

I think it's amazing, can you take me through it?

-Lead me through it, so if we start over here.

-OK.

Clearing some ground by the looks of it.

It looks like they're making something.

They've got blocks and they're probably building a house.

-They're going down into foundations, so...

-And gardening here, subsistence farming.

-They had to feed themselves.

-Vegetables, yes.

Because the boats would only come at very irregular intervals,

and it's very hard to grow stuff here. This soil is very sandy

-and it's not really good for growing crops.

-Yes.

So here's Sydney Cove which is where the first fleet landed.

And they literally, the town grew up running along the stream,

so the people could be close to it for sanitation or whatever.

-Everything you needed.

-But they also threw everything in there,

so before long it was completely contaminated.

Unlike Sydney Harbour now, one of the cleanest harbours I've seen.

A lot of work's gone into that.

-One of the good things the government's done.

-And what's that?

I would say that's a kangaroo but it looks more like a mongoose.

For a long time the animals weren't drawn properly because they weren't quick enough.

-Like Muybridge and horses.

-That's right, with the legs at the same time, yes.

There are lots of windmills across this vista.

-Presumably that was for wheat?

-Yes, to make bread.

I love this fellow doing his washing.

We've got chickens, so it wasn't so bad, life wasn't...

No, this would be a very jazzed-up version of what it was like,

because this picture was sent back to England to say,

"Aren't we doing well? Don't give up. Send money."

-Send money!

-They wanted the government to support the colony.

The currency at that time was rum!

But you can see they've built the jail up here.

-Yeah, very important building.

-Very important. It looks terribly small.

-Half the population in there at one point.

-At some stage, yes.

I'll get into trouble for saying that!

-Oh, no, we're pretty proud of our heritage now.

-Good.

And the Mint and the hospital. They're all heritage listed and still standing.

Yes, and then you've got some genuine Aborigines here.

Who wouldn't have been clothed.

But they've been dressed up for the British, to make it look like...

-It's incredible.

-Well, you know, all these people looking so healthy

and there's so much vegetation, it's really not true.

You can tell the entire history of the city from this one print.

Well, in terms of value,

in better condition one might hope to see it at 2,000 or 3,000,

in an auction perhaps, so it could still do that.

But it might have to be rather a good day.

That's about £1,000, £1,500, that sort of thing.

Oh, that's good, that's excellent. My parents will be thrilled.

Do you know, I come all the way to Australia

and I find myself confronted with something

that started off life in America, in New York, to be precise.

Because there are no prizes for anybody watching

for saying, "Oh, look, there's a Tiffany lamp."

But having said that, to be perfectly frank,

for every shade and base of this type that I come across,

90% were never made by Tiffany.

In fact, an awful lot of these have been made in the last 30 years

to sort of satiate the demand.

You were nobody unless you had a Tiffany lamp on your sideboard.

So... But this has got a bit of a history to it.

Yes, in the 1950s, my mother and her sister

were fossicking around in a very dark and dingy junk shop...

-They were doing what?

-Fossicking.

-Fossicking?

-Yes, looking.

-We'll get subtitles for that for the British viewer, OK?

Fossicking is when you're scratching around looking for treasure

like gold nuggets and opals in the mines of Australia.

-Rummaging's another word.

-That'll do.

-I'm with you.

In a junk shop, a "junk shop" in Derbyshire

and they found a nice-shaped lamp which was unrecognisable.

It was dirty, it was dark, but they decided that with a bit of a polish up, it might be a nice lamp.

They took it home and my mother discovered the Tiffany things.

-They paid fifty shillings for it. Yes, that was...you know.

-Yeah.

It's subsequently come down to me and they lugged it out to Australia

to bring it to me, what, nearly 50 years ago.

Date-wise, this would probably be initially round about 1895, 1900.

And at that stage Tiffany was your great interior decorator.

-Yes.

-And, um, he was making stained-glass windows,

because stained-glass windows were very much in vogue at that time.

They found initially that they got lots of spare bits over,

that they didn't need in the windows and somebody just hit upon the idea of making these into a shade.

-Really?

-So it came out of, almost like a waste disposal unit.

How fascinating.

Anyway, he designed over 500 shades, he designed over 500 bases.

I think this one works quite well.

It seems to be in proportion.

It does. Now, I'm going to take it apart.

So, I'm very carefully going to take that and just lift it straight off,

-OK, because I want to look at the base.

-Yes.

And if you can be so kind, we'll just take that off.

Now this one, if I can just take the cistern out.

-The first thing you always want to look at is, is it marked?

-Yes.

-There are two places to look. The base.

-Yes.

Which is rather nice because you've got the mark there

-of the Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company.

-Yes.

-Tiffany Studios New York, and then there's the number.

-Yes.

-And that is the shape of that particular base.

-Oh, I see, yes.

OK, um, now we look at the shade.

The first thing you're looking for is a mark,

-and you look on the inside of the rim.

-Yes.

-And it's usually quite tiny.

-It is.

I actually knew a lady in New York who was a dealer.

-She remembers when these went out of fashion in the 1930s.

-Yes.

And she remembers the workmen taking them out into the street,

smashing the glass out of them so they could get the scrap metal.

-Gosh, yes.

-There's a thought. It's a bit of eye opener. If I can find that mark...

-It's very hard.

-It is very hard, isn't it.

-And I've not got me specs on, but it's there.

-Yes.

So Tiffany & Co, no doubt about it.

If you wanted to replace this today,

-you'd have to pay more than fifty shillings.

-I'm sure.

Fifty shillings is two pounds, ten shillings, or two pounds fifty.

-Or five dollars.

-Which might be 5, 8.

Because if I wanted to buy this today,

I'd probably have to write a cheque out for a minimum of...

Let's say, 25,000.

Really, really? Gosh, that's a surprise, a nice surprise.

But nothing to you people in Sydney.

A woman like you, it's pocket money, I know the type!

For the benefit of the British viewer, that's a £10,000 shade.

-Really?

-But thank you for bringing it.

-Thank you for doing it.

That was wonderful. We feel we know you because we watch the show.

-You do?

-Yes, we do, and we feel we know people and...

That's fortuitous because I've got nowhere to eat and sleep tonight.

If I could come back to yours that would be wonderful! Look at that.

-Can you see that?

-Yes, oh, it's beautiful, yeah, lovely.

I meant to do that earlier. They've stopped recording now.

This is part of the keel of Captain Cook's ship Endeavour,

in which he circumnavigated the world and discovered Australia.

OK, I believe you, but...

We've got to convince the world. What is special about this piece of wood?

I have with me a letter that was written by George Howard

to Captain Bennett who was...

-In 1828.

-In 1828, asking him to take this piece of the keel of the Endeavour

to Liverpool or London and present it to an appropriate institution.

The Endeavour was finally scrapped in 1793. Was it that famous?

Well, it was said that in Newport, Rhode Island,

when it fell into disrepair and was condemned,

it fell prey to souvenir hunters at that time, in about 1793.

-It was already a very famous vessel?

-It was a very famous vessel and still is.

So while it was being broken up, people were cutting out chunks

and saying, "I've got a bit of the Endeavour."

And do you think this is the biggest piece that survives?

There is a... I think the only other large piece

is in the Newport Historical Society in Newport, Rhode Island.

But there's a gap, isn't there? What happened between 1793 and 1828

to guarantee this is the right piece of wood?

Well, I think it would be bizarre for someone to say in 1828,

that's, what, it's 35 years later,

that this wood came from the Endeavour if it didn't.

It's fairly nondescript, although it's got beautiful marks on it.

What happens between 1828 and now, that you've got it?

Er, my late father purchased it from a gentleman

called Sam Lowe who had it in Boston in his family for over 100 years.

So in theory we've got a provenance stretching back to 1828,

which you know about,

we've then got a slight gap, and then we've got the actual ship.

Now I think I am right in saying that when this ship was broken up,

as was common practice, bits of the Endeavour also floated off in different forms, didn't they?

Yes, I think that recycling was fairly popular in those days.

Yeah, so could that explain the gap?

That, you know, bits of it were built into another ship from 1793,

by 1828 that would have been wrecked and lost,

-and therefore it could have come, that could have filled the gap.

-Yes.

If they knew that within a later ship, bits of the Endeavour were there.

Certainly, the keel could have been used and laid for a new ship.

-But they said, "Remember, that's the Endeavour."

-That could be an explanation.

-That could happen.

-So you're pretty certain.

-Yes, I'm certain.

Now have you had this wood tested?

-The wood has been tested here at Sydney University by radio carbon dating.

-Yes.

And they put an age on it of about 1400, plus or minus a percentage.

-What's that telling us?

-Well, that tells us that the wood is probably 500 years old now.

That would make sense because the oak would have been 100, 200 years old

when it was felled for ship building, so that works.

-It certainly fits in, yes.

-Yeah. So, OK, science supports it,

the provenance supports it as far as it goes, with one or two little gaps.

So this is the making of Australia.

It is, this was here for the beginning.

I think that's extraordinary.

Would it be fair to say that should this ever come up for sale,

we might be looking at a sum like 250,000, £100,000?

-Yes, certainly.

-And possibly more?

-Or more.

-I mean in a sense, the target is the moon, isn't it?

-Because you're fulfilling a dream.

-It certainly is.

-It's unique.

-Well, it's fulfilled our dream, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Where do you keep this extraordinary collection

of Australian native birds in your house?

I presume you keep it in your house?

I must confess I don't.

It actually belongs to my aunt, who's 89.

She's nearly 90.

To my knowledge, this is the first time in at least 100 years that it's left the house.

Right. In the late 19th century if you had a large sprawling mansion,

you often had lots of cased animals.

These are some of our most famous native birds.

Of course, the kookaburra is a national Australian emblem,

it's been on stamps and coins, coats of arms for parliaments and all sorts of other things.

Some of these others lorikeets and rosellas are found in the Blue Mountains

to the west of Sydney. This is a bit of a challenge to value

because I've not seen something as good as this for a long time.

I would imagine something like this would probably fetch

in the vicinity of 3,000 to 4,000 at auction.

-Truly?

-Yes, it would be very, very sought after.

I would imagine, you know, for insurance 4,000.

Probably something like £1,000 to £1,200 in the UK if they came up there.

These are fantastic.

OK, thank you.

Well, this has the appearance of being almost a sort of collection of jewellery from the 1920s or '30s.

Have you got any information or history on them?

No, other than the fact that I know they belonged to my grandparents,

and that's about all I know, I have no idea about them.

I perhaps might be a bit immodest to say you've met a man who knows.

-I'm so glad.

-Because there's a little story about these.

They're by a maker called Leon Hatot

and he was virtually unknown. He's a French jeweller.

Some many years ago I was called to Paris, working for an auction house,

to look at some remaining watches and clocks.

In 1939, when the Germans invaded Europe,

all these watches and jewels were wrapped in tissue paper,

with their original tags, envelopes, everything,

put in a safe, and they weren't taken out

until somebody died and this man decided to sell them in the 1980s.

And they had all the original bills, and the details of manufacturing, how many diamonds, how much enamel

and I was the lucky chap who got to see them

and Leon Hatot was sort of discovered that day, by accident, by me.

Because although his mark, which we will find, I am sure, on them,

was known, nobody knew the history of the firm.

And this gentleman knew, so we rediscovered the maker.

This dress watch, again very classic 1920s, diamonds on the edge,

black enamel simulated onyx which was a popular material in the '20s,

would be worth something of the order of perhaps

5,000 Australian, £2,000-odd sterling.

This is a very classic design of his, again platinum, diamonds,

black enamel simulating onyx and a covered dial,

which was a very popular idea, very '20s. You can imagine,

a typical classic style.

And that also is something of the order of £4,000 or 5,000 Australian and £2,000.

But this one is really magnificent, wonderful set of diamonds set into it

and really good stones too. Often the stones are rather second-rate,

but these are excellent, again with the sapphires

Quite a difficult thing to value really, but...

Let me think, anything up to about 20,000,

something of the order of £8,000.

Magnificent.

-Thank you very much, made my day.

-Thank you.

Bernice, I've heard that you are almost solely the reason that we're here in Australia.

I wish I could take responsibility for that, but I couldn't.

I think, basically, I just had this bright idea one day,

and I've always been a fan of the Antiques Roadshow.

Being an expatriate, having seen the shows 18 years ago in England,

I didn't understand why they hadn't been here. There are so many expats,

also there's people from all over the world that have emigrated to Australia

and brought along all their treasures.

And I felt that it was necessary to get the crowd here

and give us a show, and I'm just so delighted

the amount of people that have shown up.

Well, thousands wanted to come, and thank you very much for starting it all off.

-For being on our side.

-Thank you for taking that long trip.

-And are you free for dinner?

-Oh, absolutely, thank you.

Here you've got a work by Thancoupie who is Australia's

foremost Aboriginal ceramicist and if we look at the bottom here,

we can see we've got Thancoupie's signature on the bottom.

It's a beautiful piece. If you look at the earthenware it's got a lovely texture to it, hasn't it?

And if you think about Aboriginal people and how important the land is to them, their culture,

their relationship with their country, it's an interesting piece,

it's quite evocative of Aboriginal culture.

She was born in the 1930s, born Gloria James,

and was the first indigenous person to actually get tertiary qualifications in ceramics.

So she's quite a ground-breaker because she was marrying, or linking,

traditional Aboriginal stories with ceramics, which is a relatively

new medium for Aboriginal artists.

These are unsigned.

So they're a little harder to sell because they don't have a signature.

They may well be by Thancoupie, they certainly look like they are.

So one would think that in the contemporary market,

these smaller pieces would be worth in the vicinity of about 500 each.

This larger piece, which has the wonderful signature on the bottom,

would be worth in the vicinity of about 2,500 to 3,000.

So you're looking at about £1,000 for this piece here.

Wow.

So if you put flowers in them, be very careful.

-No!

-And don't put them near an open window.

-No, at that price! Thank you.

-Thank you.

It's been in my possession for 36 years but it was given to my mother,

on the occasion of her 21st birthday

on 21st September 1910,

by a gentleman, the name of Christianson, Mr Bill Christianson.

He mined that in Lightning Reach.

If there is one gem that we, back in the UK, associate with Australia,

it's the opal. It's as much an association that we have with all the indigenous things here.

-Yes.

-Kangaroos and kookaburras, opals. So I was hoping that someone

-was going to bring in a lovely opal.

-Good.

Here we have a drop-shape opal in the frame.

You've dated it for me, 1910.

There we have a very simple, you know, very basic gold frame,

which is decorated with beaded motifs around the outside.

You turn it over. First key point,

the opal should be the same colour that you can see at the back,

because you've got these things called triplets,

you've got these composition opals which are a slice of real material

which has got often a backing, or it may even have a cover on it,

and that creates a composition of gem which is not a solid true stone.

This, of course, is the proper solid opal.

Although we don't know what it weighs because it's mounted up,

in my opinion it probably weighs seven or possibly eight carats.

Now gemologically, what are they, opals?

Well, they are a type of jelly.

And sometimes as much as 10% or 15% of these are water,

and that gives rise to a problem.

Opals dry out, and opals have a tendency to crack.

So that is one issue to bear in mind.

Opals therefore have this play of colour

which reflects from what you might call little tiny cells

within the stone itself, and it's the reflection of those cells

that give it this wonderful rainbow effect.

I think we can see there, if I turn it, certainly in this light.

-Yes.

-I've got a really good play of pink fire with red flash in the stone.

The issue then moves on to what might an opal like this be worth.

The market here is far more knowledgeable, I think,

than the market we have in Europe.

I would probably expect it to be worth

something in the region of £15,000 for insurance purposes.

That's around about Australian 35,000,

-something like that. That's for insurance purposes.

-Yes.

I have no doubt that in the market here,

there will be people that will pay more for it.

Here we have something though that I was hoping beyond hope I would see.

-You have not disappointed me.

-Thank you. It is beautiful.

That's a very interesting way of bringing things in, in a pram.

-Can you tell me about what you've got?

-This is my father's collection.

-He was the therapist for the Australian cricket team for many many years.

-Yes.

And he was in the beginning of World Series cricket.

-Really?

-He realised that there would be valuable things

to hand down to his grandchildren and great grandchildren.

-Would you mind if I have a quick rummage around?

-No, I'd love you to.

-Good.

-Everything's signed.

Right, OK. This looks like World Series cricket.

-Definitely, there's three teams, this is the Australian team.

-OK.

And in here's the West Indies.

-Right.

-And possibly international team, or English team.

That is the English team, I notice a few that I recognise here.

There's Graham Dilley and Bob Taylor, who was the wicket keeper.

This is a nice piece, the signatures are in fairly nice condition.

At auction that would probably fetch in the region of 200 to 400.

-Wow.

-You're looking at around £100 to £200.

-Well, OK.

-Now.

OK, now this...

this is something rather special.

-Can you tell me anything?

-It was Ian Chappell's.

-Right.

-Possibly my dad fixed something for him,

and he went on to do quite well in the game somewhere.

Because my dad's 90 with Alzheimer's, he doesn't remember.

Right, this is a very significant piece of sporting memorabilia.

It's actually initialled here, you can see it's initialled IC.

-Ian Chappell, Ian Chappell was the captain of Australia.

-He would have been.

Yes, he was unbeaten, he never lost a series as test captain,

he played in over 70 tests. And...

The baggy green is considered really to be the most collectable type of cricket memorabilia,

and cricket is really the most collectable Australian sport,

this is fantastic.

If it were to appear at auction in Australia,

this would conservatively make between 6,000 and 8,000.

-My goodness!

-Which translates in English pounds

to around £2,500 to £4,500, so it's quite a find.

-Wow.

-Mmm.

Here we are in Sydney, Australia. And here is a collection,

a fabulous collection of Maria Callas - photographs and letters.

Why Maria Callas, why not Sutherland?

Why not Nellie Melba?

Well, my mum gave me a recording of "The Barber of Seville"

back when I was 10 or 11, and the voice just amazed me.

I think I've always started collecting her ever since,

I've friends who worked with her.

But this is a very sophisticated collection. This is quite incredible,

I've never seen anything like it. You've got piles of them.

You've got these ones by Angus McBean, of course.

-But there's piles of them.

-Yeah.

All signed. But which is your favourite thing here?

Well, I think my favourite is the London "Traviata"

-for which this...

-This one here?

I've also brought in "Tosca", from London and "Norma" from London,

all great British photographers.

She owned these photographs, gave them to fans.

As much as I love the signed photos and how personal they are,

I go to the letters, which I feel actually

illuminate her rather more. There's one here to "Dearest Henry".

Henry is an unknown friend of Maria's and this was written in 1949

before she got married, where she's telling him how much she's in love

and that she desperately needs her birth certificate,

to get married in Italy. It confirms her full name, her parents' names

her real date of birth and, you know, how happy she is, etc, etc.

But you see, that to me, is more exciting really than...

-It's unpublished too, so, never been seen.

-That's even better.

And this one just goes on for pages.

-I know.

-"Dearest Leo,

"I have received your very dear letter." What's that about?

Leo was her godfather whom she confided in him in the '60s,

through the '70s and here in 1975 she's bemoaning the loss of her voice

but she may have to go and sing, that Di Stefano loved her, but they couldn't marry.

It goes on for pages and pages and pages.

If you were text-messaging this, it would go in two lines or something!

But this is very much more important.

So how many items have you got altogether?

I guess, maybe 70 or 80 signed photographs of varying sizes

and maybe 20 letters.

Well, I think 20 letters are very rare. Well, autographically.

Theoretically, she shouldn't be rare because she is an opera singer

and would give all these things to her friends,

-but people are incredibly excited by Maria Callas.

-I think...

She wasn't so rare, it's just that the demand exceeds the generous supply and very much so.

-And it's not going away.

-Certainly in the US she's very hot.

-Yeah, everywhere.

-In Australia she's very hot too?

-Absolutely.

And England too is very keen on her, as well, and all her recordings.

I was fortunate to see her in the Festival Hall in London in 1974,

-not the voice it was, but...

-But even so, it was still there.

I think that's wonderful. How long has this collection taken?

20 years, I guess.

How much have you paid for it all?

Thousands, I guess.

I should think you have. I would say that you have got, Australian,

the best part of a quarter of a million Australian dollars?

-Good grief.

-Which is something like £100,000 to £125,000.

Wow! Are you sure?

It's a fantastic collection and wonderful to see it, thank you for bringing it in.

Well, it's going back to England eventually, I've decided in my will

to leave it to the V&A Museum in London.

Is that the right place for it?

I think so, yes. She loved London, she loved the audiences there.

I thought, let's keep it in the English-speaking world and London.

I used to live in England, loved the V&A, so why not?

-They're very happy to receive it.

-That's very generous of you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

They're not, as pieces of silver, terribly artistic. What's the history behind them?

I brought them in because they're trophies won by my grandfather for his excellence in poultry farming.

He had hens that could lay more eggs than anyone else's,

and these items were won by birds that he sent to India

and they laid more eggs than any of the hens there, so he won prizes.

I think it's wonderful. I also like the documentation that comes with it.

Here is a letter, or actually a sort of manuscript.

It's a testimonial dated 1925 and it says here,

"If you had sent four pullets to make a team,

"you would have won the team prize hands down,

"as your three laid an average of 61 eggs apiece."

-That's truly amazing.

-Incredible.

-But you don't poultry-farm any more?

-Oh, no!

Truly exceptional pieces, not because of the quality,

but the history with them. It's important that in the future all the documents you have,

and you have more, I know, are kept with them and the story goes on down.

Because these are not worth a lot of money

but as a bit of the history of poultry farming, they're unique,

so we're talking about a few hundred dollars, you know, not a great deal.

-But a fantastic story.

-Thank you.

Well, I've come halfway round the world

to meet the strongest monarchist in the country.

-Thank you.

-Is that a fair description?

It's certainly a passion of mine.

I think they're fantastic little pictures.

There's the representations of the different monarchs themselves,

and it's also a history of costumery as well.

You're going for every British monarch ever, is that your plan?

I've gone right back to Edgar and Egbert

who was the grandfather of Alfred the Great. I'm trying to fill in all the gaps before then,

but I've been able to get a representation over there of the Conscience of the King.

That's King Cerdic so that's around 500AD.

I'm still looking for King Aella of Sussex and some of the Northumberland Bretwaldas, Edwin,

if any of your viewers are able to steer me in the right direction.

I was in Sussex only last week, I could have looked round for you!

So what started you off in this obsession?

Well, I've always been interested in history and when I was young,

my family holidayed in England. I did my university degree in history

and I lived in Britain for three years, so that got me going.

This one behind me here is one of the more recent pieces I picked up,

that was in a flea market in Sydney, a battered old remnant

that I think to the stallholder was just some woman,

but I knew it was Queen Alexandra and so I got it for 5.

They don't all have a pictorial representation, do they?

Pretty much all of them do. This one was the first contemporaneous portrait,

Richard II, 1377 so that's 600 years before the Queen's Silver Jubilee.

So all the monarchs represented here before that period

are imagined portraits perhaps taken from death effigies on their tomb,

or from coins or something.

How do you get them?

Some of them, I just bought them in shops and flea markets and that,

but to get some of the more obscure ones, I've had to source different publications,

18th, 19th, 20th-century publications, and then tried to marry them

into appropriate sort of antique and collectable frames.

-Is this a very expensive hobby?

-No, not at all.

I can buy some of these nice little collectable frames at flea markets

for about 5 and if I can find an appropriate picture

then it's not an expensive hobby at all.

And are you tempted to extend your collection beyond the British monarchy?

Certainly not. I want to collect more of the British monarchs

and more of their consorts, but I wouldn't pollute my collection with non-British monarchs.

To show that I'm even-handed, I've got Bonnie Prince Charlie,

not looking terribly bonny in that picture.

This is a fairly modern representation, what's that one?

My mother went to England in the 1950s

and was at the Coronation Procession.

That's the Queen in her carriage. My mother made that piece

and in recent years gave it to me.

How lovely. And there is our own dear Queen, when Princess Elizabeth.

Yes, I'm particularly fond of that one because of the caption underneath that simply says

"Beloved throughout the British Empire".

-I think we should stand up at that point.

-God Save the Queen.

Now I think I can safely say

the last thing I would ever have expected to see in Sydney

is some pieces of china that are to do with the suffragette movement.

Here we have a cup, saucer and a plate,

clearly decorated with the badge WSPU, the Women's Social and Political Union.

What on earth are they doing here?

Well, my grandmother gave a complete set to me.

-Hang on, what was that word, a complete set?

-A complete set.

-There's more?

-There's more!

She had been given the set by a friend of hers, Mrs Cullen,

who had gone to the UK in the early 1900s

to assist in the women's suffrage movement.

And I had a paper cutting

where it described her being thrown out of the House of Commons in 1905.

-That's very early.

-Yes.

-What's this cloth?

Well, this came with the set.

-And it's in the right colours.

-Yes.

-Purple and green.

-Yes.

These are classic suffrage pieces with the badge,

but obviously somebody has made this at the time to go with it.

-Yes, it would seem so, yes.

-Now these were made in Britain in I suppose 1912-ish,

it's difficult to know the date with no records,

by a Staffordshire company called Williamson, though that's unimportant.

-Yes.

-The importance is entirely in the badge

and no-one knows how large-scale the production was,

because clearly you had to be a dedicated suffrage person

-to serve your tea in things badged in that way.

-Yes.

Cups and saucers turn up, occasional pieces turn up,

but they're very rare and very desirable.

I think when I heard you say that phrase, a complete set,

I can't believe it. What does that mean?

A complete set is six cups, six saucers,

six plates, a cake plate, a teapot, a sugar bowl and a milk jug.

So these are yours, and they've come from the family connection.

Where do you fit in?

I fit in, in that watching the Antiques Roadshow,

-I saw a cup and saucer on the show.

-Like this?

Exactly the same as the cup and saucer, other than it had a crack,

and it was only the one piece. I remember the gentleman who assessed the piece

commenting on, wouldn't it be wonderful to see a full set,

they just don't exist, so, of course, I rang my friend Elizabeth.

And said? "Get out your set."

I said, "Elizabeth, get out the set."

Well, I think that's great because a complete set is the dream

and it's a wonderful thing to fulfil here.

Now, you know it's very rare, you know it's going to be expensive

but do you know how expensive?

I'm afraid I have no idea.

Well, that's not true, we had a bet.

All right, what was the bet?

-Come on, tell me the bet.

-What did we say?

I said, I went the highest and I thought 10,000.

-For the set?

-For the set.

-OK, yours?

-And I said two.

-2,000.

-And my husband Alex said five.

Right, OK, assuming it's complete and in good condition,

I'm going to say...

£3,000 to £5,000 and that means...

About 8,000.

About 8,000 to 10,000, so, you win the bet.

I thought I won the bet.

Well done, but seriously, this is a very important thing to look after,

it's a great piece of history, Australian history as well as British.

And I'm amazed to see it, and very pleased.

I think we should say that actually Australia, South Australia,

in fact, got the vote for women first

and that's why Mrs Cullen went to England to assist them.

-As did New Zealand.

-Yes, indeed.

-Exactly. So you showed us how to do it, as ever, thank you very much.

-Thank you.

For now, many thanks to all our Sydneysider friends,

and until the next time, goodbye.