0:00:33 > 0:00:35Welcome back to Norwich for our second programme
0:00:35 > 0:00:39from the city's Anglican Cathedral, an 11th-century gem.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43And while our experts reassemble in the cloisters, I thought we'd have a peep inside.
0:01:07 > 0:01:13You'd expect a cathedral to have fabulous stained glass and lashings of religious art,
0:01:13 > 0:01:20and Norwich comes through on both those counts, but what is really special here isn't quite so obvious.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24For example, there's a collection of carvings that are so high up
0:01:24 > 0:01:28in this vaulted ceiling that you need a telescopic lens to see them.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30Luckily, we have one.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35The beautifully carved keystones or ceiling bosses are unique
0:01:35 > 0:01:39and are amongst the greatest hidden glories of Medieval art.
0:01:39 > 0:01:45Created by stonemasons between 1300 and 1515, there are more than a thousand of them.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50Some are inspired by stories from the Bible, others by scenes from medieval mystery plays.
0:01:52 > 0:01:59Among the less obvious symbols, this row of jagged teeth is supposed to represent the mouth of Hell.
0:01:59 > 0:02:04Three damned souls are guarded by a toad-like creature.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07More than 70 feet below those carvings,
0:02:07 > 0:02:11the tip-up seats of the choir stalls have these carved flaps.
0:02:11 > 0:02:17They're called misericords, from the Latin word for "mercy", and it's easy to see why,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20because they were to support frail and aged monks
0:02:20 > 0:02:24who had to be on their feet through eight hours of services a day.
0:02:24 > 0:02:30The stalls date from the 15th century so they've acquired a nice polish from ageing bottoms.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32The carvings include an extraordinary array
0:02:32 > 0:02:36of exotic creatures and some fairly enigmatic symbolism.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41A mermaid suckling a lion represents the seductive force of a temptress.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46This man riding a deer is thought to be the personification of lechery.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50Antlers are an ancient symbol of adultery.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53But there are everyday scenes too, which, like the ceiling bosses,
0:02:53 > 0:02:56offer an authentic view of life in those days.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01In 1996, to celebrate the cathedral's 900th birthday, the Dean and Chapter
0:03:01 > 0:03:07commissioned some new misericords which will give future visitors a glimpse of the way WE were.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10One of them shows hard-working students
0:03:10 > 0:03:16at the University of East Anglia, another has two of the heroes of Norwich City Football Club.
0:03:17 > 0:03:23Meanwhile, over in the cloisters, our experts have taken their pews for another Antiques Roadshow.
0:03:25 > 0:03:31This is a wonderful photograph of a very grand house somewhere.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35And I'm guessing there must be a relationship with these little creatures we've got here.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38- Tell me the story.- It's the story of my grandparents' romance.
0:03:38 > 0:03:42That's my grandfather. He was the under-gardener.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44- And his name was?- Ernest.
0:03:44 > 0:03:50Ernest Reeve. And Granny worked in the house at the back, and they always called her Nellie next door.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53And the people in the family here, they set up a romance between them.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57The lady of the house said, "Ernest we've got these lovely apples,
0:03:57 > 0:04:02"and Nellie next door comes from a large family - give some to her to take home."
0:04:02 > 0:04:04And he took them home for her.
0:04:04 > 0:04:10And anyway, they got married, and of course my mother came along, and the housemaid, who I gather was
0:04:10 > 0:04:17one of these two, bought that bunny for my mother on 29th January 1904.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20And you date it so precisely?
0:04:20 > 0:04:24- Well, she was four days old. - Well, these little creatures,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28- they look as if they've got a story to tell. Do you like them?- No.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32- Neither of them?- No. - Oh, shut its little ears up!
0:04:32 > 0:04:36They've always lived under the back bedroom bed in a pillowcase.
0:04:36 > 0:04:42Well, I'm just stroking this rather lovely velveteen coat of this little bunny.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45Do you think he was new in 1904?
0:04:45 > 0:04:49I'm convinced he was new. My grandmother wouldn't have anything second-hand in the house.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52- She didn't like it.- Well, I don't think he was second-hand either,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56but he would have been really quite an expensive present.
0:04:56 > 0:05:02- It would take up the best part of a week's salary for a housemaid.- Really?- It would.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07- When she bought him, he would have had a little pair of slippers on. - I remember those.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12- You do?- My mother said he had a blue jacket, but I don't remember that.
0:05:12 > 0:05:14And do you know where he left his little blue jacket?
0:05:14 > 0:05:18- I don't know. - In Mr McGregor's garden.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20- You think he's Peter Rabbit?- He IS Peter Rabbit.- He is a Peter Rabbit?
0:05:20 > 0:05:25- He is a Peter Rabbit, made by a German company called Steiff.- Really?
0:05:25 > 0:05:30It was in fact Beatrix Potter who asked the Steiff factory to make
0:05:30 > 0:05:33- Peter Rabbit cuddly toys...- Yes.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36..because they were the best company, she felt that they would
0:05:36 > 0:05:41best represent him in the most accurate ways. And who's his friend?
0:05:41 > 0:05:43Well, he's the teddy.
0:05:43 > 0:05:49He came later. My mother had measles quite badly when she was about four, and the lady of the house said,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52"Poor little Susan, she must have something nice" and sent him.
0:05:52 > 0:05:59Let's have a look and see if she bought a better-quality toy, and I actually don't think that she did.
0:05:59 > 0:06:01He is almost certainly German.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05He's made out of a nice silvery-coloured plush.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10You can just see where he's not too threadbare.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14What I think is particularly charming about him, though, is this wonderful
0:06:14 > 0:06:21kind of lopsided smile created by being cuddled against a cheek for decades.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25And so his little smile's got very lop-sided. No, he's charming.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27And boot-button eyes here.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29Value today...
0:06:29 > 0:06:33I think the little bear we'd be talking about perhaps £400.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37- Good heavens! - But the bunny, I think, would be a little bit more than that.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40Even as he is, I think he's probably going to be around £500.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44In lovely condition with his jacket, he'd fetch many thousands,
0:06:44 > 0:06:48as much maybe as the world record of 20,000.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50No!
0:06:50 > 0:06:55So I think it's worth making the hunt for the missing pieces but I think...
0:06:55 > 0:06:58- That is amazing.- It is amazing.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02But I also think what is so wonderful is that we've been able to pinpoint
0:07:02 > 0:07:07them, not just in a date line, but also in a family line.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12Yes! I think that's why I hang on to them, because they are sort of part of the family, really.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18It was given to my dad
0:07:18 > 0:07:22by his ex-boss, who remarried and moved to Malta.
0:07:22 > 0:07:23Yeah.
0:07:23 > 0:07:29- He said, "Yes, please" but gave it to me because he hated it.- Hated it.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32And he gave it to me because we'd just bought our first caravan.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35And he said, "Would you like it for the caravan?"
0:07:35 > 0:07:37It bounces along in your caravan.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40- No, we never did put it into the caravan.- No?
0:07:40 > 0:07:42I just put it in the cupboard and saw a programme on
0:07:42 > 0:07:45television one day, and somebody mentioned Clarice Cliff.
0:07:45 > 0:07:50And I thought, "I recognise that name," looked at the dinner service and thought, "Clarice Cliff,"
0:07:50 > 0:07:52and it's just sat there ever since.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55And have you been following Clarice Cliff ever since?
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Because there's her signature in the printed mark.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02Biarritz is the range, made at Royal Staffordshire,
0:08:02 > 0:08:07and then the number in there tells us it's 1933.
0:08:07 > 0:08:09Each one will have the date on it.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11You've got what, six...
0:08:11 > 0:08:15- plates of everything?- Six of that one and the top two there, and then one of that, that and that.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20So you're getting on for 24 pieces in total.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23Well, this is actually quite an unusual pattern with this little inset landscape.
0:08:23 > 0:08:24I've not seen this pattern before.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26It's going to appeal to Clarice Cliff collectors.
0:08:26 > 0:08:31It's nice, jazzy, wonderfully rectangular, really '30s stuff.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35You're sitting on a dinner service that is probably going to cost you,
0:08:35 > 0:08:40if you buy it at auction, in the region of £1,500, maybe £2,500.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42Really?
0:08:42 > 0:08:45Lovely. Thank you!
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Never in the whole history of the world
0:08:49 > 0:08:54- has anybody ever achieved metalwork like the Japanese.- Yes.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58They were staggeringly good,
0:08:58 > 0:09:02and they were good because they were a very warlike nation,
0:09:02 > 0:09:04they were always fighting each other,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07and for that you needed swords,
0:09:07 > 0:09:13- and with the swords came sword guards and scabbard furniture.- Mm-hm.
0:09:13 > 0:09:19And it was from that, when they banned swords in the 1870s,
0:09:19 > 0:09:25- that the metalworkers turned to making objects for the West.- Yes.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28- And that's what this is.- Ah!
0:09:28 > 0:09:29How did you get it?
0:09:29 > 0:09:31- It belongs to my mother.- Oh, yes.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33But it came from my grandmother.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37We believe they went on a cruise to the Far East and picked it up.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40That's all we know.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42Pre-war. Before the war.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46I'd be kind of hesitant about that story.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49This was made for the West...
0:09:49 > 0:09:53- Right.- ..in about 1890,
0:09:53 > 0:09:57so the question we have to ask ourselves is what was it still
0:09:57 > 0:10:04- doing in Japan when your grandmother took her cruise, which would have been probably the '30s, right?- Yeah.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06- I don't think it's as late as that. - Right.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10What it certainly is is a very charming box.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13It's made of...
0:10:13 > 0:10:18Oh! It's made of a very heavy cast metal,
0:10:18 > 0:10:22which has been patinated to this black colour.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26And the great joy about it is that nobody's cleaned it.
0:10:26 > 0:10:33People say, "Oh, black, must be silver, therefore it must need polishing." But nobody's done that.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37We've got a little bit of surface wear on here but it's not too bad.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42We've got silver snow on Mount Fuji up here.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46We've got an eagle perched on a very high relief rock,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48which is looking at its lunch down here.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52- Do you have an idea what that is? - Well, I think it might be a fox.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55- Right.- One would have expected a rabbit, or a hare, more likely.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58And then details in gold.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02We've got a praying mantis, a snail, a...
0:11:06 > 0:11:08Put the glasses on.
0:11:08 > 0:11:15A stag beetle, a crab, dragonfly and a bat, a batty bat! Erm, a hornet...
0:11:15 > 0:11:17I mean, it's just a joy.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20It's just a joy. I love it.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24And this would have sat probably on your grandmother's dressing table
0:11:24 > 0:11:28and taken a necklace or jewellery of some sort.
0:11:28 > 0:11:29Well, I love it.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31I think it's a wonderful thing.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37And presumably it's going to come to you one day, is it?
0:11:37 > 0:11:41Possibly, I've got a twin sister, though. We might have to share it.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44I think it's great fun. Erm, I think
0:11:44 > 0:11:48it needs an insurance figure on it
0:11:48 > 0:11:53of £1,800, £2,000 on it for insurance.
0:11:53 > 0:11:54- Fantastic.- It's a nice thing.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02This is certainly to my memory one of the best pieces we've ever had on the Roadshow.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05It's a very fine English shotgun,
0:12:05 > 0:12:11but, unlike most English shotguns, it's barrels are over and under
0:12:11 > 0:12:14rather than side by side. Where did you get it from?
0:12:14 > 0:12:18Because it is so unusual for a gun of this period, from the 1770s.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23Well, I was given it by an old gentleman in the 1950s,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27- late 1950s, and I've had it ever since.- Really?
0:12:27 > 0:12:30It's made by a chap called Bunny,
0:12:30 > 0:12:36who was based in both Birmingham and London and was one of the leading makers of the day.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40And it's unusual because even though it's an over-and-under configuration,
0:12:40 > 0:12:43both the barrels aren't actually fired by separate locks.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45It relies on one lock.
0:12:45 > 0:12:51And very cleverly, when one barrel has been fired, you just simply
0:12:51 > 0:12:55rotate it round to produce the other by pulling back on the trigger guard. Have you ever actually used it?
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Yes, I have, yes.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02What I can't quite get over is that you can actually prime
0:13:02 > 0:13:08the second barrel completely in the flash pan and turn it over, and it works perfectly.
0:13:08 > 0:13:12When you fire the first one, just draw it back to half-cock,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15pull it back full-cock, and you're ready to go.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18And that gave you a very, very quick second shot.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21And at the time that this was made, most sporting guns were
0:13:21 > 0:13:24single barrel and relatively long, and before 1787,
0:13:24 > 0:13:27with the invention of Knox patent breech,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31you needed that huge barrel to get the ballistics so that the powder burned.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34This relies on a very much shorter barrel because you
0:13:34 > 0:13:37can compress the two, and it's a really very, very manageable gun.
0:13:37 > 0:13:43- I don't think it's actually very much different from a modern clay-pigeon gun.- No, it's lighter.
0:13:43 > 0:13:49Yes. And it's very, very typical in terms of decoration and style of the period,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52that lovely graceful dropped butt
0:13:52 > 0:13:56and this fine engraving on the lock plate
0:13:56 > 0:14:01and the side plate and also on the tank.
0:14:01 > 0:14:08I think that because it is so unusual, and I have wracked my brains
0:14:08 > 0:14:14to think of where I've seen any others... I think that there's one in the Royal Armouries,
0:14:14 > 0:14:19and I believe that there was one in a very significant private collection, but I don't think it was sold.
0:14:19 > 0:14:25And I think that a gun like this, of this period, of this quality, and it's absolutely exquisite quality,
0:14:25 > 0:14:27with this unusual configuration
0:14:27 > 0:14:35and mechanism is really going to set the British sporting shotgun collecting fraternity on fire,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38and I think anywhere between £10,000 to £15,000.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42- Well, thank you very much! - Thank you for bringing it. It's absolutely wonderful.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44I shan't sell it!
0:14:44 > 0:14:47A few years ago, I fell in love, and I fell in love with a place
0:14:47 > 0:14:51called Venice, and Venice is where your pot came from.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53- Did you buy it there?- No, we didn't.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58- My husband bought it from a shop in London because he liked the colours. - Simply fell in love with it.
0:14:58 > 0:15:05- He just completely fell in love with the yellow and the blue. - The colour of it IS splendid.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09If you just look at these wonderful greens, the blues, the yellow,
0:15:09 > 0:15:13the wonderful manganese on his hair, it's a splendid thing.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17And if you go to Venice, even today in the pharmacies,
0:15:17 > 0:15:22the farmacia as they are in Italian, they still have these wonderful drug jars.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Do you have any idea how old it is?
0:15:25 > 0:15:28About 100 years old. 200 years old?
0:15:28 > 0:15:32- So would it surprise you if I said 300 years old?- Yes.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35Well, that's exactly what it is. It's a 17th-century Venetian drug jar.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37Fantastic.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39And it's fabulous.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44It's unfortunate that the best side, in my opinion, is this wonderful...
0:15:46 > 0:15:50It's almost like a wonderful fabric, you can imagine some great Venetian
0:15:50 > 0:15:53noble with a magnificent robe, all these wonderful colours.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56It has, what we say in Newcastle, a ding on it.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00It's been hit there, and it's rather shattered.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03Fortunately, I suppose the face is still perfect.
0:16:03 > 0:16:09- But even like this, what do you think it might be worth?- Well, he paid a few hundred pounds for it.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14He didn't actually tell me how many hundred pounds, because I think he was nervous to tell me at the time.
0:16:14 > 0:16:20Well, even with the damage it's going to be worth £2,000 to £2,500.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22Wow! Really?
0:16:22 > 0:16:24If it was perfect it would be £6,000 to £8,000.
0:16:24 > 0:16:30But even like this, even with this crack in it, £2,000 to £2,500. It's a splendid object.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33So I'm not to be cross with him any more that he bought it?
0:16:33 > 0:16:36- He deserves a big hug, I think! - I think he does!- Yep.
0:16:36 > 0:16:38This looks tantalising.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41I always like to see things wrapped up. Have you ever opened this?
0:16:41 > 0:16:43- No, I haven't.- No?- No.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47And it says on the upper cover "MS of the Iron Horse".
0:16:47 > 0:16:49I imagine that means "Manuscript of The Iron Horse".
0:16:49 > 0:16:53It's a novel by RM Ballantyne, 19th-century novelist.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57- My great-grandfather.- Really?- Yeah. - The author of Coral Island...- Yeah.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59- ..was your great-grandfather?- Yeah.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01So this has been in your family?
0:17:01 > 0:17:03This was left to me by my grandmother, his daughter,
0:17:03 > 0:17:08and there's two more that were left to my brother and my father.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13- Wonderful!- And we've been clearing out my mum's attic and they've come to light.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16- Fantastic. Shall we open it?- Yeah, go for it.- Let's take the string off.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Very worried about doing this, you see. That's why I've never done it.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21I'm hoping this is what I...
0:17:22 > 0:17:24It's going to be.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31Fabulously wrapped contemporary newspaper.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34And yes, I recognise this handwriting.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39This is certainly Ballantyne's hand, and I think this genuinely is
0:17:39 > 0:17:41the manuscript of the novel The Iron Horse.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46And from the look of it, I would have thought it's absolutely complete.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49I don't know how many pages we've got here.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51332.
0:17:51 > 0:17:58And it finishes with the words "The End, RMB Edinburgh 16th August 1871,"
0:17:58 > 0:18:02so yes, here we've got one complete manuscript by RM Ballantyne.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05This looks like another complete manuscript.
0:18:08 > 0:18:14The Lifeboat: A Tale by R M Ballantyne again with illustrations.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19This is rather longer, I would imagine this is 400, possibly 450 pages.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21Again it looks absolutely complete,
0:18:21 > 0:18:26which is tremendous - another complete novel in manuscript.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29- Do you think this is a third? - I think so.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33- Fighting the Flames: a Tale of the London Fire Brigade".- Yeah.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37He was a wonderful novelist, wasn't he? Very hands-on, very exciting.
0:18:37 > 0:18:44He always, as far as I understood it, worked doing the things he was then going to write about,
0:18:44 > 0:18:49so if he wrote about the fire brigade he'd have actually gone and done some work for the fire brigade.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52- And been a fireman.- And the lifeboat, the same thing, and probably worked
0:18:52 > 0:18:56- on the trains doing that before he wrote the books.- How fabulous.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58- So he was writing from experience as well as from...- That's right.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02..the Boy's Own side of things, which is where he comes from.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05Well, even one of these would have been quite an exciting discovery,
0:19:05 > 0:19:09but for you to come along here and bring me three is really wonderful!
0:19:09 > 0:19:14And especially to unwrap one which hasn't been unwrapped, I imagine, for 50 to 100 years.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17- Is there a date on the paper? - Yes. Let's have a look.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19- 1889.- Wow.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23- So it's been wrapped up since then. Isn't it tremendous?- Fantastic, yes.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27As far as value goes, I mean, he wrote an enormous amount.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30You're probably aware he was a tremendous writer.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34I think he wrote 80 novels in his career, so he wrote at great speed.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39- Yeah.- And there are examples of his manuscripts in collections
0:19:39 > 0:19:42across the world, but, obviously, there are only 80.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45- Yeah.- So to have three is very nice.
0:19:45 > 0:19:50I would imagine at auction today these would fetch
0:19:50 > 0:19:54in the region of £2,000 to £3,000 each,
0:19:54 > 0:19:59- so we're looking at three together at quite a substantial sum.- Yeah.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01And I think it's a very exciting literary discovery.
0:20:01 > 0:20:06Yes, it's working out what to do with them - to leave them to a museum or...
0:20:06 > 0:20:10- I don't know.- I'm sure they'd be very happy if you did. - Yeah, yeah. Fantastic.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12Thank you.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16When you and your friends pitched up with this earlier on, I thought,
0:20:16 > 0:20:19"If you haven't got to the wrong queue, you've probably got to the wrong venue."
0:20:19 > 0:20:21What were you doing here? Until I had a look.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24This is fascinating. What can you tell me about it?
0:20:24 > 0:20:28Well, my father gave it to me for Christmas 2001, a few years ago.
0:20:28 > 0:20:34I wondered what it was. I kept asking him questions - where did he get it from?
0:20:34 > 0:20:41And he bought it in an auction about 25 years ago in London, and he told me that it was
0:20:41 > 0:20:44by an artist called Marcel Duchamp, who I'd never heard of at the time.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47And I said, "What do you do with it?"
0:20:47 > 0:20:49and he showed my how to spin it,
0:20:50 > 0:20:58and it's actually a record, and he told me that it has Marinetti, a futurist poet,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01his poetry from his own voice on the record.
0:21:01 > 0:21:06I keep asking him to take it out and show me, but he's too scared that I'm going to drop it, so...
0:21:06 > 0:21:11What's unique about it, what I love about it, is it's an optical illusion.
0:21:11 > 0:21:16You can either see a red sphere in a black background or a white sphere in a red tunnel,
0:21:16 > 0:21:23and I love looking at it just constantly trying to change my eye between the two.
0:21:23 > 0:21:26I'm already feeling slightly spaced out.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Yeah, I think that's what he wanted to...
0:21:29 > 0:21:32that's the image he wanted to convey to his audience.
0:21:32 > 0:21:38I love all his artwork and the way he deals with optics, and he created many moving machines.
0:21:38 > 0:21:43What we're dealing with here is the most exciting artist, as you yourself have perceived,
0:21:43 > 0:21:45of the 20th century, in many ways.
0:21:45 > 0:21:51Without Marcel Duchamp, we wouldn't have modern art as we know it and pop art and all sorts of other -isms
0:21:51 > 0:21:55that have come out of the early 20th century would not exist without him.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59Of course, he's the man who did the urinal, as well, as you know, and got away with it.
0:21:59 > 0:22:05Put it in front of him, signed it and, yes, it was the Marcel Duchamp, the great seminal work of art.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09He was a very interesting, confrontational, edgy figure.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13You have got part of the set - sadly you haven't got the other five
0:22:13 > 0:22:21or six that probably came with it, nor indeed do you have, or do we have, access to the back, so we can't
0:22:21 > 0:22:27work out whether or not it may be a greater original than just a reproduction of the set of six.
0:22:27 > 0:22:33However, on the basis that I think what it is IS what it is,
0:22:33 > 0:22:34it's worth about £2,000.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Thank you very much.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38I didn't realise.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Perhaps you ought to give it back to him now.
0:22:41 > 0:22:47- Yes! Thank you. - You'll take that back on the bus now, will you?- Yes.
0:22:47 > 0:22:48Don't drop it.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54Well, it's a fantastic portrait.
0:22:54 > 0:23:00You don't often get terracotta which depicts character so well as we have here,
0:23:00 > 0:23:03and you've got a whole set of them, so tell me the story.
0:23:03 > 0:23:08Well, they belonged to a great-aunt, and that's all I can tell you.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11She lived in Hove, she never travelled,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14but she did have a gentleman friend who travelled.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16But I don't know where he went, what he did.
0:23:16 > 0:23:23OK. Well, obviously they have travelled, they have somehow made their way from India to Norwich.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27They are beautifully exotic little figures.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31I haven't seen terracotta figures of this calibre very many times,
0:23:31 > 0:23:33certainly not on the Roadshow,
0:23:33 > 0:23:36and they were made in India,
0:23:36 > 0:23:39obviously to cater for the Raj taste,
0:23:39 > 0:23:44for people who were probably reasonably high up in the Indian army
0:23:44 > 0:23:46as souvenirs of their time in India.
0:23:46 > 0:23:52And of course, many of them, so to speak, went native - they loved India so much that they wanted to
0:23:52 > 0:23:56stay there or they were homesick for India when they came back to Britain.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Terracotta is basically burnt earth - that's what the word means.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01And if we look underneath them
0:24:01 > 0:24:05we can see the natural colour of the clay here.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08It's that sort of sandy-type clay.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11It's a very difficult,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15brittle clay to work, and to make figures like this you really do need to reinforce them.
0:24:15 > 0:24:21And you can see here, peeping out at the bottom there are two pins, and these undoubtedly connect
0:24:21 > 0:24:25right through the legs, through the body, they form the armature of the modelling.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29So, you know, a lot of effort and thought has gone into these.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33These are not mass-produced, each one is an individual sculpture,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37which contrasts with all the porcelain figures we see on the show,
0:24:37 > 0:24:42because they, by and large, are press-moulded and mass-produced.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47I think these are absolutely charming, incredibly rare little terracotta figures.
0:24:47 > 0:24:50They're probably 100 years old.
0:24:50 > 0:24:55I would say that if you talk in terms of maybe £100, £200 apiece,
0:24:55 > 0:24:58so that takes us, if we go for the upper limit,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01that takes us to somewhere in the region of maybe £1,500, £1,800.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04Good gracious!
0:25:04 > 0:25:06Thank you.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08What do you think this is?
0:25:08 > 0:25:11My husband thought it was the top of a walking stick.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15The top of a walking stick? What do you think it's made of?
0:25:15 > 0:25:18I don't know. Horn? A horn of some kind?
0:25:18 > 0:25:21You're right, it is a horn. That's absolutely spot-on.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24It looks a bit like plastic, doesn't it? But it is horn.
0:25:24 > 0:25:32This is actually inlaid in ivory, those pieces, and stained, and it's in the form of a cicada, I think.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35And it's Japanese,
0:25:35 > 0:25:39and it dates from probably in the middle of the 19th century.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43- Oh.- And those two holes are the clue as to what it is.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47It's actually a netsuke, which is worn at the waistband like that.
0:25:47 > 0:25:48Right.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52I think it's a very unusual and rare object.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57I think you wouldn't have much trouble getting around £1,000 for it.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59Good heavens!
0:25:59 > 0:26:00- Good heavens!- A bit of a shock?
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Well, it is. It's a big shock.
0:26:03 > 0:26:05Good!
0:26:05 > 0:26:09- Thank you.- I'll look at it with different eyes.- Well done.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12The minute I open something like this
0:26:12 > 0:26:16and I find I've got a row of no less than six
0:26:16 > 0:26:21golfing buttons, it sets the pulse racing for a few people.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23Do you come from a golfing family?
0:26:23 > 0:26:25I don't. Not that I know, anyway.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29- So you're not a golf widow or anything like that?- No, no.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31Well, they're printed on celluloid.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34It's a sort of an early form of plastic.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38The fact that they're wearing the sort of costumes that we've got here
0:26:38 > 0:26:43dates them to probably around about 1910, maybe 1920.
0:26:43 > 0:26:50Golf collectors, they're there on an international scale these days, you know, so if you were to
0:26:50 > 0:26:53put something like this up for auction,
0:26:53 > 0:26:57- what do you reckon they'd be valued at?- I've no idea.
0:26:57 > 0:26:59- Do you want to have a stab?- £100?
0:26:59 > 0:27:03£100? Actually, if you could get these for 100 you'd be doing
0:27:03 > 0:27:08very nicely, because you wouldn't get them for less than £400.
0:27:08 > 0:27:09Really?
0:27:09 > 0:27:12- I wouldn't tell you a fib.- No.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16This is a copy of Black Beauty, which was one of my favourite books as a child.
0:27:16 > 0:27:21Lovely story, too - Anna Sewell as a young child had an accident.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24- I don't know whether you knew that. She sprained her ankles.- Yes.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28And so it meant that she was really quite confined in what she could do.
0:27:28 > 0:27:30And she loved horses.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32She wanted to write a book which
0:27:32 > 0:27:36really set out the plight of reined horses,
0:27:36 > 0:27:39she wanted to make sure people were much less cruel to them.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42And we've got a copy here illustrated by Cecil Aldin.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45- Have you had it for long?- The book actually belongs to my mother.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47I think she's had it for about 20 years or so.
0:27:47 > 0:27:52She runs a big book fair in Norwich every summer, and I think it probably came through that.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57I'll just turn into the book and see some of the illustrations, which are really beautiful.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59I mean, Cecil Aldin
0:27:59 > 0:28:04was really quite famous as an illustrator of animals. He had a tremendous feeling for horses.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07Here we have Black Beauty as a foal with the mother,
0:28:07 > 0:28:10which is a gorgeous image,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14and propped up against my knees here is the original artwork.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17How did you come by that?
0:28:17 > 0:28:19Well, I work for Jarrolds,
0:28:19 > 0:28:23which was a printer and publisher based in Norwich.
0:28:23 > 0:28:30And they published Black Beauty in the first edition and then commissioned these illustrations
0:28:30 > 0:28:35from Cecil Aldin in 1912, and we've got most of the illustrations still,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39and they've been kept sort of hidden away, really.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43If we look at it, we can see his sympathy with the lines
0:28:43 > 0:28:46of the horse, the way he highlights, and it looks...
0:28:46 > 0:28:50You can see the beautiful shine on her coat, the mare,
0:28:50 > 0:28:56and little Black Beauty has got all that velvetiness that you associate with young horses.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58It is something which is actually quite valuable.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01It's likely to be worth £3,000 or £4,000 at least, possibly more.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03Goodness me!
0:29:03 > 0:29:05Gosh!
0:29:05 > 0:29:07- Does that surprise you?- Yes, it does.
0:29:07 > 0:29:09We've got 13 of the illustrations.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11I think there were 18 originally.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16- We've got 13 of them. - So you can do the maths for me.- Yes!
0:29:16 > 0:29:17Wow! Gosh, yes.
0:29:17 > 0:29:19I've got this dish.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23- It belonged to my grandmother. - Belonged to your grandmother. Right.
0:29:23 > 0:29:24It was her ashtray, actually.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26- Her ashtray?!- Her ashtray, yes.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28On her bedside cabinet.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31Goodness me! What an amazing ashtray.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35- Do you think that was what it was made for?- I have no idea.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38It's got a few stains on the back. Looks as if it might be some nicotine that has crept in there, but...
0:29:38 > 0:29:41Yes, and it seems terribly uneven, and crude, almost.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43Yes, remarkably crude, isn't it?
0:29:43 > 0:29:47Yeah. So I suppose you thought it might just be a bit of old junk.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50- Well, I hadn't really thought. - You hadn't really thought.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53- It was just a quirky item.- Yeah. And did you notice this in the centre?
0:29:53 > 0:29:58- It looks like an anchor.- An anchor - that's exactly what it is.
0:29:58 > 0:30:00It's the mark of the Chelsea factory.
0:30:00 > 0:30:06- Chelsea.- Chelsea, and Chelsea porcelain is amongst the earliest porcelains produced in this country.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09- Is it?- Indeed.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12So its crudeness is really a symptom of its early date,
0:30:12 > 0:30:16because it was made between 1749
0:30:16 > 0:30:20and 1751 at Chelsea in London.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24So I can just picture Granny sitting in a smoke-filled bedroom...
0:30:24 > 0:30:27- Yes!- ..stubbing out her cigarette ends on this delightful little thing.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31- How on earth did it get to be there? - I really have no idea.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35A mid-18th-century piece of porcelain, amongst the earliest pieces made in this country.
0:30:35 > 0:30:37You've surprised me, really.
0:30:37 > 0:30:39She was well travelled, the old lady, but...
0:30:39 > 0:30:42She had a couple of shops in the London area, especially during the Blitz.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45- Right.- They were newsagent's shops and tobacconist's.
0:30:45 > 0:30:51Maybe someone bartered her for it or paid a debt or she had a debt paid off something like this.
0:30:51 > 0:30:53A newspaper bill or something, yeah.
0:30:53 > 0:30:55It was copied by the Chelsea factory from a much
0:30:55 > 0:31:00earlier piece of Japanese porcelain in what we call the Kakiemon style.
0:31:00 > 0:31:04The piece that it copied would have dated from about 1680,
0:31:04 > 0:31:09so although this is mid-18th-century, you could regard it as a fake.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14But because it's Chelsea, because it's early, because it bears this rare early mark,
0:31:14 > 0:31:16it's worth £1,000.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18A thousand...
0:31:18 > 0:31:20For an ashtray!
0:31:20 > 0:31:22Granny's ashtray makes £1,000.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25And as an interesting aside,
0:31:25 > 0:31:31the 1680 Japanese original which this is copying would only be worth £200.
0:31:33 > 0:31:38So it's a measure of how special and how rare this piece of porcelain is.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40A thousand pound!
0:31:45 > 0:31:47John, I feel we should be dancing around this.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52- This is a television icon, like the tower at Alexandra Palace, like yourself.- My dear!
0:31:52 > 0:31:56- Remind us what it is. - This is the Anglia Knight, which we all know so well,
0:31:56 > 0:32:01but it fact it was made in 1850 for the King of the Netherlands.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03He was a patron of the Falcon Society -
0:32:03 > 0:32:05horse riding and falconry and that sort of thing.
0:32:05 > 0:32:10He was so confident he was going to win his annual competition that he had this made in London.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15700 ounces of silver to make this fantastic figure. And it was won by an Englishman.
0:32:15 > 0:32:17He never saw it again - it stayed over here.
0:32:17 > 0:32:23It stayed until 1959, when Anglia went on air for the first time, and they adopted it as their flagship.
0:32:23 > 0:32:29And Garrards made that to go on top, and one or two little minor adjustments, like his visor going
0:32:29 > 0:32:34up and down, and it's been their flagship ever since - a marvellous thing, absolutely wonderful thing.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38I always thought it was about three inches high, like other things in television.
0:32:38 > 0:32:39Not me again!
0:32:39 > 0:32:43- Where's it kept now? Do you know? - It's the East Anglia Archive Centre,
0:32:43 > 0:32:48and there it, hopefully, will remain for many more to enjoy forever.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55Well, these look like pieces of jewellery, but of course they've got
0:32:55 > 0:32:58absolutely every element of a piece of Gothic architecture, haven't they?
0:32:58 > 0:33:00And it's your job, I think, to look after them, isn't it?
0:33:00 > 0:33:05It is, yes. I'm one of the vergers here at the Cathedral.
0:33:05 > 0:33:11It's not my specific responsibility to look after silver, but I look after the vestments
0:33:11 > 0:33:14and the linens of the Cathedral,
0:33:14 > 0:33:18and these two pieces we refer to as "the Bishop's bling".
0:33:18 > 0:33:20Well!
0:33:20 > 0:33:23They're wonderful things, they're the morses or clasps
0:33:23 > 0:33:27which are used to hold together the front
0:33:27 > 0:33:31of the Bishop's and the Dean's copes for festal occasions.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34They're fantastically sculptural, and I think that this one
0:33:34 > 0:33:37was made for a very special occasion indeed, wasn't it?
0:33:37 > 0:33:44It was, yes, it was designed by Sir Ninian Comper for the coronation
0:33:44 > 0:33:47of King Edward VII in 1902
0:33:47 > 0:33:53and worn with the cope and the mitre by Bishop Sheepshanks.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57And the thing about the coronation, or, more specifically the
0:33:57 > 0:34:02- anointing, is that very few people know that that's actually a sacrament, isn't it?- Yes.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07And so this was a piece of jewellery of monumental scale
0:34:07 > 0:34:11to mark a moment of monumental sanctity, really, isn't it?
0:34:11 > 0:34:15- And I think in the back there's a certain amount of evidence for that.- There is, yes.
0:34:15 > 0:34:21Behind the panel in the very centre is a relic of chrism oil
0:34:21 > 0:34:23used to anoint the head
0:34:23 > 0:34:29of the King at the coronation, and there's an inscription around there marking that.
0:34:29 > 0:34:35It's a sacrament because the King or the Queen is seen as a priestly office
0:34:35 > 0:34:40and chrism is the oil used to anoint priests at their ordination.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43Well, that really is the centre of this piece of jewellery,
0:34:43 > 0:34:46but I think the visual centre's jolly hard to find,
0:34:46 > 0:34:53because it's a hugely decorated and colourful piece of metalwork of the highest possible calibre, isn't it?
0:34:53 > 0:34:56And Ninian Comper is a church furnisher and a designer.
0:34:56 > 0:35:01His work goes well into the 20th century, working around and about East Anglia, and I suppose,
0:35:01 > 0:35:06really, it's always been my point of view that jewellery represented
0:35:06 > 0:35:11a sort of microcosm, a distillation of everything that's going on in the fine and decorative arts.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15- This is a distillation, but my goodness, it's a powerful brew!- Yes.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18And what an awesome responsibility for you to have to look after it.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22- Well, it is, yes.- And I think the use of the stones are rather
0:35:22 > 0:35:29interesting, too. Any green stone is a sort of emblem of hope, but, more specifically, we can see that
0:35:29 > 0:35:35amethysts have been used in profusion here, and they're pretty important, aren't they, in church lore.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38- Do you know their significance? - I don't, no.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41They're an emblem of devotion, and amongst them there are sapphires
0:35:41 > 0:35:44and rubies and garnets,
0:35:44 > 0:35:50and the garnet too may be a sort of tiny, covert reference to the Communion.
0:35:50 > 0:35:55But anyway, they're almost hypnotic and I think that's a word one really can use for them.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59Well, this was only part of the extraordinary spectacle
0:35:59 > 0:36:03at the coronation of King Edward VII in 1902,
0:36:03 > 0:36:05in which jewellery had a huge part,
0:36:05 > 0:36:10and it was worn by the peeresses - they wore tiaras in their hair and their coronets behind.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13But, in a way, the rank and the status of people
0:36:13 > 0:36:18was endorsed throughout, and here are the Spiritual Lords making it
0:36:18 > 0:36:22absolutely plain that they were very, very important people indeed.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26And very, very important people indeed wear enormous jewels,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29and the scale of this one hanging below is quite astonishing.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33I think at the time that it was made it was described as a topaz. People really believed it was.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36Actually, now we know a little bit more about gemology and know that
0:36:36 > 0:36:40this is actually a rock crystal, a cairngorm.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43Goodness, I honestly don't think that at the end of a day at Norwich
0:36:43 > 0:36:47one could have hoped to have seen a visual spectacle of this kind of proportion.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49We've seen utterly marvellous things throughout the day,
0:36:49 > 0:36:53but these have really taken us to a new height of splendour,
0:36:53 > 0:36:56and I think the mere idea of trying to value them
0:36:56 > 0:37:01- really is a complete vulgarity, and I think we'll just leave that alone. - Well, they're priceless to us.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05And irreplaceable. Simply close the box and let them go back again.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07Thank you so much. Brilliant.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12I know that inside a case that looks like this
0:37:12 > 0:37:15is usually a case that looks something like that,
0:37:15 > 0:37:19and, indeed, there is, and a particularly nice one, at that. Can you tell me something about this?
0:37:19 > 0:37:22I can only tell you that I found it in a sewing box,
0:37:22 > 0:37:28but I was particularly interested because it had the picture of Norwich Cathedral on it.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30- That's a pretty rare feature.- Yes.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34And this is of course a visiting-card case. Let's just get rid of that.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41Beautifully engraved there, and all the rest of this is engine-turned.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44Opening it up, we see the hallmark.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48It was made in Birmingham in 1852...
0:37:48 > 0:37:52- Oh, right.- ..by Nathaniel Mills, who's the most famous maker
0:37:52 > 0:37:56of snuff boxes, vinaigrettes, card cases.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00- Oh, really?- And this, of course, is a lady's card case,
0:38:00 > 0:38:03because this is the size of a lady's visiting card...
0:38:03 > 0:38:07and this is the size of a gentleman's visiting card.
0:38:07 > 0:38:11Rather more insignificant - I don't quite know why, but that's how it used to be.
0:38:11 > 0:38:12Yes.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16- Well, it was really quite a lucky find.- Really?
0:38:16 > 0:38:19- Mm.- I nearly didn't bring it.
0:38:19 > 0:38:21Well, I'm glad you did.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24These card cases are very collectable, and the more unusual
0:38:24 > 0:38:28the subject the more desirable and valuable, dare I say...
0:38:28 > 0:38:31- Yes, yes.- ..the card case is.
0:38:31 > 0:38:36In this case, if you manage to get two collectors competing to buy this,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40- I think it could fetch anything up to £2,000.- Really?
0:38:40 > 0:38:43Well, my idea is to sell it
0:38:43 > 0:38:47and give the money to the cathedral campaign.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50I think that would be a very good idea.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52I think I might let the cathedral try and sell it.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56- That's definitely secured your place in Heaven.- Oh, good.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02Two rather badly damaged pieces of porcelain.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05I'm going to start off with a valuation.
0:39:05 > 0:39:06I know that's not the usual way.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12The valuation is that they are practically worthless.
0:39:12 > 0:39:17- I'm not surprised.- But that's not why we're looking at them.- No.
0:39:17 > 0:39:23- You tell me.- Well, my father picked them up during the war, when he was in Hiroshima.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26They went to pick survivors and prisoners of war up.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29He went into Hiroshima and picked these pots up
0:39:29 > 0:39:34just outside Hiroshima, about six miles out of the centre.
0:39:34 > 0:39:37- What was your father doing there? - He was in the medical corps,
0:39:37 > 0:39:41- and that was his job in the Army. - Did he talk about what he saw?
0:39:41 > 0:39:44Not at all.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48- It must have affected him.- I think it did, yes. It did affect him.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53He hardly went out of Norfolk once he got home, so that did affect him,
0:39:53 > 0:39:55but he didn't ever talk about what he saw.
0:39:55 > 0:40:00He used to have these pots and show them to people, but...
0:40:00 > 0:40:05- And when he showed them to people, did he explain, did he say anything? - Not really, no.
0:40:05 > 0:40:12- Very little.- He may not have said anything about these pieces, but he clearly treasured them.- Oh, yes. Yes.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16And they were obviously regarded as deeply significant objects.
0:40:16 > 0:40:18Yes, I think.
0:40:18 > 0:40:20For me, looking at something like this
0:40:20 > 0:40:25sums up the whole business of why we make the show we make.
0:40:25 > 0:40:32Because objects in themselves are not necessarily valuable or of interest,
0:40:32 > 0:40:38but it's the stories that they can tell, and your father may not have spoken about Hiroshima,
0:40:38 > 0:40:41but these bowls do.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45- And you say that he picked them up six miles outside the centre. - Six miles outside.
0:40:45 > 0:40:50I as a ceramic historian know a bit about the technology of ceramics,
0:40:50 > 0:40:54and I know that to fire a glaze onto a piece of porcelain
0:40:54 > 0:40:59you have to take the kiln temperature up to 1,300 centigrade or more.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03This little bowl, which was a very modest piece of Japanese
0:41:03 > 0:41:09porcelain, made probably in the 1930s and decorated with its usual swing and flair,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13was glazed at around that temperature, 1,300 degrees,
0:41:13 > 0:41:20and then, of course, a few years later, when the bomb was exploded over Hiroshima,
0:41:20 > 0:41:23this went through a second firing.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25That's how hot it got.
0:41:25 > 0:41:30- Mmm.- The temperature, even six miles outside Hiroshima,
0:41:30 > 0:41:34went up to 1,300 degrees centigrade and over,
0:41:34 > 0:41:42and that's why you have these globules of glaze as the thing began to run for the second time.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47And that's very eloquent.
0:41:47 > 0:41:53That's far more eloquent than somebody telling you this is what happens when an atomic bomb goes off.
0:41:53 > 0:41:58We're looking at a little piece of fossilised history,
0:41:58 > 0:42:04which, when you begin to look into it, tells you just how horrific
0:42:04 > 0:42:07a nuclear bomb going off is.
0:42:07 > 0:42:12If we look at this sooted glaze, again, the same thing has happened.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16You can just make out a faded rose in the design there.
0:42:16 > 0:42:20This is fairly typical of a modest piece of Staffordshire pottery
0:42:20 > 0:42:23that had been in this Japanese cupboard in the 1930s.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26Well, that is quite amazing.
0:42:26 > 0:42:31So, when you bring two ordinary, destroyed,
0:42:31 > 0:42:36frankly ugly little broken pots, they are worth nothing.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39But when we look into them,
0:42:39 > 0:42:44we can give you another valuation, which is that they are priceless.
0:42:44 > 0:42:49It's amazing they survived - a boat trip for Australia and then back.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57Well, there's no doubt we managed to uncover
0:42:57 > 0:43:03some really remarkable objects and hear some extraordinary stories on our visits to East Anglia.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06So special thanks to everyone who joined us.
0:43:06 > 0:43:10And now, from the cathedral in Norwich, goodbye.