Montacute House 2 Antiques Roadshow


Montacute House 2

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Welcome back to magnificent Montacute House in Somerset.

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On our last visit, we saw the place through the eyes of the characters

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in Sense And Sensibility, but the real-life residents

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of Montacute and what happened here would certainly have caught Jane Austen's imagination.

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The Phelips family were separated from their fine ancestral home

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in 1911 - reckless gambling, mental illness and sheer misfortune

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all played their part.

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A number of tenants followed,

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including Lord Curzon, a former Viceroy of India.

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He pointed out the decayed state of Montacute and had the rent reduced,

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agreeing to install electric light and to redecorate at his own cost.

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This task he entrusted to his mistress,

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prolific writer Elinor Glyn, the woman who coined the term "it"

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as a 1920s euphemism for sex appeal.

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Elinor's notoriety was enhanced by her eccentric ways

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and a fondness for exotic furs.

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The furs came in handy as she endured arctic conditions,

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climbing up ladders in large unheated rooms like this long gallery.

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At a staggering 172ft, it's the

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longest of its kind to survive and it's been through the wars.

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Locals remember ponies being

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exercised here, which is rather surprising because...

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we're on the second floor!

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One morning, alone at breakfast, Eleanor came across a notice in

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the Times announcing the engagement of Lord Curzon to Mrs Alfred Duggan.

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This, it has to be said, came as a bit of a shock.

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Curzon offered not a word of explanation.

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Elinor left Montacute at once and burned nearly 500 of his letters,

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in the process destroying any evidence of their detailed plans for Montacute.

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Four years after Curzon's death in 1925, the lease expired.

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The house was valued at £5,882

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for scrap and put on the market, where it lingered for two years.

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It was eventually saved from demolition

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and presented to the National Trust.

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And today, as so often, they are the Roadshow's hosts.

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A little model of a kneeling camel,

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but when you look at the head there forming a spout

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and here's a handle, of course, it's a teapot,

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but what a bizarre teapot it is.

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What do you know about it?

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Well, I remember it from my early childhood.

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It belonged to my Aunt Annie who was born in 1860.

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-Oh, right.

-And so I knew her in the 1950s, it was in her house.

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I suppose actually, I couldn't really imagine...

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How do you use it for tea?

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Supposing you're going to pour it from the handle,

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there's the little lid, and it's nice having the lid remaining with it

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and inside you put your fine tea leaves.

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Imagine putting the water in there and trying to pour it out through the spout.

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-Do you think they ever used it?

-I can't imagine they would, would you?

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-I wouldn't have thought so.

-But of course it's...

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I mean in theory this is a functional teapot and really quite

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an early teapot because we think of

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novelty teapots, silly teapots, being perhaps a 1930s idea, but they

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started way, way back and this was made somewhere round about 1745-1750.

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-As early as that?

-So, back in the middle of the 18th century...

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Yes.

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..when a design like this was really quite outrageous, it was totally new,

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totally stunning design, made in the Staffordshire Potteries.

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You've got a piece here of English salt-glaze.

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-Oh, right.

-And salt-glaze is a very difficult material to make and cast.

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You glaze it by literally throwing salt into the kiln and it forms a

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hard surface reacting with the clay and it's very durable,

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it lasts a long time, but it shows the modelling quite well underneath.

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Here we've got the work, probably of a potter - Thomas and John Wedgwood.

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-Oh.

-Some of the early Wedgwood family, started out making these

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salt-glazed teapots around 1750.

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So, what is the design?

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On the howdah here that he's wearing,

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there is some sort of strange Oriental temple I suppose that is.

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What strikes me holding it is how light it is.

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-Yes, yes.

-Incredibly thin and light, it really is.

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And that is really to me the star piece because it's still here.

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So rarely do we find camel teapots

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and other thin teapots like these, I haven't seen many of them,

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but to find one with its top as well and fitting so well...

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So, it's really quite a special piece of rare pottery and

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think in terms of a value about...

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..£7,000.

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Blimey...

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that's a lot.

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-Did you buy this?

-Yes.

-When did you buy it?

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The late '60s, in the late '60s, and my husband and I went to

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an antique show in Kent and while we there I saw this

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and, being an amateur sewer, this was very important to me,

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but...

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..it was quite expensive for me.

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We were courting at the time

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and my husband very kindly bought it for me.

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Oh, right, well, I must ask in that case, how much did it cost?

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£35.

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What was that as a proportion of income then?

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Well, my income at that time was £9.50 a week,

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so it was about a month's salary.

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That's quite something, isn't it, to think of that, a month's salary

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going to this? But this... I presume

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you know by now, having handled it for 40 years, what this is made of?

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We think it's an antelope horn.

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Yes, exactly, exactly - and I can date it relatively easily.

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You get the same sort of thing in England in the 1810-1820 period

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and I always think that Indian things are probably

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10-20 years behind time, so let's say 1820-1840, that sort of date.

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So, inside, we're going to find

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what we call now the typical Indian interior here,

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ivory with sandalwood,

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this lovely, lovely, it's a wonderful smooth wood,

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very, very well polished.

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It's lovely to touch, very tactile.

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It's quite a luxury item, you've got...

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I won't play with all the toys,

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You've got a tape measure there which is so sweet!

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I said I won't play with it, I'm going to now! It's so sweet.

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I love that, and all the sort of little things for a lady's

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necessaire, but do you use it today?

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No, I'm afraid I just keep it so that it doesn't get spoilt.

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But did you ever use it?

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-No.

-So he bought it for you, all that money, and all that long ago and you've never used it?

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-But it's too good to use.

-So, are you going to keep it?

-Oh, yes.

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-Even if I tell you what it's worth today, you're going to hang onto it?

-Oh, yes.

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Well, today it's worth at least £1,000.

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That was a good bit of investment, wasn't it?

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-Sounds like a good relationship!

-Yes.

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Now, what is Clare Leighton to you?

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Well, it must have been, I would imagine, in the late 1970s.

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I was in a bookshop, always had a love of books, and

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picked up the Four Hedges book,

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didn't appreciate the significance

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of it at the time but, when I started looking into her work,

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I realised how powerful and how significant her images were.

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But was it just her, or wood engraving as a whole?

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Wood engraving as a whole.

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I was particularly struck by the...

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Around the '20s and '30s,

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there seemed to be a plethora of female wood engravers,

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people like Agnes Miller-Parker, Joan Hassall, Gertrude Hermes...

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But I suppose, to me, Agnes Miller-Parker perhaps finer in detail,

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-but I just like the absolute power of Clare Leighton's work.

-They're very strong, aren't they?

-They are.

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I think that's what appealed to me, as I say, the Four Hedges I certainly

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knew when I was very young, I've still got a couple of copies of it.

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Yes, that's my favourite book because I'm a gardener.

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-Oh, well, it's perfect for you.

-You know, I love gardening.

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This is, in a sense, as it says,

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it's The Gardener's Season, so she was a gardener, and so

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as one goes through the book you find this mixture of beautifully drawn...

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-They are, yes.

-..and then wonderful scenes like that of...

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And what has gone in to make that picture is always

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behind, you know, wonderful skill.

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Yes, it's the skill of the engraving

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of the wood, but it's also the strong, rich contrast

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between the black and white and I think that's why wood engraving appealed so much.

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She was a very determined woman, she wrote her own books, she'd engrave

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books as illustrator for other publishers.

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Erm, emigrated to America in 1939, she became an American citizen in

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-1945 and lived the rest of her life there until she died in 1989.

-Yes.

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And when she was in America of course

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she could take further this ruralist, this strong country tradition.

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-Typical I think are these Wedgwood plates.

-Yes.

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Now these are a set of 12, isn't it?

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-Yes.

-Produced by Wedgwood in the early 1950s, the basic industries

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of New England, and it's things like the grist mill, erm, ice cutting,

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it's a whole range of rural industries and, of course,

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we're at a period when there was a romance about these, many of them

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were disappearing, mechanisation was taking over and I think her voice is

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not saying, "Gosh," you know, "it's all going to be awful."

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She's simply saying, "This is what we have,

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-"let's record it, let's remember it all."

-Yes.

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Now, what do you pay for things like this?

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If we go back to the first book,

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-erm, I probably paid I think about £2 or £3 for it.

-Yes.

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Back in 1977.

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And now what are you paying?

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Because there is a greater awareness I think of her work

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-I tend to pay more. The plates probably about 20 or 30 each.

-Yes.

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Which is not much and also the difficulty is,

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you don't get them very often in the UK.

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-No. Because they were made for the American market.

-Yes.

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I mean, as you know, I mean you're probably as au fait with

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values as I am, you know, a good signed edition like that is

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probably going to be about £100, possibly more, the plates, as you

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say, can be bought for £10-£15 each and this is great collecting

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and I think you've done very well, I'm very envious of some of these.

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Well, a relative had died in the family and we were left the house,

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it was left to me parents at that time, and, er,

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when you're youngsters, you go out into the back garden and you start

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digging stuff up and playing around and, erm, I found that along with

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various other pieces of silver, and it was all in the back garden.

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-Just buried?

-Just buried in the back garden, yeah, but it turned out that

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my great-grandparents were actually some form of antique dealers

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and stuff like that, but I think they went a bit eccentric,

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come the end, and... and just put it in the garden.

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Good heavens! What a wonderful story!

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-Yeah.

-And how old were you at the time?

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I must have been about 15, 16, I would say.

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Right, and did you then clean it up yourself?

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I had a bit of a go at it, yeah,

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and it's been basically in a box and it's moved from one garage to

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another garage over the years and then I've been meaning to come to an Antiques Roadshow for many years.

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Well, you can probably tell by what's engraved at the bottom here -

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"Brandy" - that it comes under

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the general name of a wine label, even though it's actually a spirit.

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-Yes.

-But what you might not know is, this is one of the rarest wine labels I have ever seen.

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-Mmm.

-In fact it might well be unique.

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Not only that, it's beautifully marked on the front here,

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it's got a date letter here for 1838, it's got a maker's mark over here,

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"WE" for William Elliott.

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-Right.

-But I think one of the nicest features of all

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is that, if we turn it round,

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on the back here,

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actually got the name of the ship, the "Blenheim", and "60 guns".

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-Right.

-Have you made any attempt to find out...?

-I haven't, no.

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No, I should think if you contacted the National Maritime Museum or

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some institution like that, you'd get a pretty good idea to find out what

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this ship was and if it was involved in any major engagements.

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-Can you imagine if it was involved in Trafalgar or something...?

-Well, yeah.

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It would be a very different object altogether.

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As it is, this is a very, very special piece.

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-Right.

-Very special.

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It could well be a one-off wine label.

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It's not a converted piece because - do you notice at the bottom,

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the sea is actually cut away?

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-Yeah.

-Where they've left a space for the name to be engraved.

-Right.

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I presume from the age of 15 onwards you've never had it checked out.

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I haven't, no, it's just...

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I just imagined it went

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on a decanter and it would have been like brandy, maybe port or something like that

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and there were probably four of them there.

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-Possibly.

-And that was one of the four, that's what was in my head.

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-Quite, quite possibly.

-I've never done any research into it.

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-Well, I think you might need a big swig of brandy in a moment.

-Right.

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I think this is worth between £3,000 and £4,000.

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-Yeah?

-Yeah.

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This is any collector's dream. It is an absolutely must-have wine label.

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Well, what a fantastic clock!

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I'm sure,

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I'm positive that a clock like this must have a fascinating history.

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Yeah, I've been given a letter by my mother-in-law which details

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the history quite comprehensively and we believe that it was gifted

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to my late husband's grandmother.

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-Right.

-By one of Carl Faberge's sons.

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Carl Faberge, the famous Russian jeweller?

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Yes. And it was brought to London from Russia,

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prior to its being given to her.

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So, Carl Faberge must have...his son must have settled in London and...

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We believe so, yeah, and he was about to move

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house and didn't have room for it.

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That would explain how a clock like this came over to England.

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Well, it all figures, it makes perfect sense because

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it is... I've been doing clocks for an awful long time,

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and it is a difficult clock to place.

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It's only when you take the movement out

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that you realise that it is in fact made in Russia.

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And I have had a word with Christopher Payne

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in the furniture side, and he tells me that this is birch wood.

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-Right.

-Which is harvested from the Karelian Forest in the Baltic

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and it looks exactly like mahogany. I could have sworn it was mahogany

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but Christopher tells me absolutely not.

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We wondered if it was German.

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Well, it does have a very German overtone, this architectural pediment

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and this lovely reeded decoration,

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this is absolutely lovely,

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-but it is in fact almost certainly made in Russia.

-Right.

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What I love about this case, what is really special, is the way, although

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it's quite a crude construction, it has one secret little catch to it.

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If you press this button on the top here, it releases the door

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and it's beautifully made and it just releases, away it goes.

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And in order to get it back,

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you put it gently back in there

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and click, straight back into place, beautifully made.

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It's probably, it's the best part of the whole case, it's lovely.

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We've got a gilt metal bezel that goes around the dial

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and what we call a regulator dial,

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where the seconds, minutes and hours are all separated out,

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-and was most often used for astronomical observation.

-Right.

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People who observed the stars needed to know the exact time keeping.

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What they really wanted to know was the position of a star

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going from one point to the next and they timed the star

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going from one point to the next using a regulator.

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And I suspect that this clock, being in a very flashy case,

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was probably used by either an amateur astronomer

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or it could have been the house regulator.

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It would have been the clock in the house that told the most perfect time.

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As you walked out of the front door, you took out your pocket watch,

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checked the time from the best quality time keeper in the house,

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corrected your watch and strode off to work.

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They were very expensive clocks to buy at the time,

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around 1840, that sort of period. Value is extremely difficult.

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Um...I've never had to value one before.

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Have you got it insured?

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No!

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-No.

-Well, many times people don't have them insured.

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I think it's fantastic,

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and I can see that at auction it could easily fetch...

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Because the Russian market has gone from richer to richer

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and there's an awful lot of Russian money around at the moment,

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I can see this clock fetching anywhere between £10,000 and £15,000.

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-Right.

-So, you need to take good care of it.

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Insurance, you probably ought to insure it

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-for as much as £20,000-£25,000.

-Yeah.

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These give the impression of not having been assembled recently.

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No, I've inherited them from my parents who inherited them

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from my mother's aunt.

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-Right, so you...

-So, that would have been in the '20s and '30s.

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Good time to be buying. A lot of good things were available then.

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Yes, I think they were lucky.

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-So, you've got them at home?

-Yes.

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Must be quite difficult housing them!

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I mean, these are not sort of little dishes, are they?

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We've got these on the top of quite a big buffet.

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-Oh, right.

-And the rest are scattered round the house.

0:18:310:18:34

Right. OK.

0:18:340:18:36

There is one that sticks out

0:18:370:18:40

as not belonging to the rest.

0:18:400:18:43

Which is it?

0:18:450:18:46

Erm, I would imagine this one.

0:18:460:18:50

Wrong.

0:18:500:18:51

They're all Chinese...

0:18:520:18:55

-except that one.

-Ah.

0:18:550:18:57

-That's Japanese.

-Ah.

0:18:570:18:59

That is Seto porcelain.

0:19:000:19:03

That dates from around 1880,

0:19:030:19:07

and that would fetch

0:19:070:19:09

somewhere in the region of £300 to £400.

0:19:090:19:12

Now, in the 18th century,

0:19:120:19:15

Chinese porcelain was flooding into Europe in huge quantities,

0:19:150:19:19

brought over by the East India Companies.

0:19:190:19:25

What the East India Companies liked...

0:19:250:19:28

..were objects like that,

0:19:300:19:32

because this is heavy

0:19:320:19:35

and you can pack it tight

0:19:350:19:37

in the bottom of the ship, right?

0:19:370:19:40

So, square objects - good news.

0:19:400:19:43

Bad news - complex objects like teapots.

0:19:430:19:46

And even more bad news - huge objects like that.

0:19:480:19:51

But these are extraordinary.

0:19:520:19:54

These dishes would probably have come with a dinner service,

0:19:550:20:00

but were not part of it

0:20:000:20:03

in the sense that they would have been used.

0:20:030:20:06

They were buffet dishes, just as you've got them,

0:20:060:20:08

you're doing exactly the right thing,

0:20:080:20:10

you've got them on a buffet,

0:20:100:20:12

-they are for display, they're to show how wealthy you are.

-Right.

0:20:120:20:17

Because you invite your smart friends in to dinner

0:20:170:20:20

and they come in and they say, "Wow, look at the size of those dishes!"

0:20:200:20:24

And they know you've paid a huge amount of money for them.

0:20:240:20:27

Because to get these landed in England in good condition

0:20:270:20:32

in the 18th century...

0:20:320:20:34

And I say 18th century,

0:20:340:20:36

I mean, we're talking about 1745-1755 for these.

0:20:360:20:40

..was not easy.

0:20:410:20:43

In fact, that one is cracked,

0:20:430:20:45

but this one is in good condition.

0:20:450:20:49

Do you know, that's fascinating.

0:20:500:20:52

Rule of thumb...

0:20:530:20:55

if you've got spur marks

0:20:550:20:58

where the thing was fired on the bottom of a dish, it's Japanese.

0:20:580:21:02

Oh, right.

0:21:020:21:04

-You don't get them on Chinese.

-Ah.

0:21:050:21:07

But this one was so large, they had to put spur marks on, otherwise it

0:21:070:21:11

would have sunk in the kiln, so here is an exception to the rule, but that

0:21:110:21:17

red colour - absolutely characteristic of Chinese.

0:21:170:21:21

So, you've got a pair of dishes, one with a slight crack

0:21:220:21:26

but the other perfect,

0:21:260:21:28

which is extremely unusual.

0:21:280:21:30

I've got a feeling that if those were in auction,

0:21:300:21:34

you'd be looking at...

0:21:340:21:36

£3,000-£4,000.

0:21:360:21:39

Good grief!

0:21:390:21:41

Well, I've seen people arrive at Antiques Roadshows

0:21:480:21:51

on a lot of different types of machine,

0:21:510:21:54

but this takes the biscuit, it's wonderful. Tell me what she is.

0:21:540:21:57

It's a 1901 Locomobile steam car.

0:21:580:22:01

She's just glorious.

0:22:010:22:03

Listen to that, a whisper, nothing in the background practically.

0:22:030:22:08

Now, are you the proud restorer of this machine?

0:22:080:22:11

No, I regret I can't claim restoring it,

0:22:110:22:15

but I bought it because somebody rang me up and said, "Would you like to buy a steam car?"

0:22:150:22:21

-So what does one do, but buy a steam car?

-Absolutely.

0:22:210:22:24

Well, I remember steam cars, I used to do the London to Brighton rally in a previous life

0:22:240:22:29

and I was driven on a 1902 Pannard Lavasser and this thing

0:22:290:22:33

-always broke down and do you know what always sailed past?

-A steam car.

0:22:330:22:37

-A blooming steam car!

-Of course.

0:22:370:22:39

And it was so infuriating, but I think looking at this machine,

0:22:390:22:45

listening to it, knowing what it runs on - it runs

0:22:450:22:48

on water with a little bit of petrol and that's it.

0:22:480:22:51

It's the solution really to all our transport problems, isn't it?

0:22:510:22:54

Provided we're happy to go just a little bit slower.

0:22:540:22:57

It is because even with a petrol fuel, the combustion is so much better,

0:22:570:23:02

you don't get the nitrous oxide you get with these internal combustion engines.

0:23:020:23:06

-Exactly, exactly.

-So you don't have that, you don't have the noise,

0:23:060:23:10

you can drive along with this at 20-25 miles an hour if you're brave,

0:23:100:23:15

and you can hear the birds singing in the hedges.

0:23:150:23:17

-It's wonderful.

-I can demonstrate if you so wish.

-That would be fantastic.

0:23:170:23:21

I tell you, I live in the Midlands, so we ought to set off fairly soon!

0:23:210:23:25

The quality of this carving is absolutely wonderful.

0:23:300:23:33

-What's her name?

-O Mimosasan.

0:23:330:23:37

Right, and her history?

0:23:370:23:39

Her history is that she came from an aunt by marriage

0:23:390:23:42

who was in love with China, and all things Chinese

0:23:420:23:45

so when her husband was posted to

0:23:450:23:47

Hong Kong, it was just a superb gift and she collected all sorts of bits

0:23:470:23:51

and pieces, some from a more senior officer who admired her greatly

0:23:510:23:55

and others she collected herself.

0:23:550:23:57

-So, she was a China fan?

-She was a China fan.

0:23:570:24:00

And she gave her a Japanese name?

0:24:000:24:02

I don't know, you're the expert, you must tell me.

0:24:020:24:05

-She is Japanese.

-She is?

0:24:050:24:07

-She is.

-I wondered whether she was.

0:24:070:24:09

The Japanese at this time, what, 1900-1910...?

0:24:090:24:11

About 1920 they were out there, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't bought earlier.

0:24:110:24:16

Well, I would say it could have been carved certainly as early as 1900.

0:24:160:24:19

1920 - it's unlikely. By then the quality was really

0:24:190:24:22

going down, but this is superb and it's so superb that the artist has

0:24:220:24:26

actually of course signed underneath.

0:24:260:24:28

I can't read that because it's in a grass script, but it is beautiful,

0:24:280:24:33

a beautiful piece of carving.

0:24:330:24:35

I know, you can study her for hours and it's just exquisite.

0:24:350:24:39

But the icing on the cake is really the fact that she's

0:24:390:24:41

been inlaid with these little pieces of mother of pearl.

0:24:410:24:45

At some stage someone's done a bit of a repair job.

0:24:450:24:48

These have been glued back in.

0:24:480:24:49

-Yes, not very well, I'm afraid.

-Is that you?

-Certainly not.

0:24:490:24:52

Er, this is, erm, a technique which we generically call shibayama

0:24:540:24:58

technique and it is very, very good, especially on the back of the obi

0:24:580:25:02

at the back of the costume, you've a little bit of a loss there.

0:25:020:25:06

So she is Japanese, not Chinese,

0:25:060:25:09

and she is worth somewhere in the region of, I guess, £400 to £500.

0:25:090:25:14

Oh, right. Oh, that's lovely.

0:25:140:25:16

So, here's a painting by Jacob Jacob.

0:25:180:25:20

I hope I've pronounced that right - probably not.

0:25:200:25:24

Dutch, 1844, and it's signed down here by...

0:25:240:25:27

Well, it's like "Jacob Jacob".

0:25:270:25:29

I like this little white sign here where they've called him

0:25:290:25:32

"Yacoob Yacoob", Anglicising it. It's Antwerp.

0:25:320:25:36

It's lovely, isn't it?

0:25:370:25:39

Yes, it was hung on my husband's parents' dining room wall

0:25:390:25:44

for a very long time and then

0:25:440:25:45

we were lucky enough to be given it

0:25:450:25:48

about 12, 13 years ago.

0:25:480:25:49

Yes, I see.

0:25:490:25:51

It has this lovely light in it.

0:25:510:25:53

It's sort of aqueous that light.

0:25:530:25:56

I was looking for a word

0:25:560:25:57

and aqueous I thought just had it.

0:25:570:26:00

It's like a very thin line of buildings across there, it's a bit

0:26:000:26:04

like some artists paint Venice,

0:26:040:26:06

or more appropriately Petersburg.

0:26:060:26:08

Because this artist spent time in the Baltic and it seems to me to have a rather sort of Danish feel to it.

0:26:080:26:14

I love the way that light plays on it as well, especially in the foreground where it's quite golden

0:26:140:26:19

and then it gets cooler and cooler as it goes into the distance.

0:26:190:26:22

Because it's got such a low line of buildings, you get this sense

0:26:220:26:26

of sweeping right back into the far, far distance, that works very well.

0:26:260:26:30

No, it's a really lovely thing and you've also brought along

0:26:320:26:35

this other picture here.

0:26:350:26:37

We'll move over there and have a look at that.

0:26:370:26:39

Now this is him somewhere else altogether.

0:26:390:26:43

I just love the juxtaposition of

0:26:430:26:45

the two pictures because here he is in the near East, he's gone to Egypt

0:26:450:26:49

and again he's drawn on this library in his mind,

0:26:490:26:53

I think, and painted it in a very Italianate way with these golden

0:26:530:26:58

Italianate colours, a bit like the French artist Claude Lorraine, with

0:26:580:27:02

this wonderful sort of sunset going on and this romantic picturesqueness,

0:27:020:27:08

but I don't think Egypt really looks like that. What do you think?

0:27:080:27:13

Well, I've never been to Egypt and it is how I always thought

0:27:130:27:16

Egypt would be, very romantic and with lovely

0:27:160:27:20

architectural, archaeological features, but I don't know Egypt.

0:27:200:27:25

Yes, well, I confess I don't either, but I know this...

0:27:250:27:29

-It's got its palm tree.

-Yes, it's certainly that,

0:27:290:27:32

but it has got this very Italianate way of looking at it.

0:27:320:27:34

I suppose being in the family for so long you've never valued them

0:27:340:27:38

-No.

-No thoughts of that at all?

0:27:380:27:40

Well, it's never been really important

0:27:400:27:43

because we've just always loved having them

0:27:430:27:46

and I know my in-laws loved having them, too.

0:27:460:27:49

Yes, yes, well, I'm, you know...

0:27:490:27:51

a picture this size by this artist would typically fetch about £8,000.

0:27:510:27:54

Would it?

0:27:540:27:56

Yes, but again it's bringing a kind of Western way of painting,

0:27:560:28:00

it seems to me, to Egypt.

0:28:000:28:02

Other painters went to Egypt and painted exactly what they saw,

0:28:020:28:05

no frills.

0:28:050:28:07

I think that he's been... if we go back to this painting...

0:28:070:28:10

..rather more honest in a sense

0:28:100:28:12

because this is his homeland and I think he's

0:28:120:28:15

found it easier to depict it and it's much more effective in that way.

0:28:150:28:19

Certainly it has got more resonance for me and probably for the market,

0:28:190:28:24

worth about £15,000, I think.

0:28:240:28:26

Gosh!

0:28:260:28:28

-I'm a bookbinder, that's my hobby.

-Right.

-And whenever I see a piece of leather

0:28:300:28:35

with tooling on it, I get kind of excited.

0:28:350:28:38

And that's exactly the kind of box

0:28:380:28:43

or case that really you think, "What am I going to find inside there?"

0:28:430:28:47

"It's got to be something good," so,

0:28:470:28:51

up come the hooks...

0:28:510:28:53

And we have a little glass inside, nicely cut, wheel-cut

0:28:560:29:02

with a diaper pattern, pearls with a crown above an "A"- who dat?!

0:29:020:29:09

Well, my great-grandfather, who obtained it in Paris, I think

0:29:090:29:14

around 1867, said that it was Marie Antoinette's,

0:29:140:29:18

but I've since had it looked at by somebody who said the cipher's not hers.

0:29:180:29:23

-It isn't.

-It's somebody else's.

-It isn't Marie Antoinette.

0:29:230:29:26

This is a real bit of social history.

0:29:260:29:29

Why do you have a glass in a leather case?

0:29:290:29:33

And of course... Do you know?

0:29:330:29:36

Well, to protect it while it was travelling.

0:29:360:29:38

She took it in rough riding coaches you know, very hard springs.

0:29:380:29:42

-Everything would have been thrown around.

-They were travelling the whole time

0:29:420:29:47

and they were pulling up into inns

0:29:470:29:49

and the inn had got no cutlery,

0:29:490:29:51

it had got no glasses, it had got no bedding...

0:29:510:29:56

Well, it probably had got bedding but it was a straw palliasse, and unless

0:29:560:29:59

you wanted to scratch all the next day, you brought your own bedding.

0:29:590:30:03

There was a retinue going on for ever with these people as they

0:30:030:30:07

travelled round and yes, that was exactly why you had a case.

0:30:070:30:13

I think it might never be possible to track down whose this was.

0:30:130:30:18

-Yes.

-But it might be.

0:30:180:30:20

I think it's a jolly nice little thing,

0:30:200:30:23

it's a sophisticated little bit of glass-making and I think that would

0:30:230:30:28

probably sell, depending again on who it turns out to be,

0:30:280:30:32

somewhere around £700 to £1,000.

0:30:320:30:36

This big red book seems to have been through the wars. What's the story?

0:30:380:30:42

Well, it has to some degree. It came out of my great-great-grandfather's

0:30:420:30:47

ship, the Africa, which was involved in Trafalgar and it was actually

0:30:470:30:52

in the bookcase in his cabin when one of the cannonballs came more or less through the

0:30:520:30:58

porthole and smashed the bookcase and it crumpled and smashed the top

0:30:580:31:03

of the book itself and because a cannonball in those days was a

0:31:030:31:07

very, very hot object coming through, I think this is one

0:31:070:31:10

of the reasons why the leather has got so, so pitted and so on.

0:31:100:31:15

And the inscription that it's

0:31:150:31:17

actually got inside it tells you what actually happened on that day.

0:31:170:31:21

It says that, "This book was shivered in this manner by a shot

0:31:210:31:25

"knocking to pieces the bookcase in the Battle of Cape Trafalgar,

0:31:250:31:30

"October 21st 1805 on board The Africa, 64 guns,

0:31:300:31:36

"signed Henry Digby."

0:31:360:31:37

This is wonderful stuff. What is the book itself?

0:31:370:31:40

Well, the book itself - we always assumed that it was some sort of

0:31:400:31:44

weighty tome on the Battle of the Nile and how it was fought and everything else

0:31:440:31:48

and my father the other day decided he'd read through it

0:31:480:31:51

and it's actually entitled "The Memoirs of the Compte de Grammont".

0:31:510:31:56

It turns out that this is actually the equivalent of Lady Chatterley's Lover of the time

0:31:560:32:00

and so I think we could almost say that

0:32:000:32:03

this is 18th-century pornography.

0:32:030:32:05

-A little...

-Very useful in the Captain's cabin, I'm sure.

0:32:060:32:10

-Yes, a little bedside reading.

-Yes.

0:32:100:32:12

-We'll keep the inscription and close the leaf.

-Thank you.

0:32:120:32:16

Luckily for me, they brought this

0:32:170:32:20

to me because it's furniture, at least it's small furniture.

0:32:200:32:23

It's bigger than treen - or it doesn't quite fit into that.

0:32:230:32:26

It's carved wood in the most wonderful style, a mystery object so far.

0:32:260:32:31

I want to look at the stand in more detail, so tell me what you think it is anyway.

0:32:310:32:36

It's just got a bit of black glass in there, so...

0:32:360:32:39

I have no idea, I've asked

0:32:390:32:40

lots of people for several years and they have no idea what it is.

0:32:400:32:44

-Really?

-I brought it along today to see you could throw any light on it.

0:32:440:32:48

I'm very glad you did. How did you find it? Where did you find it?

0:32:480:32:51

It was in a box of goodies that belonged to my former husband and I've just had it restored.

0:32:510:32:56

Well, whoever did it is to be commended because he did

0:32:560:32:58

a first class job. It's what I would call sympathetic restoration, but the

0:32:580:33:03

fineness of this is reminiscent of the Bushey School of Art.

0:33:030:33:07

Herkomer is the man responsible for leading that movement,

0:33:070:33:12

and we look under here, these lovely big fat fleshy leaves which are

0:33:120:33:16

beautifully carved, look at the kick in that scroll.

0:33:160:33:19

When you come down here, you've got this sort of Tudoresque style

0:33:190:33:22

with the finest possible little flowers,

0:33:220:33:26

and each of those panels is different.

0:33:260:33:29

I mean absolutely charming.

0:33:290:33:31

Somebody might have suggested, because this is black glass,

0:33:320:33:36

that it might be for looking at eclipses, but in fact

0:33:360:33:40

it's a "Claude glass"

0:33:400:33:43

named after Claude Lorrain,

0:33:430:33:45

the artist, OK, and it is for an artist to hold up

0:33:450:33:51

to create the view of his picture.

0:33:510:33:54

It's an illusionary thing.

0:33:540:33:57

-Gosh.

-And if you, if you look in here, can you see?

0:33:570:34:01

-Yes.

-Now can you see the background, can you see the trees?

-Yes.

0:34:010:34:04

Now there's a perfect oil painting

0:34:040:34:06

and that's what he would have in his mind to paint.

0:34:060:34:10

It clarified the vision.

0:34:100:34:12

Fabulously interesting, beautiful object, just wonderful!

0:34:120:34:17

-There, there it is, mystery object solved.

-Wonderful.

0:34:170:34:22

Now, value-wise, very difficult.

0:34:220:34:25

Its value wouldn't relate to its extreme rarity and interest, but to

0:34:270:34:32

a collector today, anything between £800 and £1,200 - that sort of price.

0:34:320:34:38

-Gosh.

-Oh, yes, I know, I've got four people

0:34:380:34:41

lined up here who'd like to buy it.

0:34:410:34:44

This is so exciting for these to turn up today.

0:34:480:34:50

EHS - Ernest Howard Sheppard -

0:34:500:34:53

an obvious-looking Owlie and Eyore and Pooh,

0:34:530:34:57

absolutely fantastic.

0:34:570:35:00

Just out of interest, where did these come from originally?

0:35:000:35:03

In my lifetime they hung in my grandmother's spare room

0:35:030:35:06

at her house when I stayed when I was a kid and I got interested in them.

0:35:060:35:10

As far as I know, they've been in the family since my mother's

0:35:100:35:13

childhood and she can tell you more about that.

0:35:130:35:16

They were in my nursery when I was three in the early '50s.

0:35:160:35:20

She had an aunt who bought her all the original books when they first came out, the year they came out.

0:35:200:35:25

-The first editions.

-I think they were first editions.

0:35:250:35:28

They could have been the second because of the short print runs.

0:35:280:35:31

We think they came into the family that way and then it's possible,

0:35:310:35:35

that she went to a book signing with that aunt and was given these there.

0:35:350:35:40

Well, great foresight on her behalf and she obviously loved the images.

0:35:400:35:44

Now I know quite a lot about Ernest Howard Sheppard because

0:35:440:35:47

many years ago, in the late '70s, I actually was involved in doing

0:35:470:35:51

a studio sale of his pictures.

0:35:510:35:53

And of course he was born in the 1870s and of course his early work

0:35:530:35:58

-was in the early 1900s - he did it for Punch magazine.

-Really?

0:35:580:36:02

And then he started illustrating and he met AA Milne in the 1920s and did,

0:36:020:36:09

in 1924, When We Were Young with Christopher Robin

0:36:090:36:13

and then, in 1928, did the first Winnie The Pooh book.

0:36:130:36:17

And of course in the 1930s he illustrated Kenneth Grahame's

0:36:170:36:21

Wind In The Willows.

0:36:210:36:23

And when you look at these closely,

0:36:230:36:25

you know, when he started doing these figures,

0:36:250:36:27

it's not just pen and ink, there is pencil underneath that.

0:36:270:36:30

He'd worked out the images freehand and there's so much spontaneity here.

0:36:300:36:35

You've only just got to look at Owlie, it's fantastic.

0:36:350:36:38

If we come up the top here, I mean just look at this, a fantastic study

0:36:380:36:43

because you've got Pooh stuck in

0:36:430:36:45

the sort of rabbit hole, being pulled out by Christopher Robin.

0:36:450:36:49

Rabbit's behind and then we've got

0:36:490:36:51

Piglet there hanging on the back trying to

0:36:510:36:54

pull him out, and it's just charming.

0:36:540:36:57

I imagine there would have been some writing in here.

0:36:570:37:00

They've left some space.

0:37:000:37:02

Now the condition, as I say,

0:37:020:37:04

it's an original and we've got mould here round the signature.

0:37:040:37:08

Now forget about the mould, that can

0:37:080:37:11

easily be removed, but it's just so nice because these aren't... He did

0:37:110:37:15

rework some of his images in the 1950s and '60s and he died in 1976.

0:37:150:37:20

But these are actually from the 1920s and '30s period.

0:37:210:37:25

You can tell just by the way that they look.

0:37:250:37:29

And some years ago I sold a little picture of Toad

0:37:290:37:34

when he came out of jail, dressed in washerwoman's clothes, and we had

0:37:340:37:38

an estimate of £5,000-£7,000 on it and it made £10,000, just for one.

0:37:380:37:43

-Wow!

-But having told you about Wind In The Willows, of course,

0:37:430:37:47

Pooh is much, much more popular.

0:37:470:37:50

And so we've got the three here and I look at Owlie and I look at

0:37:500:37:55

Eyore and Pooh looking up like that.

0:37:550:37:57

I think, what is that worth?

0:37:570:38:00

Well, I can tell you they're certainly going

0:38:000:38:02

to be worth £20,000 to £30,000...

0:38:020:38:05

-Woah!

-..just for those three.

0:38:050:38:06

Wow!

0:38:060:38:07

So, we come to this one.

0:38:080:38:11

Now, I don't know if this is the original from the book,

0:38:110:38:14

but if it is, and I know

0:38:140:38:17

-that this would make between £30,000 and £50,000.

-Wow!

0:38:170:38:20

-That is how popular.

-Wow!

0:38:200:38:23

There's a huge interest in America.

0:38:230:38:25

Wonderful.

0:38:250:38:28

A vote of thanks to Sir Edward Phelips, who built Montacute House over 400 years ago.

0:38:280:38:33

The family name lives on in the title of a pub in the village, which I think is a wonderful legacy.

0:38:330:38:38

Thanks to the National Trust for opening the gates and to the people

0:38:380:38:41

of Somerset for coming through them.

0:38:410:38:43

Until the next time, from Montacute House, goodbye.

0:38:430:38:46

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