Normanby Hall Antiques Roadshow

If this was a feature film, I'd be surrounded by ghostly music,

the shades of elegant gentle folk

would be wafting past me as they arrived at the Manor House for the grand ball.

Up this drive lay a once grand manor house where Humberside's gentry were entertained at lavish parties.

All that stopped in the 1920s when Appleby Hall,

which once dominated this spot,

was burned down and there wasn't enough money to rebuild it.

The fate of this north eastern estate was echoed all over the land.

During the 20th century, mansions were demolished at an astonishing rate.

At one point it was about one a week.

They were hugely expensive to run

and with death duties wiping out inheritances,

not even selling the family silver could save the day.

Over 600 have vanished since 1945.

These are the lost houses of Britain.

Their disappearance has left a gap in the landscape and a sense of loss in the community,

but some have survived.

And just eight miles from where Appleby once was, stands our venue for today - Normanby Hall.

Standing on the outskirts of Scunthorpe, Normanby has belonged to the Sheffield family since 1589.

The discovery of ironstone here was the secret of their success.

Quarrying proliferated and afforded the development of the nearby town.

But when resources dried up in the 1960s,

worryingly for Normanby Hall, the house fell on troubled times.

In 1964 the Sheffield family left, and Normanby's fate appeared to be sealed.

It could easily have become another of the lost houses,

but Scunthorpe Borough Council stepped in front of the bulldozers

declaring the house and grounds a focal point for the community.

By leasing the hall to the council, the Sheffields gave the townspeople a place of their own

to enjoy their leisure.

Today they come here to put on plays, to get married,

or just to wander about.

And if you ask very nicely,

you can even use the front lawn for an Antiques Roadshow.

Well, these are a most extraordinary collection of Worcester vases

making a sort of a garniture of the whole thing -

with powder blue blowed on through a tube, through a gauze -

and looking, I suppose, remarkably like 18th century in a way,

and yet turning into the 20th century. What's the history of them?

Yes, well they came down through my courtesy aunt.

Her mother was married probably around the turn of the last century - a young married woman before the war.

And we think that she acquired them over time, collected them.

And they've always been a memory in my aunt's house, it's the one thing I always remembered.

Yes, that's interesting because the date codings on them...

you've got a vary of date codes.

You've got date codes running from 1928...

-to 1932.

-Oh, right.

So they were collected each year and they paid for another little bit.

Oh, yes. Well, she probably had to save up for them.

Well, these would have been expensive.

They're not only powder blue, but they're an extraordinary shape. I see that shape very, very rarely.

-Oh, really?

-Fantastically crazy shape really.

And then painted with panels of fruit in the Worcester style

with gilding around the outside and the whole thing looks absolutely scrumptious.

The interesting thing is you've got different painters.

You've not only different dates but you've got different painters.

This major one... A beautiful piece that, isn't it?

Signed Edward Townsend. I knew him very well.

He became foreman painter many years later, this is in 1920s.

But he became foreman painter in the 1950s and was a grand old chap.

I enjoyed Ted Townsend very much. He spent most of the afternoons asleep at the factory

but he was a wonderful, wonderful painter and these are super.

This one is painted by, um, Moseley.

Moseley there... I think you've probably got all sorts of different painters here.

Who's this one? This is Shuck, Albert Shuck.

He lived next to my wife in Friar Street.

A wonderful painter. And you've got a complete,

not only interesting group of vases,

with powder blue, but an interesting group of painters

who were all wonderful painters in the 1920s to '30s and some of them continuing after the war.

-Do you like them?

-I do, very much, the colour calls to you.

Fantastic. And wonderful quality.

I mean you must be looking for that pair at about,

I suppose, £1,000 happily.

And this chap, certainly £1,000 on his own. It's a marvellous pot.

And, um, a little pair of these.

-Yes, they're such a nice shape.

-They're beautiful, aren't they?

And there you're looking at £800, £900.

This, £1,000 with the lovely cover - perfect.

-So what have we got? £3,000...£4,000?

-Yes, they'd better go on the insurance.

They'd better go on the insurance and they also must go into a lovely, lovely spot at home

-because they're superb and very unusual.

-Oh, good.

Well, this looks like a heap of double rocking trouble.

This is fantastic. What a lovely childhood toy.

Two little chairs mounted on this rocker.

I can picture the happy scene.

-A happy scene from your childhood or before then?

-Not exactly,

-because it was got for me and my next eldest brother.

-Yes.

And the thing was, that when he wanted to play with it, I would say "no, I don't feel like it today".

When I wanted to play he'd say "no, you wouldn't rock with me, so I'm not rocking..."

It was used very little I'm afraid, but as you can see, I've a photograph here and that's...

that was taken a year or two later probably when I was three year old maybe or four.

Is this Mum in the background?

-That's Mum and that's my next eldest brother.

-Fantastic.

So you got on long enough just to stand there for the photograph to be taken.

Terrific to still have that, can you remember the year that you might have been given it?

I can, exactly, it was when I was two year old and that was 1934.

When you see it from a distance it's got a nice sculptural quality,

but when you look at it close up, it's got nice details like the lining on the little tray here.

But it's also around the edge of the chair and on other details, on the rockers and so on.

-I think that that means to me that it's of an earlier date than the 1934 that you mentioned.

-I see.

-I would say that it is probably around 1910 - 1915, so from a previous generation.

-Oh, yes.

Well, your Mother probably would never have mentioned how much it cost at the time.

She told me in later years that she gave ten shillings for it.

I don't know if that was new or second-hand.

Ten shillings in 1934, I mean that...that was a lot of money.

What's it worth today?

There's a lot of interest in children's furniture from all sorts of people -

whether they collect just children's furniture, or whether they collect them as toys or amusements.

I would have said that this in, in an auction would probably fetch around £250 something like that.

-Oh.

-The great thing is, being an ungrateful child, you and your brother must share the blame,

has meant that it's remained in really good condition and is a great piece of children's amusement today.

Well, yes, yes.

Can you give me a hand just on that side?

I can't believe it! It's never been used, has it?

-It's unused.

-Completely unused.

-Completely unused.

-All the way down.

-All the way.

-Let's see.

Oh, look at this, still in the Cellophane!

That is...

Well...I've been looking at toys for an awful long time.

I've never ever seen a completely unused Outfit Number 10.

How on earth has it been kept in this condition?

It was bought by a colleague of my father's

who unfortunately didn't have any children,

and it was bought as a complete outfit.

It was passed to my father and then passed to me when my father died.

Unfortunately we have no children so we thought we'd keep it as it is.

We actually have a working Meccano set at home that we do use, but this is something different.

-This is for Sunday afternoons to gloat at, rather than play with?

-Yes.

Meccano was started way back in 1901.

Frank Hornby founded the company, that went on to make Hornby trains,

Dinky cars, probably the most important collectable toy manufacturers in the 20th century.

And, of course, he made Meccano. And there is some stories that because of Meccano

our efforts in engineering were matured at a very young age because if a ten year old got into this,

they went on to become mechanical or civil engineers.

-Who knows if that's true or not?

-He did.

Oh, you did? You didn't play with a Meccano set?

And in, I think it was 1926, they went to this very recognisable colour

of green and bright red, but I think it has so many memories

for so many people. They remember having toys just like this.

But now, the Number 10 was the biggest you could get.

You've some of the catalogues here - this is actually a reprint.

I think this crane here, you could only actually build

-with a Number 10.

-Yes.

So it was the ultimate toy.

I think the date of this, going back to remember when you were a child

and you saw it in that toy shop, was it sort of 35 to 40 years ago?

-Something like that, yes.

-Yeah, so I would have thought it's certainly '50s, probably post-war.

-The catalogues are slightly later. They're probably bought in the 1960s to go with the set.

-Yes.

At auction, one in play condition but quite complete can fetch

£1,500 to £2,000.

I think for this, in this condition,

we're talking about a value in excess of £3,000.

-So...

-Ouch.

-Fantastic toy.

-Yes.

-But not to be played with.

-No.

Do you use this at home?

Yes, we do, we do. Children are always jumping about on it, so it gets a lot of use, yes.

-Where did you get it from?

-I bought it in Germany about 13 years ago.

It was from like an antique junk shop.

I just saw it there at the end of the room and really liked it, so that was...

-Were you living there?

-Yes, I was, I living and working in Germany, yes.

What did they describe it as, at the time?

Well, the man didn't know what it was. He said it was an old sofa.

-Do you want me to tell you where it's from?

-Yes. I just presumed that it was German.

-Well, you've probably heard this word, Biedermeier?

-I have, yes, yes, I have heard that in Germany before.

It literally means "plain man" and it was a fashion that started in the 1820s in Germany

and was very popular. You see wonderful watercolours.

And Mary Ellen Best with these lovely interiors,

she was, I think, British but had a German husband.

Wonderful interiors with this plain furniture.

It's become very popular in the last 20 or 30 years.

Perhaps he didn't understand it, or rate it because it's not actually German.

-So if I tell you that the wood on the back is pine.

-Right.

That directs me to the Baltic area - Riga.

-Oh.

-The Russian coast.

-The wood on the front is Karelian birch.

-Oh, I've never heard of that.

That's from the Russian forest in the North Russian/Finland area

and it was very, very popular in the 1830s, and '40s, '50s, on the Russian coast.

If you look at the leg here, you've got this...

-horns of plenty where you get cherubs in designs.

-Oh, yes.

They're all holding up a horn with flowers in them called a cornucopia or horn of plenty.

-Right.

-That's what this is.

-Oh, really?

It's been exaggerated in shape and is very typical of the Biedermeier

but very provincial, ie Russian Baltic type furniture.

But also the curve here, it's sort of very pneumatic -

typical of the middle part of the 19th century, 1830 to 40,

something like that. Did it cost you a lot?

Um, about £250, something like that, which I thought was a lot.

-Hang on a minute, £250?

-Yes, yes.

-Well, that was a lot wasn't it?

I thought so at the time, but I liked it so much.

Have you any idea how popular this type of Russian furniture has become over the last 10 or 15 years?

-No, no, I haven't followed that at all.

-Very popular.

-Really?

You are sitting on a settee, or we are sitting very comfortably on a settee worth...

-£5,000.

-Really? Oh, my gosh.

Well, when the children have left home, I'm going backpacking and travelling,

so I'll have something to pay for my travels then.

Well, they say on a hot day there's nothing better than a cup of tea,

and we are taking tea with the great Suzie Cooper.

But, tell me, when did you first take tea with this Suzie Cooper?

Well, when I was 18 I went to train to be a physiotherapist at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.

And, um, before then we'd only had white pottery,

because this was after the war. All the printed pottery went to America mainly,

And then we heard that in one of the big stores in Manchester

they'd got a lot of odd Suzie Cooper in, so...

-which was decorated.

-So you all high-tailed it down the road.

Not all, but quite a lot of us went down, yes.

-Was it a bit of a bun fight?

-It was a very great bun fight.

I notice you've got two odds. I take it you haven't got a set?

-You've just odds?

-I've six odds.

Well, of course, Suzie Cooper, she had such a great career,

I mean she started...

pre '20s, 1918 at the Burslem School of Art under Gordon Forsyth.

She went on to work for A E Gray.

She went on to open up her own works which became the Crown Works - Suzie Cooper Works.

What we've got here are two pieces

which are just absolutely typical of that post-war 1950s period.

The one I've got personally is my favourite

because it's actually using a technique that we call scraffito.

What she's done is painted on the decoration

and then carved away to reveal the white china underneath.

-Oh, I wondered how it was done.

-And then overpainted.

It's funny because she loved vegetation, and plants, and fruit, and seeds and pods.

Here you have kidney beans, and runner beans, and fronds.

It's very linked to the textile patterns of the day as well -

a lot of sort of decoration on textiles and wallpapers.

-Do you like the one you have?

-Yes, it's my favourite.

-I don't know what it is.

-Well, you can see,

she sort of very much uses this sort of birds and stag motifs in her work.

Yes, and that's under the sea.

I mean in terms of value there's a bun fight in her memory

-and an era gone that reminds you of that...no longer having to suffer white china.

-That's right.

The one that you're holding, if it were to be sold at auction,

you would be looking somewhere in the region of

£80 maybe £100.

But the one I'm holding, because of the runner beans, broad beans, and the fronds,

and all that nice scraffito work,

I think you're looking realistically

over the £100 and maybe the sort of £120 to £150 mark as a sort of value for it.

Well, I shan't be selling them.

So this is a photograph of your grandfather

standing in front of his Spitfire looking very pleased with himself.

-He's slightly relieved I think, yes.

-Relieved?

He was flying to bomb German HQ during the Second World War in Egypt when he was hit by...

This is the nose cone of the shell that actually hit him.

You can see in the photograph, the...

Right, so this piece of shrapnel got embedded in the front of the plane?

Yes, we think it was a British shell.

-Perhaps a British and German aircraft facing each other and...

-Right, got them by mistake.

Yes, pretty much but Grandpa managed to get back to base with no oil

and landed it just as it started to fire...

Wow, so he lived to tell the tale.

Yes, he did, I think he worked out that if it had been

two degrees higher, the trajectory, that it would have taken his eye out.

Goodness me, so with that problem he limped home.

-Yes.

-And the whole thing is recorded in these logbooks here.

Yes, it's quite a small mention but it's...

-You've got the first volume and the second volume.

-Yeah.

This is the page that records the event.

Yeah, and it's this, the 4th January 1945.

Flying Spitfire IX, pilot - self, bombing Jerry HQ south of Lugo.

And he's put the extra parts there, he's written a lot more.

Yes, he really crammed it in. "What a show.

"We got six direct hits and left the whole place burning.

"I got a direct hit in the oil tank.

"Just got back as she started to burn,

"No oil or glycol in the engine, target observed still burning..."

-Is that "three hours later"?

-Yes.

-Wow, what a tale!

-Three or four hours later.

-So your grandfather joined the RAF at the beginning of the war?

-Yeah, about 1940.

I believed he lied about his age to get in, he was desperate to fly

-and he did his training during the Battle of Britain.

-Right.

The Battle of Britain was over when he completed the training,

then he was in the North Africa campaign and the Italy campaign.

-Well, they're a fantastic pair of logbooks. I guess you won't ever sell these?

-No, never.

But I'll put a commercial valuation on them

and on the open market in auctions, they'd fetch between £300 and £500.

-That's a bit of a surprise?

-Yeah, I didn't think they'd be that much.

This week's collector is a racing champion

and his vehicle of choice is the lawn mower,

though how you could win a race this way, I can't imagine.

Brian Radam, this has been your passion -

to the applause of the crowd - your passion since when?

It all started in 1945 when my father opened the first DIY shop in Southport

and he repaired lawn mowers and we ended up with a big pile of scrap iron in the back,

which should have been thrown away, but because it was British engineering,

it was the best in the world and instead of throwing them away, we started restoring them.

I presume you didn't race in a thing like this?

-Er, not quite like this, more power.

-Big sit-ons?

-Yeah.

-And what is this one that I've just used?

-This is a Qualcast Panther.

It's 1955 and it was owned by Jean Alexander who's famous for Coronation Street.

I say! Wow, a star's lawn mower!

A wonderful collection here, out of how many?

-It's about 400.

-400.

Now this is fine-looking machine, what does it say down here?

This is the Ransome's New Automaton

and it was the next generation after they were invented.

Edwin Beard Budding invented them in 1830,

and he worked in a cotton mill and the cotton-mill owner asked him

to make a machine to cut the cloughs and the bobbly bits off the cloth

because they'd got an order for guardsmen's uniforms.

And he invented the cutting cylinder and it's never changed to this day.

They make a lovely noise and make you smile when you cut the grass.

Oh, yes, and what do they cost?

They can cost anything from a few pounds to a few thousand pounds.

-Some of them are extremely rare now.

-What year would this be?

This is quite modern, it's from the late '50s-1960,

and it was a special-edition model made for an exhibition. It's chrome.

Oh, so this didn't go into general use, then?

This was designed specifically for a bowling green.

It would give an absolute perfect finish

and it was one of Greens' more modern machines.

-Why do lawn mowers mean so much to you?

-Well, these machines give a beautiful finish,

and with us losing nearly all our British lawn-mower manufacturing - and lawn mowers are very British.

Lots of people when they go out to buy a new lawn mower,

they'll come home with a grass cutter without realising it,

and we're losing our lawns as well.

-Is this your favourite?

-It's one of my favourites,

but probably my favourite is the Wilkinson Sword,

-which is this one here.

-Oh, this sharp-looking item.

That's sleek, isn't it? What's the secret of this one?

The secret of this one is... Wilkinson Sword liked the idea of this.

It was a Norwegian company called Flexa Lawn Mowers and they made a cutting principle

that was slightly different to Edwin Budding, and the blade hits the bottom blade at a different angle

and you never need to sharpen it.

And because it was £9 at the time, which was a lot of money,

not many people bought them, but it's a lovely lawn mower to use.

-Does it work?

-It does work.

There it goes, that lovely English sound of a lawn mower...

at full throttle and a man thinking about a nice, cool bottle of beer.

I don't know how to explain myself, but I think I've fallen in love.

And I think I've fallen in love with your friend

-because she is just stunning.

-She's beautiful, isn't she?

Words are not enough, but I know that there's an interesting story

behind this woman of mystery, so reveal all.

I was given it about two years ago when we had a conservatory built. A friend came round and said,

"I've got something that will look beautiful in your conservatory."

So I went with him, picked it up, and he'd got it previously about 25, 20 years ago,

from a clergyman who'd given it to him, and that's basically how's I got it,

But she does look gorgeous with the sunlight on her in the conservatory.

-She does as well, doesn't she?

-Yes.

And just one look at this girl, um, tells you that she started life

in around about 1900, because just stylistically,

she's very much in the sort of Art Nouveau style.

-Now first of all she's in carved white marble, OK, so she's obviously a one-off in this situation.

-Yeah.

Now I say that because there were, certainly in Italy,

a production team of people who can make one marble after another that would look identical,

-but I think that this is a commission.

-Yeah.

Which makes it that little bit special. Who's responsible? It's got to be somebody good.

Um, and I look down here and I see "A. Leonard." Agathon Leonard.

Good news, he's a good man. He's a very good man.

-Um, he was born in Lille in Belgium in the early 1840s.

-Oh, right.

And he died in Paris in about 1923.

Not a bad innings and in the interim period,

-he actually became a sort of naturalised Frenchman.

-Oh, right.

So he's working in Paris - Paris is the epicentre of all this type of sculpture,

-riding under this banner of Art Nouveau.

-Yes.

Lots of naturalistic emblems and motifs incorporated into it and a sense of movement...

You look at her hair and you feel as if that lock has just fallen...

-I know what you mean, yeah.

-..Seconds before.

So he turns up in many guises in Art Nouveau sculpture, in bronze, in mixed media

where sometimes you'll get marble with bronze as well,

and he's regarded as being important.

As for the neighbour, this could be very tricky,

because I've got no great precedent to go by,

but I think that if I wanted to buy this girl today

I don't think I'd get any change out of £15,000.

-How much was your conservatory?

-Oh, about ten.

-Well, there you are,

you build a conservatory for ten and you get a pressie for 15.

Now I'd like to finish by saying "I'm thinking of building a conservatory at the moment

"and I'd like to meet your neighbour because I'll have lots of gaps."

I'll have to bring him down!

I think you're in a tricky situation here, aren't you?

-SHE GIGGLES Well, bless him!

-Bless him?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Right, are you ready for kick off?

-Yes, I am.

-Tell me about this wonderful set of footballers.

-Well, they were my father's.

-Yes.

He was born in Mandalay in India in 1906 and when I was 11,

he passed them onto me and I've had them ever since.

-So did you play with them as a young boy?

-Yes.

-Well, we've got two teams here, haven't we?

-Yes.

And this is obviously the England team,

with the Union Jack on their shirts.

This team I'm not so sure about.

-It would presumably be another international team.

-Yes.

-But I don't recognise the colours. Have you got any idea as to who they might be?

-None at all, no.

-Well, let's see if we can have a little bit of a game.

-Right you are.

Ready for this?

Oh, fantastic!

-So what have we got here?

-Well, it's a christening mug.

-Mm.

-And there's quite a story with it because I have a friend who lives in Crowle.

-Crowle is where?

-The other side of the river.

Crowle from the Isle of Axholme, and Pidd is an Isle of Axholme name.

-Yes.

-And Jo, my friend, lived on the Isle

and she saw this christening mug in an antique shop in Bawtry

and bought it.

And when she showed it me, my mother was a Pidd and lived in Crowle,

and this Catherine whose christening mug it is,

-is on my family tree and so she's an ancestor of mine.

-Good heavens!

I said, "It's more mine than yours" but she wouldn't give me it.

And then when I was - had an "0" on the end -

-she gave it to me for a birthday gift.

-As a special present.

-Yes.

It's a lovely little piece, isn't it?

-And this was made in 1856.

-Yes.

-I think it's a super little mug. So the value - not very great.

-No.

-But to you it is priceless.

-Because of the story, yes, that's right. And we're still friends.

-Well done!

-Yes. That's right.

Hasn't got any arms, this one.

Oh, he's passed to him...

So do you think I'm allowed another go?

Definitely, it's in your half, anyway.

Yes, rather.

-Oh, dear,

-And this defender comes out.

-What about the date?

-No idea, no.

No, I suspect... They're very much like early Britain lead soldiers,

so I think they probably date from around 1900-1910,

-which would tie in with your father, wouldn't it?

-Yes, yes, it would.

They're very unusual, it's difficult to put a value on them, as I say,

not in the best of condition,

but nevertheless I think each figure's got to be worth £15-20,

so if you add it all up you're probably looking at £500 for the complete set.

Oh, really? My word, I am surprised.

-Naked ladies.

-Yes.

-Why have we got naked ladies?

Well, I went to an auction and I just fell in love with them.

I paid £50 each but not at the same auction, about a year, a year apart.

The question is, why were they made?

-I'm not sure.

-Well, these date from about 1900-1905...

they were made in Germany,

they're made of porcelain and these have always puzzled me slightly

because here you've got two naked women

and another naked lady lying down

-at a time when naked women were just not part of the scenery.

-Mm.

You know, we're talking here late-Victorian/early-Edwardian

and you saw a woman's ankle and you were overcome with emotion,

and here we've got naked women, so who were these made for and why?

I think one explanation is possibly they were just bits of amusement which one man gave to another

and they went into the billiard room for a bit of fun.

I think another possibility is, because they're German,

nude bathing was quite common in Germany at this time.

-Really?

-Yeah, and still is...

This one's very amusing

because somebody has knitted her a bathing costume

out of a stocking material or something,

um, which one's only got to move down a bit and she's got her nakedity still there.

Um, I think they're great fun and they are collectable, they are collectable.

They're almost never marked, one factory which did make comparable...

Oh, yes, I'm so sorry, you're quite right...

-One factory that did make them was Gebruder Heubach.

-Yeah, they make dolls.

That's absolutely right, yes, at Lichte,

and it's possible they come from there, but I'm not sure.

I think your £50 was well spent because I think the reclining lady with or without her bathing costume

is worth in the region of £70 to £100

and the second one with the two naked ladies, which is very rare,

-I can see that making £200 without any trouble at all.

-Very nice.

-Well, I love them.

-Well, that's the main thing, thank you.

-OK.

It's fantastic that people still bring in these large pieces of furniture to the Antiques Roadshow,

and I saw you earlier on staggering in with this, across the lawn.

-How did you get it here?

-Well, we had to bring it in two pieces.

I love this. It's just so original and so, what we call "clean".

It might look dirty to you, but it looks clean to me.

Let me show you this lovely key.

It's, I think, the original key, with a little coronet on the top.

-It's fantastic, isn't it?

-Well, let's look at the outside.

It's a secretaire, with the two short and two long drawers below.

It looks pretty good and original to me.

I suspect the bun feet have been fiddled with, but that's common.

I'm not going to worry about that. I bet there's a secret drawer...

Do you know where they are?

Yes, there's a couple of them tucked away, quite difficult to get to...

Under the top there there's a little compartment for coins or something.

Oh, isn't that nice, yes.

Mm, doesn't smell. Sometimes they're a wonderful dry smell.

-It's such a nice thing.

-Yes, I think it's been in use in the family.

I wonder whether anyone would have ever found that?

Any more?

Yeah, there's one hidden away in the door. Ooh...if I can get it open.

-At the bottom here there's a catch that slides out.

-Ah, all right, OK.

-So there's something else that's in there.

-Any money in this?

-Afraid not!

Shame. No guineas tucked away. Isn't that lovely? Gosh, that's nice.

-Let's stick it back and let's have a look.

-Just slides back in there.

I mean, what date is this?

-It's a secretaire.

-Yes.

It's been passed down through the family, came through my grandfather,

and he was under the impression that it was made of English oak and it's from 1790,

-but beyond that we don't really know anything about it.

-It's certainly English oak.

-1790 - you think it's that old?

-I have no idea myself.

I mean, we wondered about whether these were the original details on them.

Let's have a look.

-Well, glorious, look at that. See that there, that pin?

-Yeah.

Just tip it so you can see it properly, you've got that lovely little steel wire like a pin

and just tucked in either side, just holding it steady,

so it doesn't spin round. And let's look at the front...

This is the original little pear-drop handle. So many of those have been replaced,

so that's totally original. The most charming thing to me

is the originality of this piece. It's just totally clean, untouched.

It's a bit dark and it's loved and it's been used, in the same family, you think, since 1790?

Yeah, well, as far as I know. That's the family legend about it.

-I'm afraid you're wrong about the date.

-OK.

Sorry about this.

-It's made in 1690.

-Ah-ha.

So it's late Charles II, William and Mary, James II,

difficult to be precise about the date, 1680-1700.

But this lovely shape, these geometric shapes here

is typical of the Restoration of the Monarchy after about 1660. And I think it's just a gem.

Um, value - 300 years old,

it's not worth a lot for what it is, I think they're undervalued,

but it's not terribly useful, except for hiding things in.

At auction, estimate between...

-between £2,000 and £3,000.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

A very elegant leather box, and what have we got inside?

-These two trays.

-Yes.

-Are they for sandwiches, do you think?

I would think they're for sandwiches or to put the tea on, to serve.

-And then two cups and saucers.

-Two cups and saucers.

-And this is made by Royal Worcester.

-Royal Worcester.

Bee's knees, and here I assume we've got the kettle.

-That is the kettle.

-Oh, that's heavy.

-Because it has things inside it.

-Oh, right, that's why it's so heavy.

Oh...is that for the milk?

No, that's for the sugar and the tea, there's the stand for the teapot.

So you put one in the bottom of that, and one in the top.

-That's right.

-And this chap goes on here?

-That goes on there.

-And...

-That's the lid.

That is then the teapot which also has the milk and sugar inside it.

I'm enjoying myself here, we're going to have a good picnic.

This is what I presume you would bring the milk in, and here,

which is a bit difficult to get out, is the little burner.

-That goes on the...

-Which goes underneath there.

Good. All we need now is a match and we're away.

I've never seen such an exquisitely made picnic set.

It's by Royal Worcester.

It's got the 20 dots on it which dates it to precisely 1911.

-And that was the time when people were taking motor cars out into the countryside.

-Yes.

And I would have thought this could have been for a very smart car.

-We would have had this charming tea together with the chauffeur, who'd have acted as butler.

-That's right.

A really first-class piece. What's the history behind it?

It belonged to my husband's parents and I know that my mother-in-law,

she was a great lady, a very clever lady visiting many antique sales in the early days,

-and this is one of the things she bought. She gave it to us about 40 years ago.

-You've used it?

No. We don't have a Rolls-Royce.

No, we haven't, I've had it open on display, but for a while it's just been closed up.

Well, I think for somebody who is maybe a motoring enthusiast, if you've got the ultimate car,

this is the ultimate picnic set to go with it and therefore I wouldn't be surprised

with all the quality here, that a collector would pay maybe

-£1,200 to £1,500...

-Really?

..just to acquire a picnic set of this quality. Cup of tea?

Thank you very much!

Here in the gardens of Normanby Hall I feel a bit like this figure in the centre here,

surrounded by flowers and wonderful buildings.

Haven't seen a spotted leopard!

It's a great embroidery, in lovely condition. How did you come by it?

Well, my daughter lives in Australia, coming back to England shortly.

-Don't tell me it's from Australia!

-No, it's not.

She's coming back to England shortly and she was wanting a house

and, um...we purchased a house for her in the village where we live

and we acquired the contents as well,

and, um... this was left among the contents.

I don't believe you! Things like that don't happen any more.

-Just occasionally.

-You lucky chap! Do you know what it is?

I know it's embroidery.

I believe it's 17th century and that's about it, I think, really.

Well, you've got a good start, I have to say.

Yes, it is, it's a wonderful piece of English domestic embroidery

and this style of picture had a real flourishing in the 17th century,

from the time of Charles I into the Puritan period - they were still embroidering then -

and then again in the Restoration in 1660.

But this figure here, although I have an idea who she is,

could be drawn from all sorts of references.

Sometimes you might find that it's a Biblical scene, but in this case,

I happen to know that this figure actually appears in an illustrated book by Thomas Johnson of 1630

and it is the figure of Smell. And there she is

holding an extremely highly perfumed dianthus

which we all know smells very strongly of cloves,

and anybody looking at that would know immediately

that that was a symbol of the sense of smell.

And she's surrounded by all these wonderful flowers that you'd find in any Stuart knot garden.

Why were these done? They were done really, obviously as decoration,

but also to show the woman's mastery of embroidery,

the different stitches and her competence as a stitcher.

It wasn't for her to show her competence as an artist.

All these various elements, absolutely everything in it,

maybe with the exception of that castle,

has been drawn from the books of the period. What she did was,

she simply copied them,

drew them onto this wonderful rich satin background

and then stitched over them.

And we sent her a copy of the embroidery over to Australia

and she sent it onto an embroiderers' society in America...

Oh, what was the response?

The lady replied and said that she would give both arms to own something like that.

-And for an embroideress to say that, that's quite something.

-Yes.

She said that it would be somewhere in the region of between 2,000 and 8,000.

Quite a broad spectrum!

Yes, she sort of kept her options open, didn't she?

-That's right.

-Between two and eight thousand dollars,

well, I sort of agree, but I agree at the upper end, let's say between £3,000 and £5,000...

that's where I would put the value - between £3,000 to £5,000, rather than dollars.

No, I mean to say it's a cracking thing

and to have it really thrown in with the house,

-we just don't hear stories like that any more.

-No.

-And I'm always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

-It's my first time.

-Well done.

If you want to give it a go with this one as I do it, and we'll see. Shall we grip and twist...?

No-one's asked you to do that today.

Jolly good, yes, we haven't broken them, excellent. We've got a pair of telescopic candlesticks

and they're tremendous fun and they're still holding up

which is a plus point because any telescopic candlesticks I've seen,

you do that and they fall straight back down again.

Where did you get them from?

-Well, we won them in a national newspaper competition.

-Really?

-Yes.

-And these were the prizes?

-Yes.

I missed that edition of the newspaper!

Well, fantastic, I've never heard the like of it.

Did they tell you when they were made or who made them... anything like that?

No, that's what we'd like to know.

We believe that they were 1814, Birmingham.

Right, right, Birmingham. I'm from Birmingham.

I was born in Birmingham and raised in Birmingham and so were these

and have a look at the hallmarks - MB - the most famous Birmingham silversmith

that ever lived, Matthew Boulton. He set up the assay office in 1773

and these candlesticks were made in 1816, so you were close, only two years out.

Even though it's got his mark on them, he'd been dead seven years,

so he didn't make them personally, otherwise they'd be terribly rare,

but the company went on and they're all marked,

they're all fine, absolutely. That one should be marked, and it is,

and that's the same date so they're splendid.

How much was the competition prize supposed to be?

Was there a cash value or did you just get the candlesticks?

-Well, they mentioned £1,200 ten years ago.

-Right, ten years ago.

Well, silver's been in a bit of a slump over the past ten years,

but these are very nice and they're Birmingham which is a rare provincial factory at this time.

For a pair like this, you couldn't go into a shop in London today

and buy them for a penny less than £6,500.

Oh, I don't feel well.

-What did you do to win them?

-I was lucky.

-Unbelievable.

-Unbelievable.

What do you want in a Roadshow?

Lovely location, decent weather, interesting items and occasionally the bonus

of some very good news, and, Marilyn, you've had some very good news today.

-Yes.

-From Eric Knowles, what did he tell you?

I brought a marble bust in today for him to have a look at and he told me it's worth about £15,000.

-£15,000? And this was a gift?

-Yeah, when we had the conservatory built,

a friend gave us it, said it would look lovely in the conservatory.

And now it's worth £15,000. The question now comes up, how do you tell him?

Oh, I'll come to that one when I get home, but he's lovely, so I know he won't mind.

-I'm sure he's lovely, he'll enjoy it.

-Yeah.

Well, that's another Roadshow story, there are many more where those came from,

until the next time, from Scunthorpe, goodbye.