Beamish Antiques Roadshow

Every day, 90,000 drivers rush past Anthony Gormley's dramatic "Angel of the North" statue,

near the A1 at Gateshead.

But just a few miles away, those same drivers

could leave the 21st century behind and discover an era when traffic -

in fact life itself - was a little more easy going.

We've come to Beamish, the North of England Open Air Museum

in County Durham,

and we're in for something of an adventure, a spot of time travel...

to the days when people around these parts looked less like this...

..and more like this.

The year is 1913.

Britain still boasts an empire on which the sun never sets.

Nobody knows that the Great War is looming or that economic depression lies ahead, in fact,

it's a boom time for industry and the coal fields

of the north-east are helping to fuel the nation's prosperity.

Most people are better off than they've ever been.

Thank you.

It's still considered a virtue to be thrifty though, after all,

look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

Hands up who knows the exchange rate.

12 pennies, one shilling.

12 pennies, one shilling.

-20 shillings, one pound.

-20 shillings, one pound.

Education is compulsory to the age of 12 and most children leave school

and join the workforce.

If a boy becomes a miner, he's joining the elite of the working class.

A miner can earn 30 shillings a week - more than a teacher -

but to earn that 30 bob he'll have to spend 44 hours down

a dark and dangerous hole digging 24 tonnes of coal a week and he'll have to provide his own pick and shovel.

Can I have some Zebo grease, please?

Bar codes and sell-by dates are far in the future.

A mangle is a new fangled gadget,

there are no electric irons and people mince their own meat by hand.

There's not much in the way of packaging, biscuits are sold loose,

and fresh butter is scooped into individual portions.

Much of the family budget goes on food,

so a new blouse or a fancy hat are things people save up for.

This superbly detailed snapshot of the northern past at Beamish

is our back-drop for today's Roadshow.

To make life easier, all valuations will be in today's money.

What a lovely happy cat, isn't he great? Have you got a name for him?

Well, actually, I didn't have a name for him until today, till I met you so I think I'll call him Henry.

Oh, Henry, I like that, I think that's lovely, I love fat, happy cats. How did you come by him?

Well, it was about, I believe, three or four year ago, I purchased him in an antique auction at a local...

-Charity auction, yes.

-Just a few mile down the road.

-Yes.

And, I purchased... I believe it was about £24 or £28 at the time.

-£24 to £28?

-Yeah, that's right.

Just a little bit of damage, little bits of chippings out of there, it's a very soft glaze.

-Right.

-Soft pottery and soft glaze,

and, um, probably almost certainly made up in Yorkshire.

-Right, yes.

-I think he's a Yorkshire cat, the style of colouring is called a Rockingham glaze.

-Right.

-Not that necessarily this is Rockingham, I don't think it's Rockingham but it's made

in the style of the Rockingham glazes and made around about 1820,

so it's a nice early cat, isn't he? I think he's absolutely great, so don't worry too much

about the damage, damage is, is fair enough, so you paid what, 20?

About £24, yes.

£24, well, you did very well,

I reckon, because of the good size and very good condition basically, I think he's worth £1,000.

-That's nice, isn't it?

-I didn't believe it was worth that much.

So look after him, give him a good feed and call him Henry.

Right, I will do, without a doubt, thanks very much, thank you.

It's an orgy of decoration which is everything from a celebration

of love with these cooing doves at the top and these...

Hymen's torch and the trophies, through an architectural capriccio

here and then you have martial trophies on either side.

Now how does it survive in this condition?

I'd like to know, careful, careful attention I think, yeah.

But it's obviously been somewhere for a very long time.

Yes, I think so, um...

-Scottish provenance.

-Scottish provenance.

-That's it, the only thing I know in terms of the past history of it.

-Right.

This is known as a coiffeuse or a poudreuse, now in the 18th century

with the sheer quantity of make-up and wigs that were used, both male

and female members of the court sat at their poudreuse for many hours a day in order to make themselves look

absolutely perfect for the ball in the evening. It was a sort of all-encompassing piece of furniture

because here, surviving in extraordinarily original condition you have these wonderful

bits and pieces, you've got this solid tulip wood, places for storing small sort of dressing utensils,

you've got these very, very beautiful early bits of porcelain with their naturalistic finials.

These I think could be quite specifically dated to somewhere

in the early-to-mid 1750s,

which stylistically ties in exactly

with the piece of furniture itself.

But this is not the only one,

because not only have you got those original fittings to help you

with getting dressed, the powders and everything else, but on the other side, when we open it up,

we have yet more marquetry and then this extraordinary original Vernis Martin box,

and I think these are one of the great rarities, because although

one sees these sort of dressing sets

around separately, they very rarely survive with their original,

within the poudreuse or the coiffeuse, you've got the brushes...

these are presumably... Maybe there's even talcum powder inside.

-There is, actually.

-Oh, there is! In that particular one, yes. And a wonderful pin cushion with...again,

you've got the same watered silk and the same silver thread which is wound

around as a border, consistent with all of the lining, so it's in this fantastic state of preservation

but it's not just for dressing,

because it also had a very practical way where you could also use it

as an extraordinary writing desk, and there's even this wonderful fitted drawer down here.

It's a fantastic thing.

How did you lay your hands on it?

I purchased it about, um, oh,

-April last year.

-April... Oh, recently?

-Yes.

-And did you have to pay the earth for it?

-No, I paid £4,500 for it.

£4,500. Well, I think what's really interesting is that the constituent parts...

if you look at it in a sort of rather separate way...

these very rare Vernis Martin mid-18th boxes with the two powder boxes, the brushes, the pin cushion,

that is a set on its own,

without the piece of furniture, and probably would be worth £2,500 - £3,500.

The porcelain, the Mennecy porcelain group, which is a rare group, is probably worth perhaps £1,500,

£2,000, for the three pieces, the glass itself is probably worth,

um, you know, £500-£800 as well,

so in the small separate elements, within all of these, you've already made a particularly good purchase

and that is before we even get involved

with the coiffeuse itself. Now as an ensemble, with everything together,

with this quality of marquetry, I think you are looking at something that's worth

certainly £15,000 to £20,000, maybe even a little bit more.

-It's a fantastic thing.

-Right, right, thank you very much.

-Thank you very much indeed.

This is a mystery picture, it's not signed, I'm not sure who it's by and I don't know who the sitter is,

although she looks very familiar to me.

Can you tell me something about this wonderful lady?

Well, I always believed her to be Virginia Woolf.

-Virginia Woolf, absolutely.

-When I bought her in a shop in Kensington,

Chelsea, it was an antiquarian book shop, they said it was Mrs Woolf

and this meant absolutely nothing to me, but my late husband,

who was a writer and critic, said "Oh, she looks like Virginia Woolf",

and so he bought me a book on the Bloomsbury Set

which very much shocked me because I'd been brought up very strictly.

-Right, it's quite shocking, isn't it?

-Yes. And so I hung her in the spare room.

-Ah, she was banished, was she?

-Yes.

-Right, right, can you remember when you bought it?

1958 or 1959, I'm not quite sure.

-Ah, really? And how much did it cost then?

-£15.

-£15.

-But it was without a frame.

-Right.

It had a hole and it was dirty.

A bit unloved. Well, it looks very much like Virginia Woolf

and photographs of this period, say what, about 1910, 1915.

1908 to 1910 by the clothing.

Right, right, by the clothing, exactly, that's interesting.

And I think it's got a very good chance. Have you done any research?

Have you written to the National Portrait Gallery?

I have, but as they haven't seen the picture, only poor photographs...

-Right.

-At the time, they couldn't say anything.

People are always careful and doubtful when it's someone famous,

but when I had bought it she wasn't famous then, the Bloomsbury Set was out of favour.

-Out of fashion, absolutely.

-Out of... so I just thought when she said it's a Mrs Woolf,

I thought, "She doesn't look Jewish!"

-That's about all I was thinking.

-Oh, really? Oh, how fascinating.

It looks like it's been taken from a photograph, because I like the face, I think it's beautifully done,

but interestingly enough, although we've got a very distinct style,

that sort of almost pointille style here...

-Right, yes.

-..it's not quite as good, this area, the arms I think are quite weak, obviously

-you know, it's very important we get the National Portrait Gallery to see this picture.

-Yes.

But isn't it frustrating, this is someone and yet we haven't got 100% proof that it is Virginia Woolf

and one should always write on the back, shouldn't one, who these people are.

Look, I'm going to give you three valuations because

if the National Portrait Gallery say "Look, I'm sorry, we just don't think it's of Virginia Woolf

"and it's just a portrait of a pretty lady, of the date, 1910,"

it's going to be worth not a huge amount, portraits are difficult

to sell, but she's a good-looking woman so if you're just...

Mrs Bloggs... we're looking at about £300-£500.

If it's Virginia Woolf, on the other hand, and we can prove that,

we're probably talking about £1,500, £2,000.

If we can find out who the artist is, we're probably talking about

-£10,000 so we've still got a lot of work to do, I'm afraid.

-Yes, yes.

So I'm sorry I can't answer the mystery.

That's all right, I don't actually want to sell her.

-Quite right, enjoy, enjoy her and thank you so much for bringing it in.

-Thank you so much.

-Pleasure.

Thank you.

-So you've brought me your dining room table but presumably you didn't have to come far?

-No.

-Living here?

-Further than that.

-Further than that.

This is a dining room table with a difference, isn't it?

-Yes.

-It's got all this crack.

-Yes.

So I suspect that something happens.

-So if I push this...

-That's correct.

Ah, look,

there is revealed there...

-Fantastic, isn't it?

-Yeah.

A table that converts into a sofa, a sofa that converts into a table.

-Yes.

-It looks to me 1930s or thereabouts. Do you know where it came from?

Around that. It was... My mother's aunt bought it in Newcastle

at an exhibition park - there was a trade fair.

Oh, I remember the one... I don't remember it, but...

Yes, vaguely yes, it was about 1928-29, I think.

-It was a big industrial domestic show.

-Yes.

-It put Newcastle on the map.

-Yes.

-So she bought it from the exhibition.

-She bought it then.

-It must have then been the latest thing.

It also, of course, is to do with people living in smaller houses.

-Yes.

-You know, in fact a little terrace house like that would have been

perfect for this, because you've got two pieces of furniture in one.

-Yes, in one.

-The other thing I love about it is this fabric,

what it reminds me of is the seats of buses and trains, you know...

Yes, it does, yes!

..exactly that same sort of fabric.

-So when you got onto an LNER train in 1929 I bet you sat on seats that looked like that.

-Yes.

And I suppose the manufacturer probably had the same very hard-wearing cloth,

a lot of which, of course, was made in the North, so they probably used a local supplier for the cloth.

-Oh, I see, yes.

-So it's got that lovely Art Deco look about it, um, is it comfortable?

-Yes, we use it, yes.

-Can we try it?

-Yes.

-So we sit on it, and what do we do?

-Look at the television - of course you couldn't... TV wasn't there then.

-No.

-Very nice, isn't it?

-Yes, it's, it's reasonably comfortable, when you think it's 80 odd years old.

-I think it's great,

I think very comfortable, and the great thing is, if we decide now it's tea time and get up...

Yes...

And we do that,

-and that, get the tea out.

-Yeah.

-I love it and I wonder what it cost in the exhibition.

-I have no idea.

-I think a collector would pay £300... £400 for it.

-Uh-huh.

-Much more than an ordinary sofa of that period.

-Yes, uh-huh.

So, every time you sit on it, you've got a real treasure of that time.

-Yes.

-Thank you very much.

All right, thank you.

It belongs to my son, who's only 16, and it's been passed down the family through all the male members of the

family so as far as I know it's about 200 years old but that's all we know about it, it could be even...

older, I don't know.

I think it's wonderful, let's have a look - he's not a tippler yet is he, your son?

-Because this is going to encourage him.

-I know.

-You know what this is?

It's a drinking man's walking stick.

-Yes.

-I think it could be a drinking woman's walking stick too, don't you?

-Could be, could be.

And look at this, look at that, now do you think that holds half a pint?

Anyway whatever it is, it would have held something really nice

and alcoholic, perhaps something to keep you warm, and then...

what have we here? I think it's really special this, look at this, what do we see, but...

now that is fantastic, do you know why?

Because the ones I've seen before are either missing the glass,

or the glasses have been tumblers, not a stemmed goblet,

this is so lovely and do you know this dates right back,

-including the glass, to the early part of the 19th century.

-Really?

They've kept it really well, all your male folk.

Now the stick itself is probably...

it's probably fruit wood, it's not very easy to tell.

it's beautifully polished, it's the most lovely thing. Have you any idea what it's worth?

No idea, just sentimental value really, we don't know.

-I think it's going to be between £150 and £200.

-Right, right.

Is he going to be pleased?

-Yes, never sell it anyway.

-Oh, no.

It's been in the family so long it's just going to stay there now, hoping he'll have sons to pass it down to.

How wonderful that here we are at Beamish Museum in the heart

of the north-east of England and you've brought a wonderful collection of north-eastern pottery.

How did this all come into your possession?

Well, been collecting it for a number of years, I like anything to do with

the north-east, especially the contemporary pieces from the ordinary working man, sort of.

Things that speak about the times, and the people who made them and I think it's interesting,

we've got a collection of what's called Sunderland Lustre Ware.

That was made in Sunderland and that, but all the other pieces were made on Tyneside.

So did you buy this from auctions and antique shops or...?

Some of it, some of it from the internet, it's a very good media now for people like meself who...

I wouldn't have had all this if it hadn't had been for the internet.

Presumably, do you know most of what the potteries are?

Is there something particular you want to find out?

-I've tried to get as much as I can on the subject.

-Where would you say that one was made, for instance?

-I'll challenge you.

-I would say that was, I would say that was Newcastle, maybe North Shields.

It is, it's the Northumberland pottery of North Shields, probably made by Carr and Patton.

-Oh, right.

-Although they also had a pottery in Newcastle.

-Yeah.

So it's very difficult to say. This one's Thomas Fell with a print of the high-level bridge at the moment,

this one is the Skinnerburn Pottery in Newcastle.

-Never, is it?

-Yes.

-Oh.

-Which is Addison, Falconer and Company and then became Tyler and Company.

This one is marked Dixon and Co, Sunderland so that's fairly easy to tell and this one Dixon Austin.

This one here isn't marked, it's a tobacco jar, typical with its candle on the top and presumably...

did you know it was damaged? You didn't buy this off the internet?

-Yes, no, I didn't.

-So you knew about the damage.

And this little hole here - it's been glazed so it's obviously been made from the start - I think this

is for when you had candles burning down, it's for pushing the wax out.

-Oh, aye.

-I dare say when somebody's had a go at pushing some rather hard wax out, they've broken the rest.

-Yeah, they've broke it.

-Well, for me that, that's part of it as well.

And we've got inside, we've got the tamper which keeps the tobacco down

but what I really love about this piece is the inscription here, "Persival Spoor Seaham Harbour",

and the verse "No handicraft can with ours art compare, we make our pots of what we potters are"

so that's a verse about pottery and Persival Spoor was a potter

-and he worked at the Seaham Harbour Pottery, so this is a piece of Seaham Pottery.

-Marvellous.

Which is perfect, it's like a link back into the past and do you feel the same for them?

I mean I've collected pottery all my life, what is it appealed to you to collect local pottery -

you could have gone for Staffordshire, Royal Doulton, or...

Yeah, well, I didn't realise there was so many potteries in this area,

and once, I'd found out that there were, that was it, I was hooked,

and these pieces were in people's homes, they didn't have a lot of money, they had a hard time

and it really fetches you back to their times and the appreciation

that they've left us something that is really, you know, a part of their history.

I suppose really we need to look at some values.

A big jug like this in very good condition, it seems to be absolutely perfect, you're going to be paying,

you know, £500 to £600 for a jug like this in this good condition.

Something like this, probably about £350,

this one a little bit more because it's a more interesting print,

probably about £400 for that one,

the Maling bowl probably £400...

£450, and this one here, it's so complete and although it is damaged which would put a collector off,

I think you're going to be looking at £600 to £700 so overall,

we've got a collection worth well over £2,000-£2,500, so I'd say keep on collecting and keep it local.

-I will do. I will do.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

This rapier, as I understand it, was smuggled out of Russia in the props of the Bolshoi Ballet

in the days of the Iron Curtain, and it was sold to a dealer

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and he sold it to a dealer

in England and I bought it from him.

-Really?

-And I've had it for a number of years.

I can actually see that being in the sort of properties

-of a ballet company like that, I mean absolutely ideal for Romeo and Juliet, wouldn't it?

-Yeah.

I was interested that down there that there are some markings...

take the scabbard... and unusually a date on it,

1624, you don't see those...

other than Victorian ones where they're all spurious.

-That's right.

-I was interested in the bowl of the guard because that's been hammered and rehammered by this

-technique that we call repousse work.

-Yes, yes.

-You said that you bought this when, was it ten years or so ago?

-About that, yes.

What did you pay for it then, if I may sort of use a poker term and say "I'll see you".

Right, I paid just over £2,000.

Oh, that's very interesting because in the intervening period there's been a tremendous amount of interest

in fine swords like this, I think largely because there've been so many fakes about,

fairly recent ones and also you have the Victorians producing these for decorative things.

-Yes, that's right.

-And something that we can be absolutely certain of, the quality and the date

on this, I think that your £2,000 today, you might times it by five,

so we're looking at about £10,000 for a sword like this.

I think it's exceptional, thanks very much for bringing it.

Looking at what you're wearing, I think it really should be, you wearing this belt, shouldn't it?

Yes, the belt actually belonged to my father, Bob Arthur, and he was

a London North Eastern policeman and he was stationed at Sunderland

and Newcastle Central Stations.

Well, this obviously was something that was very special

to your father, he must have had some quite interesting incidences just wearing something like this.

Well, yes, he had a sense of humour and one day he had a porter who put his hand into a cage

where there was an emperor penguin and the penguin bit his hand,

so my father took him to the infirmary and the doctor said, "How'd you cut your finger?"

and he said, "A penguin bit me" he says, "Where were you?"

he says, "On Newcastle Central Station" so the doctor was a bit wary of the gentleman, you know.

OK, so that's a story I've got to remember to tell next time I'm stopped on the railways.

It's an interesting item in the sense that it slightly pre-dates

his service on the railways, before amalgamation in 1923.

-Yes.

-So I guess he might have swapped it or something like that?

Yes, knowing my father he would have swapped it, yes.

Well, as an item that collectors would want, it is something that

has a certain amount of value, really based on, on the social history attached to it.

As a sought-after collectable, I think you'd really look at perhaps this changing hands for £100,

a little bit more than that even,

-which is a surprisingly large amount for something that on the face of it looks quite humble really.

-Yes.

A nice piece of family history.

In our throw-away society, it's interesting to hark back to a time when it seemed nothing was wasted

and Julie Sunter's collection is what looks like ordinary items,

but there is an angle... Judy, explain.

Well, these are all made from what I would describe as the debris of war,

um, shell cases that have been rejected after firing and scrap aluminium from crashed aeroplanes

and copper driving bands,

animal bones, anything they could lay their hands on.

-So it's "trench art" is what we call it.

-It is, yes.

And how many wars does your collection cover?

Ranges from the Boer War through the First World War, the Second World War, the Falklands.

Do you think they had more skilled workmen in those days?

Say the First World War, the men seem to use their hands a lot more.

I think, um, a lot of people that were called up had been agricultural labourers

and they were used to making their own tools and repairing tools

and there were a huge number of horses involved, so there would be a lot of blacksmiths

and they'd have mobile blacksmiths shops, so maybe if they had a free moment, they'd manufacture something.

-Knock out a little souvenir. What is the appeal for you?

-Partly the recycling aspect of it.

And partly the idea that things that were sent out to kill people, basically, were picked up

and made into nice items to bring back home as presents or souvenirs,

reminders of where people had been.

Have you ever found out anything about any particular soldier from what you've collected?

Um, not many, because very few actually have names on, they were actually still Government Property

so they were reluctant to put their names on pieces,

but these two I know were brought back by a great uncle of mine, so these have always been in the family,

so I know who brought these back, and this particular piece has a gentleman's name on.

I presume it was given to him when he left the army as a sort of memento from his colleagues.

"Thomas Alfred Jones VC".

VC and DCM.

DCM... First Battalion the Cheshire Regiment, now that, that must be...

-Round the bottom it'll tell you what he got the...

-This is what he did,

he got his VC for his capture of 102 prisoners at Morval 25th of the ninth, 1916...

You would think that would be a very valuable piece of...

I don't know how valuable it would be but it's extremely interesting.

Now this set here, I mean I think our silver experts would be quite keen to have a look

at this, because it oozes quality, I mean these are made of shells, these little pots, aren't they?

Yes, they are,

I don't know how they've been plated, whether it's chrome or...

I wouldn't have thought it would be silver...

but they've obviously been manufactured but they're from different calibre shells.

-And the tray.

-And the tray I believe is the footplate off a tank.

-Astonishing, isn't it?

-Mm, yes.

-My attention was caught by this extraordinary piece of work up the top here.

-Yes.

This skyscraper of an item... What's the story behind that?

I haven't got much of a story, but it's American, I got it sent over from America.

From the First World War time?

I believe it's the First World War and certainly at that time not many

English people had electricity in their houses anyway, so they probably wouldn't think to make a lamp.

So the switches are made of bullets.

And written across the middle is "mother" - how sentimental!

Lovely. It's so hideous, it's beautiful.

As far as I can know and remember is they're from my grandmother.

In her younger days, she went into service and I can only surmise

she met this other person while she was in service.

She came out and this other woman, person, must have actually gone into the royal household,

as either a lady-in-waiting or a servant. They kept a correspondence over the years and this came down...

-Has this letter then got anything to do with that?

-This came with the photographs.

-Right.

Single page letter on Windsor Castle headed notepaper,

-"Dear Lily" is that?

-That's right.

-Lily, that's your grandmother's name?

-That's me grandmother, yes.

"Dear Lily, herewith the snaps I have just received from Balmoral,

"they are very great treasure

"now that the dear King is gone",

-so this is 1952 - this would be George VI just having died.

-That's it, yeah.

Right, so "I have just been looking through at the Queen Mother on them

"and wonder after seeing her dear sad face last Friday at the funeral,

-"if she will ever smile again." That's very poignant, isn't it?

-Yes.

-It goes on a little bit more.

-So this letter accompanied these photographs.

-Yes.

And these photographs are of the Royal Family,

the old King George VI and his wife, the Queen Mother,

-I'm not quite sure which one is our present Queen, this is Elizabeth?

-That's Margaret, that's the Queen.

-That's Elizabeth, that's Margaret.

-That's Elizabeth, that's Margaret.

-They do look very similar, don't they?

-They do.

Right, that's rather fun, and then there's the whole of the family, if I can get this one out,

the whole family - this is Charles with his hand in the water and this is Anne in the pram -

how fantastic, full head of hair there, oh, so this will be Anne

coming out of the pram with her mother.

What's remarkable is that these are obviously private snapshots.

-I don't know whether they're in the public domain or not.

-I've never seen any of them.

Never seen them reproduced anywhere and that's what makes them remarkable and valuable,

that they're nowhere else to be seen - how many have you got?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven photographs in total,

difficult to know for sure how much they might fetch in auction but I would, I'd go for about £50

a picture, so that's £350 or thereabouts in auction,

-that would be my sort of guess as to how much they might fetch.

-I thought about £70 for the lot.

No, I think they're delightful and the fact that you've got a letter confirming their arrival,

confirming that they're snapshots is just the sort of information you need to confirm the value.

I used to love old shops like this,

particularly this wonderful contraption which carries your money in a ball to the cashier's office.

And here, all transactions

were recorded so that the quarterly dividend could be paid

to each customer who was a co-op member.

It's now quite a long way from Walsall - any reason why that might be?

Well, I've no idea why it should have come from Walsall in the first place.

And here we are in County Durham.

-Yes.

-What more can one say?

-It's a lovely thing.

It's actually rather fun that we should see something as technical and as, if you like,

-as exposed as this, here in this garage setting here at Beamish.

-Yes.

-Let me just explain one or two things.

-Thank you.

The cheaper skeleton clocks had wheels of four spokes

and then they went up to five spokes, but this has six spokes throughout.

-Yes.

-Absolutely top of the range.

-Gosh, yeah.

Now you might, or might not, know how these chain fusees work

but basically instead of winding up the spring, you wind up the fusee and this is a constant speed drive.

-Yes.

-That compensates for the running down of the spring

and the nicest features, that really are some of the nicest features

up here - a strike silent.

Do you find it offensive at night or not?

-We're not accustomed to striking clocks and we have in fact turned the chime off, but, er...

-Right.

OK. I'm going to put it back on.

Please do, it's a very nice ring!

I'd like to hear it, and look at the twin subsidiaries. We've days of the week here and date on that side,

lovely features.

Yes, we were impressed to find when I actually set it running, it was keeping perfect time.

-Until you brought it in today.

-Until I brought it in today.

Sadly, you've broken the suspension which is still on here, but that's hardly expensive, so here we are,

a fantastic clock, the only thing

I criticise is that whoever touched it before you did,

just dumped the whole thing into some sort of proprietary cleaner

and it looks flat and boring.

Yes. I can see what you mean.

It can be properly done and at that stage,

you would be unlikely to replace it for less than about £5,500 to £6,000.

Now that does surprise me.

-So for a man who doesn't really like to hear it strike, I'd love to hear it myself.

-Oh, go ahead.

-All the way, at 12.

-IT CHIMES TWELVE

Pretty girls have been used to selling commodities for over 100 years and here we are

in a grocery shop with lots of female figures about us

selling this and that and various commodities, but one particularly

pretty young lady here - tell me about her.

Well, she was found by my sister in France in an antique shop

in France I suppose 20, 25 years ago,

she lived with my sister up until my sister died two or three years back, at which time,

she was passed over to me.

-So it's a family inheritance?

-A family inheritance.

-What do you think of her?

-I think she's absolutely beautiful.

-Why?

It's just the, it's the colour,

but it's the serene look on her face

I think, which is the attraction to me,

and to everyone who seems to see her and comes into contact with her.

Yeah, well, ceramics, the history of pottery and porcelain is always regarded as one of the minor crafts,

it's not regarded as high art - I don't take that line at all,

there are good ceramics and bad ceramics, and a piece like this is certainly a sculptural work of art.

It just so happens that it's not a one-off, it's a piece which originally would have

been done as a single clay model, it would have been approved by the head of the workshop,

someone called Friedrich Goldscheider and he would have said, "Let's put this into production",

they would have made moulds, and from the moulds, plaster-of-Paris moulds, they would then

have made, in this case, what is actually a terracotta figure - this is an earthenware figure,

and they would have been able to make many, so it's art for the masses, if you like.

And the piece actually dates to pretty closely, say within 15 years of this shop.

Goldscheider, Friedrich Goldscheider, died in 1897 and he was one of the great exponents,

or his workshops were,

of the Art Nouveau period and here we have a typical rather sultry looking maiden,

a very beautiful statuesque girl looking rather demure and sure enough,

her title "Purite", "purity" tells us all.

This is not a glazed piece, this is what we call cold painted, these are cold pigments painted on top

of the earthenware - there is the tablet which tells us this is a piece of fine art.

It's not your ordinary common or garden little figurine.

If you were to buy something like this from a smart London shop that specialised

in this Art Nouveau style, you would probably have to pay at the top end of somewhere getting on for £2,000.

She's a very, very fine lady.

Thank you very much indeed.

Usually in pendants you have little gems suspended at the bottom such as little diamonds or pearls or rubies

and sapphires but this is unusual because at the end of this pendant there's a milk tooth.

-That's right.

-Why has it got a milk tooth at the end of it?

It's my eldest son's milk tooth,

and grandmother's first grandson and she had it put in.

Now, it's mounted up in a drop shaped setting with four white stones above.

What do you think those are?

-A kind of diamond.

-What do you think it's worth?

-Ten quid.

-About £10?

-Yes.

Well, they are diamonds, they're not a kind of diamonds, they are

diamonds, they are diamonds and what's interesting about this piece

is that it was made in, I would think by the style of it,

in around about 1925 so that suggests that originally

-there was something else suspended at the bottom that was removed to put the milk tooth.

-Right.

And, in fact, when I look at it through my lens,

I see that the cap at the top here

was suitable for mounting with something like a drop-shaped pearl.

-OK.

-So they've taken the pearl off and they've stuck the milk tooth on instead. Now, if they're diamonds,

-it's got to be worth more than £10, hasn't it really?

-OK, yes.

As it stands at the moment, if you were to sell it, it would probably make about £300.

-Flabbergasted.

-Yeah.

This doesn't excite me at all, this is a piece of child's needlework of no great merit

but that...does.

You see a case like that and you think, "there's got to be something good in there".

This is shagreen, ray skin.

-Right.

-Properly called shark skin but that's actually a much bigger grain,

this is ray skin and characteristic of the 18th century,

so what have we got in there?

Now that's really rather special.

Does it turn you on?

It does in a way, yes.

What is it?

I believe it's a perfume bottle but I could be wrong.

Yes, you're absolutely right, is it yours?

-No, it belongs to me daughter.

-And where did she get it from?

She was given it from my mother.

-And where did your mother get it from?

-I've no idea, this is a mystery to me.

She, she had an eye, didn't she?

-She must have done, yes.

-Yeah...

-that's a delicious little thing and at first sight it appears to be made of porcelain.

-Right.

-Do you know what it's made of?

-I've no idea, no.

Well, it's sort of imitating Chelsea porcelain

and it was made actually not that far away, it was made in Battersea.

-Right.

-It's the Battersea enamel factory,

and it would date about 1755-1765, somewhere around there.

We've got a stem from a tree with leaves

which have been very carefully delineated

with their veins and cherries, which are slightly sort of chocolaty colour, aren't they?

-They are.

-But I suppose they're meant to be black cherries rather then red cherries.

-Ah, right.

And round here the word "delicieux"...

-delicious.

-Now I've never noticed that.

-You hadn't noticed it?

-No.

Ah, that again is copying Chelsea, that's exactly the sort of thing

they would have done in one of their scent bottles,

and the stopper

is a leaf and stem again,

held by a gilt chain.

-Now this would have been given by a beau to his lady love.

-Oh, right.

And there is probably some play going on here,

delicieux, she is delicious...

This is delicious but you are delicious...

and you've got to remember, you know we're here in the middle of the 18th century, George III's reign,

and people didn't wash, you know, people stank.

-Right.

-I wouldn't have been sitting as close to you as you are at the moment.

-Right.

I'd have been kind of doing this. And a lady would have certainly perfumed herself to try and disguise

-some of the pong, maybe not of herself but of somebody she was coming into contact with.

-Yes.

Well, I think your daughter's an extremely lucky little lady, really,

it's amazing it's survived in absolutely perfect condition.

-You wouldn't have any trouble getting £3,000 to £5,000 for that.

-Now I'm starting to shake. Dear.

She's a lucky girl, isn't she?

-She is, right, yeah.

-Thank you very much for bringing it in.

-Thank you.

This is the Rolls-Royce of musical boxes. I suppose we have,

in our whole 28 years, we certainly haven't seen anything as grand and wonderful as this Symphonion.

It's particularly rare because of its two discs.

-Yes.

-Which were after the cylinder musical boxes.

-Oh, yes, yes.

Which were made by the Swiss.

-Yes.

-And in the late 19th century these discs would overtake

-the cylinder ones and they were mainly used by, and made by, the Germans.

-That's right.

But what brings me to this is here we are, we've got all these houses here with different themes in them.

Where would this have been played?

Well, musical boxes, in that time, were a very expensive item,

and I don't think we'd have seen one being played in the sort of terraced houses we see behind us.

Absolutely, absolutely.

-Much more large halls, grand houses and places like that.

-Stately homes.

Because otherwise they'd be far too expensive for the working class.

-Which is the same way as saying it's the aristocrat of musical boxes.

-Yes, yes.

-And stately homes probably would have been very lucky to even have this one.

-Yes.

How many pairs of discs do you have?

With this machine I've got about 15 pairs of discs now.

-Have you really?

-Yes, there was only one pair when I bought it, but I've managed to accumulate others since.

What is so splendid about this is that the fact that it's a double disc has added to the tonality.

-It does, yes.

-Of the noise, so you get this wonderful combination.

It also, the fact that the discs came along instead of the cylinder

-was a way of using the latest tunes of the day, which you couldn't do with the cylinder.

-No.

So have you got it insured?

Um, yes, I have.

May I ask how much?

Probably about £1,000, something like that.

What! Don't believe it.

I haven't seen, I haven't seen another one for sale so I've got no comparison.

I have to say that one came up for auction recently

but it was a 26-inch disc, double disc, and these are, I think 11, 11½.

-11½, yes.

-And that made at auction, 20,000.

Ow!

And I'm telling you that you should insure this for at least £20,000.

20,000?

Because the 26-inch discs were much more unmanageable

to have in a house, much larger, this is, you could sit it on a table.

-Yes.

-You can enjoy it. Shall we hear what it does?

-Yes, if you'd like to wind it up.

-May I wind it up?

Yes, indeed.

About half a dozen winds should do it.

-Don't want to over-wind it, do we?

-No, I think you're fairly safe.

-Right.

-And away it goes.

LILTING TUNE PLAYS

The time capsule that is Beamish

has been perfect for the Antiques Roadshow - after all, we both deal in the past, but Beamish

also looks to the future - as one of the directors here said, "We're only in year 31 of a 200-year project."

I wish I could say the same. Until the next time then, from County Durham, goodbye.