Manderston Antiques Roadshow

According to John Betjeman, the Edwardian age was the last

in which a rich man could afford to build himself a new and enormous

country house with formal gardens, a lily pond and clipped hedges.

The man who had this fine old house rebuilt at the turn of the last century

was certainly rich. Fabulously rich.

He was Sir James Miller, and his family had made their money selling hemp and herring to Russia.

The Miller mansion, called Manderston, lies just inside Scotland,

12 miles from the border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

On the outside it's classical Georgian, but the real treasure

lies inside, a wonderful example of Edwardian craftsmanship.

Sir James, or Lucky Jim as he was known, wanted to create a home

whose splendour would reflect his wealth and status.

He employed a young Scottish architect, John Kinross,

and when Kinross asked how much he could spend on the project, he was told, "It simply doesn't matter."

With money no object, Kinross went to work.

How many houses can boast a staircase made of silver?

So far as I know, just the one - Manderston.

Apparently it took three fit men a full three weeks

to dismantle the silverwork, polish it to perfection and then put it all back together again.

On the other hand, there are probably not many places that have a dairy made entirely of marble...

..a head gardener's house that has a feel of a modest chateau,

or come to that, a boathouse in the style of an Alpine chalet.

This was a gift from Sir James to his wife, Evelyn.

The family motto is Omne Bonum Superne, which means all good comes from above,

which is a bit ironic considering they made their fortune with herring from below.

It's exactly 100 years since Manderston was recreated

and to celebrate a whole series of events has been planned.

From our point of view, the main event is today's Antiques Roadshow,

which is taking place here on the south lawn.

These are what we call majolica, they're tin-glazed earthenware and these come from Stoke-on-Trent.

The Victorian potters were obsessed by the ceramics of the Renaissance period

and one of the people they admired hugely was called Bernard Palissy,

a Frenchman working around 1600.

And he developed a technique of making dishes and jugs

which he applied with lizards,

-snakes, frogs, shells, and he actually cast them from the real thing.

-Oh, right.

-So they look incredibly realistic.

-They do, yes.

One factory stands out amongst the makers of those -

a factory in Portugal called Mafra, and they almost exactly copied the Palissy pieces.

There's a wonderful diary written...a journal written by Lady Charlotte Schreiber,

who was a sort of ceramic hoover of the Victorian era, and she went all around Europe buying up ceramics.

And she visited Mafra and she saw these things,

and there's this wonderful scathing note in her journal saying they're the most awful objects ever made,

but these are in fact...not the Portuguese ones but very similar to,

these are in fact made by a factory called George Jones.

-Right.

-Now, George Jones worked for Minton and then left and set up his own factory.

These date from the 1860-'70s.

Where did they come to you from?

My grandmother was a bit like your lady, she was a bit of a hoover.

She'd go round antique shops in the early...early last century.

She would be picking things up like this.

She had a fantastic collection of just bits she fancied.

Well, we've got on this one, we've got a...

Ah!

Grandfather's ashes! Erm...

We've got....

Eugh! I'm covered in it, erm...this mottled effect on here,

which is typical of George Jones, and a reserve and the pattern number.

Whereas this one...

..has got the full pad mark, GJ monogram for George Jones

and the pattern number up there and a more typical rich colouring on the mottling, the tortoiseshell effect.

A little bit of damage here and there.

Have you had them valued?

Not recently, no, it's a while since, to be fair.

Erm...I think with the market as it is at the moment,

majolica's still holding up pretty well, unusual to have two of them.

I wonder whether one would sell them as a pair, or perhaps one would think of them as individuals.

I think I probably would, erm...

What would they make? They would make £2,000-3,000 apiece.

Jeez...

OK, I'll try not to break them.

-I think I wouldn't. Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

And you've brought us two gorgeous diamond jewels here.

They're kind of...surrealist dolphins, aren't they?

They're certainly dolphins. They can be together as one brooch, or they can be separate on each lapel.

I'm very fond of them and I'd like to know a little more about them.

Well, I think the first thing to say is that they're classical dolphins.

And they seem to be supported on some sort of webbing of laurel leaves

and hidden lurking in there, in their form, in their design,

is a little message of love, to be perfectly honest, because the dolphin is one of the attributes of Venus.

Ah, yes, yes, yes.

Adding up a little bit? And then at the back, here are the laurel leaves, and so this is an emblem

of the triumph of love, the laurels being for triumph and the dolphins for love, with little sapphire eyes.

And they appear to be brooches, but have you thought a little bit about the fixtures on the back?

I had, and I wondered whether they had been part of a tiara or something similar.

I'm sure they were part of a tiara.

They would have sat on either side of the girl's temples

and swirl around in candlelight with her hair set with diamonds, and that's the context of these things.

-Do you think anybody in your family swirled round that dance floor?

-Certainly.

-Who was it?

Well, there was an old aunt who gave them to my husband when he got married, and so I was given them.

I was asked to choose one of five bits of jewellery, and I didn't realise I would get two.

-How marvellous, so two for one.

-Now, what sort of date are they?

I think they're about 1890-1900 and they are neo-classical,

very beautiful and extraordinarily wearable.

We want to know whether you've worn them swirling round the dance floor.

Yes, I have, and a lot...and many weddings, but where were they made?

They're English and it's difficult to say how I know they're English.

I think it's the way in which the metalwork's phrased. They're mounted in gold,

set in silver, and, erm...and how do you value them?

-What do you feel about them?

-I have absolutely no idea.

I think they're hugely desirable.

I think everybody behind us rather wants them badly actually, don't look now, just keep them in the front.

I think if one can get home safely through this crowd somehow or another,

one can ring up the insurance company and say something like £8,000-10,000.

-I'll have to be careful getting home.

-If you get home at all!

I really want to know how we have the connection of an egg

and a little piece of furniture.

It's come through my family. I think it was my great-grandmother's sister

worked in the Royal household, and she looked after Princess Louise

who was the sixth child of Queen Victoria.

-What was she doing there?

-She was a dresser, I think.

So perhaps these were given to her by Princess Louise.

It could have been, or maybe she outgrew them and passed them on

to this relation of mine, and it's come down through my family.

Well, let's have a little look at this egg. I've never seen anything quite like it before.

It's an...

egg sitting in this gold metal nest, and the egg is made of opaque glass.

And looking inside there is a little necessaire, a little box for keeping all those useful things

that you might need for sewing.

So this beautiful velvet, this purple was an incredibly new colour

when it came out in the late 1840s,

and then you've got a little pair of scissors, a thimble,

a tiny little bodkin case for putting your needles in and a little thing for unpicking tangles in your sewing.

Ah, that's what it's for, I was wondering what it was for.

Undoing the knots - most useful if you sew like me, this would be what I would use all the time.

-Well, the story to it makes it special.

-Yes.

And it's a lovely object. I think just on its own,

-I would think somewhere around £600-800 for the egg.

-Oh, goodness!

-Let's have a look at the wardrobe. So you think this was Princess Louise's as well?

-It was, yes.

I always wanted it when I was a little girl

and when my grandparents died, I said please could I have this wardrobe...

-So this was the thing that you really wanted.

-I really coveted this.

-Well, it is a really nice small wardrobe, I think for a doll's house.

-Ah, right.

And you would have had pieces of furniture made specially for that.

What I love about this, and what is so clever,

is that there are all sorts of different pieces of wood

incorporated in the construction, which I'm sure Prince Albert would have really approved of,

-because he was absolutely pro educating his children.

-Oh, really?

"Darling Papa" is how the children used to know him.

This is absolutely beautifully made.

There's a drawer at the bottom.

You've got a lovely scrolling entablature at the bottom with a little shell in the centre here.

But what I like at the corners too, they've been marked, incised, so they almost look like bricks.

If I take this drawer out, we'll just have a look and see...

The construction is absolutely incredible.

Tiny little dovetails,

and also it's dovetailed at the back, so there was no expense spared when this was made.

All in all, it's in super condition.

-It's got this lovely red leather inside.

-Yes.

-And look, there's a little note says here,

"Wardrobe from doll's house belonging to Queen Victoria's children." There you are.

Well, my grandmother put the notice in...

Oh, right, so that you would remember.

I think this is a rare piece, and I think it's quite valuable.

-Is it? Yes.

-I would put

a minimum of £3,000 on it.

Gosh, you see people gulping!

I just never thought it was worth that. A minimum of that.

That is amazing.

Well, it's one of the most popular shapes made by Clarice Cliff, conical sugar sifters.

-What was it you wanted to know

-I wanted to know what pattern it was.

It's called the Cornwall pattern.

One of the problems with these, you turn them upside down and you get a cup full of sugar.

Oh, I see, right.

They did make the holes smaller as time went by because it was a problem.

This is Clarice Cliff Bizarre. Any idea what it's worth?

-No, no idea at all.

-Erm...

It's quite an unusual pattern.

About £1,500.

-You're joking.

-I'm not joking.

-£1,500?

-£1,500!

I can see the mark De Bose and an interesting looking box, and what have we got in here?

When is it going to stop?

Those wonderful legs!

-There we are.

-And what are they?

-Condoms.

-Good grief!

-Were they ever used? I don't know.

-Well, I should hope not!

Isn't that fascinating to see those? How on earth did you find them?

Well, they were really just in a house clearance,

were going to be thrown away and I just said, "I'll take those,"

and they've stayed in the drawer 25, 30 years.

And presumably, as you say, not used.

-No.

-I can see just a trace at the top there of what is probably pig's bladder,

because it's too early for rubber ones.

But the history of the condom goes back to Roman times, they too were using condoms of some sort.

-And in a box which is disguised as a cigarette box.

-Cigarettes.

So every man could wander around with these

and the lady might not know until, erm...

Well, anyway, we won't go there, we won't go there.

But there can't be so many survivors of this period,

which I suppose is the mid-19th century.

I'm sure that I would pay a couple of hundred pounds for these,

simply because they're so rare and each time you bring them out, you make someone laugh, so that's great.

Time now for a nice cup of tea and a biccie

and this week's featured collection literally takes the biscuit.

The collector is our host and the owner of Manderston, Lord Palmer.

Thanks very much for having us. What's the biscuit connection?

Well, people always get rather confused.

My name is Palmer so they assume that it was biscuit money which built this house, but it wasn't.

I inherited the house from my mother's side of the family, who had made a lot of money

selling hemp and herrings to the Russians during the Crimean War.

My father's side of the family made Huntley and Palmers biscuits.

Now, that's a name that I was brought up with. That was one of the really big companies, wasn't it?

Well, at the turn of the last century we were the 48th largest company in Great Britain

and, er...sadly, though, anybody really born after 1970 wouldn't know the name, but most people

of our generation, yes, it is still a very famous name.

But they made their way all over the world in all kinds of circumstances.

Yes, we sold at one point to 137 different countries

and we were often asked to provide biscuits for Scott's trip to the Antarctica, for example.

Somebody was sort of excavating in the Pole area and they came across a sort of disused camp,

and allegedly they found a tin of biscuits,

the biscuits looking remarkably fresh, next to Scott's actual body,

and one was sold about five years ago for just over £7,000 for one biscuit.

It's quite extraordinary to think of.

Your collection started when?

Well, I was sent off to work in Belgium and Luxembourg

as a travelling salesman for Huntley and Palmers, and I came across this tin here called Sledge,

which was made by Huntley and Palmers in 1898. I came across this in almost the first shop I went to

and I paid 100 Belgian francs for it, which in those days was about a pound.

And I'm particularly attached to that because it was the first one I actually bought.

They changed to making things that looked like things, didn't they?

Not just simply ornate boxes.

Yes, indeed, and you've got quite a good collection here.

This one here is called Cabinet. It was made in 1911 and it's in fantastic condition.

That is one of my favourite tins because it was given to me by a visitor

who said, "Oh, I think I've got one at home, I'll send it to you."

It's that type of thing, which is so kind of people to add to our collection.

Is that how you get a lot of them?

No, sadly most of them we have to buy, and it's slightly irksome

that my family sold these lovely tins full of biscuits for shillings

and we're now buying them back empty for hundreds of pounds.

And how many have you bought back so far?

Oh, we must...we've got about 260 in the collection altogether

and I should think that 230 of them have actually been purchased.

This doesn't look like any kind of biscuit tin, really.

You'd never guess what that was for.

Well, funny enough, it is actually called Biscuit Barrel.

It was found in the disused railway line at the bottom of the drive which was used as a rubbish dump.

One of the chaps who worked on the farm was scavenging to see what he could take out of the tip.

He came across this, and it was in a terrible state. He cleaned it up and presented it to me with great pride.

And that was made in 1934 and is actually in quite good condition,

-despite its provenance in a disused railway line.

-It's as old as me!

Now, which is your favourite?

Without a doubt, the favourite is the grandfather clock,

and the particular thing about it is that the hands actually go round.

This was made in 1929 and it was the last Christmas present

that my parents jointly gave me before my father died and, again, it's in good condition.

There are very few around that still actually have the hands working.

This is your favourite, is it also the most valuable?

Well, some of your experts here might possibly disagree with me,

but I would be disappointed if that didn't fetch about £1,100.

It's all part of our history.

I think that's what people find interesting about it, yes.

Do I detect from your accent that you're not from round here?

-Absolutely.

-Come along, tell us.

New Zealand.

You haven't come all the way from New Zealand to visit this show, surely?

Well, I was coming, and I saw on the internet that it was going to be here, so we made sure we came.

Well, I don't think we've had a visitor from as far as New Zealand ever.

I mean, I travelled up from the south and 500 miles, as far as I was concerned, was quite enough,

and halfway across the world, you bring us something that is so completely English.

I know we've done Beatrix Potter, but I just had to ask you all the questions that these throw up.

This one here is a Christmas card, "To Mrs Hadfield, Christmas 1925 from Beatrix Potter."

And this one here, which is signed on the inside, which is almost nicer.

"With all good wishes from Peter Rabbit to Barry, Christmas 1931."

I've never seen a Peter Rabbit signature before.

But here is one. That's incredible.

Now first of all, who is Mrs Hadfield and who is Barry?

Barry is my father, he's now 80.

Mrs Hadfield was my great-grandmother.

Right, and how long have you been in New Zealand?

Or how long have the Hadfields been in New Zealand?

-Since about 1838 or 1839.

-Yes.

My great-great-grandfather came to New Zealand from the Isle of Wight

and became the Second Bishop of Wellington

and the First Primate of New Zealand in the Church of England.

Well, that's absolutely fantastic, and all the way from New Zealand.

So how did they know Beatrix Potter?

Well, we're not quite sure exactly how they met, but my great-grandparents

were in England for some time seeking medical treatment for the cancer that my great-grandfather had

and it has to have been during that time, which would have been the early part of the 20th century.

-Would they have got up to the Lake District?

-They could well have.

-They could have gone up to the Lake District to recuperate.

-Possibly.

-Was he successfully treated?

-No, sadly.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear it,

but to have a friendship with Beatrix Potter -

albeit one quite late in her life, she died in 1942 - is rather nice.

Now, you have put this one, I'm sure, into a frame.

Because it's faded.

It's faded, so in some ways it's not quite as good as this one.

This one's not faded because it's been closed up, but they're both absolutely fantastic.

-What about values? Have you gone in for values of Beatrix Potter?

-No.

Well, this side of the world, and in fact I think in Japan too,

people are really, really very keen on Beatrix Potter.

To get a whole Beatrix Potter signature, to get a Peter Rabbit signature is just wonderful.

-So values, what do you think?

-Really, honestly, I haven't got any idea.

-Right.

-I guess they're in hundreds of pounds probably.

Oh, they most certainly are. I'm going to put £500 on each.

-Oh, really?

-Yes.

-Oh, wonderful.

-Does that surprise you?

-Yes, it does.

Thank you so much for coming all the way from New Zealand.

You're welcome, thank you.

When one comes to an Antiques Roadshow -

I'm talking about the experts now -

we like to feel that we're going to get something that day

that's going to make our day,

and today it's happened for me.

Here we have

a naval General Service Medal with the Trafalgar Bar. Wonderful!

Now come on, tell me all about it.

Well, it was awarded to my great-great-great-grandfather

-who was press-ganged into the Navy as a boy.

-Really?

And he...we don't know really where he went until he ended up on the Temeraire at Trafalgar.

And sadly he lost his arm in the battle, was invalided out after the battle and went teaching,

and the students and the pupils knew him as Hook, so it was Hook Cowell.

Really? And when did he die, do you know?

He died in the 1860s and was buried in the Isle of Man.

-So quite a long life.

-Yes.

It's a good job that he did have a long life, because, you see...

this medal was awarded in 1847, 1847-48.

What happened was, the Battle of Waterloo was in 1815

and they gave, or awarded, a Waterloo medal in 1816.

Everybody in the Navy that had fought in the Napoleonic Wars and all those chaps in the Peninsular War said,

"These fellows have fought for one day and they've got a silver medal.

"We fought for six years and haven't got anything." So there was a lot of bad feeling.

Now, from 1815 it rumbled on into the 1820s, they grumbled and grumbled -

the veterans - into the 1830s, into the 1840s, and Queen Victoria was on the throne by this time.

Then in 1847, they decided to award an Army General Service Medal and a Naval General Service Medal,

but the twist in the tail was you had to be a survivor.

Your next of kin couldn't claim it.

-So you see, your ancestor was alive and he managed to get his Trafalgar medal.

-Goodness me.

-So that's the way it worked.

-Goodness.

Round the edge here we have the name of the ship, the Temeraire.

Now, the Temeraire was the ship that saved Victory,

because when the Victory broke the line,

she got on her starboard side the French ship, the Redoutable,

and that's where the bullet came from that killed Nelson.

The Temeraire came up on her starboard side

and took the heat off the Victory,

so that was an important ship.

Now, how much do you think this is worth?

I honestly don't know, obviously it's been in our family for now...

around 200 years, and to be quite frank, it will hopefully stay for another 200 years,

but I would be very, very curious to know what it would be worth.

Well, I can tell you.

This medal, if it was put on the market today, and heaven forbid that you did it,

-would fetch £5,000.

-Wow... Really?

-Yes.

-That's fantastic.

I know it's a well-worn phrase, but you've made my day.

Well, you've made mine, thank you.

Well, they said it was going to be changeable

and it is changing into something horribly familiar - rain. So I'm afraid it's off to the marquee.

Well, I can just about make the signature under here. Do you know what it says?

-I've no idea.

-You haven't looked at it?

-No.

Guilleman, a French sculptor, Emile Guilleman, working in Paris

around the turn of the 19th century, so 1890-1910, that sort of thing.

It's a wonderful figure, where did you get it from?

Well, we've just always had it in the family, I've no idea where it came from originally.

I think it's just spectacular, I love the expression on his face,

but do you know why he's got a spot on his nose? Do you think it's acne or bronze disease or something?

No, somebody once said maybe it had a fly on his nose.

Well, that's exactly what it was.

I've only seen one of these before with the fly actually intact, and if you look at his expression,

I don't know if we can see it, but he's looking with his right eye here, he's trying to look at the...

fly on his nose, and his left eye, he's looking to the left,

trying to look at the frets here. So he's trying to continue playing with this fly on his nose going...

-And he can't...

-He can't do it.

Now, there's one critical thing with this, and when I first saw you

bringing it in, I thought, "It's a bronze banjo boy."

The problem is, when you actually touch it and you feel it,

you can see, if you like, the acne again, especially on the guitar and the greyness of the little tuning...

button there. That greyness and the roughness indicate that it's spelter.

-Ah.

-So it's an alloy, it's not...well, it's a softer metal.

It's therefore easier to cast, therefore it's cheaper,

and that's going to affect our value.

-Oh, dear.

-But I still think it would cost you,

just cleaned up and refreshed on this lovely wooden stand, which I think is totally original...

-Is it? Oh.

-Lovely beech stand,

Guilleman, well-known sculptor...

..as only spelter, £3,000.

Really? Gosh, I wish he'd been bronze!

It was a piece that I chose from my aunt's attic when she asked me if there was anything I'd like.

It caught my eye because it was very ornately carved and, when I'd chosen it,

she said, "Well, there's a story that goes with this desk,"

-and it turned out that the desk belonged to an explorer called Joseph Thomson.

-Right.

Who's probably the most famous explorer you've never heard of. He explored Africa,

walked 15,000 miles to Africa and maybe...

Can I say Thomson's Gazelle? Is that...am I in the right area?

That's the right area, and a waterfall I believe named after him as well.

-What date are we dealing with - for him?

-Turn of the century.

-1880-1890, that sort of thing.

-Yes, he died very young actually.

-So this desk presumably was brought back from one of his travels.

-Are these his as well?

-These are his as well.

-So we've got a Japanese sword, which is of about the 1880s, so therefore that fits in.

This, as I say, is about the 1870s, so we're beginning to see a man

who likes exotic things. Do we know what he looks like?

-We do, we have this biography that was written by his brother.

-Yes.

His photograph is in the beginning.

So there he is.

Well, he looks a very sort of straight, upright, late-Victorian gentleman.

-He's obviously had a taste for the exotic.

-Why?

-Because later on there's a photograph of him...

In here? Oh, look.

So he was...he was a man of sort of distinctive taste.

Indeed, indeed, he was obviously very exuberant.

So there we have him in Moorish costume.

Now, that again is actually very fashionable, dressing up

was fashionable, and dressing up in what they called Oriental style,

which meant Middle Eastern, was very much something that people did at that time.

So you chose it from this lady?

-I did.

-Why did she have it? She had it because her aunt had a large house

in Edinburgh, and Joseph Thomson lodged with Alexander Anderson.

-Ah, now, who's he?

-He's a poet.

He was a surfaceman on the railway, self taught,

and he called himself Surfaceman when he wrote his poems...

And these are his books? He had a prodigious output.

He certainly did, for a self-taught railway worker. Thomson and Anderson were great friends...

What was the nature of their friendship, how great were they?

-Well, the book records him as an intimate friend.

-Right.

So an interesting story of Victorian life.

-Now, this is Anderson.

-This is Anderson, yes,

who was painted by the third man in the triumvirate, if you like.

-Did they all live together?

-I think there was a spell where they were all together in Edinburgh

when this artist was exhibiting.

-So here we have Anderson painted by...?

-James Paterson.

James Paterson, a very well-known Scottish artist, so we've got an artist, a poet and an explorer.

-All together.

-Living together.

I suppose in conventional terms we think of these things as having some value, which they do,

but really the value of it to me is this extraordinary...

spotlight into a certain type of intellectual, demi-monde,

slightly risque life in late-Victorian Scotland.

I mean, to deal with the values, it's very simple. The desk would sell for about £1,500.

The sword is about...£400-600.

The painting is interesting academically because it's so early for Paterson.

It's not a great Paterson painting, he went on to become a much better landscape painter.

Its interest really is within the story, so you're looking at...

£800-1,000, so collectively it's not huge sums of money,

but I think that's unimportant.

Do you know what this item's for?

-No, I don't.

-Do you do anything with it?

Yes, I've got po...

-Pot pourri?

-Exactly.

-That's what most people do with them, but in fact it's a koro, which is a Japanese incense burner.

-Oh, really?

But it was never meant for that use.

That's the form of this, with the pierced cover to let the smoke out,

but these were made for export, this is a piece of Satsuma ware.

-Oh.

-And I'm sure that what you're doing with it is absolutely right.

It was... meant for keeping pot pourri in.

This one is the sort of brocade type and was made around the 1870s.

Really?

I love it, it's...

rich colours, rich enamels, rich gilding and it works beautifully as an object.

-You like it?

-Yes, I do like it.

-OK, take great care of it.

When you put your pot pourri in it and when you change it, try not to damage it.

-I will.

-Cos it's actually worth quite a lot of money.

-Is it, really?

-Yeah, £500 is quite a lot of money, isn't it?

-500?!

-No, £2,000.

-What?!

£2,000.

-Oh, never!

-Uh-huh.

£2,000... Oh, goodness.

Thank you very much for bringing it in.

Oh, I'm absolutely...

and it's not often it happens, but I am speechless this time.

I know we're in farming country here, but the last thing I expected to see

was three superbly made models of ploughs.

Where on earth do they come from?

These were made by my great-grandfather in 1895.

I come from a long line of blacksmiths and he was a blacksmith,

as were my ancestors back for at least the past 200 years.

-Hang on. Made by a blacksmith?

-A blacksmith.

-Not a silversmith?

-No.

Good heavens. And why would he have made these things?

Well, being a blacksmith, he will have made full-size versions of these for the farms.

They would have been pulled by Clydesdale horses,

and I think in those days that the blacksmiths actually

wanted to compete amongst each other to see who could make the best miniature ploughs

and enter them in competitions.

-I believe that these were entered in a competition and won an exhibition in Aberdeen.

-Good heavens.

Well, as I say, the first thing that strikes me is how superbly they are made. And I notice that this moves

up and down and everything works as it should do.

And I imagine this is a perfect scale model of the...

I've just noticed for the first time today

that there's actually a spanner here

and the spanner actually fits every single bolt...

-Isn't that wonderful?

-..on the actual piece.

-Attention to detail.

-So it all works.

-Like that.

And I notice they've got some signatures on them.

What does it say? George...?

That's George Ledingham and then it's got Clatt,

which is a village by Premnay and Auchleven up in Aberdeenshire.

-Oh, right.

-That's where they were made.

George, was he your grandfather?

George was my great-grandfather.

My grandfather...I almost can't remember his first name

because he was just, to my knowledge, called the Smith.

-Were you never tempted to become a blacksmith?

-You can see by my hands that I've never done

a hand's turn of work other than push pens, so I've not been a blacksmith.

It's actually quite unusual to see models like this actually chrome plated.

I think they're chrome plated, they've got that very hard finish to them

which makes me think that they're not silver plated.

You occasionally see them in museums and things, but they're never plated like this, are they?

I've seen only recently - I think it's the Scottish Agricultural Museum just south of Glasgow -

I've seen a lot of very similar ploughs to this in there, but nothing I've seen there has been

of the same quality, they've been painted or almost like wrought iron rather than this sort of quality.

Well, I think they're absolutely wonderful things.

They are incredibly difficult to put a value on.

Whether they're worth £500 each or £1,000 each, I don't know.

These things virtually never come on the market.

-I'm sure they're not gonna be anything you're ever gonna sell.

-No.

They really are family pieces, so thank you for bringing them along.

Thank you very much, thank you.

Made in Staffordshire around about 1880.

We see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these all of the time.

Nice things, comforter dogs, they sat on Welsh dressers.

Not particularly rare.

But this piece here, I want to know where he came from.

Well, as far as I know,

it come through...

the wife's side of the family.

-And these come from?

-My mother's side of the family.

-You married the right woman.

-Did I? Oh, well, I've done very well.

-Well, he's a Crufts champion, look at him.

Isn't he fantastic?

Well, we've never really thought of what it was. We actually had it on the telephone table

and the kids used to play with it. I was told to put it away safely.

-Well, you haven't got the other one, I don't suppose.

-No, we haven't.

That is a shame.

The size, for a start, he's a fabulous size.

You do see larger Staffordshire dogs than these. Seldom do you see anything on this scale.

The colours of the glazes, I mean, the brown-lead glaze

and this tortoiseshell mottling on the bottom is very attractive.

The important thing about him is where he comes from.

-I don't know.

-He's a Scottish one. He is a Scottish dog.

Probably somewhere near Fife, a possibility, I don't think there's any...

sign of a factory mark. There very seldom is on spaniels like this.

Or I think they're sometimes known up here as woolly dugs, is that right?

-Wally dugs.

-Ah, wally dugs. Do you call him a wally dug?

No, not that one, but we call these wally dugs.

I think because they were to put on the wall, on the mantelpiece, I think that's how the...

-Oh, is that where it comes from?

-I think that's a wally dug.

-It's not cos he's a woolly dog?

-No.

Hairy, I suppose.

A date for this, it's very similar actually to the Staffordshire ones,

so it's the second half of the 19th century, and they continued making into the 20th century.

I just think he's magnificent. He's just so much away from the usual.

-Haven't had a valuation ever done on these?

-Well, there was one chap did offer us £200.

If he'd offered you £200 for that, you should have taken it like a shot.

This one, if he'd offered you...

..£800, it still wouldn't be enough.

A single one of these at auction would be somewhere around £1,200.

Oh, gee whiz.

It's a very good thing.

Well now, this is in a bit of a state, really, been through the wars.

What do you want to know about it?

Just if it's worth any money.

Oh, fair enough, yes. OK, well, what do we know about it?

We know that it's by an artist called Chamberlaine

because there's a label on the back giving us his name, Christopher Chamberlaine.

And we know that it was submitted to the Royal Academy in 1952.

And we know where it is as well, it's Burnthwaite Road

round the back of Fulham Broadway in London.

But being 1952, there is some sort of bomb damage around in this area.

They were not hit by bombs, amazingly,

but I feel that this hoarding might be hiding an area where the end of the terrace was blown away by a bomb.

-And it says "A bomb" on the hoarding, did you notice that?

-No, I didn't.

Well, this is the time of all the nuclear testing of atom bombs

and I wondered if that was like a protest.

What's interesting to me about this picture is that it's kind of like...

There's a school of painting in London called the Euston Road School

that got going just before the beginning of the Second War, and what they wanted to do was show

everyday life in London and how beautiful that was, or could be,

and how interesting it could be as a subject for painting and how visually interesting it could be.

And if you look at this, there is a lot going on.

You've got this fellow on crutches, he might be a war veteran hobbling along the street.

He's avoiding the ladder. He doesn't want to walk under the ladder and lose the other leg.

I don't really know but, erm...

And this broken-down old cart, which looks like rag and bone or something.

Looking at it, do you...do you think you...? Do you like it?

No.

-You really don't like it, do you?

-No, no, I don't.

-Have you ever looked at it or hung it at all?

-No, no, I didn't.

Did you know that in 1952 this was hung on the line in the Royal Academy at Burlington House?

-No.

-Which means that it's at eye level, the highest accolade...

JET FIGHTER ROARS OVERHEAD

The RAF doesn't agree.

The RAF really doesn't agree.

I don't know where that came from.

-But any rate, yes, it was hung on the line in the Royal Academy.

-Yes.

Now, that was the best position it could possibly be given,

-so this picture was really rated.

-I put it up on the wall and I thought, "Oh, it's too dull."

I just put it up in the attic and it's been there ever since

and it wasn't until we were having the roof insulated

-that I came across it again.

-This WAS the insulation.

That's right! So I took it down and I said,

"I'll take that to Manderston and find out..." I only paid a pound for it, so I thought,

"If it's not, I'll just get rid of it."

What do you mean, get rid of it?

-Well, put it in the bin or something, if it wasn't...

-I see.

-Well, you'd be throwing away 2,000 or 3,000 quid.

-Oh!

Ooh... I'm looking at it in a different light now!

What, so none of the explanation works, but the money did?

Yes.

Manderston used to be well-known for its three-day house parties.

Just the one day for us, I'm afraid, but it has been a lot of fun.

Many thanks to Lord Palmer for his hospitality and for showing us his biscuit tins.

And now, as the storm clouds gather again over Manderston House, until the next time, goodbye.