Arundel Castle Antiques Roadshow

Our venue this week has been looming over this spot for a very long time.

It was founded, to be precise, on Christmas Day, 1067.

At a Christmas court at Gloucester, the year after the Battle of Hastings,

King William I held a prizegiving to thank

his most loyal supporters for their help with the conquest of Britain.

The King's cousin Roger de Montgomery had provided 60 ships,

so William sliced him off one third of the County of Sussex together with the title of Earl.

There were strings attached to this gift. The new earl had to build

a castle to protect this part of Sussex from foreign invaders.

William, having been one himself, knew what the dangers were.

A year later, in 1068, cousin Roger assigned a large contingent

of feudal slaves to start work on building this huge mound of earth...

the foundation for a motte-and-bailey castle.

900 years later, the castle's promise to keep out invaders was tested when the Royal Observer Corps

had a look-out post up here, scanning the valley and the south coast during World War II.

By that time, Arundel Castle had been completely transformed.

The awesome building we see today is down to Henry, 15th Duke of Norfolk,

whose restoration project in Victorian times turned Arundel

into the largest inhabited Gothic Revival house in England.

In the premier league of lived-in castles, only Windsor is bigger.

Arundel's interior is predictably sumptuous.

Today Arundel Castle is letting the invaders in,

but it's all in a good cause.

We're holding our Roadshow in the Baron's Hall.

133 feet long and 50 feet high, it's the largest room in the castle -

a bit like home, really.

Well, it's nice to come to a location like this and see something

that's even older than the castle. Where did it come from?

Well, we'd just moved to Wimbledon, 1968, the garden was a bit of a mess,

-so I decided to do a bit of digging to plant some bulbs.

-Oh.

And I came across this clod of earth that just

didn't seem to want to break up...

I didn't hit it with my spade.

I put it in a bucket of water and forgot about it, and then later,

went back and realised that it wasn't a clod of earth. It was this.

-So how old was the house that you were living in?

-Well, it was a Victorian house, so,

-I don't know, that's about 1800s, I think.

-She goes...dates back far older to the Roman Empire.

-She was made in marble in the 1st or 2nd century.

-Really?

So we're looking at a very old lady indeed.

Gosh, how exciting.

There remains part of the carving here of the ringlets of her hair

and, rather interestingly, she's pierced for little earrings

which is really an unusual feature on a Roman head of this kind.

So what was it doing in the garden in Wimbledon?

Well, the only bit of information I got was from a local historian,

who thought that a foreign traveller had brought it back and maybe left it

in the garden and then during the wars it had fallen into the flower bed and got covered up.

Well, some of these pieces

were brought to Britain by Romans, but most came in exactly that way.

It's actually quite appropriate to see this here,

because the 14th Earl of Arundel, known as "the Collector Earl",

was indeed a great collector of Roman and Greek statues.

He formed a marvellous collection which are now the basis of, I think,

of the Ashmolean Museum collection,

so collecting has been a popular thing and so I guess this was brought back, maybe 300 years ago,

by someone collecting it. What a thing to lose!

Amazing to think they'd forgotten about it and it's just laid in the flower beds for all those years.

The condition is pretty good. It's had a bit of damage,

the nose was knocked off and that certainly happened in antiquity, a long time ago.

But the good thing is it's been left as it is.

Quite often, when the grand tourists brought these back in the 17th century, they recarved them,

they added a new nose and restored her face, and that would have spoiled it.

Instead she's here in her original state as she would have been 1,900, 2,000 years ago.

A piece like this would probably sell today for

£4,000 or £5,000.

Good gracious me!

Well, I'm rather glad I did that bit of gardening then.

Well, a lucky find indeed and really great to see her still here now.

Thank you very much indeed.

This is a delicious cabinet of curiosities.

When you look at it, what memories does it stir in you?

Oh, from way, way back.

We came back from South Africa after the war, my parents had split up

and my mother was terribly ill all the way over, and it was pretty grim.

South Africa hadn't been touched by the war, England of course was post-war.

It was a fearful shock to an eight year old.

My grandmother had this cabinet, and we used to go round for tea

on a Sunday afternoon, and it was the first time I really began to think,

"Well, maybe this country's got something anyway", when she allowed me to open the post box.

-The post box.

-You know...

-Is this the post box?

-Yes, that's it.

-OK, so here you are.

-You take the lid off... I can still remember.

-So off comes the lid, oh, and there's something inside.

-Yes.

Not something, there's somebody inside... It's the postman!

-Isn't he gorgeous?

-Isn't that wonderful?

-That's fantastic.

-And that was my special treat. After that,

every time I went round, we were allowed to look at the cabinet.

In those days it was look, not touch, and now I have six grandchildren,

and they know that they can touch, but under supervision.

Very good. Now I'm going to pick one of these up.

-Now that's my step-grandmother.

-This is a little fox, isn't it?

-Yes, I believe it's bronze.

-Do you know where it came from?

No, I don't know those, and there's a monkey beside it.

There's a little group of bronzes here, we've got the monkey, we've got a little pug dog and two cats.

-Yes.

-And they are almost certainly from Vienna, Viennese bronzes.

-And what is... This looks like a little scarab beetle.

-Yes.

-Is there a surprise inside?

-Er, it's not, it's not, open it up...

it's Moses in his basket.

No!

There's Moses. Now we once dropped Moses

on a patterned carpet, so Moses now is only ever allowed to be exposed.

On a plain surface.

-On a plain surface.

-How long did it take Moses to be rediscovered?

Well, with great difficulty, because everybody had to stand still.

Like finding a contact lens.

-Yes, exactly.

-That's wonderful.

Well, let's just run through this, so going down onto the next shelf,

I can see you've got some of Upton's figures, the peg doll.

-Pig-wig and the wig.

-Yes, and were those favourites of Grandma's?

Granny used to read us the book,

and she had these figures - I just like them.

Yes, because they're beautifully done, again they're little bronzes

and they will almost certainly again be from Vienna.

And then you've got a little series of books.

-There's a photograph album.

-Oh, is there?

I believe these are all family,

but I don't know exactly who.

No doubt forebears of the Granny who actually collected.

Yes, yes, yes, yeah.

Well, I think it's fascinating.

I think what I'd like to do is just go into a corner with you and it,

and spend the rest of the day exploring all its possibilities - I think it's wonderful.

I'd be happy... Yes, I love it.

The value is going to be obviously very mixed with these things.

Some little pieces are going to be worth

just a pound or two, and others are going to be much more valuable.

Some of those are going to be £75 or £100...

that's the sort of price you'd have

-to pay in a shop if you wanted to replace them.

-To go and buy them.

So, if you went through and added every single thing up,

you'd actually find that it's not just a cabinet of curiosities

but it's actually a little treasure chest, and I'm very pleased

that you wanted to share it with us, it's been a real treat.

-Well, thank you, thank you very much, I've really enjoyed going through it with you.

-Good.

An exquisite little watercolour on the front by Martineau

and on the back a letter from Edward VII when Prince of Wales.

-Yes.

-There's more to this, isn't there?

Well, the picture belonged to my uncle and his grandmother was given

this picture as a New Year's present for January 1901, and amazingly,

later that year, he bestowed upon her the use, for her life, of White Lodge

in Richmond Park which was a Royal Hunting Lodge and nobody to this day

knows why she had this honour, but she lived there eight years.

-So the king to be...

-Yes.

..has given her this little present,

bestowed this house upon her and we don't know why he did it.

No, it's a mystery to this day.

But we can probably guess, can't we?

Because didn't have quite a prodigious appetite for mistresses?

Well, she was a widow and she was 66 at the time, so I don't know whether she came into that category.

Oh, well, that's of course a possibility, but how about when he was younger?

I think she was a long-term friend actually, of the family, apparently

of irresistible charm, and she had to entertain him when he came to White Lodge with a vast entourage

of friends and servants and so on, and it cost a lot of money, I think,

but she lived there for eight years in great style.

And then, as you probably know, it's now the home of the Royal Ballet School, the junior section,

and they've been there since 1956, so I've got that picture.

So a wonderful house and an exquisite little picture,

-worth, I suspect, £700 or £800.

-Oh, thank you. Well, I won't sell it.

It's going to a very special home where it will be much treasured.

-And I suspect there's a story here we need to know more about.

-I think so. Thank you so much.

-Pleasure.

And last, but not least,

we've got this character.

That's right.

Now, looking at that profile

and looking at your profile, there is a similarity there...

-Yes?

-I think there should be, yes.

-Well, tell me why.

-Well, I did a biography of William K Harper

who was a modeller for Royal Doulton.

-Yes.

-And afterwards, he said to me, "have you got any suggestions for

"figures that Royal Doulton could manufacture?"

and I suggested a busker figure or a one-man band, and so he said,

"Well, if you'd like to give me one or two of your photographs, I'll make his face look like you."

-And so...

-So there you are.

-That's exactly what happened.

-That's immortality for you, isn't it?

-Well, it is rather, isn't it?

-Yes.

-And you've got some information regarding all that, have you?

-Yes.

What have you here? Just show me what we've got, what's this?

Well, that's... when I suggested making that figure,

he was sitting in the hotel with me.

-Yes.

-And while we were talking he literally sketched that little figure

as to what it might look like.

-Really?

-And it's amazing actually,

the similarity between his first undertaking and the final figure.

Amazing, absolutely amazing.

I mean I've not seen that figure turn up on the market, is it a one-off?

No, it may have been rather expensive to produce.

-Yes.

-They did it as a pilot figure.

-Yeah.

-And fully painted it and everything, but then decided not to put it into production.

-Well, that makes it

-that little bit special, doesn't it?

-I think it's the only one, I think.

-You know, as a professional value

-I'll say a few hundred quid, how about that?

-OK.

-Well, let's go back in time.

-Yes.

Because I love early Doulton, especially the early stuff

that was made down at Lambeth, and I love that little mug.

It must have been made for a child.

I think it was made for a child, and I understand it's by Hannah Barlow.

You're right. I mean the decoration itself is sort of incised,

-the technical term is sgraffito.

-Right.

But it's a technique that goes back to sort of pre-history really, where

you incise the clay while it's still leather hard and you actually,

you're able then to sort of paint in a pigment, which sort of raises

-the relief and gives high definition.

-Oh, yes.

-There's a signature underneath.

-Right.

-This is quite early - this is the early 1880s.

A little pot like that, it's going to have probably

around a £300, maybe a £350 price tag on it.

-Oh, right, OK.

-Let's get topical, let's get local,

because I love this little mouse group, and it's inscribed, isn't it?

It says "Cockneys at Brighton".

-Exactly.

-Only down the road, isn't it?

-That's right, yes, it is.

-Only down the road.

-There's a bit of humour there somewhere, isn't there?

-There's a lot of humour in there and it is by the great man.

-Absolutely.

-The great man... You know who it is.

-Well, it's George Tinworth.

-It is George Tinworth.

-Who was a wonderful sculptor.

He excels at these little groups.

-Oh, yes.

-If it ain't mice, it's frogs.

-Exactly, yes.

Here they are having a jolly time, somewhere off one of the piers.

I love this at the other side, look at that.

-Oh, yeah.

-I love that little fish.

-Yeah.

-I say "the fish", it looks like the Loch Ness monster from here, doesn't it?

-Well, it does, yes, yes.

One thing I like is the little fellow there being sick over the side.

He does look queasy, doesn't he?

-He does a bit.

-Yes, bless him.

-Absolutely true.

So date-wise, well,

-again I think we're in the sort of 1880s, late 1880s.

-Oh, right.

Maybe 1890.

A few weeks ago I saw a very similar group sell for close on £5,000.

My goodness, as much as that?

Price of Cockneys for you, you see.

Well, well, they're well worth collecting then, aren't they?

Well, that's a treasure in every sense of the word, isn't it?

Yes, it is indeed.

When I heard there was a warming cupboard here, I thought

it might be some kind of punishment, you know like "If you do that again,

"you'll go in the warming cupboard".

-But it's not, is it?

-No, it's not.

It's a functional warming cupboard.

You pick it up and take it and put it in front of the fire

to warm your plate, warm your food, whatever else you want to warm.

-So it had no back on it?

-No, no back, this cloth wouldn't be there,

um, it would just be an open back so that when it was taken

and put near the fire, it would warm the contents.

So it's in the right place now, we've got this massive fireplace

in the Baron's Hall, this is its natural home.

Yes, it is, yes.

It's a kind of early hostess trolley, isn't it?

I suppose you could say that, yes.

-How does it operate?

-Well, inside here we have it all lined with tin.

-To keep the heat in.

-To keep the heat in.

-Gosh.

It's been in my family, well ever since I can remember,

where it came from I've no idea

but my parents never used it to warm anything when I was a child.

-I've never seen one like it, have you?

-No, never.

Well, you saw it first on the Antiques Roadshow.

Yes, that's right.

Are these things that have come down to you or have you bought them?

No, no, these, we go round the country, you know, we like driving

and we call in obscure boot sales, not the big ones.

-Oh, yes, yes.

-You know, we pass a field and there might be half a dozen, so these were picked up at...

-At boot sales.

-Yeah, various ones.

May I ask what you paid for them?

Um, that one I think I paid £5, and that one, I think, £10.

I looked up the two jars on the internet, it said "bellamine"

but I don't know.

Well, a bellamine is a stoneware jug which is characterised

by having this face

of a bearded man, named after Count Bellamine.

Basically they're German,

they came over to England in quite large quantities with wine in them,

and they were also used on the table for wine.

These are actually called tigerware, but they're more like a leopard, but anyway...

see that appearance there?

-Yes.

-It's been painted.

-I see.

-The handle's been off, the spout's been off, it's been broken into several pieces.

-That is restoration.

-Right, yes.

Um, this is an early jug dating from the 17th century,

-but it's been restored.

-Right.

This one...is brand new.

Brand new, as opposed to new. Right.

We won't quibble, it's new.

-It's new, right.

-It's kind of gone

"urgh" and this is too small in proportion to that, and this

doesn't meet up at the right place and it's too big,

these are very badly formed, the colour's not quite right,

they're all little things,

but enough for one to fault it.

-What about that?

-That was a boot sale again, and my wife

keeps her trinkets, bits and odds and ends of jewellery in it, so...

-Saw the date there, 1636?

-Saw the date, that's why I bought it, yes.

Yeah, well that would be very nice if that object were 1636.

It's not?

It's brand new. Let's not quibble, it's new.

It's new. I'm not very lucky, am I?

-What about the horse?

-Um, she wanted

£50 for it and I said no and we quibbled and I got it for £30, so...

I bought it because it's a lovely object so, you know...

It is, I'm afraid also...

New.

It's pretending to be a Han or T'ang horse from about

the 5th to the 10th century AD,

in China, and the record price

for one is, I think, £3m.

Right, so it is new!

It's a slightly better one than this one, I have to say,

but of that ilk. The Chinese started to make them again

about 30 years ago.

That is not the real thing.

-No.

-But you know, I would be happy to pay £30

for that, I think that's a good buy.

-It is, as you say, a very decorative object.

-Yes.

And I'm very happy with you pulling into a field and buying these

-sort of things, as long as you don't pay too much money for them.

-Well, no, this is...

-I wouldn't pay because I wouldn't know what I was buying.

-Very good,

-enjoy, thank you.

-Thank you.

My father took that in 1931 and he meticulously dated it on the back.

Those were all my soft toys at the time so I was a very lucky.

-All of them? How many are there?

-All of them.

I don't know but we've still got 35 of them out of that picture.

Really? Now...

so how did it all begin?

Well, it was, you know, I collected those as a child and then,

in June 1939, our father went back in the army

and everything was put in store and forgotten for 40 years,

and were discovered again in the late 1970s with the picture with them.

Really? Oh, what a wonderful surprise it must have been,

and you collected the same thing or...?

Well, some of those were mine, the monkey was mine and one or two

of them were, but she was the one that loved the little animals.

Which is your favourite? Because they all look such characters.

Well, I think they're all...

I mean, when I was little,

Flip and this one here, Lop,

used to be with me constantly.

-That dog there, we wonder what make he is.

-That is a difficult one.

-Yes.

-Because he, with these extraordinary eyes,

looks very much like the Chloe Preston for Farnell toys -

Chloe Preston being the designer.

-Yes.

-For me,

these two, they're known as Bosco...

and Honey, and they were a comic strip for Warner Brothers,

and they started off being, well,

it was designed by someone called Hugh Harman in the States.

His, being Bosco, was a black ink blob, he then became

an animated child, but Bosco had a girlfriend,

and that was Honey,

and so this was called Looney Film Productions and you can

-imagine why, because they do look a bit looney, don't they?

-Yes.

-I think always one of my favourites is Dismal Desmond.

-Yes.

He was dismal because his owner...

who was called Daisy Doo Dah, died.

And so your doll is this one?

-Yes, this is my doll, and this doll...

-Tell me about this one.

Well, this is my Kathe Kruse doll.

-Yes.

-When I was three years old, I was bridesmaid at my aunt's wedding

and he was my bridesmaid present.

This is his original pinny.

-Yes.

-I'm afraid he lost his original rompers, and his original rompers

were bright red and so I called him Reggie.

-Very original.

-I love it.

He is a serious doll, a cloth-headed doll, and beautifully painted eyes.

-Even with the damage, I'd say around £1,000.

-That's what I thought.

-Lovely.

-Oh, you did?

-But I couldn't bring myself to sell him after all these years.

-Oh, no, that would be sacrilege!

-But going back to your collection.

-Yes.

-I mean I have to say that these are the two rarest.

-Yes.

And on a good day, I would think that they are almost as much.

-Really?

-As the Kathe Kruse.

-Oh, how wonderful.

-Ooh, yes.

-I mean, they are incredibly in demand, when you can find them, and the others...

Bonzo... You have Bonzo collectors, and Bonzo collectors

will pay probably somewhere around £300 to £400 for him.

-Right.

-Dismal Desmond, possibly about the same.

Schuco teddy and, well, the teddy's worth more than the monkey.

They are probably £200 to £300 each.

-Oh, gosh.

-So if you've got, if this is just part of your collection.

-Yes, it is, I mean.

-36 of them, I dread to think how much they're all worth.

36 from there, yes. Well, that's wonderful to know.

-And how lovely, I'm so glad you came in with them.

-And thank you so much.

-Thank you so much.

-Made my day.

-Made ours, thank you very much.

-I have a feeling you're not about to offer me a cigar so what's hidden inside the box?

-Well, I hope

it's going to be a big a surprise to you, as it was to me, the first time I opened it.

-Wow, it's a tiny little dinner service.

-It is.

It's so beautifully packed, I'm wondering if I can...

-Well, that is the trouble you see.

-take them out.

-Yes, when I moved

to Worthing, we wanted somewhere to park my car and my husband found

this old house with five parking lots and he knocked and said, could we...

-"Could I park the car?"

-That's right, and then over the years,

we became friends. She was an elderly lady when I first met her,

and then she started losing her sight,

and so I started typing her business letters and taking her to the hospital,

but she had bees, and she used to pay me with jars of honey, which was great.

-Lovely.

-But then she said she would like me to have one of her antiques.

Well, I can see why you were delighted,

because what could be more charming than a little doll's dinner service?

It fits into this box and the box is contemporary with it,

this is a set of around 1800 - 1810.

I could imagine some very proud young lady of the mid, um,

Regency period would have been delighted with it.

-It's very like a pattern by Spode called the Cameronian series.

-Right.

But there's something about it which I don't think is by Spode.

-No.

-If we look at the quality of the print, Spode were so well known

for their blue and white printing, and if you look round here,

it's a bit out of line and there's a bit of a line and a smudge here,

so it's not by Spode, but that doesn't really matter.

The pattern is lovely, the object is lovely and any collector of things

to do with childhood or blue and white would be delighted to have it.

-Yes.

-And they would be very happy to pay anything between £1,500 and £2,000 for it.

-Really?

Absolutely really, yes, honestly.

Gosh.

So here we have a first edition, The Diamond Smugglers

by Ian Fleming, author of Diamonds are Forever,

and From Russia with Love, etc,

and turn to the front free endpaper, and there's a fabulous inscription,

it says - "to Una who worked like a slave, from Ian Fleming, 1957".

Now who is Una?

-That's me.

-That's you?

-Yes.

-And "who worked like a slave" for him?

-Well, I worked for him as a secretary.

What was his job at the time?

-He was foreign manager of the Sunday Times at the time.

-Yes.

But he also, you know, it was agreed,

that I could type his books and personal things as well.

So you had to do that on top?

But I tried to make a point

of not reading ahead of the typing,

otherwise it got boring,

but I typed quicker if I waited.

And here's another one.

Doctor No by Ian Fleming again.

-Yes.

-"To Una with apologies for her sudden death..."

-So what is that all about?

-Well, right at the beginning,

he did call the victim Mary Trueblood.

-Right.

-And so it was named after me.

Right, but to have a sudden death right at the beginning...

-Yes, shot at the beginning.

-She was shot at the beginning?

-Dear, oh, dear.

-Bit much!

And here's another one, this is Goldfinger this time.

-Yes.

-Ian Fleming and again another wonderful inscription - "To Una,

"who again wrote the whole thing, from Ian Fleming". That's brilliant...

-Just a way of saying thank you.

-And they've all got their original dust wrappers on,

which is most important in the first edition market for them all

-to have their original dust wrappers, and you have ten signed copies.

-Yes.

Ten signed copies, which is quite, quite incredible.

I don't think I've seen such an assemblage of signed Flemings.

-No.

-Well, ten signed Ian Flemings, I reckon,

must be somewhere in the region...

..of...

You're waiting for it, yes, I know,

well, I reckon that something like £6,000 a copy.

Ooh, 6,000 each?

Yes.

Oh.

Now you be careful as you go home!

This came into our...

possession about 40 odd years ago and we've got three questions for it.

Age, origin and manufacture.

Right, OK, age... Any ideas at all?

Well, when it was restored,

the restorer said they were all hand-cut veneers, so that would put it back

-before machine veneers somewhere but we've no, no real idea.

-Well, that...

hand-cut veneers takes us between 1650 and about, let's say 1900 so...

but the decoration is about 1830-40,

possibly as late as 1850, but no later than that.

-Yeah.

-What was the next one? Origin.

-Origin.

-It's totally English. The next question is the one

I can't answer, manufacturer, if you mean who made it?

-Mm.

-I don't think we'll ever know.

It's clearly not a top-grade cabinet maker,

it's more like it's a box maker - you know what this reminds me of?

-No.

-Is the Tunbridge Wells work, in Tunbridge.

-Right.

-They made little boxes of parquetry.

-Oh, right, yes.

-The geometric shapes were put together for boxes,

often cube parquetry, often with tiny little micro-mosaic scenes.

And I think this is one stage further, about the 1840s or '50s.

You talk about veneers - this is called rosewood, it's Brazilian rosewood from South America.

-Yes, yeah.

-This is maple, which could be American at this date, could be English maple.

-That's amboyna.

-Amboyna? Never heard...

-Yes, so that's an exotic wood imported into this country.

-Yes.

And this cube here is very like the French cube parquetry

-of the 18th century which is kingwood, known as kingwood.

-Right.

But it's just such a visual treat, I just love...

and this extraordinary shape to the frieze with these cut outs here.

-Yes.

-I've never seen anything quite like it.

But what is so amazing about it

is...wow.

There's no discolouration on it, I don't think it's...

It's hardly ever been used or exposed to the air,

and it's just fabulous to see that

and what, I mean this wonderful decoration, these colours,

contrasting colours on what's sort of like brown paper.

-Mm.

-This partridge... It's almost to look like partridge feathers.

This wonderful stencil of red with this sort of Elizabethan-type scrollwork here,

-and blue, vivid flowers.

-It is.

But then these just fascinate me, these holes. I mean, clearly made to cover the little buttons.

-That's right.

-And what have we got in here? Just more of the same,

compartments, that's wonderful. Such an unusual thing. I mean...

Of course, people don't use these today for sewing.

But if we close it and it fits nicely over those buttons...

I suspect that these have been put in later because I don't know why,

just for decoration, somebody was playing with it.

-Well, could have been, yes.

-It seems such an odd position to have the key but it's offset.

-Yeah.

It's just a great visual treat, I mean,

I think I'm going to put,

for retail price or insurance price,

£3,500...£3,800, something like that.

Fantastic.

Well, worth the restoration project.

Well, I must say this is a very unprepossessing blob of icing sugar you've brought me.

Where on earth did it come from?

Um, it was in a button box.

And where did you get the box of buttons from?

I bought the box of buttons in an auction about 35 years ago

because my grandmother told me when I was little, if you've got

-a box of buttons you'll never be broke, you'll always have some, you know, some wealth so...

-How funny.

-So you bought the box of buttons.

-Yes.

-And what did it cost you?

I think £1 then, about 30 years ago.

Thirty years ago, and have you ever wondered what this was?

Um, it looks like a cameo,

and it looks as if it ought...

-it's been uncut, as if it hasn't been finished.

-Well, you're well on the way.

Quite impressive, actually.

-Um, what we have is a cameo in the sense that it's in relief.

-Right.

Of a lady in a mob cap and bodice.

The clue to what it is, is here, it says "Jane Grey died February 1792",

and then the word "Tassie".

-Right, right.

-Do you know who "Tassie" was?

-No.

Well, James Tassie was a very interesting man.

He was born in Glasgow and he started out life as a stonemason.

-Oh...

-And then he went to Dublin and there he developed a technique

of modelling in glass, and what he did was to model this in wax,

-in relief.

-Yes.

-Cast it, cast another one from that,

cast another one from that and then cast from that and in that one,

the last one, made of plaster of Paris, he put it in a kiln

and he put a sheet of glass on top of it and then heated the kiln up

and the sheet of glass went "blmmm" into the mould.

-Into the mould!

-Oh, right.

-Now normally when one sees them,

one doesn't have this, um, scarf edge round here.

-And what I think's happened, you see it's slightly discoloured here?

-Yes.

He's looked at it and said "No, it's a second" and chucked it out.

-Oh, not finished it off.

-Not finished it off.

-Oh.

-However, although it's got that slight problem to it,

I still think that the market would like it very much.

It's a big example,

it's got the added interest of never having been trimmed.

I think you could certainly see somewhere between £1,500 and £2,500 for it.

-Really? As much as that?

-Mm.

Goodness me!

Wow, really?

Oh, thank you - that's lovely.

I think it's entirely fitting that here we are in one

of the most historic settings that the Roadshow's been to,

and laid out in front of us is some of the most historic silver

I've ever had the pleasure to see.

-It presumably is the Corporation plate of Arundel.

-Yes.

And the first thing that intrigues me is this, looks like a very early medieval seal...

What is the significance of the bird?

Well, one of the theories is that after the Norman Conquest of 1066

and the first fortification of Arundel,

that the area was full of swallows

and the French for swallow is "hirondelle"

and hence people think that "hirondelle"

became "Arundel", so that's one of the theories.

Well, that sounds entirely plausible to me. I mean looking at the...

script round the edge, this looks like quite an early piece,

early 16th century, possibly.

-Now I can see the significance of the...

-Right.

-The swallow and the piece and your mayoral chain.

-Yes.

-This piece is somewhat special.

-Yes.

Because not only

is it double the size of most drinking vessels of the period,

and we're talking of something made in the reign of Charles II.

-Right.

-But it has a lovely inscription around the side, all spelt in rather funny English.

"The gift of Thomas Ballard, sometimes Mayor of Arundel, 1677".

-Now you're not sometimes mayor are you?

-No I've been Mayor for two years

and it's a delightful town to be Mayor of.

-Yeah, but again, we've got the swallow.

-Yes.

-Which is presumably the town crest?

-Yes, it is.

Perhaps the most interesting of all

are these group of maces here.

Maces evolved from the original clubs that knights used to use

when they went into battle.

-Right.

-They used to ride into battle

-holding the club like that - this was the business end.

-Right.

This is what gave the headache, and...

at the late 15th century they became somewhat obsolete as arms

-and armour developed so they then became used that way up.

-Right.

And on the top here we've got the lovely royal arms to show

that you were a true follower of the king or queen,

incredibly rare.

Gradually as the centuries evolved,

-we got to the grand maces of the 17th century.

-Right.

And here we have a fabulous Charles II one made in silver gilt,

and this is really the full development of the mace,

with the big crown at the top and the business end

now is quite different, it's become purely ceremonial.

Now is any of this stuff ever used?

I'm not saying you ride into battle clubbing people, but, um...

Well, this mace is used at every council meeting...

-Yeah.

-..and every civic procession, and not too many years ago there

were protestors lining the street

and the mace bearer had to wield that to disperse a few of the protestors.

Well, I hope these are kept under safe lock and key.

Yes, they are.

Because we do have some pretty valuable pieces on this table.

Yes, I'm sure, I'm sure.

I think we are actually looking at a value, something probably

in excess of £300,000.

Wow! Seriously?

-It is.

-We have to increase our insurance very quickly.

It is pretty rare stuff, this.

Well, thank you very much and we'll continue to look after them.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Ooh, nice and easy does it...

Now, I don't know why it is that all the sort of naked women

that appear in this programme gravitate towards me.

Well, they especially said it should come to you.

-Oh, did they?

-Definitely.

-I've got a reputation on this programme.

-Definitely, definitely.

-Well, it's nice to have a reputation, isn't it?

Um, what can I say?

Um, I can say that she's Italiano,

that I can say, and she's obviously from the 1930s but I can't give you

an exact date, I think maybe about 1935, something like that.

Well, actually she was a wedding present from my father to my mother

and that is the original receipt.

-Goodness me, two pounds and fifteen shillings in 1938.

-Yeah.

Three years out, not doing too badly.

-No.

-It's not the sort of normal wedding present you'd normally get.

-You obviously had a very broadminded mother.

-I think I probably did.

-I'm sure this went in a drawer

-when the vicar came round on a Sunday.

-Definitely not.

-No?

-It was always pride of place.

-Was it really?

-Yes.

-Well, I think she's fabulous.

When it comes to the maker, we've actually got a choice of two.

Could be Lenci or it could be Essevi, but it's almost certainly

modelled by Sandro Vacchetti, and he worked at both factories.

They were actually based in Turin.

-Yes.

-So we can narrow it down and I love the idea of a Scottie dog, so 1930s...

why was it that Scottie dogs were big in the '30s,

and Borzois big in the '20s? Anyway, I do know that she's desirable, OK, because...

No, you can't have her.

I can't afford her, because to be frank, I just don't have the £4,000 to £5,000 necessary to buy her!

-That much?

-Yes, £4,000 to £5,000,

and I mean I've got to tell you, if she had her clothes on, she'd

only be worth half as much.

It was found when my partner's mother died, put out for the dustbin man.

The dustbin man, gosh, he'd have been a lucky dustbin man!

And it took me about three hours to polish it up and get it sorted out

and that's when I recognised the little inscription on the side.

-Which reads?

-Lalique.

-Lalique, there's something a little bit Gothic about this, isn't there?

Um, yes, it's, I thought it was like Robin Hood actually with its...

It is, it's a sort of almost a sort of wood nymph,

a wood god as well, because

it's burgeoning out of a sort of silver bud, isn't it?

His head is bursting out and in a way that's a complete signature

tune for Lalique because he's obsessed with the natural world,

he looked at it in a new way and I'm very fortunate really that he made not only jewellery,

but also silversmith's work and goldsmith's work and so he comes into my orbit.

-Right.

-But he is a genius and this is a piece of genius,

really, as far as I'm concerned.

It's a practical object, the design is perfectly resolved and it works,

but every time it's used, one is conscious of the fact that it is sculpture. What does it mean to you?

What do you feel about it?

It means a lot, because my partner, whose mother it was, has now died,

so it's not for sale,

but basically it's a memento of him and his mother so...

Yes, and we have to try and imagine the lady that would have carried it.

I think it is probably a lady's cane, it's quite light.

We're going to try and take it back into the era in which it was

made which is about 1900 in Paris,

and I think in the 1930s this thing would have been scorned, it was...

Everybody wanted geometrical things

and here you have a very sort of organic shape really,

and curiously enough Lalique's great patron, Calouste Gulbenkian,

wrote to Lalique's widow in 1930 saying that, "Your husband's work,

"which I have always treasured has now fallen into disrepute"

but she said, "There will be a time when this is the obsession of the contemporary elite",

-and this is where we find it now.

-Oh.

-And I think it's very valuable today.

There is some issues of condition.

-Right.

-It's been dropped and rubbed and this, that and the other.

It doesn't stop it being the most marvellous thing...

Had it been perfect and went into a specialist sale of Art Nouveau,

-it might have fetched something like £8,000 to £10,000.

-God!

But I have no hesitation in valuing it for £4,000 today.

Oh, my God!

I thought maybe £100 or £200 maximum.

Well, that's what you came here for.

-Well, that's it.

-That is it.

And now to end with a moving little tale.

We were filming earlier in the castle grounds and I was staring at the battlements in awe,

when, from a great height, a bird left a message on my shoulder.

"That's lucky" said our guide...

"Lucky it didn't hit the rest of us."

Well, it's a souvenir and one I shall wear with pride.

Thanks to everyone who brought us more welcome items, and special thanks

to the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk for the use of the Baron's Hall.

But for now, from Arundel Castle in West Sussex, goodbye.