Australia Compilation Antiques Roadshow

Do you remember those shows we recorded in Australia last year?

We came to Sydney then we went on to Melbourne and struck gold.

The Roadshow is so popular in Australia that the turnout at both venues was among

the highest we've ever had anywhere, and the pickings were rich indeed.

Hold on. You are not going to get away with these two.

This is part of the keel of Captain Cook's ship Endeavour.

Isn't that incredible? That's the longest one I've ever seen.

Well, I've come halfway round the world to meet

-the strongest monarchist in the country.

-God Save the Queen.

This is the making of Australia.

-A pair of them, for 30 dollars?

-Yes.

-Shouldn't be allowed.

-No less than 120,000 dollars.

-Oh!

That would be 7,000,

8,000 dollars.

Oh. Sorry...

-Quarter of a million Australian dollars.

-Good grief!

In a country where some said we'd struggle to find any antiques.

In fact, it was such a rich vein that we've kept a few nuggets back for you, so here they are,

unscreened gems from our days down under.

-This girl would have been more at home in the Folie Berger.

-I think so.

Because it goes without saying that she's a Mademoiselle and it also goes

without saying that when you see a willowy maiden of this type,

the one name that shouts at you is Rene Lalique.

Datewise around about 1930, maybe 1932.

Your example is actually called Tahisse.

How long have you been living with this hoofer...

can I call her a hoofer in Australia? She would be in America.

-Oh, yes, yes, I think you could. About 30 years.

-Right.

Now I know she can be illuminated and I know that you're holding the switch, so let's turn this girl on.

Now this is made that little bit more interesting because in between

the figure and the light bulb is obviously a coloured glass filter.

Consequently, she almost certainly looks like hot stuff,

to use a well-known Anglo-Saxon phrase.

-Exactly.

-Do you want to just turn her off for a minute so...

while I gather me thoughts because it's too distracting.

-I'm sure, I'm sure.

-I'm only human.

She's lovely, she is lovely.

If I wanted to go out and pick up this French floozy,

I would have to reach into my pocket

-and pull out the best part of 12,000 Australian dollars.

-Oh, Eric.

-And that's £5,000 sterling.

-Oh, how wonderful.

-So she may be a floozy but I'll tell you what, she's an expensive floozy.

-She's beautiful.

She is beautiful and you'd better take her away quick before I grab her and make a run for the door.

All right.

Are you passionate about William Morris?

I am. I'm actually a textile designer but at the time that I

purchased this, I honestly didn't know it was William Morris.

-But you knew who he was.

-Oh, yes, I knew who he was, but when I actually purchased it, we'd actually

gone into a deceased estate and my husband said, "What do you think about this tapestry on the wall?"

and I said, "Mm, it's a very nice piece of wool"

then as we were getting closer to the car...

-it cost 50.

-It cost 50, right.

And my husband said, "Mm, this looks very familiar."

And I said, "Yes, it does."

So we got home and we laid it out in the bedroom and we looked at it, and I said, "Oh, my!"

and my husband said, "I think it's William Morris."

and I said, "I think you're right.".

This is a woven textile called "Bird",

typical Morris colours, earth colours, natural dyes,

hand craftsmanship, all that sort of thing

but it was a machine-produced fabric, you know, it was made by traditional methods but using

up-to-date technology and using his design.

It also co-ordinated with wallpapers and also with printed fabrics, so you got the full range if you wanted to.

So what do you do, do you hang it?

Well, we've contemplated it. Unfortunately, we don't have

-very high ceilings and we put it in a few rooms and it's just still not the right...

-It's too strong.

-Yes.

In a sense, do what you like with it, but don't cut it up.

No, no, from the moment that we realised what it was, we weren't going to do that.

-Right, 50.

-Yes.

-Now you know that was a bargain.

-Yes, yes, definitely.

-Do you know how much of a bargain?

I have absolutely no idea.

OK, well, it's my job to tell you, and I'm going to tell you that

in the right sort of sale, probably in here as well as in Britain,

you are looking at £3,000 or 6,500 dollars.

Really? I didn't expect it to be that much.

For someone who bought fabric they didn't know was William Morris...

-No, that's right.

-Even though you're a textile designer,

-Yes.

-It's pretty good.

-That's wonderful, thank you very, very much.

-Thanks.

The sewing box was a gift from my husband and it started the collection.

-So it's all your fault?

-Yes, yes.

An anniversary present.

Put in chain a series of events I could never have foreseen.

Exactly, which had an impact on your lives and your wallets.

That's right, exactly.

-And you bought this in Sydney?

-In Sydney.

-In Sydney, yes, yes.

So that was a good buy.

It's a lovely rosewood case inlaid with these mother-of-pearl decorations and it is in

wonderful condition, isn't it?

And as you say, complete with all its mother-of-pearl accessories.

The box itself dates from the middle part of the 19th century, so that is just gorgeous.

So you got this as your anniversary present

and at what time did you start getting the collecting illness?

That would have been about 1979.

-Yes, '78-'79.

-Yes. '78-'79.

Were you able to pick things up relatively cheaply?

Yes, compared to today's prices, yes, much better.

So a wonderful tower like that which is gilt-bronze, an incredible piece of...

-it's almost a piece of architecture, isn't it?

-It is, yes.

It's a skyscraper for cotton reels.

At the top you've got the holders for the pins and then further down you've

got these great crystal drops and spikes for the cotton reels

and wonderful lion claw feet.

-That came from Brighton in England on a trip.

-Yes.

And we saw it in an antique market.

But of course one can't talk about the objects themselves

without putting them into context with

actually what they produced, and is a terrific example

-of English domestic needlework.

-Mm.

-This...

was this another Brighton buy?

-No, this was found in an auction in Sydney.

-Oh, good!

And it was wrapped on, around a piece of cardboard and covered in a bit of plastic and it looked...

-Very dusty.

-Very dusty, yes.

Did anybody else spot it?

I think... no, they didn't, really,

and I was ecstatic when I was the closing bid.

What was the final bid?

250 dollars Australian.

Yes. So I thought that was fabulous.

-It represents, of course, Apollo and Daphne and as he gets to her, so she turns into this tree.

-Yes.

And it was typical of the subject matter that was used in the middle part of the 17th century,

-a lot of allegorical scenes, scenes of mythology, scenes from the Bible and so on.

-Yes, yes.

And it's lovely to have a mythological text here.

Now at the moment there is, certainly in Britain, there is

an enormous interest in all kinds of sewing accoutrements...

an object like this, this lovely sewing box,

as a box itself, retail in a shop I would have thought

we'd be talking about 2,500 to 3,000 dollars, which is in the region of £1,200.

Yes, really?

And with the embroidery here,

again as a retail price, I would have thought we'd be talking about, um,

quickly doing my conversion, it would be about 6,000-7,000 dollars.

-Really?

-It would be about £2,500 to £3,000.

-Right, thank you.

So thanks very much for showing me what you managed to capture.

I acquired it from my father who bought it, I think, in Melbourne.

He lived in Ballarat but he bought it in Melbourne in the late '30s or early '40s, I think.

-Mm, do you know who the artist is?

-Yes, Margaret Preston.

Correct. Margaret Preston.

-Yes.

-Probably one of Australia's most celebrated female artists.

-Yes.

-And the flowers, what are they called?

-Cinerarias.

-Cinerarias.

This, this work is actually quite rare in that

my understanding is that it was done in 1928, approximately.

There is one in the National Gallery but there's never been one

appeared in the sale room before, there's never been one at auction.

It's a wood block print and it's printed with ink, and then

the artist, Margaret Preston, has hand-coloured it with watercolour.

-With watercolour? Oh.

-And it's really, it's one of the best I've ever seen.

-Oh, I'm so pleased.

-It's beautifully signed down here.

-Yes.

-Both outside the image in pencil

and also with her initials, MP, in the actual print

and she's really put a lot of work, and I see here that this, it looks like it's the tenth, I think.

-Yes, tenth print.

-So this is a nice early one.

I think if this came up

at auction in Australia,

it would probably make up to 20,000 dollars.

Truly? Wow, mm, delighted.

-Does that surprise you?

-Yes, it does. I'm delighted.

-20,000...

about £8,000.

We have an expression that something like this would sell "in a barn at the back of

-"Burke", which of course, you know, Burke is way out in the desert.

-Yes.

Because these days,

these sorts of works will fetch the money wherever they turn up.

Well, that is definitely metal and it says here "tin made in Australia"

and it says it three times, so it looks like a tin that's been

flattened out and it's got this shell symbol, so I can't help but feel that this might be

an oil can or a kerosene can or something like that.

I don't usually think of this coming to the furniture queue I have to say,

but hey presto...

a piece of furniture made out of tin on the sides, but certainly not tin on the front.

And there is this pattern on the inside, which

is rather nice, I like that, but not on the other side.

I found it in a little place in Jugion,

called Jugion in New South Wales, in a shed,

in the back of a house,

covered in dirt

and it's been just put together by somebody out of the pieces of wood

that they've had about the place, plus pegs.

This is great, isn't it, because you see on the inside

that it is, in fact, a clothes peg,

wedged to make the little handle, and the wood looks like recycled floorboards or something like that.

Mm, I think that's probably likely.

-And I think this is exactly what they call salvage furniture, or depression furniture.

-That's right, yes.

The kind of thing that was made

-by people who really had very little, I think.

-Yes, yes.

During the '30s, perhaps.

It's amazing how even though they've had so little, they've tried to decorate it.

-And create something like the sort of traditional...

-I like it.

It's great, and you know the finish that you've got on this would be to die for...

Lots of people spend an enormous amount of money trying to create this sort of distressed finish.

-Yes, yes.

-And I think this is one of the most attractive

elements of the whole thing.

This sort of thing is still very collectable,

it's folk art, it's part of the social history, I think, of Australia and having this "made in Australia"

with the tin on the side, is great.

I think you're looking nowadays at 2,000 to 3,000 dollars.

-Really?

-Which translates as £850 to £1,300 sterling.

So for something that you salvaged yourself, it's a pretty good result.

I found it at a garage sale.

-Really? Just in a garage sale?

-In a garage sale, yeah.

-How long ago?

-About 15 years ago.

-And you just thought...

And what did they think it was, the sellers?

-They had no idea. I just asked how much it was.

-And how much was that?

-25.

-25 Australian dollars, 15 years ago.

-Yeah. I took it to the art gallery in New South Wales.

-Yes.

And they have another copy of this one and it's the Queen of Sheba at the court of King Solomon.

-Absolutely.

-And that's all I know, really.

You're ahead of me in some respects.

Yes, it's a drawing by Sir Edward John Poynter, very well-known in England as an academic

painter, senior member of the Royal Academy, I think he was President.

Now, the painting you're referring to is a finished painting.

It's absolutely enormous and it's in the art gallery of New South Wales and you've seen it?

Yeah, this is the Queen, apparently.

-This is actually the Queen?

-Yeah.

-Really?

Yeah.

-Looks like a boy.

-I know.

Well, do you know, that raises an interesting point, because Poynter

liked to paint women a lot, but there were laws in the late 19th century about using

underage girls as models for paintings, and so they couldn't

pose in the nude, so you'd often use young boys and then he would...

just for the studies... and then by the time the finished painting was made, he'd turn them into women.

-Oh. That's interesting.

-Just for the arrangement of the limbs and the muscles and just to,

you know, just to be a clothes horse as well for the props, it was just a studio way of working.

You have to remember it is a working drawing, towards the construction of the painting.

He never really expected people like me would be standing here talking about it.

But looking at it, it's beautifully modulated, isn't it?

I think the features are very, very fine

and although that headgear, that strange band around his or her head,

is quite brief, it's very attractive.

The whole thing really works,

there's a wistful expression to it and it's beautifully drawn.

If this was sold in London it would probably be worth between 4,500 and 7,000 Australian dollars.

Oh, that's good news.

-It's a very beautiful drawing.

-It is.

-That's between £2,000 and £3,000. It's a good one.

-Oh, thank you.

This is a relatively plain box, but I think maybe it has exciting things to tell me.

-It has a lot of hidden secrets inside it.

-Can we know them?

We can, if you like to open the lid.

-Right, tool box.

-This is a squatter's tool box.

Ah, different.

The squatters were very unique to Australia,

about the 1830s when they first started going into the hinterland in Australia, off the coast.

And somewhere along the line, Briscoe and Co invented this thing called a squatter's tool box

designed to give the squatter the tools he needed to build his house.

So, wait a minute, when we mean "squatter",

do we mean somebody who's claiming the land or has bought land rights?

No, they didn't have the rights, that's why they were called the squatters.

-That was another story.

-So, you could go to the hardware store...

-and say, "I want one of them boxes".

-That's right. This is what you got.

You got this tool kit and,

you know, all the things that are supposed to be in it are written on the list.

I've never seen such a thing. Are they common?

I wouldn't have thought so. This was in my father's shed.

He was using it as a tool box but putting his own old tools in it.

When he died, I inherited this box and I said to my son, "It would be fun to do it up

"and find the tools".

We had the list, all we had to do is find the tools.

Took us two and a half years to find them all.

-And where did you get them?

-We went to tool auctions, tool shows,

antique shops, all over the place, the last one actually was the axe, and people who have axes tend to...

-Which one... there's three?

-That's the axe, that one.

Yeah.

-That's the old American axe.

-So this was the last?

That was the last piece, and it took us a long time to find

somebody who would actually give us an axe because they're very rare.

Yes, it's a conflict, because people collect tools.

-That's right.

-So you were up against the tool collector.

I mean, I think the funniest thing I found was this little one which...

-The glue brush.

-Which I thought I'd never find,

-because they get used and thrown away, like a paint brush.

-They wear out.

And here I found one sitting in an antique auction in Corfield, and it was just sitting there.

-That was a great day.

-That cost me two dollars to buy.

-I was thrilled.

-I'm not going to value the tools. You know their cost.

They're collectable. I mean, what is so good about this...

if that label had been lost, it would be meaningless. You've got the...

probably the retailer's label, or maybe the manufacturer.

You've got that wonderful list, you know, this is real history,

and so many times that must have come off, been scraped off.

How many of these boxes are lying around unnoticed?

-Unnoticed, yes.

-Many of them.

-Probably, yes.

This is magic, and to me, as I say, that brings to life that whole vision

of the opening up of Australia, unofficially.

-Unofficially.

-Never mind, we got there.

Look what it's come to, you know, this is Melbourne today.

-I haven't said the date. This is certainly not 1840s.

-No.

-We're looking at 1880s-1890s... it's quite late.

-Yeah, it is.

And I'm going by the style of the box, I'm going by the labels, those are very late Victorian.

If I said something like

5,000 to 6,000...

£2,000-ish,

-does that make sense?

-Yes.

I think it's a great thing, a great achievement and what are you going to do now?

Well, it makes a lovely coffee table.

Oh, well, that's fine. What more do you want?

It's a talking point and something my son and I enjoyed

putting together and that made us a bit closer so we had a lot of fun.

-I've loved it as a talking point.

-Thank you.

-Thanks very much.

I'm looking at the cocktail bar of the Southern Cross Hotel in about, I don't know, 1964.

Yes, that's right.

Which was, of course, the scene of complete hysteria

back on 17th June 1964, which is when the Beatles were there.

My father was actually an employee at the Southern Cross and on the day that the Beatles decided to stand

on the awning of the Southern Cross and wave to the crowds in Exhibition Street, my father actually took me

upstairs into the hotel, up onto the first floor

and from there took me into behind where the Beatles

-were actually standing so I was...

-Looking at all that pandemonium.

-And how old were you?

-I was three.

I remember quite a large crowd.

There seemed to be a lot of hysteria,

people waving, chanting, there were placards

and as a three-year-old, to me it was very frightening.

With all that screaming you must have thought there was a panic.

-Yes, I certainly did not know where we were going at the time.

-Sure.

But when I was eventually told we were going into the hotel

where my father worked, and to see the Beatles, I did...

even as a three-year-old...

-I did know who the Beatles were.

-That meant something even then?

-Yes.

How interesting. So the Beatles came to Australia just that once and I

think they did six gigs in Melbourne on the 17th and 18th June '64

and then what happened?

Because what I'm looking at are little squares of cotton. One says...

I can't believe this "John slept here",

"Paul slept here", "Ringo slept here"... We're missing George.

Ah, that's... Oh, George is here, George is on the back,

so we've got a full set of sheets, bits of sheets?

-Yes, that's right.

-Hang on, there's the explanation here.

"I've been asked by a number of staff for pieces of sheet

"that the Beatles slept in, I am enclosing a couple of pieces to give away or throw away".

Yes, basically, there was...

the head housekeeper of the Southern Cross, I believe her name was Phyllis Roberts.

-Right.

-She actually each morning removed the bed sheets from

each of their beds, she kept track of whose was whose and they then proceeded to actually cut them up.

They made rubber stamps,

or these have since been stamped.

I have to say,

-small bits of Beatles bed sheet don't come up for sale very often in Britain.

-No.

If these came into London, I would be quoting about 1,200,

1,500 dollars, about £500 on that.

And then this postcard has got a secret to reveal, hasn't it?

Yes.

Because on the back

we have the names of the four boys, and I have to say

that one sees a lot of these, but there's a problem with this one.

It's not been signed by the Beatles.

-Did you know that?

-No.

Am I breaking bad news?

Probably, yes.

The Beatles had a number of folks behind the scenes

who did the majority of the signing for them,

and the person who signed this was one of their back staff guys, a chap called Neil Aspinall.

The good news is that because the Beatles didn't have to sign 200,000 cards, it did mean that they were

able to give six performances instead of sitting in their hotel rooms and wearing out a biro.

So these are great.

As a collection and as a group of souvenirs, together with your memories, it's actually invaluable.

But we didn't come all the way to Australia just to plunder one city.

Welcome to the main quadrangle of Sydney University.

School is open.

"Endeavour under full sail with the fleet", which presumably would refer

to Captain Cook, his ship Endeavour and under sail with his comrades when they were out on one of his voyages.

-Yeah.

-Did you know that?

Not when I bought it, no. I didn't realise until I brought it back.

I bought it in the UK, brought it back here and it was

only when we were putting it back together that I first saw it.

That's fantastic! I'm going to say that I'm surprised that the owner,

-or if you bought it from the trade...

-That's right, didn't point it out.

Didn't point it out, and was it restored when you got it?

-It was, yes.

-Right.

-I had it cleaned here in Australia.

OK, but it had actually been overhauled.

-Yes, yeah.

-Well, it looks a little bright at the moment.

Give it a few years...

The painting has been retouched and one can see that the lacquer,

the original lacquer, has crackled and has been fixed and over-lacquered again so it's an old painting.

And William Pridgeon of Hull is the maker.

I'm not familiar with the name but I almost certainly think he's towards the end of the 18th century.

So Cook went off on his voyages, he left what, from... his first one...

About 1768, something like that.

One tends to think now of Captain Cook as being

very famous in his day, but he wasn't initially.

But he was obviously, because of his mapping and the difference that made,

that became popular knowledge,

and somebody in Hull, because the Endeavour was built in Whitby, I think.

That's right, just up the road.

Just up the road, but somebody in Hull, fairly contemporaneously,

around about what we're saying this clock could date from

1780-1790, something like that,

has chosen to make a clock and celebrate his voyages already.

Now, I don't think that signature looks fake.

-No.

-I mean the writing looks OK.

It's stuck on there, it's written in an old style hand and if

I'm sure that if you bought it and the gentleman didn't even tell you...

That's right. He would have made something of it if he...

If he'd been busy in his back yard with an old quill pen...

So it looks as if it's been on there all that time.

And it opens up an interesting question too about how does one value

-what is effectively a very standard long case clock.

-Yes.

Forgive me for saying so, but in England this is a fairly common clock and in England it would be worth,

let me see, something of the order of, say,

three, about 4,000 Australian which is what £1,500,

-£1,800 UK pounds.

-Yeah.

Over here, with this history,

I think you could easily double that, so we'd be looking at 8,000

perhaps even 10,000 or so Australian, and £4,000 or £5,000 English pounds.

-Fascinating!

-Thanks very much.

Well, he obviously was a very

handsome young man at one time, but unfortunately he's been touched up.

Who is he?

This is my great, great, great grandfather, John Wills,

a sea captain in Massachusetts and he was one of many...

all in all they owned 250 ships at one stage.

That's quite a lot. A fleet.

They were churning them out on the eastern seaboard

of Massachusetts, doing the three-cornered trade -

-Spice Islands, India, that sort of thing.

-Yes, yes, yes.

And he was, at this stage, 18 years old, a little later in this

-life when he was 26 he took part in a very famous incident in Boston Harbour.

-Oh, the Tea Party.

Yes, he was one of the "Sons of Liberty" they called themselves.

-Yes.

-Sons of Adam, Sons of Liberty, who dressed themselves up as fake Indians, Mohicans.

-Yes, yes.

And turfed tea into the harbour to protest against the British taxation that was taking place.

And this was all leading up to the War of Independence, wasn't it?

Yes, this is in the 1770s and at that time, men like John, who had a lot of money

invested in shipping between Britain and America, were losing a lot of money to taxation and they

felt that, without representation in the British Parliament, that they shouldn't have to pay tax.

-Absolutely, absolutely right.

-So...

I can just see him.

-He's got that slight sparkle in his eye, hasn't he?

-Yes.

You can see him with a head-dress on, or something like that.

That's quite remarkable.

Historically, this is a very important picture and I can tell you,

any American library,

any American museum or whatever, would give their eye teeth for it

and I could see that making somewhere in the region of what £50,000.

That's 100,000 to 150,000 dollars.

-Gosh!

-Now, I don't know if there are any other portraits of the Boston Tea Party people, but that is incredible.

It was a great secret so only people who were in the family,

I imagine, would know the identities of some of the men.

Well, there you are, now the whole world knows.

This is a useful size of circular table.

Do you use this all the time?

Well, I have done, yes, every day up until the last two years and since then I've had it in store.

So it's been side-lined a bit.

-Not particularly fashionable at the moment, I think.

-No.

No, I think that's true generally that in a sense dining tables have lost place a little bit, because

people are living in family rooms and things like that, but this is a very attractive example, I think.

I like particularly the pedestal base. It's very pretty.

I mean how many people could you sit round this?

-Well, normally, that was just for four.

-Right.

But extended, I've had up to 16 at it.

So let's have a go at seeing what happens on the inside.

Oh, right, how far does it go?

Oh, it goes on and on and on

and these here are clearly legs, so they must drop down.

Mm-hm.

So you've got extremely pretty little baluster fluted legs.

One of the things that is intriguing me is also the timber,

because at first sight it's very much an English pattern of table, 1840s,

but the timber to me doesn't actually look English.

-Do you know about its background?

-I was under the impression from the ladies from whom I purchased

-the table that it was South American mahogany.

-Right.

This is where I have a problem,

because there's something about the timber here

which to me doesn't quite look like mahogany and when I saw the underneath of one of the leaves,

it also has a grain and an action, a figure, that reminds me

actually much more of red cedar, of an Australian timber rather than, than mahogany, so I'm wondering if at

some point the story has got perhaps a little bit mixed up, and the table was in fact made in Australia.

And it originally had benches, not chairs.

Well, that also is very un-English, to be honest.

-Is it?

-Actually,

if it was made here and is red cedar it's worth probably more.

We could be looking at 20,000,

30,000 Australian dollars, which is around £10,000, £12,000.

-So a fascinating story and one day perhaps you'll get to the bottom of it.

-Yes.

I don't think so. Everybody's dead!

-We've got an autograph book.

-That's nice, I've been signing all day, I hope it'll be better than that.

What have we got?

It belonged to Bill Prior, who was the editor of The Bulletin

from about the 1930s to the 1950s.

Oh, good old Migzie!

Isn't that amazing?

-A bit of Australia there, isn't it?

-So, this has come from whom?

Well, it came down through the family.

It was put together by Bill Prior.

He had access to all these people because they were written up in The Bulletin.

Ah, now there's a treasure.

-Billy Bluegum.

-Is that his name?

-Billy Bluegum from the Magic Pudding.

-Right.

-You know, he bet a lot of people at The Bulletin

that food was more popular than fairies, and this is a very, very good watercolour.

Let me tell you, they are very hard to get.

-The women that he's known for, which are the nudes, but the animals...

-Yeah, I've seen plenty of them.

The animals are actually quite hard to come by.

Terrific stuff.

Menzies, my goodness.

-Robert Menzies, the Prime Minister.

-There's two letters.

-From Menzies.

-Goodness, this is a treasure trove, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Would I surprise to say if it was in excess of 10,000?

Well, we wouldn't have thought that.

Which is equivalent to about £4,000.

That's a surprise.

This is a remarkable doll for many reasons.

it's in fantastic condition but it's got the bolt in the head and

when you turn it, she turns from Little Red Riding Hood, obviously, you turn it through...

-up comes Grandmama.

-Grandmama.

Yes, and turn it one more time and...

the wicked wolf. Extraordinary.

That transforms something that initially looked like something quite simple.

-A boring little doll.

-Into something quite exceptional.

I've managed to determine a German manufacturer.

It dates from the beginning part of the 20th century, maybe 1905-1910.

-Oh, yes.

-So it's a very good age. It is in remarkably fine condition.

Collectors would give an arm and a leg to acquire this, because...

-Oh, really?

-You very rarely ever see a three-faced doll.

Certainly at auction we'd be talking about a figure of

probably between 4,500 and 6,500 dollars.

-Oh, really?

-Which is between £2,000 and £3,000.

-Yes.

So initially I didn't love your doll, but now I like it her quite a lot.

How wonderful.

Her stockings are a bit tatty!

I'm absolutely amazed, looking at this service, which is nearly

200 years old, what wonderful condition you've kept it in. How did you manage that?

I haven't done much to it because I've only been in charge for about three years.

But it has been sitting there looking at me all my life,

but I know my mother was taking care of it, and it gets used very rarely.

This was made in Derby, in England, in about 1810

and there it is, the gilding is unrubbed, unscratched,

and the painting here, this painting, this still life,

which is done by somebody called Thomas Steele,

-is quite extraordinary.

-Yes.

Now here you've brought three pieces, but there's a lot more, is there?

Yes, it's a full set.

-You've got two of these?

-Two.

-And they have stands to stand on.

-Yes.

-And then there are shaped dishes, are there?

-Yes.

And then a lot of plates like that?

-Yes.

-And how does the service come to be here in Australia?

My great grandfather sent it out of England

during the war. He shipped it to New York

and the boat was torpedoed, actually,

and the captain of the boat put it in his lifeboat and

got it to New York eventually and was warehoused there and came out here after the war.

I hope somebody bought the captain of the ship

a large drink or some equivalent for saving the service.

Yeah, I think a bottle of rum was posted over.

Oh, I should hope so, because

nowadays a pair of tureens like that, and their stands, are probably worth 4,000 dollars.

You've got your dishes worth 1,500 each, quite a few of them

and you've got 18 plates at least 1,000 a throw

and if you add that all up we get to somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000

Australian dollars, which is let's say

£15,000 to £20,000. So you should think of the ship's

captain every year when you gaze fondly on the service.

Just drink a little toast to him and say thank you very much for allowing me to enjoy this.

-I think I should.

-It's your duty and thank you for sharing them.

It's a pleasure.

"Dearest Nanny B, I am sending you a little wrist watch from us both and I hope that whenever you look

"at the time, you will think of us there, here, who are so fond of our dear Nanny B."

And we turn over... "I want you to promise that if the wristlet

"part is too tight,

"to send it back to me to be enlarged,

"they can add any amount of links and it may be a tiny bit narrow for your

"wrist, it only takes two days or so to add and you must have it to fit.

"Just off to St Paul's for a day or two. Yours, Elizabeth."

Well, obviously Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

-Yes.

-But who is Nanny B?

She was my maternal grandmother's cousin

who was nanny to the Queen Mother when she had Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.

Oh, that's splendid! The lovely thing is that

you still have the little wristwatch and here it is.

-Yes.

-Isn't that lovely? Absolutely enchanting.

It still works.

"Nanny B from E and A."

-Elizabeth and Albert.

-Yes.

And Albert later became George VI.

-Yes.

-So you've got another 17 letters in here, in this folder.

-Yes.

-All to Nanny B.

-Yes.

In quite intimate terms, really, haven't you?

Absolutely amazing, and here

is a signed portrait of the Queen Mother with Princess Elizabeth,

later to become our Queen, which is absolutely lovely.

-Yes.

-And here are some more, these are unsigned,

but they're all sort of christening type photographs, aren't they?

-Yes, yes.

-Or just mother and baby type photographs

of the Queen and the Queen Mother.

Yes, yes, there are some beautiful photos.

-The Queen Mother was very, very pretty.

-Well, she was very pretty there.

-Yes, very.

-And she looks very well on having a baby.

-Yes, she does.

-And there they are, looking at each other and smiling.

-Each other, yes.

-I think that's absolutely wonderful. That's a very unique album to put together.

Right, well, let's have some values. This gold watch,

it still works, as you said,

and it's in good condition, and is worth about 1,200 dollars,

which is about £500,

but I reckon that with the inscription,

is worth

3,200 dollars,

that sort of area, about £1,500.

Now, 18 letters here,

I reckon we can put 12,000 dollars on those, about £5,000.

This unique collection here

-is worth what, I suppose 2,200 dollars, about £1,000.

-Yes.

-But you're not interested in the money?

-No, I'm not.

It's just sentimental

and I just hope they're always looked after by someone.

If I could hand out a gold medal today, I'd give it to you for

having the thought to bring this along to our Antiques Roadshow,

but there again, having a look at

the actual construction that's been erected by our technical people,

I think they deserve one as well.

But bring me up to speed

on your fascinating mirror console table,

whatever you want to call it.

Well, it was very heavy to carry here.

-Yeah.

-As you've alluded to, I bought it in an old warehouse in Paris.

I had to bargain very hard for it.

I fell in love with these beautiful women.

-It was an instinctive buy.

-Absolutely.

Most people would think, "How on earth am I going to get that home?"

Most people in Britain would think how on earth am I going to get that

home, but you were living in Australia for goodness' sake.

-Let's have a look at it, shall we?

-Please.

OK, because you know, stylistically

this shouts Art Nouveau,

it's got all the elements you could possibly expect.

You've got these sort of diaphanous draped,

semi-naked, very sensual, quasi-erotic,

if I can use such language, maidens, or are they nymphs, we're

not too sure, but she's standing on this large iris flower.

It's a real concoction, it's almost a confection.

-The mirror dominates, obviously, and what I like is, it's a useful piece of furniture, OK.

-Absolutely.

And then, I mean, this is supported upon...

-it almost seems like a rock work base, doesn't it?

-Yes.

-It seems to be.

As for the mirror itself, I'm sure that it's period, it looks as though it dates from around about 1900.

Now I've done a lot of business in France, in Paris in particular,

and they are a breed on their own, are they not?

-I'm not being anti-French. Not being anti-French.

-I love the French.

Yes, so do I, one at a time.

-But either way, when you were doing your arm wrestling, this is Paris, is it?

-Yes.

So it's hardly even France. The Parisians are a breed on their own.

So what, come on, you're doing a bit of arm wrestling, what did you start off at?

Well, I don't speak French.

-I can, um greet and thank but I do not speak French.

-Yes, yes.

So when it comes to bargaining I have a little pad, a notepad.

-Yes.

-And I ask them to write it down,

they write it down and I cross it out dismissively...

-Yes.

-And then I write something else.

-It's ridiculous.

-You showed your disgust, did you?

-Yes.

-Good.

-And so with this, we went down the page

and over the next page and then,

I succumbed, because I'd pushed it as far and fast as I could.

-Good.

-And I bought it for 1,200 Australian dollars.

1,200 Australian dollars. OK, well, it's a very fickle market.

-I know who this sort of piece would appeal to, and we're talking rock'n'roll, OK?

-Oh, right.

And I would say that today, certainly if that turned up

in the area I work, which is London,

well, I would expect that to be nearer sort of 12,000 Australian,

possibly 14,000 Australian, so we're talking, in good old British

pounds, somewhere in the sort of £5,000 to £6,000 bracket

because it's big, it's decorative

and, you know, it's here in Sydney but it says

"next stop is almost certainly Bellaire, Hollywood".

Oh, thank you, that's fabulous but it won't be going to Bellaire.

-No?

-Won't be going to Elton John or anyone else.

Now I wasn't name dropping, but you were, OK.

So do you want Rod's telephone number before you go?

-It wouldn't be a bad idea.

-OK.

Thanks again to all our friends in Australia for

playing the queueing game and for showing us their treasures.

Until the next time, goodbye.