Kelvingrove Art Gallery Antiques Roadshow

We've been drawn back to the bonnie banks of the Clyde

for a second visit to Glasgow's Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery.

Glaswegians are very fond of Kelvingrove.

For one thing, it's free!

It also seems to have a special attraction for courting couples,

who come here and exchange childhood memories of the place.

Later on, they bring their own children

and then later on they bring theirs, and so it goes.

And everyone seems to have their own favourite exhibit.

Sir Roger the elephant has been a star of the place

since the doors first opened in 1901.

There are plenty of reminders of Glasgow's great names.

This gallery celebrates architect and designer

Charles Rennie Mackintosh,

who created what became known the world over as the Glasgow Style.

He not only produced some fine homes for his home town

but he also designed what went in them.

This display features a group of young tearaways

known as the Glasgow Boys,

who rocked the art world back in the late 19th century

by turning their back on classical themes.

They worked in the big outdoors

and brought a natural realism to British painting.

Kelvingrove recently reopened after three years of renovation

costing £30m. There are some bold new exhibits,

including this airborne display of faces made of fibreglass.

And, back again after 13 years in exile,

Salvador Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross,

voted Scotland's favourite painting.

No wonder this is just about

the most popular cultural attraction in Britain,

not counting the Antiques Roadshow, of course.

A Scotchman with very nice knobbly knees...

Frenchman...

Englishman...

And all kinds of other nationalities in presumably their national costume.

Tyrolese, Persian, Arabian...

And starting off here with a Sandwich Islander

and that sort of gives us a clue,

because the Sandwich Islands is actually what we know as Hawaii.

-Ah.

-So this was before Hawaii was called Hawaii.

But what goes with this is something else, which is a little tiny globe.

That's the box that it comes out of.

And on the globe are all the various countries,

presumably, that these figures relate to.

So what was your association with it?

I inherited it from my aunt.

She gave me a corner cupboard and that was in the corner cupboard

and we always wondered how old it was.

The first thing I do is to turn to Australia and see whether

it's actually drawn in full, because on some early globes

it's before they found out what was happening

on the other side of Australia, and you only get half of it.

Here it's been circumnavigated, so we know that it's after Cook's journeys.

-But it's still called New Holland...

-Yes.

-..so that limits the date to,

I would have thought,

sort of 1810-1820, and if one looks -

I'm just going to pop that back in its little box -

if we look at the way that the Englishman was dressed here,

-you can see he looks like a sort of Regency buck, doesn't he?

-Yes.

-There's something of the Mr D'Arcy about him.

-Absolutely!

So, you know, Jane Austen... Roughly the same period.

Is it something that you've enjoyed looking at?

Yes, it's something you bring out and show to friends

and they say, "Where did you get it?"

You say, "Well, it was in the corner cupboard!"

-Anything else in that corner cupboard?

-Erm, yes.

Oh, I can see you're going to wait

until we come back to Glasgow again to show us what else is in there.

I'll warn you before you come.

Well, it's a valuable little thing.

I mean, it's actually a game called The Earth And Its Inhabitants.

And these little hand-coloured illustrations

were intended, really, to help children to learn.

I mean this was a time when children, for the first time,

it was realised they could learn through play,

and instead of learning by rote, they learnt through amusement.

But it isn't just an amusement, because it's valuable too,

and even though this is a tiny little globe

and it's not in brilliant condition,

I still think we're talking about between £500 and £800.

I beg your pardon?!

Oh, I...

I'm speechless!

I think this little jug bears quite close inspection.

Do you know why?

I think possibly something to do with the date on the handle.

-There is a date on the handle.

-Yes, it's fairly old.

Moulded in relief on the handle.

And what does that date say?

-1591.

-Well, I think...

Yes, I'm not... It's whether it's '91 or '71...

I mean you can't possibly believe that this jug was made in 1571?

I know. I find it difficult to believe.

Cos that would make it 435 years old.

-Wow!

-That would be quite something!

It would indeed, yeah. Because of the workmanship in it too.

-It's amazing.

-It's wonderful.

-Mm.

-You've got this sort of bellied form, I suppose, a globular form,

which is I think moulded with flutes that have then been cut at angles.

Cut out each one.

-It's almost like sort of diamond-cut glass. It's fantastic.

-Uh-huh.

It's a stoneware body, so it's a really hard, white body.

That's wonderful as well, isn't it?

-Yes.

-It's got a silver mount on it. It's got rather tarnished.

But you've had it for some time?

Yeah, it came into the family through a great-aunt...

-Right.

-..of my husband's.

-Right.

-And it's been there ever since.

Well, I'm very, very pleased to tell you that 1571, it really is.

-Gosh, that's wonderful.

-It's 435 years old.

-Wow!

Isn't that lovely?

-It is.

-I mean, just a great thing to find at the Roadshow.

-Lovely.

-And these stoneware jugs were made in Germany.

-Mm.

And there were three major potting centres.

There is an example recorded with initials IM on it,

which may stand for a man called Johann Mennicken,

and Mennicken worked at Raeren.

-Right.

-So it's likely, since the jug is very similar to this,

that it's Raeren.

-I think that's just a magnificent, important object.

-Thank you!

And valuation is really, erm, a lesson in the art of comparison

and there's not really an awful lot that's been sold

-in the recent past...

-No.

-..that I can compare this directly with.

If I was feeling mean, I'd say it was worth

-between £4,000 and £5,000.

-Mm!

If I was feeling a bit more optimistic and knowing,

you know, that sort of auction price,

something as rare and unusual as this could go on.

-Two people want it, it might even make twice that.

-Mm, we don't know.

Somewhere in that region. So just a wonderful find.

Thank you.

One of the loveliest things I've seen on the Roadshow.

-It's gorgeous.

-Thank you very much.

'Good, thank you.'

Now I don't want to be patronising to all you Scots here today,

but I really look forward to coming to this part of the world,

Glasgow in particular, because I've got a fascination

with the decorative arts that were happening here,

you know, in the 1890s, 1900.

And of course the big name, goes without saying,

is Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

And let's not forget his wife, Margaret Macdonald.

But you've brought along a few objects today

which sort of help redress the picture a little bit,

because there's more to the Glasgow Style than Mackintosh.

A case in point... One very interesting chair, two planters.

Are you a Glasgow School collector?

No, but my wife was very keen on the Glasgow Style.

Her name interestingly was Margaret Mackintosh.

-She was originally Sinclair.

-Oh, was she?

But this was left to my wife and we were told that possibly

it had come... It certainly had come from her Great-Aunt Net,

who was the sort of matriarch of the family,

and died at 97 about 20 years ago.

Oh, right. What's interesting is,

I was looking at a very similar chair less than a year ago

and so it didn't come as a surprise when you brought it through the door.

-Ah.

-It's a wonderful shape.

It goes by the name of a caqueteuse, which is a French term

which goes back 17th century and beyond.

The focal point is the panel,

and you've got this Art Nouveau maiden,

I mean, I think it's a commercial design.

She's got her gown open and it's filled with flowers,

her hair en chignon, to use a term.

The outfit she's wearing

you could probably have bought from Liberty's,

or its equivalent in this part of the world.

But just the shape of it, it's got a sense of movement,

it's got this nice little leaf motif there.

-Yes, it's lovely.

-And exactly who made it, I can't tell you,

but one thing I do know is that it's a nice, attractive-looking

piece of furniture that a lot of people would want to own.

The one that I saw turned up at auction

and if memory serves, it made in the region of £900.

-OK.

-If one could have put a name to it, you know,

Mackintosh, or dare I say, Walton...

-and I don't think it's George Walton...

-Right.

..erm, then obviously up goes the value.

It's all in a name and that's true with your two planters,

erm, because this one, if we can go down -

let's get down on bended knee -

is quite typical Glasgow Style.

It's got a rose that might be seen as a typical Glasgow rose -

I won't call it a Mackintosh rose, let's call it Glasgow -

but no signature as such.

But this one is a bit more special.

I love this design, with this tree and this rising...

-And these little song birds.

-Yes.

-I think what we've got here, I think we've got the dawn chorus.

-Oh, right.

OK? Whereas we turn it on its side, we've got the sun going down,

or it may be the other way round, I'm not sure.

But what is special is this lovely maiden with long flowing tresses,

erm... Very stylish, and this is what's quite special.

MG... Margaret Gilmour.

And the Gilmour sisters, you know, relatively unsung heroes

outside this fair city of Glasgow.

They were operating from 1893 to about the 1940s

and making this type of brassware.

Value wise, unsigned, probably in the region of...

£400 to £500,

but because this one is signed, I think probably nearer to

£600, maybe £700 or thereabouts.

But it's all in a name.

Thank you very much.

There's a special trick to this.

You might think you could just pull that open,

but you have to slide this...

-..and up it comes.

-Very ingenious.

And you have a magnificent key and a lot of effort

and once you open it you've got all these...

Whoa! Look at that!

So what does it say here?

The date we have is 1731 and what this says,

basically, is, "May God protect the old and bring them wealth."

-And it's in German?

-In German.

The history of these is they were called Armada chests

and literally from sort of 16C onwards,

and they were used to carry your wealth around

and usually they're big -

I mean, they're sort of 4ft, 5ft long - hugely heavy.

-Right.

-But quite often with the same sort of elaborate lock

but of course the thing on the front here

is the fake.

And that's absolutely standard to have the hole at the front,

where you think it's going to be,

and have the real lock plate actually disguised.

I'm going to be honest,

-I think it's a little bit too good to be true.

-Uh-huh.

Because all the other ones of these that I've seen,

this iron lock plate has usually been pierced,

but more importantly, the date, 1731,

-is NOT the period in which they were making these.

-Right.

Also, this little coat of arms here, with the little stars,

that is entirely specious.

It's like someone's idea of what a coat of arms would look like.

-What a pity!

-So it is fantastic quality,

all made in wrought iron, all of this blueing or annealing,

an awful lot of effort has gone into this,

with all of these individual lock plates.

The other thing is, looking at the key...

..on the real ones of these, the key is incredibly elaborate.

Y'know, this has basically got to tumble

the number of locking devices inside, so it had to be very elaborate.

That is very, very simple, so what I think this is,

is I think it's a 19th century copy.

If I was going to say "fake"

that would actually be being a little bit cruel,

but it sort of is, because the date on it is not right.

And I think it was probably made in the 1880s in Germany.

But in a way, for me, it's actually more interesting

because it's not right.

For me as well, from what you're saying.

It still does have not inconsiderable value. What do you think?

£400 or so?

I think we could fill it up with a bit more money than that.

-Oh, good, good.

-No, I could see someone certainly giving...

-£1,000, £1,500.

-Really?

And I think for insurance, you'd actually probably want to insure that

for probably £2,500 because I haven't seen one before.

You're not going to find another one.

I LOVE watching historical dramas on TV and one of my favourite series

was an incredibly popular one called Sharpe.

Very popular television series

of the swashbuckling Captain Richard Sharpe who fought

during the Peninsular Wars, the Napoleonic period, and in India,

and the rifle that he carried, famously, was the Baker rifle,

-and you've got one.

-That's right, yeah.

-Tell me where you got it from.

I bought it from a dealer in Pennsylvania.

I'd been looking for a good ordnance issue Baker

for some years and eventually I settled on this one.

And why this one in particular?

Because it's... It was issued...

It's the version that was issued to the British Army.

That's an 1805 pattern.

-The very early... Yes.

-Very early one.

Well, Ezekiel Baker was invited along with a number of other gun makers

to produce the first rifled longarm that was used by the British services

and he was successful in the outcome of the trials,

so it's a very, very important object in the development of firearms

because it is a rifled gun.

And before this, of course, we were using a smoothbore gun,

a long arm, and that would be very quick to load, very easy to load,

but wouldn't be terribly accurate.

This, of course, is rifled, and that rifling puts a spin on the bullet...

-Yes.

-..which makes it much more accurate at longer distances.

Now, one of the important things with any antique,

is the condition, of course, not only, with this type of object,

the external condition, but the inside of the barrel as well,

what's called the bore.

And I have - I always carry it -

a bore light, which is a little light small enough to slip down the barrel.

Now I've checked this earlier to make sure it's unloaded.

I wouldn't do this if it was, obviously.

-No, of course not.

-So we'll pop this bore light down the barrel

and it's quite safe now to look inside the barrel,

to have a look at the condition, and it is absolutely superb.

You can see the twist of the rifling, and it's marvellous. Want a look?

I've never seen the internal, so...

It's very reassuring to see there's no corrosion.

-You've never seen it?

-No.

-You bought this without looking?

-I'm afraid so!

Externally it's fine, but it's reassuring to know that.

It really is good, and it's fascinating to see

the twist of that rifling, because you don't often see that.

-It's not a view you regularly get.

-No, it's not terribly pronounced.

It's not as severe as some people might imagine it would be.

Mm. The Baker rifle is a rare rifle.

I've got a volunteer version of this and I paid,

what, three... Some years ago,

I paid £5,500 for mine and it's not in as good condition.

This is in really super condition,

and long may you continue to collect, but only -

-if you can afford to - items in good condition.

-Yes, yes. That's the key.

I feel like Goldilocks here, with the three bears.

We've got Daddy bear, Mummy bear, Baby bear.

That's correct, yes.

And all looking very surprised with their mouths open in astonishment.

Wonderful expressions on them.

When was your first memory of them?

When I was about three-and-a-half, to four,

I was given them as a present by my father.

I'd been very ill and this was sort of a get-well present.

You were given all three of them?

Yes... Well actually,

I got the big one first and then the other two

came as a surprise afterwards, so we had the family.

-But there actually was a fourth.

-Which is?

But we only have three today.

-Where's the fourth?

-The fourth one was eaten by my dog!

-I hope it got indigestion!

-Sorry! Sorry!

-Erm, they're in nice condition, the ones that survived the dog.

-Yes.

And I do love this long shaggy pile,

and they were actually only invented by Steiff in the very early '50s,

about 1951, and they were called Zottys,

which is a shortening of the German word "zottig", which means shaggy.

-Yes, right.

-So, they were called shaggy bears in German.

I didn't know that... Lovely!

And it was the first time really that these open-mouthed,

-rather astonished looking bears, were made commercially.

-Yes, they are.

And they were an instant hit, because of course

they look very different to all the other bears...

-Yes, to all the ordinary bears.

-..around at the time.

-Um, so what are three little bears worth? Well, obviously...

-No idea.

..they range in value depending on the size.

I suppose the largest one is going to be in the region of £500 at auction.

-Really?

-And then, going down, I suppose...

£300, £200... You've got the best part of £1,000 here.

I'm surprised actually, because I really didn't think

they'd be that valuable because I didn't think they were old enough,

to be honest with you. That's a nice surprise.

Well, this is a familiar scene and an impressive photograph

-but a poignant story.

-It is.

This photograph was taken on the steps of this art gallery

and it's the boys and leaders of the first Glasgow Scout Troop in 1914,

before the outbreak of the First World War.

They were all commissioned as officers.

The military were very keen on having scouts enlisted

because they had good leadership skills,

but sadly of the 32 who enlisted, only three returned.

So many of these young fellows in this photograph would have perished?

Perished in the First World War, yes.

And I'm now very proud to be the Scout Leader of this troop.

So the quality of young people involved now,

is the same as we see here in 1914?

The enthusiasm is always high for Scouts and Cubs.

The story of that is about ten years ago,

my wife was out on a Sunday on Clydeside

and she went into a store that was there and she actually found it.

-Just like that?

-Just like that, yes.

-For not very much money, I'm sure.

-Actually, 12p.

-12p, wow.

Yeah, 12p, indeed.

Obviously it's a tea caddy spoon, you know, for serving the tea.

-OK.

-The important thing on it is the name.

Here we've got Stuart Cranston.

-OK.

-It was Miss Cranston who set up the tea rooms

-that Rennie Mackintosh designed.

-Right.

So in a sense it was Miss Cranston

-who launched Rennie Mackintosh on his global career...

-Oh, right.

..as, you know, one of the great men of the 20th century in terms of design.

In those days, we're talking 1900, 1910,

where could ladies go out and meet their friends and chat?

Tea shops were completely safe, so Glasgow was the centre

of the tea shop trade, where ladies could go and meet their friends.

And the success of Mackintosh was that Miss Cranston wanted

-to set up this chain of tea shops.

-Right.

Now Stuart Cranston, who we have here, he was her brother,

who, in a sense, was a rival, and he also had tea shops.

He was a tea importer.

-Right.

-He didn't employ Mackintosh.

So although Mackintosh did have teaspoons in his tea shops

-which he designed sometimes...

-Yes, right.

..they were not the same as this.

-OK.

-They've got the Cranston name, but the other side of the family.

-Right, OK.

-Do you use it?

-No, erm...

-Not in the tea caddy?

Not in the tea caddy, no. It's just been sitting there.

-I think you should. This is Glasgow history.

-OK.

Every time you tip the tea out,

-think of the Cranstons. They made Glasgow what it was.

-Fantastic.

How much would you say for it, you know?

Well, 12p was a reasonable price.

I think, because of the Cranston name,

-it's more likely to be £20 or £30.

-£30.

-OK, fantastic.

-So jolly good buy.

Thanks, I appreciate it. Thank you.

This is an amazing gold box.

I love it for three particular reasons but the first is,

the remarkable quality of the engineering work here.

You bought it... Why did you buy it?

I... My wife saw it and we both loved it

and it combines a number of my interests

in clocks, watches, musical boxes...

And I just thought it was a treasure.

Well, certainly a treasure.

First, it's gold, high quality gold.

Secondly, when you first look at it,

it looks like a miniature book.

You wouldn't think it was anything more than just

maybe a little snuff box or something like that.

Then you look very carefully at it and you notice

that it's heightened with blue enamel,

but exquisitely done. I mean, to do enamelling like that

takes a huge amount of technical skills,

so it speaks quality, that's why I first of all like it.

And then you think, "Oh, well, it's just a snuff box."

But it's not, is it?

You open it up and what have you got inside?

Well, obviously you've got a mechanism for telling the time,

again quite unusual for any snuff box like this,

but the giveaway is this musical notation.

I've never seen that. And then under here

is a remarkably early musical movement.

Now you'll see it has some marks on the side here

which are the gold marks,

and from that's from a Geneva maker around about 1812, 1815.

This is probably one of the smallest, certainly,

and one of the earliest boxes we've ever seen on the Roadshow.

The market is very, very strong.

There are lots of international collectors

for such early and rare pieces.

You're probably talking about a value of

between £10,000 and £12,000 today.

Really? Wow. My wife's taste is spot on.

-So it's all down to her?

-Yes.

MUSICAL BOX PLAYS DELICATE TUNE

DEEP TONE VIBRATES

It's a most extraordinary sound.

Sort of...

almost tenor.

It's supposed to call people to the temple to pray.

And where was that one made?

This particular one was made in Japan,

we think around about the 1930s

because all the inscriptions on the baton...

This will go for about three minutes.

But the baton inscription and underneath says it's from the 1930s.

So what made you collect singing bowls?

I read a newspaper article about 40 years ago

about singing bowls and I wondered what they were,

and I eventually found one to practise with

and started to collect them for about 40 years now,

and just built up a collection of all kinds,

mainly Himalayan bowls, Tibetan bowls...

-Yes.

-..but these are Japanese bowls and they are quite rare to find

and a much more full sound than even the Himalayan ones.

This one I think is probably much earlier than this,

and I think probably mid 19th century.

I rather like the striped decoration.

It's all been beaten out by hand.

BOWL HUMS There she blows!

Used for meditation...

-You won't fall asleep doing that, will you?

-No!

That is extraordinary, isn't it?

Now, the most intriguing, I think, is probably this one.

In 40 years I've never seen anything like it,

because it's a very big one to start but the quality of the sound

is really second to none. Even if we just hit it...

..and it starts to rise and fall with the actual sound.

That is amazing. Now there's an inscription round here.

The inscription, which is in old kanji...

Dear, oh, dear!

A little bit of an electric shock.

I wasn't expecting that, but the inscription round the edge...

Yes, the inscription, which of course would be read

from right to left, it does translate as,

"Presented by Tokugawa Ieyasu

"to the Horyuji Temple in the year 1600."

And the Horyuji Temple is the oldest of wooden structures in the world,

-dating back to about, approximately about

-1300. Gosh.

How did it come out of Japan?

Well, that worries me! I don't know.

Because at one level I've never heard anything like this

and it has a wonderful sound.

It takes a little while to build...

It's coming.

DEEP BASS TONE RESONATES

That is amazing!

I've just never come across this.

That deep, deep tone.

Yeah, it's very special.

Horyuji Temple has a wonderful collection of Buddhist antiques

and I would have liked to have found out

whether in fact it was part of that collection.

-Well, it's a very religious noise, isn't it?

-Yes.

They've all got lovely religious noises.

Now, tell me how much you've paid for these, cos I have no idea.

Well, I went into auction recently and paid £300 for this.

The point was, the people who were bidding against me

just liked the sound and just wanted...

But they didn't know what it was,

and it was put down as being Chinese lettering.

And what d'you pay for these little ones?

Erm, well this one here I bought about 35 years ago, so it wasn't...

-I think I paid £16 for it.

-Yes.

This one here, conversely, was £750,

and I bought that from a Japanese dealer in New York.

Well, this is a new one for me.

I thoroughly enjoy ethnographic arts and craft

and all those sort of things, but this is absolutely intriguing.

-Can you play us out?

-Of course.

BOWL HUMS

What a tankard!

Now that is...quite something.

What can you tell me about it?

Well, the armorial bearings are the bearings of the Fleming family

-of Killiechassie, which is a house on the Tay in Perthshire.

-Right.

And when Killiechassie went out with the Prince in 1745,

he buried his silver and he survived the campaign

but was taken prisoner after Culloden

and he was corralled with a lot of other Highlanders

and the dragoon in charge of them said in the middle of the afternoon,

"Does anyone know what the time is?"

and he took, not thinking, out from under his plaid, his gold watch.

Ah... A mistake!

The dragoon said, "You aren't who you're pretending to be

"but I'm a sporting man, I'll give you an hour to make your escape."

Which he successfully did and he went to the continent,

where I imagine he earned his living as a mercenary soldier,

till about 1780, when he was pardoned

and the estates restored to him, and he came back and amazingly,

there was the silver where he'd buried it!

Right, now it's interesting, his return at that time,

-because the armorial there...

-Yes.

-..is not as early as the tankard.

-Right.

-And actually would date to somewhere around 1790 or so.

-Oh, right.

-So perhaps on his return he had it engraved.

-Yes, yes.

-Now, what we've actually got here are Edinburgh hallmarks.

-Yes.

-The maker's mark, which we can see there, TK...

-Yes.

..that's a chap called Thomas Kerr.

-Yes.

-Now, he started work in the 1690s.

-Right.

-And just over there, there is a date letter.

There's enough there to know what it is, and it's 1703.

-Right.

-But these Edinburgh tankards,

these Scottish tankards of this period, are absolutely stunning.

-That lid... That's what's known as cut-card work.

-Yes.

-Very distinctly Scottish as well. A finial on a tankard...

-Right.

-..you rarely see in England.

-Right.

-And it's very common in Scotland.

-Yes.

And there's another thing, that even without looking at a hallmark,

you would know that this would be Scottish,

-and that's the way the thumb piece has been done.

-Oh, right.

-Now, if this were an English one, that would just stand up.

-Ah, right.

-But this has... Can you see that second little piece there?

-Yes, yes.

-The two things together scream Scotland at you.

-Right.

And look just next to the handle...

I mean, just that little, almost like a flame...

Oh, it really is quite something.

And actually this is fascinating in here as well.

-"The Fleming tankard"?

-Yes.

I love the bit at the end of this, actually...

"This piece is probably pretty valuable."

I think that's gorgeous! I think that's absolutely super!

So...a rare - and it is rare -

there are only a few of these in existence.

I think what we've got to be looking at here is...

in excess of £25,000.

Right. It's insured for 15.

-That is not enough.

-Not enough, right.

-I think you should insure it for about £35,000, possibly £40,000.

-Yes.

-Gosh!

-It would be an extraordinarily difficult piece to replace.

Yes, yes.

We had some work done on the roof some years ago

and the joiner came down and said,

-GLASWEGIAN ACCENT:

-"Your attic's in a terrible state.

"There's a lot of rubbish pressing on your beams

"and they're gonnae go if you don't get something done."

-Right.

-So I went up and there was bags of soot and lead and all that,

and among the things were this embroidery

and, in a sort of cardboard scroll, there was this drawing.

OK, let me just move in on this,

because it is part of this Glasgow story, and when thinking about,

you know, the Glasgow School of Art and the activities there,

needlework was one of the foremost disciplines.

And there you had the likes of Jessie Newbery

and you'd also got Ann Macbeth...

these are big names as far as the Glasgow Girls are concerned.

-Everybody talks about the Glasgow Boys...

-I've heard of them, but...

Well, the Glasgow Girls... Listen,

we're here to try and make sure that we put them on the map.

I mean, they're already on the map...

But when you come across something like this...

I am not 100% certain who actually was responsible.

What I DO know is that they were gifted.

I suppose when it comes to date,

we're looking somewhere let's say around about 1900, 1905,

it could be as late as 1910.

And what I do know...

This is the most wonderful composition,

because you've got these lovely daisy flowers here.

There's a symmetry there and yet there's a movement there.

So you've got these flowers and then

these lovely sort of spear shaped leaves

on these lovely, long slender stems, and then this wonderful sort of bowl,

if you will, of swirling flowers.

If you can just home in on, let's just say, one leaf here...

The amount of work that's gone into making that is quite incredible.

I am not certain as to what it's worth, quite frankly,

but when I look at something like that, I think,

if I saw that and I could buy it for £500, I'd snap it up.

If it was £1,000... Well, I'd have to ask me wife... Are you with me?

OK, and then you find this, in the same, obviously, in your loft.

Yes, you see it was rolled up in a scroll, you can see.

I wondered whether I should iron it.

-No!

-But I decided not to.

-No, don't iron it! OK, well...

OK! So...it's all in the initials, isn't it? CRM.

-Oh, yes.

-Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

-Well, that wouldn't be by him though, would it?

-Well, why not?

Why not?

-There's every reason and I'll tell you why.

-Really?

The date...1891. Now, in 1890 Mackintosh won an exhibition

for, erm... a drawing for a public building

and...he was given £60

as a prize towards a sketching trip which he decided to take in Italy.

So he set off at the end of March, in 1891,

and he returned three months later.

We have a date, 1891, and I see that he's actually titled it,

"The Latern, Rome".

Around about 10 or 12 years ago, about a hundred of these sketches

turned up on the market and so we do have something of a precedent,

but what is exciting for me is that I'm, you know, I'm just...

this distance away from this great man.

I've been looking at Mackintosh's work for the best part of 30 years.

He's still an enigma to me but here he is in his early days.

He's still a draughtsman-designer,

he's working for Honeyman and Keppie here in the city.

It's before his glory days, but he did have such a careful eye

and it's this attention to detail and balanced design

that just made him, you know, one of the great master architects

of the late 19th and early 20th century.

So it's in the loft, it's here today, it's right as rain.

I mean if I want, if I go into a gallery to buy this today,

it's somewhere, let's say, between perhaps £2,000 and £3,000.

And you think it is Charles Rennie Mackintosh?

I do.

I do.

And you know, I always hesitate before I stick my neck out

but I've got no reason to doubt it whatsoever.

It just begs the question at the moment,

"What else is lurking in your attic?"

I'm afraid it's all been cleared out and it's all on the skip.

It's mostly bags of soot, though.

It's all right, Eric! I'm sure there wasn't anything else.

It's just the idea of that skip!

Anyway...it's a great textile and could I have asked for more

than an original Mackintosh sketch?

Bring on a few Argyle Street room chairs and maybe, you know,

I'll be dreaming, but you've made me a very happy man in Glasgow.

Excellent.

The idea behind the European City of Culture Award

is to bring all the peoples of Europe together

and I think most of them have come together here

at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery.

It's been a great pleasure spending time in this wonderful place.

Until the next time, from Glasgow, goodbye.