Lacock Abbey 1 Antiques Roadshow

This week we've come to a place that may look strangely familiar.

There's nothing strange about it,

this is a place that television just loves...

Welcome to Lacock in Wiltshire.

Ironically, when you look closely at Lacock you realise that

TV aerials don't exist here, neither do satellite dishes, burglar alarms

or those lovely yellow lines.

It's not that the villagers have spurned 20th century life,

it's just that the National Trust, who own Lacock,

are keen to retain as much of its old world charm as possible.

Living here has its pros and cons.

On the one hand you get to live somewhere beautiful,

on the other you get those awful film people

banging on your front door wanting to turn it into the backdrop

for their next big production.

Mind you, it has to be said, Lacock has never been exactly camera shy.

In 1995 approval was granted for the High Street to be transformed

into the Regency town of Meriton

for the BBC's version of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice.

This pub became the exterior of the Meriton Assembly Hall

where the Bennet girls meet Mr Darcy for the first time.

Lacock's screen credits are long. Emma, The Mayor Of Casterbridge,

Moll Flanders, Tom Brown's Schooldays...

the only person who hasn't been here it seems is Indiana Jones.

The village was old long before any of the aforementioned were dreamed of...

It dates back to the 13th century

when Lacock Abbey was founded by Ella, Countess of Salisbury.

Today, the Abbey's lawns provide the location for a screen icon almost

as venerable as the abbey itself,

and cameras roll for the Antiques Roadshow, scene one, take one.

These are the most sumptuous silkwork pictures that I have ever seen.

I am just completely spellbound by them.

The way the house has been sewn and this incredible reflection

of the house in the water,

all sewn in silk and taken directly

from this watercolour and I am sure if I stood back from them,

I wouldn't be able to know what the medium of this is.

-It only reveals itself as you get closer.

-Right.

I mean the workmanship is just fantastic.

Yes, yes.

What relationship do you have with them?

This was my grandmother's

and she lived in north Wales,

she did quite a few pictures from north Wales and then moved to Minehead,

that was after her husband died.

So was she a trained artist?

Not that I'm aware of, no. I think this entirely started off as a hobby

and she was then encouraged, um, after one or two had been produced to actually exhibit them.

And was she successful? Did she sell her things?

Yes, she did, um, to my certain knowledge she sold maybe 20 or more.

-But she was, she was basically an amateur.

-Oh, very much so, yes, yes. Very much so.

One of the things that strikes me immediately is that she had the most

passionate love of nature and the outside world, she has grasped here

the total atmosphere, there is this lovely bend in the river,

this beautiful oak tree with all the sort of strength and elegance

of a statuesque tree, all the sun on the trunk here and the detail

of the little wild flowers, the thistles, the ferns,

the grasses, but what's interesting is, the stitching is all long stitch

and in some places she's done it over the top of an under layer

so you get this relief.

That's why you get this tremendous

-feeling of depth in it.

-It's almost a 3D effect.

And the silks themselves are shaded so she must have

bought good quality silks. Do you know where she got them from?

I have no record of that at all.

Because she was in north Wales and the tradition for this sort of wonderful silk work was London

and so she was incredibly sophisticated in her tastes.

I just think they are totally mind-blowing and they're in the most amazing, amazing condition

and I am going to place a price on each of £500,

going up towards £1,000 for these bigger ones.

Obviously I will never ever part with them.

-And you can't replace them.

-As they are a family heirloom, they are irreplaceable.

This is an interesting group of Royal Worcester pieces

that one generally finds in a home in Worcester itself.

To come all the way down here to Wiltshire and find a group of Royal Worcester pieces

like this, is a bit strange.

-How does it come to be?

-Well, my mother came from Worcester

and it all either belonged to my grandparents or my mother,

it's now passed on to my wife, Eileen.

Any piece you like particularly?

-Well, I fell in love with the tea service...

-Yes.

-..when I first met my future parents-in-law.

It's very much of the 1910s,

it's a pattern called Pekin which was named I think after the town in China where they had the...

they had a rebellion I think or something like that,

and Pekin has been a very popular pattern for a very long time,

but your set goes back to about the 1910 period.

-Have you got the whole set?

-Yes.

I mean it's 100 years old.

Yes, yes, yes.

That would take you back. You've got here the

blackberries and autumnal fruits, beautiful painting on a little vase,

a little pot pourri vase for the

smells to come out of the holes at the top, by Kitty Blake.

Kitty Blake was a very daring woman for her time.

She wore bright red lipstick and smoked fags

and she was terribly annoying to the Worcester Factory.

They hated this blessed girl

because she fought them tooth and nail for permission to get the girls

to be allowed to sign there, and this one is signed.

There it is, Blake.

Kitty Blake, a marvellous girl and she ran a marvellous group of girls,

painters at the factory who were called "The Saucy Six"

and they were very very naughty girls.

They made life hell for the foreman.

-Good for them.

-Good for them.

-You've got some more like that, haven't you?

-Yes.

More like this?

-Yes.

-Oh, they're rather valuable, and also this is about the same...

just a bit before that date, 1920,

this is about 1905 and the Hadley factory

-which was a breakaway from the Royal Worcester.

-Oh, really?

But a nice little pot that one, but the gem of the whole thing to me,

apart from your tea set, is this chap.

-Oh, really?

-Is that one, yes.

-That's my husband's favourite.

-Is it?

Right, this is Highland sheep or sheep in a...

no, sheep in a, in a lowland setting I suppose, mainly they're always put

up in the Highlands of Scotland when they're by Harry Davies

but this is by Ernie Barker, E Barker,

the signature there,

who was the pupil of Harry Davies and, um he was an extremely fine

sheep painter, beautiful painter indeed, Ernie Barker,

but he had to be in the shadows of Harry Davies and if that were

-a Harry Davies piece, you wouldn't go home without an escort.

-Really?

Highly collectable.

The tea service, um, probably only going to be about £250, £300,

the little Hadley vase going to be about £200,

the Kitty Blake going to be about £400

but the gem of the thing is of course the Ernie Barker piece,

-and I reckon you're looking at say about £1,200.

-Gosh.

-So look after them won't you?

-We will, yeah.

-Guard them...

-I shall be very careful going home now.

If you use the Pekin set, I'll think of you when using it, enjoy, but careful with it.

-Thanks very much indeed.

-Thank you very much.

Well, if I hadn't read the first line and recognised the handwriting,

and indeed recognised this

British Antarctic Expedition Terra Nova stamp there, I would

realise that it was Edward Wilson, Dr Edward Wilson who went with

Captain Scott on his last expedition to the South Pole,

which he got to and of course Amundsen, the Norwegian had got there first,

and they died coming home, they all froze together.

I must read it "January 3rd 1910".

But that is wrong, it should be 1911.

He just forgot... I always forget about dates, you know, when you go over to the New Year.

"I want you to thank the dear old home cook for

"her plum pudding which we ate on New Year's Day and found simply tip-top."

That's very Edwardian, isn't it?

Yeah, it's a different era.

"It couldn't possibly have been nicer or have

"kept better or have been more appreciated by everyone in the mess

"and the shillings and six pennies and things will all be treasured

"for all time by the finders.

"I had a button which I shall take south with me."

That's absolutely fantastic.

I have to say that letters

from the Antarctic are incredibly rare.

I think if it came up for sale,

it would be quite in excess of £2,500.

Really? Gosh!

Thank you very much.

We bought it three years ago in

an antique shop in Lincoln and the antique shop owner told us that it

came from a house clearance from a lady who lived in a cathedral close

and he understood that her father had spent some time in India

and we fell in love with it, that's why...

It's one of those sort of love it or hate it,

because the decoration is just so profuse.

People often imagine that the value is therefore extremely high,

I'm wondering what you might have paid for it in your antique shop.

Um, we paid £90 so not very much.

Well, we see quite a lot of these on the Antiques Roadshow

and normally it's where people have been travelling in India around the

turn of the century, so around 1900

and they've just seen them and they've never seen anything like this.

The value of it is not particularly high, in the region of £100 to £150

so I think you did perfectly well

and it's just really interesting to see that somebody

your age isn't just buying modern furniture.

It's really nice to see that you have an eye for something like this as well.

Well, this is just a serious peach of Edwardian glass making,

tell me what's your association?

Well, I inherited it from my grandmother who told me that her

father made it, probably as a test piece, and he came from Stourbridge.

Well, this absolutely fits, this was made in 1910 so that...

your grandfather... that seems about right.

-Yes.

-It's an exquisite form of cutting, it's extremely difficult

to replicate and is associated with one firm, and one firm alone.

This is Stevens and Williams who were the finest British glassmakers

of the Edwardian era, they overtook Thomas Webb as the greatest makers

and this is a cracked ice pattern which is extremely difficult to do.

I've seen glass cutters trying to replicate and tearing their hair out in the process, so here we have

a polo mint or lifebuoy shape

with this fabulous leaf pattern coming out,

I bet it looks absolutely fab with...

-With a liquid.

-with a three dimensional...

with a liquid inside it, it must really come alive.

I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear that if you wanted

-to replace it, you'd have to pay £1,800 to £1,500.

-Really?

If you were just selling it, you'd get at least £1,000.

-Wow!

-Pretty good, eh?

-Marvellous inheritance.

-Well, cheers.

LAUGHTER

This seems to me to be all French Revolution. Am I right?

-Yes.

-Well, I have to say, why?

Um, I've had a passion about the French Revolution

since the age of about 12, my mother has a French porcelain collection,

Sevres porcelain and I used to hear romantic stories

about Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and I also watched a programme

on Blue Peter about the life of Marie Antoinette and I just found

her very fascinating and from there, I got to learn about the Revolution.

This is probably a very rude question but in 1989

the Bicentenary of the French Revolution, I was in France, celebrating with the French.

-So was I.

-You were there?

-Yes, I was 15 at the time, yes.

I didn't want to ask, but you've answered the question.

Let's begin with the French things.

I mean this seems to me to be pretty obvious.

-It's one of the cockades worn by the Revolutionaries.

-Yes, but it's a very potent symbol at the time.

This actually was there, wasn't it?

It's quite magical just to think that

and if you wore that, you were immediately showing your

allegiance to the French Revolution and if you didn't wear that,

people would wonder why you weren't and questions would be asked

and you might be on your way to the guillotine.

It was a case of "You're with us or against us."

Let's look at the British element, I mean I know this is English

-cream ware of that period.

-Yes.

But it has a revolutionary image,

it has a guillotine, it has all those messages that that implies.

-Yes.

-Now what is this saying?

Well, this is a cartoon of the British

and this is Louis XVI's brother holding aloft his head, because his brother actually

denounced him because of the French Revolution.

He pretended to be a revolutionary, so here we're saying that he was,

he had something to do with his own brother's execution.

But was this made to be bought by British sympathisers

or people who were horrified by the events? Do we know?

I have no idea, I suppose it's like us buying

Punch magazine now.

It was simply a contemporary reference.

You knew it was going on, so you bought this jug,

because it had a slightly shock horror image on it,

the beheaded Frenchman.

Yes, so he used to be called Philippe Egalite.

This is also English, isn't it?

You've actually got again the image of the guillotine.

-Yes.

-Quite dramatically so.

It's a bit like when we have a coronation now.

-This is a commemorative item.

-Yes.

-But I think what is...

I mean a coronation mug is unequivocally celebratory.

-Yes.

-These have a very complicated dual message.

I myself find it really hard to understand why we were producing such things, yes.

I think the rarest thing to me must by the fans, and here we have

-an amazing survival.

-Yes.

Um, this is a fan of the revolution showing the Estates-General...

Yes, yes.

..which was the revolutionary parliament.

Yes, it hadn't been convened in 400 years so...

And there it was, and a commemorative fan.

What could be more transient than a paper object.

This was a throwaway item.

-When people went to the theatre obviously they were incredibly hot, so fans were...

-Fans were used.

-Yes.

-But you know, the idea of this surviving.

I suppose at the time people thought, "Gosh these things are important,

"we must keep them for posterity."

But this must be unbelievably rare.

-The only other one is in the British Museum as far as I know.

-Even the French don't have one?

No, no, actually funnily enough when I go to France, quite often, it's very hard to find memorabilia there.

This is the only thing that I've bought in France.

This is a death certificate. Er...

So when you were chopped off, you got a piece of paper.

They loved keeping their records,

they were very good at record keeping.

It was the great French bureaucracy being born.

Bit later the Code Napoleon, all that stuff comes out.

-Yes.

-I think what you've done is remarkable, now I mean obviously

we talk about values. I'm sure you know better than me, the value of all this.

I sort of don't want to know.

-I'll deal with the things that are very straightforward.

-Yes.

This has had restoration as you're aware

-and it's £600 to £800 in this condition.

-Yes.

This again is in a poor condition,

it doesn't matter, it's the image that counts.

But again that affects the value.

But I think things like the fan must be...

-I mean I can hardly dare to put a value on it.

-Yes.

-We must be dealing in thousands.

-I dread to think...

-I'm not going to name a figure, I mean this is such a rarity.

-So delicate.

If nobody in France has one of these... You could name your price.

-Yes, absolutely, yes.

-What's the key?

This is actually very interesting.

It's going back to where it started, my fascination with Marie Antoinette.

This actually was opened a corner cabinet on one of her barges,

which is nice because she might well have touched it.

-How, how do you know?

-Um, because it came from somebody

that owned the corner cabinet and somehow it got sideways to me.

This is the magic, you know, I'm holding it,

it's round your neck, Marie Antoinette may have held it.

It's like a reliquary, isn't it?

It is, you cannot get closer to the event than that.

Right, amazing. Keep wearing it.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

Nice to meet you.

So you've brought me in a laptop to value which I don't

think I'm really qualified to do, but what's more interesting to me

is an amateur Cine Kodak film. Tell me about it.

It's a film that I've had hanging around for over 25 years.

-It was in some stuff I inherited from my mother.

-Right.

And I believe that it was filmed in about 1931

and probably by my grandfather.

And of what?

-Of Brooklands.

-Of course, it says so.

That's right, it says...

-Says so on the box.

-I decided to try and get it looked at,

and what we came up with was a series

-of stills which I saw, and on it I noticed one particular car.

-Right.

And the word "Bluebird" came to mind.

Fantastic, well personally I mean Brooklands has got a soft place in

my heart because I went to college there

and my lunch break was spent sitting on the banking, thinking about all the

cars that used to race by, so um, I'd love to have a look,

-and you've got it on the laptop.

-Yes, I have.

-So let's have a quick look.

There we see the banking, where I used to sit having my lunch,

and there are some cars going round and you're right.

It's the Bluebird, well that is a really iconic car obviously

and the person associated with it is obviously Malcolm Campbell.

-Of course.

-And interestingly, um, the factory where it was made,

-all the Bluebirds was made, was actually at Brooklands.

-Yes.

So it's an obvious place where it would have gone for test.

-It looks lovely up the banking though, doesn't it?

-It does.

Um, my suggestion is,

get some advice from the National Film Archive

about storage, about the way it should be preserved and so on.

You've obviously put it onto a CD so it can be seen again.

This is the first time this film's ever been shown, so it's a premiere.

Just fantastic. Brooklands is still open, it's a national museum

and they would love to have a copy I'm sure.

Finally price...

it's the only footage we know of this, extremely rare,

you've got the only one which has never been copied apart from on this CD,

so rare, historic, valuable?

Mm, not terribly, historically valuable, commercially maybe between

£600 and £1,000 so for insurance maybe around about £1,200.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you, you've made my day.

I go back 20 years to when I was a kid.

20 years?!

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

Here, we have a Russian picture,

but I'm a little bit worried about the artist, who I don't really know,

-and, indeed, the date, 1981, so it's almost wet, really.

-Yes.

Tell me about it.

Well, um, Dr Ushinov, he came from the Russian hierarchy, I guess,

because he was a child... He was in the Winter Palace in St Petersburg.

-Right. So he was a White Russian, a White Russian.

-A White Russian.

And when the Red Army came to St Petersburg,

-his family had to leave, very, very quickly.

-I bet.

-And in his bedroom he had a painting.

-Right.

It was a painting of this scene.

-Right.

-He ripped the painting off the wall,

and when he came to America, he decided to recreate it.

-Right.

-On the back of this painting,

-there is a piece of the original picture.

-Oh, is there?

So, he rebuilt this, it was a photograph,

and a piece of the original, and between the two of them,

he recreated the picture, so he had this childhood memory, so he could take it to America.

So this young, this young lad...

-Yes.

-..terrified out of his wits, ran upstairs, cut this bit of canvas.

-Ripped it.

-Ripped it, ripped it out, can we look at it?

-Sure.

-Here it is.

-That's where it is.

Ah I see, isn't that...

It's definitely much earlier, isn't it? But it was rolled in his pocket or down his trouser leg.

That's why it's so damaged.

It's a great story. Was he a professional artist, Dr Ushinov...

-I think he probably was, was he?

-Yes, he came to America

-and he became a dentist to make his living.

-Yeah, right.

But then when he retired in his 50s he started painting.

All his paintings are in galleries unfortunately,

this is the only one in a private collection.

And I wanted to buy it from him,

because I'd seen it in his house, for my wife's birthday

-and he said he doesn't sell his paintings.

-Right.

Then two years later I was walking past his house, he said, "You wanted to buy that painting."

I said, "Well, yes, but then I didn't know what your paintings sold for."

He said, "I haven't given you a price yet, come in and let's talk,"

and he said, "As long as you promise me it stays in the family setting,

"I'll sell it to you for a thousand dollars,"

-so I bought it and my wife got it for her birthday that year.

-In 1981?

No, about 1986 I bought it.

Right, right. I have to say, if I'm being really honest with you,

I think he may have been a better dentist than a painter.

-Am I being a bit rude here?

-No, that's fine.

-Thank goodness.

I loved it because of what it was. It's his life in his pictures.

It's the story that's so great

and to you it is priceless and to the great doctor it is priceless.

I think if it appeared on the market it wouldn't be the easiest picture to sell, I'm afraid.

So I think that the price you paid

was one for the story and for the whole, you know, the soul of Russia.

Watch this market very closely

because it will be I think, one day, a good investment for you.

-Right, thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

On the Roadshow we're well used to seeing the best of everything,

the most valuable of everything, the rarest of everything, the smallest of everything.

In this instance we've definitely got the longest.

Why do you need a ladder this long? Where does it live?

It lives in my barn, it's been in my barn, um,

for as long as we've been there

and I think it's probably been there since the house was built.

-Which is when?

-1880.

-So you don't have any use for it and you...

-I have a theory...

-I want a theory from you.

-I think they used it

for cleaning the gutters because it would be exactly the right height.

But that was the day when they had three gardeners, because you can't get this out by yourself...

I think the fact that it was

used for cleaning your gutters is actually fortuitous, in that it was

made for something else. What do we think it might be?

Well, there were fruit trees all round the house but it's rather long for fruit trees.

Absolutely. Fruit trees, as we know, are getting smaller and smaller.

-Absolutely.

-But no fruit tree has ever been this big.

-No.

And also a fruit ladder would have been much more portable,

they would have had to have moved it from tree to tree

quite easily, and single-handed as well, and, as you say, it takes

two or three people to set it up.

There aren't that many trades that I can think of that would need it,

and I am going for a thatcher.

As it will never be used again, it's a museum piece, this really

ought to end up in a sort of country crafts farm museum somewhere

and as it has only such limited use and value and appeal,

its value is actually quite limited.

-Minimal, yes.

-Minimal. I mean, let's say, as a curio, £100.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Now, you and I know what this is,

but I'll tell you something, a great number of people watching will have

absolutely no idea that this is a clock.

They will just assume it's a lovely globe on a stand.

This is the sun.

That is indeed the sun and, as you probably know, depending on

the time of year, you can screw the sun up or down from there to there.

-Correct.

-So you can get a true image where the sun is,

and the giveaway is here.

"The Empire Clock"... Now, where do you think that was made?

-Probably the British Isles somewhere.

-Well, you would think so,

but the give away, which is slightly cheating, is on the base,

and it says "Made in France".

The French were very good at this sort of thing and the joy of this

is the whole overall condition, it is totally untouched,

and how did you get it in that state?

It was given to me by my previous boss

and he died not long after.

-Lovely present, and it was like that when you got it?

-Yes.

I'm just so pleased that you haven't attempted to do anything to it,

because an untrained hand with something like this

would make it horrible, but this is just cracking at the moment.

I'm just going to show you how to move

the globe around, and certain people

would try maybe to move the globe by hand, but you mustn't.

Always turn the globe, and there it is, turning like that.

And you can also position

this particular ring here over any country.

If you want to be in New York, we go there, or come round here

to the UK there for the Greenwich Meridian

and you can read the time there and

the chapter ring, the equatorial chapter ring is divided into

two sections, 12 hours of daylight in red enamel

and 12 hours of black enamel symbolising night.

You probably also noted -

this is rather fun - it says here "cable". Had you noticed that?

No, I didn't know that was there.

Under the patent it says "cable" and there's a little red line.

We're talking about the early part of the 20th century here

and you can follow these red lines around the Pacific Ocean,

the whole way round here, to Eastern Australia

and then you can see other cables

that they've laid in across the Atlantic and you can generally see

how the world was developing from a telecommunication state even then.

It is a lovely object.

The clock movement, which is an eight-day movement,

is contained within this base,

and look at this lovely column, it's so beautifully cast...

some acanthus leaves here...

it is superb.

So if somebody came along and said,

"That scruffy old globe, I'll give you 3,000 quid," would you take it?

-I'd give it some thought.

-So it's tempting you.

-It would tempt me.

-How about 4,000?

-Tempted even more so.

-Yeah, sort of half a car.

But it was a gift from somebody who I don't have any more.

Well, there you go, so keep it, because it's a lovely thing.

The last one of these I had was not that long ago,

it was about 2½ years ago at a good antiques fair, sold for £6,500.

Did it? Oh.

I'd have to need money to sell that.

Well, then, never sell it, because it's a lovely thing.

Did you buy this in the 1970s?

No, I could never have afforded it.

-No, but did you know it existed then?

-I didn't even know it existed.

So do you come at it as a design enthusiast, or what?

As a design enthusiast. I love mid-20th-century design,

I try and put it in a home and use it

and bring that element of optimism that we had then.

-So your house is full of things like this?

-I'm afraid so.

And what do you think about that?

Well, most of it I think is tat. Very expensive tat, but tat.

Expensive tat then, expensive tat now?

Both, I think, because a lot of the stuff was expensive at the time, wasn't it?

Yes, so I detect a certain domestic disagreement on this little...

There is a little bit of a conflict

but there's also an understanding where both of us are coming from.

-So you're a long way apart, it seems.

-I'm afraid so, yes.

-So you live with these things reluctantly?

-I do.

-They grow on you, but...

-They're part of the package you took on.

Exactly, exactly, that's just the way it is, yes.

Um, these are wonderful examples of Weltron products, as you well know,

and what we've got here is a radio, a tape player,

-a gramophone all combined. It looks like a space station.

-Indeed.

And I'm not going to do it

but you can imagine it sort of flying through space, and this,

the space ball, plays something very long forgotten

called an eight-track cassette. Do you still have some of those?

I've got a few but unfortunately they're jolly hard to get hold of

and the only one that plays well is Down Mexico Way by Tijuana Brass.

-Hard luck.

-It's marvellous, it's marvellous!

-Absolutely marvellous.

-Both had bolt-on speakers, or you might say additional speakers.

-Yes.

-Have you got them both?

-Yes.

And this also, although it doesn't need it, had a pair of...

Yes, I haven't got those.

They also made other things.

I've seen, um, a sort of alarm-clock radio.

-Yes, I've got one of those.

-It looks like a control panel of a spaceship.

Yes, that's right. I could have brought that along as well.

Don't encourage him, please.

I think it must be a wonderful house to live in,

-full of boy's toys.

-Boy's toys.

Now, these are classics, I can understand entirely where

you're coming from, you say they're plastic tat, what's the point,

but in fact...we're talking about antiques of the future.

-They are those, yes, yes.

-This is it, nothing could have

a better period resonance, 1969-1970...

here it is, colours, style, shape.

-Optimism.

-Optimism, as you say.

Fantastic images of the way we thought the world was going to be,

so I'm going to ask you a basic question, which you can guess -

what did you pay?

-500 quid.

-500 quid.

The price that you paid is about right.

-Right.

-These ones go,

randomly, as far as I can see, from about £30 to about £150.

-Yeah, I paid 50 quid for it.

-That's bang in the middle.

-Why not go for the whole Weltron range?

-Absolutely...

This is the 2007, isn't it?

Yes, and there's a 2005.

And this is the 2001. The speakers are 2003.

-So there's more to come?

-There is.

The bad news is... I hope you've got a big house.

Have you recovered? I saw you

charging through the gate as we were closing them.

I've just got my breath back, because I only heard about the show

on the Wiltshire Radio about two and a half hours ago,

so I raced home,

put the chair in the back of the car.

We probably exceeded the speed limit a little on the way here.

-And straight into recording.

-Straight into recording.

-Lovely, all part of the service.

-Well, excellent service.

This is a wonderful chair, where did you get it from?

Well, I was in Brighton. I saw an antique shop, I walked in,

and there just inside the door was this chair, looking rather dusty,

and the chap said, "Well, I think I've got some more downstairs."

Lo and behold, there were five more, and two carvers, covered in dust.

Don't tell me you didn't buy the whole set.

You did buy the whole set?

I did buy the whole set, absolutely.

They were looking in pretty poor shape, the seat needed...

seats needed recovering

and I was...

I was delighted with them because I love the wood.

-You know what wood it is?

-Well, satinwood, yeah.

-Yes, where does that come from?

-But a particular type.

That I don't know, I think you could tell me.

I just want to turn it round,

I'm just going to swivel it round

because it's going to be a lovely colour, you really do

-see the colour on the back there, look at this here.

-It's so rich.

Absolutely, solid satinwood, but the quality of this and

that lovely flat back, they're late 19th century and one of the reasons

is you've got this splat here with the shoe there in two pieces.

If this was a Georgian chair, firstly it wouldn't be in satinwood

but the shoe would be separate, there'd be a line there as well.

That's the easiest way of telling, but the colour of this satinwood...

I don't think I've ever, ever seen this type of chair in satinwood.

It's a copy of, or inspired by the Chippendale chairs,

the Chippendale directory of 1754.

-Yes.

-That sort of carved splat back

with this Gothic OG detail here,

very, very nice, and the cabriole legs, a little bit plain,

a shame not to see a bit of carving on the cabriole leg

but that really good strong claw-and-ball foot,

-typical of that Chippendale mid 18th century period, but copies.

-Yes.

-You say you bought them in...?

-I bought them in 1980.

At the sharp end of the market in Brighton so...

-Did you bargain a bit?

-I did.

May I ask you what you paid for them?

For the six chairs and two carvers at that time, it was £5,000.

-A lot of money.

-A lot of money.

-A lot of money in 1980.

Yes, but I just fell in love with them, and as I think you have.

If you bought them for five and you're keeping them

and not selling them, you should insure them now for £20,000.

Right.

I'll bear that in mind!

-Worth running in at the last moment to the Antiques Roadshow.

-Absolutely.

In 1968

I underwent a Damascene conversion.

I was then working as a porter

in a saleroom in London, in a porcelain department,

and I hated it,

absolutely hated ceramics.

-Really?

-And then one of these came in.

-Yes.

And I looked at that, and I thought, "Ah,

"such fun the man who made this has had,

"moulding the clay, sculpting it and then glazing it and firing it,"

and really almost overnight I suddenly thought,

"I can understand ceramics,"

and of course I've been hooked ever since, but this was what set it off.

-Really?

-People call them tobacco jars because the lid comes off

and they imagine they keep tobacco in it, but actually

you can't get your hand in.

-I suppose not.

-And you can't keep it weighted, and it's not airtight.

-No use at all.

-It has no use, it sits on a shelf,

and the expression changes.

Yes, as he turns round.

As he turns round.

He's just a bit of fun.

He was made by a man called Robert Wallace Martin,

who was the elder brother of eight children,

four of whom worked in the Martin Brothers pottery,

which was firstly in London

and then in Southall on the banks of the canal,

and Robert Wallace was the one who actually sculpted the pieces.

The nice thing about the Martin Brothers is that they

invariably signed everything

"R W Martin and Brothers, London and Southall"

and they dated "21.11.1896".

-I've never really sort of taken much notice...

-Where did he come from?

It came via my mother. I really loved it as a child,

it used to sit on the mantelpiece

and I was always told to behave because he's watching me.

-And did you believe it?

-Um, I didn't believe it.

-No.

She said, "When I come back in the room, if you've moved, he'll know,

"because his head will have moved."

I didn't know his head moved because he was very high on the mantelpiece,

and when she came back in the room she said, "What have you been doing?"

I said, "Nothing, Mum, nothing," as one would.

"He's moved his head, you must have been doing something to attract him."

I just loved him and I suppose she knew that I've always...

I've always loved him and in 1953 she said, "You must have him,"

and in actual fact that was the only thing from my family

that ever came in my direction.

So he's a good bird.

Beautiful bird.

And he's going to be worth a good £5,000 to £10,000.

Wowee. Well, worth hanging on to.

-Well, I'm actually lying to you, it's worth more than that.

-Is it?

It's nearer £20,000.

Is it really?

I've looked in, you know, one or two books and seen that

it could be worth something, so...

I would happily put a quote of £20,000 to £30,000.

Wowee. I always thought he was lovely. He's got even better now.

-I'm very jealous.

-Thank you very much.

Well, some wise old bird tells me that we shall be bringing

our cameras back to Lacock, the world's most photographed village,

and when we do, we shall tell the story of the visionary

who took his first snapshot of that building back in 1835.

Until then, from Wiltshire, goodbye.