Kedleston Hall Antiques Roadshow

It would be nice to think that the year is 1765

and I'm one of the VIPs about to tour Britain's newest stately home,

Kedleston Hall, near Derby.

The moment it was finished, guests were welcome,

and visitors agreed

that it was the grandest Palladian facade in the country,

although Dr Johnson thought it would make a great town hall.

The main block of the house was never a home.

It was a temple of the arts in which to display paintings, sculpture and furniture,

all in the best possible taste, according to another visitor, Horace Walpole, MP.

I would have been calling on the Curzon family,

owners of Kedleston Hall and lovers of all things Roman.

Every Palladian mansion has its great marble hall.

This is Kedleston's.

The tour guide was not, as you might expect,

a member of the Curzon family.

Instead, they gave that job to their housekeeper, Mrs Garnet.

Traditionally, in a large country house,

the housekeeper was always the most important and trusted member of staff. Mrs G was second to none.

She worked at Kedleston for over 40 years,

and anyone who wasn't on her guest list just wasn't worth knowing.

If she were here today, I'm sure I wouldn't be.

When Dr Johnson and his friend James Boswell came here in 1777,

the tour led to the drawing room.

Dr Johnson grumbled, "This room is too glitzy!"

On another occasion, Horace Walpole described the sofas,

supported by gilt fishes and sea gods,

as being "absurdly like the King's coach".

Mrs Garnet might have been quite pleased about that.

But Walpole and everyone else agreed that the dining room

was a great parlour in the best taste of all.

The warmest praise was contained in a visitors' book,

and I think we might need a few more volumes today,

so on behalf of Mrs Garnet, and the Antiques Roadshow, welcome to Kedleston Hall.

This looks really shiny. Do you polish it every day?

No, I'm afraid not. And it should be polished a great deal better.

-Those vestiges of green and white...

-Yes.

-..are remnants of polishing?

I'm afraid they are, I'm ashamed to say.

How did it come your way?

It's been in my family as long as I can remember.

When I was a very small child, the 1940s, I think,

my father and mother loved antiques,

and one week, this arrived,

and my mother told me that it arrived on a very snowy day.

She was out, and it was left in the garden. She came home

to find this beautiful sparkling object in the snow.

-She'd never forgotten the sight of it.

-What do you think it's made of?

Well, it looks to me brass, and I polish it as brass.

-I think it's actually made of bronze.

-Ah!

But frankly, if you polish it enough, which is what you've done

-during your period of ownership...

-Ah, yes, yes.

-..what you do

-is polish the metal down to a bare surface, which happened here.

-Right.

And in this extremely elegant bronze,

which, after all, is the epitome of the early Art Deco period...

-Yes, quite.

-..a sensuous and beautiful creature...

-She's gorgeous, isn't she?

-..with her borzoi dog behind her.

-Yes.

But she is slightly modestly draped in a robe.

-She is, yes.

-And if we look at the back of the robe,

-you can see a curious patterning...

-Yes.

-..that goes between black and gold.

-That's right.

-And that, once, was a colour effect that went all over that cloth.

-Yes.

-You've scrubbed away...

-I nearly ruined it!

-Well, no.

You haven't ruined it at all, because some bronzes are gilt bronze

and they have a gilding surface to them,

and that doesn't require cleaning either.

But this man, Louis Riche, and he was born in Paris in 1877.

As far as the market's concerned, it's desirable, because it's so big.

-Yes, quite.

-It's chunky.

I think it would be worth more if it still had its original patination,

-rather than this polished effect.

-Yes, yes.

If I was to guess as to what it would make at auction today,

I'd think probably between £3,000 and £5,000.

My goodness! That's more than I've had it valued for in the past!

-Get the Brasso out.

-Oh, my word! Yes, how wonderful!

I shall clean it even more lovingly now. That's excellent.

So, do tell me, was this a present just for you?

No. It was mostly for my father, but he bought it because of myself and two sisters.

It's always stayed really mine, but they were allowed to play with it...

-under supervision.

-How wonderful.

Well, that's very wise of you, but tell me how you came to buy it.

Well, I just saw it in a shop window

and I thought, "That's rather fun."

-She wanted, I think, £12 or so, in 1960, '60s.

-Yes.

And then I spent my evenings that winter

-repairing all the broken legs.

-So were there a lot?

-There must have been.

-There were quite a lot,

and the birds lost their toes and wouldn't stand without their toes.

Yes. So when you came to play with it, as it were, they were all intact?

Well, mostly, yes.

I was about five or six when we were first allowed to have it out.

We knew it was really special. Yes, little bits would get broken,

and we used to go, almost in tears, to say, "Look what's happened."

-Was he cross with you?

-Understanding.

Ah, that's wonderful.

I've tried to count and I keep losing count - how many pairs have you got altogether?

I think... What did we come to? 140 was it? 120 pairs in all?

-60-ish pairs, yes.

-Wonderful, absolutely wonderful.

It's an early ark. This dates to the earlier part of the 19th century.

I wondered when it would have been!

Um, the Noah's Arks, most of them were made in Nuremberg,

southern Germany,

and let's just look at the box, which has got a lovely little dove

coming with a sprig in its mouth.

And then this is how it would be kept in the bottom...

totally void of anything now,

-but to get all these animals into that...

-They don't fit.

-You can't get them in.

-Exactly, so it had another box with it,

-which was probably made of this lime wood.

-It might have been.

There's an inscription here, which is extremely difficult to read.

I can see it says 1843 and "Caroline Mary Johnston presented..."

A present from her Grandmama.

"..her Grandmama, 1843."

Oh, well, that absolutely ties in.

But, um, they're just so amusing.

I think my favourite of all is the butterfly, the pair of butterflies.

They are enchanting.

I think that IS poetic licence, because I do a little bit

of butterfly watching and I can't put a name to them.

You can't? Really(?)

-And, tell me, what you like best.

-Oh, I don't know.

What amused me most are the animals that the carver didn't know about.

The tigers and the lion. You see, the lion's got a marvellous mane.

The lioness has got an enormous chest, but there's no fur on it!

Very often, it's just Noah and his wife and maybe one son,

and the wives have been got rid of,

so it's special to have the whole family.

Very nice to have the whole lot, yes.

So I would say, if this was to come up for auction, in the right toy sale,

I can see it making somewhere between £2,000 and £3,000.

I'm not altogether surprised, knowing how things have gone up in value since the 1960s.

In the words of Martin Luther King, "I have a dream,"

and my dream is to have a copy of High Street by Eric Ravilious.

Throughout my life, I've been trying to buy this book and I've never been able to afford it.

-Why have you got it, not me?

-Um...

I'm a big fan of Eric Ravilious and '30s prints generally.

-Yes.

-But mostly I collect children's books

and one day, I was sent a children's book catalogue,

and there were some extra items in the catalogue,

and that was one of them and it was priced at £35,

and I thought, "That sounds a bargain," so I phoned him and said, "Can I have High Street, please?"

He said, "There's a problem. I've marked it wrongly in the catalogue."

But he was a very nice bookseller and he said,

"I shall be honest and let you have it at £35

"or I shall pay you £100 not to have it."

-What did you do?

-I took the book.

-That was a very sensible decision.

-How long ago was that?

-About 12, 13 years ago, I would say.

Yes! Let's put Ravilious in context. I'm passionate about him.

I think he's a remarkable man.

He was one of the great all-rounders.

He was a book illustrator, an artist.

He was a pottery designer for Wedgwood,

he did furniture, he was a good painter, he was everything,

and he was very much a key figure in that, as you say, 1930s period.

He's a great watercolourist, one of the greatest 20th-century British watercolourists.

-I've seen most of his watercolours.

-Yeah, they are fantastic

and they sell incredibly expensively,

and of course his life is extraordinary,

but also, of course, tragic and appealing for that reason.

I'm sure, as you know, he was killed in 1942,

as a war artist, serving in Iceland.

This is one of THE great Ravilious documents.

Lithographic plates, and the theme, of course, is a wonderful one.

It's, as it says, the high street.

-It's shop fronts, isn't it?

-Yes.

-So we start with the butcher

and as we go through, we find other things.

Look, there's the undertaker. It's very wide-ranging, isn't it?

He's, in a sense, walked down a street in a British town in 1938

and he's drawn every shop as it turned up.

That's one I'm keen on,

-because I've actually got that, but not in the book.

-Really? Ah.

You see what happens to High Street

is that it's bought and it's broken up.

I was going to ask about people who've broken it up.

-Well, the trouble is...

-Is it worth more as a book or broken up?

If we say there are... however many plates there are -

yes, say 20-something - and they sell for £50 to £100 each,

what's that?

-£2,000 or more.

-Yes.

-The value of the book in this condition is about £1,500.

-Wow.

-I'd still rather keep the book, though!

-The trouble is...

-I'd rather keep the book.

-You must keep the book.

Breaking it up is absolute vandalism, sacrilege...

I couldn't do that to Eric.

I think it's amazing that you two gentlemen who'd never met each other

have both brought bronzes into us

of slightly risque, slightly erotic ladies.

Now, I want to know, sir, you own this one...

Did you have racy relations that owned it? Where did it come from?

Right, well, not at all, no.

In fact my dear, late father-in-law and mother-in-law...

Two brothers married two sisters,

and the two ladies were absolutely straight-laced characters,

who would not have entertained this in the house.

-You'd better show us what it does.

-Well, I will.

Ooh...

We like that!

Do you know who it's made by?

-I really don't, no.

-Well, it's signed on the back here, Namgreb.

-Right.

-Well, it's actually made by a chap called Franz Bergman.

For his normal bronzes of animals and things like that,

he was quite happy to sign them Bergman, but for his erotic bronzes,

he thought, "I must just be a bit anonymous on this,"

so he signed his name backwards.

And he was operating in Vienna around the turn of the century,

the 20th century, so round about 1900.

Now we're going to move on a few years, about 20 to 30 years,

to yours, sir.

You have racy relations, too?

Not that I'm aware of, no.

No? Where did she come from?

Um, well, from my father, but originally from his sister.

Well, it's actually signed Schmidt Cassel.

Gustav Schmidt Cassel is not actually particularly well-known,

but whereas in this figure, the dancing girl, it's sort of...

The dance attitudes are quite repressed.

She's slightly naughtier.

We're now in the roaring 1920s when anything goes,

and she's a very erotic dancer.

She keeps her kit on, doesn't she?

-Listen to this!

-She's not got much to lose, has she?

She's very sexy. All this decoration on her stockings and things...

I have to say, though, she's very dirty indeed.

My mother and father smoked like chimneys, so that accounts for that!

It's nicotine? Well, underneath that

will be the most wonderful, glowing colours.

I'm going to be slightly cruel to you two, because I want you to tell me

what you think of this gentleman's bronze and what you think it's worth.

OK, it's a very fine, fluid figure.

I have not a clue about price. Let's say £500.

OK, your turn. What do you think about this gentleman's figure?

I think she's magic. I'd buy it.

Yeah? What would you give for her?

-All of that and a bit more as well.

-So 500 quid plus?

-Yeah.

So which one's the more valuable?

Well, it's a case of where the older figure

isn't necessarily the more valuable.

I think that, at auction, this Franz Bergman figure

-would be worth between £800 and £1,200.

-Right.

I think your figure,

by Schmidt Cassel,

even though he's not a very well-known maker,

I don't think you'd get much change from between £4,000 and £6,000.

Oh, that's good! Very nice.

Not bad, eh? Right, who wants to take which home at the end of this?

Oh, splendid! Thank you very much. Yeah, I'm pleased about that.

Something we rarely have on this programme is a musical interlude, so what should it be?

A lady harpist, a string quartet or a bunch of students who call themselves The Deirdres?

That's what it'll be.

The Deirdres will now soothe the fevered brow with their rendition of a haunting melody.

THEY PLAY AN ARRANGEMENT OF THE "ANTIQUES ROADSHOW" THEME TUNE

MUSIC STOPS AND APPLAUSE

That was superb.

LAUGHTER

One question...what was it?

What comes around, goes around.

-This one doesn't go around too well, does it?

-No.

It's based on a design dating back to the inspirational Bernard Palissy,

a French potter working in Paris in the middle of the 16th century,

in the 1550s, '60s, very much in that style,

but this is Staffordshire, it's Minton, the great majolica producer of the late 1840s right through

to the end of the century.

It's a really, really lovely example, but this grating noise...

PLATE MAKES A NOISE AS IT TURNS

..you obviously don't use it.

No, it's just sat on a table in a corner of a room.

-And you don't eat oysters.

-I don't... I hate oysters!

I wonder whether we can help it revolve a little bit more.

Yes.

Who does the dusting?

Well, I was a bit... I didn't actually know it moved round.

Oh, dear! Well, it almost does now.

-It's called the lazy Susan.

-Right.

You can imagine an oyster party... I think you still need some oil!

Anyhow, desirable object

and you've got some plates, also by Minton, also for oysters.

So you dress the table for a nice oyster party, quite an expensive party...

the plates in good condition... £1,000 each,

in bad condition -

and these are both chipped - £400.

Right.

The lazy Susan, now that it works so beautifully...

-..that would go to an American collector.

-Right.

£3,000 to £5,000.

So I don't let my children play with it any more?

You could stop using it as a roulette table.

Right.

Right.

Do you know something?

If you think that this necklace is about 135 years old, can you see any damage on it at all?

Just help me here, because I cannot see

-any defect on this whatsoever, can you?

-No.

The item is English,

it was made in around about the sort of 1865 period.

What I like about it is that the back of the necklace is as pristine as the front.

Does that mean that you don't wear it?

It hasn't been worn now for a long time.

Well, the necklace is covered in this rather lovely blue,

this what you might call Cambridge blue, studded with half pearls.

-Yes.

-And you've got these geometric sort of panels set above,

and then beaded motifs around the edge,

and then to reinforce this beading motif,

you've got larger gold beads,

gold spheres in the necklace itself.

Let's just put that down

and move on to this piece here, which is in a red velvet case,

and, within, we see lodged a very interesting and unusual pendant.

It's interesting that, I think, if you were to remove this piece of jewellery from its box,

I wonder if one would give it very much significance.

-Mmm.

-It looks like a sort of scrolling pendant.

I'm not even sure necessarily that people would think that it was gold,

it might be described as silver or even base metal, with a series

-of rather crude scrolling motifs on the surface of it.

-Mmm.

Now, I want to just show you the name in the lid, John Brogden.

He was a goldsmith and he was working in around about this period.

He peaked, I suppose, round about the sort of same period as this necklace,

about sort of, I suppose, the 1860s, '70s, '80s.

-He specialised in making what was called Revivalist jewellery.

-Right.

He revived the arts of the past.

-Yes.

-So he would make jewellery that looked as if it was Roman.

-Mm.

-Or Byzantine.

-Mm.

This has got what appears to be a stylised cruciform motif...

-Yes.

-..in this scrolling border, and, I don't know, it's puzzling.

To me the inspiration is maybe, um, Eastern European

religious symbolism.

-Yes.

-It's got little words and motifs here.

-Yes, yes.

I don't know, Byzantine, Coptic...

-difficult to say.

-Mmm.

All right, so let's just come back to piece number one,

this rather lovely necklace,

value for it, in that condition, no diamonds on it whatsoever,

just the goldsmithing technique,

must be worth a couple of thousand pounds. Must be worth that.

This one here, in the original box, being a John Brogden piece,

this Revivalist jewel is probably going to be worth

something around £2,500 to £3,500.

Right.

-So do you like Pekinese dogs?

-I do, I think they're lovely.

My mother had a tribe of them, and that was why she bought this picture.

Fantastic, how many years ago was that?

At least 30, possibly more.

What I like about this...

I mean I love Pekineses...

and their very long hair here,

you've got Mount Fujiyama in the background,

and I just ran away to ask David Battie what this...

-what these symbols are up here and he told me.

-Oh, right.

It says "Great Fuji",

so relating to the mountain behind or the volcano behind.

Well, that answers one question I had, yes.

Yes, and down here at the bottom

we've got "AC Duggan".

Now, AC Duggan is not a very well-known artist.

I actually hadn't heard of him

and I think there's only one picture ever appeared before.

-Yes.

-But that's not the point.

Dog pictures are very, very popular, and I'm surprised I haven't seen more work by him,

because they're such wonderful quality,

the way these dogs have been painted and their fur,

it's absolutely fantastic,

and their eyes, they've always got that incredible look of surprise.

-Surprise, yes.

-On their pop eyes.

I always think these were well-groomed,

-because the hair just lies so beautifully.

-Well, I love it,

and, actually, the tonal colours of the black, grey and this, the browns,

with Mount Fujiyama in the background, absolutely makes a complete picture.

So this is going to have some value because there's the dogs.

-Yes.

-Have you ever wondered what it was worth?

-I don't think my mother would have paid more than £20 for it.

-Well, not bad, and she gave it to you?

Yes.

Well, I think, in a dog sale, that would make

-probably between £1,500 and £2,500.

-Wow!

Yeah, that's fantastic.

But I just love it.

Where it hangs in our house,

it's beautiful.

Now, one of the many things I love about the Roadshow is it gives me the opportunity to meet...

don't take it personally... truly bizarre collectors.

And when faced with yet another extraordinary collection of domestic artefacts...

in this case toasters... I have to look at you and say "Why?"

-I used to run an electrical repair business.

-Right.

And 35 years ago, people would bring these toasters in for me to repair.

-And you kept them all?

-Well, no.

LAUGHTER

I used to tell the people, "Throw it in the bin and buy something safer, buy one of these new pop-ups."

Years later,

I thought, "I really fancy one of these."

Just the flippy-type toaster,

just to make my toast in the morning rather than a modern pop-up toaster.

Now, do you take them all home and try them out?

Yes, I have tried a lot of them.

-But you don't keep them in regular use?

-No, no.

-You don't think...

"What one shall we have today, dear?"

-No, no.

-Reaching up to the shelf.

No, no, we have one that we use...

-We do have one that we use every day.

-An old one?

-Yes.

Does it make a better slice of toast?

-Oh, most certainly.

-Yes, yes.

-So the pop-up toaster is a disaster?

-Definitely.

-Right.

-Yes, we don't have one in the house.

Now, you have a lot of toasters.

About 70.

Which is not a... not a tremendous amount, really.

No, I mean how many toasters does a chap need?

-Well...

-70.

Collections are known of 600-700.

-So there are plenty to go.

-Yes, plenty to go.

The toaster, when did it all start?

This is, this is the earliest toaster, um, this is about 1910.

They started in 1909, the first one came out in 1909.

Right, so porcelain base, simple rack, you turn the toast by hand.

-Yes. You burn your fingers while...

-You burn your fingers while you're doing it.

-It's a very basic unit, isn't it?

-Oh, yes.

-And so the toaster zooms and takes off from 1908, sort of, onwards.

-Yes.

What is the next improvement in toaster technology?

The next improvement was when it was turned over

without actually having to handle the bread.

Which is quite a sensible development.

Yes, and it was a woman actually who invented it.

Of course.

It's quite a simple thing, just little...

bars on the bottom here

that as you open it up, it flips the bread down and turns the bread over.

-Very good. And then of course you get other ones which are mechanical turn-overs, don't you?

-Yes.

I think this is, I think this is...

Yes, this is a fantastic one.

Demonstrate it.

Isn't that great?

And then you turn it round and you can do the other side.

-Just to turn a piece of toast.

-Yes.

The fact that it's a heart-shaped piece, I think is just great.

Now, of course, obviously, some of them are style icons.

This is a very famous American one, isn't it?

The Torex.

I've seen that often held up

as a perfect piece of 1930s streamlined design.

It's fluid, it's dynamic, and if it didn't have the word "toaster" on the front,

you could say, what is it? What does it do?

And it's only when you pull it out that it is revealed.

I'm very pleased to see one of those, because I've never seen one,

yet it's in every design book as something that is the epitome of modernism.

I think it's a fascinating subject, because it is something...

We've all got one... we've all taken it for granted.

Prices...

what's the most expensive toaster ever sold?

Um, an English one recently fetched just over £3,000.

-How much?

-£3,000.

Well, it's usually the other way around.

You're supposed to look shocked when I say...

I'm beginning to feel faint

at the idea of anybody paying... Why?

Um, it's the same as any item - if it's a rare item, it's desirable.

It's just sheer rarity.

-Yes, pure rarity.

-So what's the most expensive you've ever bought?

Oh, perhaps this one, this was...

Which is a joy.

It's a lovely toaster.

What did you pay for that?

-That was a couple of hundred pounds.

-Well, do you know...

I can imagine myself doing that.

-Yes, yes.

-I can imagine really falling in love with that.

I think that is the triumph and I can see that one is not enough.

You've got to go on and on until you've got ever more toasters.

600, that should be the target - 70's a mere beginner.

LAUGHTER

It's a Meerschaum pipe.

-Right.

-Do you know what Meerschaum is?

-No.

Well, Meerschaum is a German word -

"Meer Schaum" which means "sea foam".

-Right.

-It was thought in the ancient past

that it was literally solidified sea foam. It isn't.

It's magnesium sulphate, a very soft material that can be readily carved.

-Gosh.

-And of course look at this handsome brute.

-A Turkish, Turkish brigand.

-I'm not sure he's handsome.

And what a beard, and all this would be sort of hand-chiselled out,

and you see it's a nice soft material.

Importantly, it's also a good insulating material,

so this formed an ideal smoking vessel.

And by Jove,

this one has been smoked.

-Look at all the sort of...

-Yes, plenty of use.

Plenty of use, and the interesting thing about Meerschaum is,

when you first cut it, it's grey.

It's only with smoking that it develops this rich amber colour,

and it's gone almost amber-like down here.

-Oh.

-And that's really appreciated by collectors.

So probably carved in Vienna some time around 1860.

Where did you get it from?

It's been in my father's family for a long time.

It's a family heirloom, I guess,

not anything we thought was particularly attractive

but something we've kept.

No, OK, well, if you had to replace it,

I don't think you'd have much change out of £1,000.

-Yeah, it's just such a beauty.

-You're joking!

-No, I'm not joking.

-Oh, my goodness.

-It's absolutely fantastic.

-Gosh.

We get to see some pretty strange things on the Roadshow, but I have to say

I think you've certainly cracked it with this lot, you really have.

We've had it 40 years and not cracked it!

Right, well, I'm glad, because...

And here's another one, so talk me through these.

Well...we got married in 1968

and bought an old cottage in 1967,

and these two were in it,

-in the cottage.

-And you used them?

We used them for about a year, 18 months and then...

They're old-fashioned, aren't they?

So we had a nice, new, clean, white bathroom suite, and these remained.

So why didn't you just throw them away?

Well, they were unusual, so we said to the plumber,

"If you can take them out carefully, we'd appreciate it," which he did.

So in 1968, he took them out of the bathroom,

and they went up in the loft and they've been there...

Fantastic.

-..38 years.

-The thing with these is, they are quite rare.

-Right.

-And the reason they're rare is because they were taken out, people just smashed them up.

-Right.

I mean they date to around about 1900

and they're made by a Staffordshire factory called Cauldon,

and they are better known

for making tea services and things like that.

So I think they thought, "Why don't we sort of expand our range a bit

-"and go into sort of sanitary ware as well?"

-Right.

But what I love about them is just the quality,

the quality of these transfer- printed flowers in blue and white,

it's just of the highest order.

That's what's so typical about late Victorians

is that they would take something, you know, the basis of human function,

shall we say, and they'd elevate it and put it on a pedestal by turning things like this into real art forms.

I suppose the question is, you saved them, which is really good...

-What for?

-What for?

Well, we tucked them away, and that was it.

They were my wife's pride and joy.

I mean this washbasin, used to polish up,

you could nearly see your face in it.

-Sentimental value mainly.

-Yeah, sentimental.

-And we were going to reuse them.

-The taps shone as well when they were...

-They're chrome.

They're chrome taps and things like that,

but something like this,

they're now reproducing patterns like this, these Victorian patterns,

-and they're not inexpensive.

-No.

So these have value - the question is, do you know what sort of value?

Not the foggiest. Often wondered why potteries stopped making such...

-because they're so beautiful, aren't they?

-They're beautiful,

they're extremely functional,

and this one here,

which is called the Neptune, which I love,

because so many of them actually have wonderful names, like

the Dauntless Dolphin or the Washdown Closet, or all the rest of it,

so they have really imaginative names.

-And I have to tell you that they are extremely efficient.

-Right, oh, yeah.

-They're much better than modern-day loos.

-High flush, pull the chain.

-Exactly.

-Might splash you a bit from the top, but...

-That's right.

So what do we think they're worth?

No idea.

-OK, well, just let me tell you.

-Right.

And I'm sort of tempted to tell you that you'll be sort of flushed with something when I tell you this,

but...

if you went into a really high-end architectural emporium to buy these,

-and they were all in really good condition, which these are...

-Right.

..with the taps re-chromed and all the sort of plumbing sorted out,

you would not come out of there with any change from £5,000.

-You're joking! Goodness gracious.

-It's an awful lot of money, isn't it?

Well, we could have bought the house four times with that, then.

-Really?

-The house that they we're in.

-Great.

Well, I think, I think you've saved the best bits, so well done.

MUSICAL BOX PLAYS

That is so cute, isn't it?

What a charming object!

How did you come across it?

Um, I bought it at auction for my mum last year for Mother's Day.

-Oh, did you?

-Yes. She likes dolls.

Yes, well, I have to say that if you're crazy about dolls,

what nicer object could you get on Mother's Day?

That's absolutely great.

Um, this has to be one of the least sophisticated automata that I've ever seen, I have to say.

I mean, in France and in Switzerland,

they produced incredibly elaborate mechanical and musical toys,

but this thing, I don't think, started out life as a toy,

because you've got this canvas strap.

I think it was carried

by a street vendor of some sort, and I think it probably came

from Eastern Europe - Bulgaria or Hungary, somewhere like that.

They've got the idea of what

a Swiss or French sophisticated automata would be like,

and indeed, by winding the handle,

the motion for the pussycat and the standing figure does work.

I would guess that from the hand there, that loop,

something dangled in front of the cat's face.

-We have actually got the pom-pom, but I didn't bring it.

-Have you?

So what the child is doing is teasing the cat

by bouncing this thing up and down,

and I have to say that the cat looks completely bonkers, doesn't it?

-It does.

-I mean, it's a mad-looking cat with green eyes,

but I think the whole thing's delightful.

-Yes, I love it. We all love it.

-And your mum loves it?

-Yeah, I didn't want to give it to her, to be honest.

-Didn't you?

Oh, well, there you go, no greater love hath any man...

But, anyway, it does beg the question, how much did you pay at auction?

-This is very recently, isn't it?

-Very recently, £170.

-Is that all?

-Yeah.

-It's the sort of thing I would have thought in an automata sale,

you'd probably get between £300 and £500 for, so you did very well.

Your mother will be pleased.

She will be.

How long have you had them?

-Years. I remember them from when I was five.

-Yeah.

And they were in the family long before, they were my mum's mum's.

-So they're from your side of the family?

-Yes.

-Yes, not mine.

Are you allowed to dust them?

-No.

-No.

-You're not?

-No.

-But you like them?

-Yeah, I like them.

That's George, and that's me.

Oh, I see, I see, so you identify with them very literally.

-Yes.

-Lovely.

When you first see these vases...

I thought, "Aha, a pair of Continental vases."

What do you think?

I don't have a clue.

Because they've been in the family so long, they've sat there and they're so lovely, I just...

I didn't even want to clean them anyway, I didn't want to dust them

because I was frightened of...

doing something...

-I just didn't want to touch them.

-OK.

-So I've got no idea.

-You're afraid of them and you don't know where they're from.

-No.

-That sums it up.

-Yes.

-OK, the first thing we do to find out where it's from is we look at its bottom.

-Yes.

And there is the answer.

We learn two things whilst we're down here, one is that the material is actually bone china.

Bone china is a material we associate

with Staffordshire in particular, and with England certainly,

not with the Continent.

So we have a conundrum - we've got Continental painting,

but we have a Staffordshire body.

Not only that, we have the mark of a factory, quite a well-known factory,

but a very modest little mark there.

-Mm, oh, yes, yeah.

-Copeland.

Well, the head of the Copeland family and the potters...

-and they're potting not so far away in Stoke-on-Trent...

-Ah.

..met a man from the Continent in 18...

the 1850s, he met a man called Charles Ferdinand Hurten,

and he was impressed by this man's ability to paint.

When Mr Copeland saw him, and saw his work in the 1850s,

he said, "I'd like you to come and work for me."

That explains why you've got Continental painting, because this is so utterly Continental in style.

It's the sort of painting

you might expect to see on a piece of French porcelain.

And if we turn it round here,

we will see a signature.

At that time...and we're talking here now maybe 1870s with these...

this is well into his working period at Copeland,

-he was signing his own vases.

-Ah.

And by now, he was actually being commissioned to paint pieces

for very wealthy people,

-for royalty, for aristocrats, for Chatsworth.

-Oh, right.

He was a well-known painter in that period.

If we turn them round, we can just see how stunning...

-It is.

-..the painting is.

-Absolutely beautiful.

I mean that is 19th-century flower painting, as good as you get,

and there's a sort of wonderful sort of surreal quality

to the ivy garland at the bottom.

And on your piece here, on this one,

we've got the signature appearing right in the front there.

To be honest with you, I didn't know.

-You've never seen that?

-No, no.

I've noticed the bottom, as you were saying, but you know.

-Well, it's easily lost, isn't it?

-It is, really.

I can let you off for that. But the painting is superb.

-Yes.

-To be able to paint in that quality...

The colour and everything is beautiful, you know, really.

And it's against this delicious sort of duck egg...

blue ground, that is flag iris at its best, isn't it?

-It is, very much.

-So a quality product,

and you could argue that this man actually put the Copeland factory on the map.

-Oh, right.

-Yeah.

-He made a real difference to their fortunes.

-They became a really leading factory.

-Oh, that's very interesting.

Well, you won't be interested in the value, then?

No, not really.

Well, in that case, let's leave it at that, I'll go now...

Go on, then.

Um, I think you could quite happily say that they are likely to be worth

between £4,000 and £6,000.

You're joking!

LAUGHTER

-I need a drink.

-What, honestly?

-I should think so.

-Really?

Really, really?

Oh, my goodness me.

How much did he say?

-Oh, that is lovely.

-It's good, it's good.

Fantastic, that is, absolutely...

much more than what we thought.

-Yes.

-Much more.

-Much, much more.

Yes, I think Kedleston's old housekeeper would have approved of today's events.

She would have gone back indoors, Mrs Garnet,

and said, "Alf, it was a wonderful day, they were all very well-behaved,"

and indeed we were.

So many thanks to the Curzon family and the National Trust for letting us in,

and now from Kedleston Hall, a place built in the image of Rome,

valete - bye for now.