Hughenden Manor 1 Antiques Roadshow

The famous owner of this fine house in the Buckinghamshire countryside

once declared, "There are three kinds of lies - there are lies,

"damned lies and statistics."

He was, of course, a politician,

three times Chancellor of the Exchequer, twice Prime Minister.

The house is Hughenden Manor on the outskirts of High Wycombe.

Today it's owned by the National Trust, but from

the middle of the 19th century,

it was the home of Conservative leader Benjamin Disraeli.

Disraeli would have quite enjoyed the modern age

of spin and the soundbyte.

He once dismissed his main Liberal opponent with this one...

"If Gladstone fell into the Thames, that would be a misfortune,

"and if anybody pulled him out, that, I suppose, would be a calamity."

Away from the hectic atmosphere of Westminster, Disraeli found

the calm that he needed at Hughenden to devote himself to a whole raft

of social policies.

He brought in laws to encourage slum clearance

and to find housing for the poor, and legislation to stop children

being used as chimney sweeps.

It wasn't all social reform and political put-down. Disraeli was

also an enthusiastic host, the cream of Victorian high society were

invited here, and when Queen Victoria herself came to dine,

her chair was especially shortened

so that her feet would touch the floor.

The Queen always said that Disraeli was her favourite Prime Minister,

and when he died, his body was laid out beneath her portrait.

And while the apple of the Queen's eye dealt with matters of state,

his wife, the effervescent Mary Anne,

busied herself with matters on the estate.

She supervised the planting of hundreds of trees

and the landscaping of a vivid and colourful garden, all nicely matured

for today's Antiques Roadshow.

Well, this looks very comfortable.

-Yes.

-Whoops. I'm sorry, I'll tighten up this multi-purpose chair.

-How long have you had it?

-About five or six years.

-Right, and...

-Just bought it at the local auction in Amersham

where I work and near where I live. It's what I've been looking for.

I thought I'd buy another one, but I fell in love with this.

Have you had it recovered?

I've had it reupholstered, again locally in Chesham, yes.

-Well, he did a jolly good job.

-Very traditional.

Oh, yes, quite interesting that

-this idea developed over a period of 250 years.

-Uh-huh.

The first moveable chair, adjustable chair, was introduced

-in the end of the 17th century, fairly simple compared to this.

-Mm.

But what I like about it is, it shows how the Industrial Revolution,

the production of various metals and the absolutely unrestrainable

imagination of the Victorians enabled this sort of thing

to be created out of a simple idea.

This chair does absolutely everything,

and obviously, it slopes back, it rocks if I release that.

-You don't want to rock, do you?

-No.

-OK!

You've got a variety of foot-rest angles, you've got something

to support your feet, if you can reach them,

then you've got a little tray for your drink

and this, which is the most fabulous universal-joint mechanical device, to enable you to read,

and you just undo this, and the most amazing fitment

on here and it swings round so you can have a book, a drink,

-got the fire in front of you, marvellous.

-Describes my life, eh?

If you feel like easing

your head forward a little, then there's an even better headrest.

This was made by Foot, well, they were one of several firms

who patented various different designs, so can you

remember how much you paid for it?

Around £300, I think.

OK, and you've spent quite a bit of money on it?

About as much again, yes.

Even that's very good because if you go back in

the auction records, and certainly the last one I remember being sold,

because one does remember things like this, was last September

-and it made £1,400.

-Oh, very nice.

-So that was good, you bought very well.

-Sit back and enjoy it.

Sit back and enjoy the show, the perfect antique.

Thank you very much.

-Well, it's sort of "all aboard for the Antiques Roadshow".

-Yes.

It's a great train set, and it's lovely to be able to

put it out on the track here. What are your first memories of it?

My father used to keep it in the wardrobe and

one day Mother said, "You should see your father's old train set,"

and got it out and had a look at it, but I never played with it.

Now you never played with it

because it was forbidden or because it was sort of old and fusty or...?

No, I just felt that because it was so old, even then, that,

I didn't want to take the chance of damaging it,

particularly winding it up, and we never had a key in any case.

I mean, I would put it around 1900/1902. Does that fit in with Dad?

Yeah, that would fit in exactly, because he was born in 1898.

Um, it's made by one of the great

German manufacturers, a company called Gebruder Marklin.

-Really?

-Now, Marklin started the business in the 1850s

and in fact it's one of very few German manufacturing companies

that's still in existence today, still making trains.

And let's see if we can find a...

let's see if we can find a trademark of the Marklin company.

There's one on this little carriage here.

-There we go, can you see this shield?

-Yes, yes.

And in it, there is a letter "M"

and we can see that that is the trademark

of the Marklin company at that time, sort of 1900/1905 period.

I mean, to me,

what I love about this type of toy is that it's not an accurate model.

It's...it's...

got a sort of element of whimsy about it.

-Do you see what I mean?

-Yeah, I do, yeah, yes.

Everything's not quite to scale,

it's done by somebody with a free hand,

the painting is pretty but not prissy,

and I can understand

why people love them,

and people do love them

and they're very collectable.

So whilst this is not in perfect condition,

one can't pretend that it is, I still think it is

a desirable object and I would have thought we're talking about £1,500,

certainly, and maybe a little bit more with the wind behind it.

-So have you ever seen it going?

-No, I haven't,

which is probably because I have no key for it.

Oh, shame, I wish I could magic a key up, but I can't.

Um, but at least let's have

an illusion of it going along under clockwork.

-Yes.

-And just enjoy this survivor from the golden age of toys.

What a good idea.

Absolute riot of colour,

this picture, all this produce, groaning produce on this bench here,

being sold in this market

is an extraordinary riot of colour.

-Was it always this colourful in your memory?

-No.

What happened is...

We've had it in our family.

It's my brother's picture, but he can't be here today.

So I decided for a Christmas present for him, we'd get it cleaned

-and this is the final result.

-Did he know you were going to do it

-or did you just display it on Christmas Day?

-Oh, yes.

We look after it, so it hangs up. He went, "Where's me picture gone?"

I had to tell him, "I'll get it cleaned for you for Christmas."

-Was it away a long time?

-Four months.

They did a good job.

When I saw this picture at first, I mean, I knew who it was by

because it's an artist who always paints this scene.

He's called Henry Charles Bryant.

-Oh, right.

-So I felt a bit smart saying "Henry Charles Bryant",

and then, of course, it's signed down here so that was

a useful endorsement, but you know, he always does these scenes,

it makes you wonder how many he did, because you see them in sale rooms

across the country and they come up quite regularly.

They're not always exactly the same, there are little variations,

but what's distinctive about him are, in the figures, for example,

he often only does the full profile, do you see?

He avoids doing any turn of the face except for full face,

because actually, he's not very good at them.

If you look at this fellow, he's in three-quarter profile

and it doesn't quite work, but what he is good at,

remarkably good at, is painting the lemons and the eggs and the oranges

and the pineapples. Just look at them, and the radishes

and the spring onions and the potatoes, that's lovely.

That's what I like, the vegetables and how clear it is now.

Yeah, extraordinary, and then you get these chickens,

which he's done extremely well. It's a bygone age.

The EU won't let you buy any of this produce any more,

not under these circumstances, and also I like his backdrops

of these market towns, which are...

I must say, there's very little known about this artist.

-Oh, right.

-We know that he lived in London for much of his life

then he moved to Portsea,

near Portsmouth.

Those are the addresses he gave

when he exhibited in the British Institution, in Suffolk Street,

but these market towns, they don't seem to bear any resemblance...

although they seem to be generic market towns.

So when you actually got it cleaned,

did you get it valued as well?

Yes, we got it valued and it came back to say

that two pictures had been sold in London

in 1990 and 1991

-and both of them went for about £40,000 each.

-Phew!

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

-Aye.

Well, since then, of course, those high prices have smoked out some

more, and then we start to realise just how many of these he painted.

Once, of course, you've bought your H C Bryant,

you don't really need another one, and I think

the price has sort of fallen away from those heights to now.

I think it'd be more accurate

now to put something like £15,000 to £20,000 on this.

The market has dipped.

It'll probably come back, so we should hang on.

For insurance purposes, what would you say, then?

Well, that's a tricky one. Who's to say it might not creep up again?

It's just a dip, you know, you don't really know,

um, so I would probably put

a sort of an in-betweeny figure of £30,000 on it for insurance.

-Right.

-But what a wonderful thing.

It's a giant hand holding a huge pot. Oooh!

And I suppose Italian-made, made in Italy.

-Is it? Yes.

-Made in Italy, yes, and the diamonds are falling out of it.

-Yes.

-Are they real diamonds?

-I shouldn't think so.

-No, they're cut glass, aren't they?

-Yes, yes.

-But they look jolly nice, this one has fallen out.

-Yes.

Where does it live?

-That side.

-Somewhere in there, so you're going to stick that back?

-Back in, yes.

-Very valuable(!)

But it's mad, isn't it?

Through the family?

My mother bought it in about 1960 or '70, I think.

-Yes.

-Yes, and I've had it ever since, because she loved it.

-Yes.

It's the sort of thing that you either love or you hate.

-Yes, and what do you do?

-Well, I quite like it, yes.

-It grows on you, doesn't it?

-Well, I suppose so, yes.

-But what do you do with it?

-I just have it on the side.

-I have it laid down, I don't have it...

-Laid down, so...

-like that?

-Yes.

And what do you do with it then?

-Nothing, it's just an ornament on the side.

-Do you put things in it or...?

Sometimes.

It's absolutely crazy, little handmade flowers.

-Yes.

-It's quite impressive and I suppose made around about

-the 1920s. I don't suppose it's worth a huge amount.

-No.

-I mean, Mother probably prized it and you prize it.

-Yes, yes.

Worth, I don't know, about £50-£80, something like that.

-As much as that?

-It's good for a laugh, isn't it?

-Yes, yes.

-Marvellous, and put the diamond back.

-I will.

Now I recognise this young man here. It's Christopher Robin, isn't it?

-It is indeed.

-And his mother. I don't think I've seen

-a photograph of her before.

-We assume it's his mother.

-Well, I don't think he'd get that close with any old woman.

-No.

I think that's lovely, and here we have a copy of Winnie The Pooh

and it's signed "AA Milne".

Now I notice it's not a first edition.

Who is Farmhouse School?

Well, my grandmother's best friend was a teacher there,

and she wrote apparently to AA Milne

asking if he would be prepared to take an interest

in them, so he sent the book

presumably soon after that, and it wasn't a first edition,

and then that was...that was how it all started.

Well, it's the same year as the first edition, which I think

is very nice, also the fact that it's got a slightly grubby but

nevertheless very serviceable dust jacket, which means

that the cloth underneath - let's have a look - is very good.

And here he is again

looking absolutely enchanting. But you've also got, I've noticed,

this - the complete Winnie The Pooh. Now this is a lot later, obviously.

-Yes.

-But it's got rather... It's by AA Milne, obviously.

But it's got another rather interesting inscription,

inscribed, "To Miss Jean Craig to remind her of our second meeting

"after very many years

"at Dartmouth on 11th February 1960, Christopher Robin Milne."

Which suggests to me that he met her before, at the school.

I presume so, I'm not sure about that, he mentions

in his autobiography that there was this one school that they had contact

with, because obviously they had a lot of people writing in to ask for things,

but they felt that this little school in Birmingham

was one that they could support, and then they sent the book

and sent the pictures.

It's absolutely lovely, and this,

which is the piece of resistance, I have to say, is fantastic.

It's a picture of a rather effeminate son, Christopher Robin, and AA Milne,

his father, and it's signed here "Christopher Robin",

childish handwriting, and "AA Milne"

there on the other side, which I think is absolutely cracking.

Well, anybody who's collecting Pooh would want that, wouldn't they?

So, what about values?

We've never had them valued, they're family pieces.

-They're family pieces now!

-They are family pieces.

Right, right. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Um, the one with Mummy that's unsigned, I think we can probably

say somewhere between £300 and £500 on that.

The second edition of Winnie The Pooh, I should think we can say

somewhere in the region of, what, £500 for that.

This one, "The Complete Winnie The Pooh"

with the lovely inscription by

Christopher Robin Milne, I wouldn't put anything like that on it, simply

because it's from a different era, it's not the Christopher Robin that

we know and love, it's...it's a bookseller, antiquarian bookseller.

Yes, I think he was quite unhappy about his...his...

-His childhood.

-..childhood experience.

Being dragged around in a pudding-basin haircut and all that,

but for this one, which is what any Pooh collector would want...

..I can see that going for...

-£2,000.

-Goodness me, amazing.

Isn't that the most wonderful photograph, though?

-It's excellent, isn't it?

-It's got everything going for it.

-Lovely.

-Lovely to see them, and thank you for bringing them.

Well, thank you very much.

Well, this mass of colour and pattern says only thing to me,

and I think you know as well as I that we're looking

at a wonderful piece of Poole pottery.

How does it come to be in your possession?

Well, I saw it on the wall of a house which had been emptied and the

people who'd inherited the house had taken out what I was told they wanted

to keep, and this was on the wall, and I understood that everything was

going to house clearance, so I took it home and peeled off the sticker

that was on the back, the hanger, and saw that it was Poole,

which I really didn't know anything about at the time.

I phoned the Poole Collectors Club and I spoke to the gentleman who was

the secretary at the time - this is some years ago - and he said,

"Oh, yes, describe it to me... Yes, I think I know the sort of plate it is."

He said, "Can you tell me what's on the back?"

So I told him there was a pin man

doing the splits and juggling with one ball

and he said could I turn it up the other way!

The detective work's got you quite a long way down the line,

but hopefully there's a little bit more I can clear up for you.

If we look at the back to start, we quite clearly have two very

-important marks here.

-Yes.

The first of these is this sort of monogram,

-your juggling man doing the splits.

-Yes.

Well, I think you decided that it might be a "T" and an "M".

-Yes.

-Absolutely spot on, and actually it relates to a very

important gentleman at the Poole pottery works called Tony Morris.

-Right.

-The second mark that is very important and makes it something

slightly different for Poole is this one here, which is the Poole

-Studio mark.

-I see.

Now if we go back to 1963,

we've got Poole pottery working

in conjunction with Heal's of London, and they're launching a new range.

-Ah.

-And it was called Poole Studio.

Now something that I love about this which once sort of told becomes all

so obvious is the inspiration for this pattern, and actually it is a

vertical aerial view of a town plan.

-No!

-With its streets and its towns and its cities and its buildings.

That's not what I see at all.

No? Well, I'm not going to say you're wrong either,

but that was his inspiration, it was all about town planning.

-Really?

-And that's what he drew, and you think about the '60s,

it was all about town planning and rejuvenating.

One thing with this type of pottery was, it basically didn't

survive that long, it wasn't made in great quantities because it was

just so expensive.

-Really?

-They used the most expensive glazes, they used the most expensive

time-consuming methods of decoration,

-and as a result you don't see as much of this around on the market.

-Mm.

And I think an auction price today, if this were to go into a saleroom,

this would carry quite comfortably

-a pre-sale estimate of £800 to £1,200.

-Wow.

And I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't top out over

the upper estimate of that.

-Gracious.

-Commercially it is everything a Poole Studio collector

would want to see.

I've had a quick look in the books that I've got here today,

I can't find William Ball of High Wycombe offhand,

but it's great to find a Wycombe clock anyway when we're here. Can you give me any background on him?

Right, now, William Ball lived in Crendon Lane, which is now

Crendon Street in High Wycombe, and he made clocks at number eight.

He assembled the kit from Birmingham and then the cases were made by local cabinet makers.

My great great great great great great grandfather was a local cabinet maker

and he at that time was living up at the White Lion which is just up in Crendon Lane,

he was the licensee, and they made chairs and clocks and suite cabinets and all that sort of stuff.

Well, I was going to say that the case is slightly unusual.

It's obviously the style, the broken arch top and that sort of thing

is typical for the very end of the 18th century, 1790, with the

parquetry, but what is a bit more unusual is the parquetry stringing

and the way it's been inlaid,

-it's I suppose what you'd call an up-market country clock case.

-Yes.

We're not that far from London so in a sense some of the techniques that

would have been used in London...

-He's probably trying to flog them there!

-Yeah.

..have crept out to here whereas if you go...

the further you go out into the country, usually the simpler they are.

-Mm. Mm.

-One point I would

like to bring up is the base. I am not convinced

that this bit here is original, I reckon that that is replaced.

OK.

Probably end of the 19th century.

Yeah, woodworm, probably.

More likely actually is washing the stone floors.

-Oh, right, rotting the...

-Chucking down buckets of water,

washing it, and in fact somebody's made a nice stout base for that.

-Yeah.

-Which you could effectively

-wash about and you wouldn't damage the base.

-Yeah.

But they rotted out very easily.

-Yeah, OK.

-It seems to be running too.

Yes, great great great grandfather didn't want to pay the winders.

-Sorry?

-Well, you see this gentleman here...

We're talking about the lock being ripped off.

This geyser, like lots of clockmakers, he had a winder,

-and the winder went round to wind people's clocks up.

-Yeah, yeah.

Bought the clock and you had to pay the winder to come and wind it up.

-You bought the clock...

-He kept the key.

And the man...Mr Ball kept...?

-Yeah, he kept the key.

-That is seriously smart.

So he has an income, doesn't he?

Great great great grandfather said, "I'm not paying him a penny a week,"

screwdriver,

lock's gone...Blu-Tack...

so whatever.

The top of the second opening,

there's a small catch, which if we pull it down...

-Yes. There we go.

-The theory was that you could not upset the clock,

so whether it was the master of the house or the local clockmaker

who came round and wound it, kids could not play with it.

My brother and I did. We used to climb into the loft on it, hence the finial missing.

I was about to mention that, that you'd

-forgotten to bring it with you.

-It's a climbing frame.

You see, one step, two steps, three steps, into the loft, loft access.

Well, it's a fascinating story, it is a fairly conventional

clock of the period.

The local interest will obviously affect the value,

I mean, it's a family thing, but generally when you find a clock

that is locally made,

despite the fact that the movement will have been, as you say, made in Birmingham or somewhere like that,

and signed and made for a local customer, it makes a difference.

And I would say this is now the sort of clock that's worth

perhaps in the region of about £3,000 or so.

I've got it on my insurance at three, which is...

You could put that up a bit. The purpose of insurance

is that you don't have to become an antique dealer to replace it,

so the insurance value is usually a bit higher.

I'd say four for insurance and about three for value.

"James the mouler and David the butcher".

-Any relation?

-I don't think so.

I believe my mother found this at an auction a long time ago, I'm not

sure, but it's always been around, but I don't think they're family.

-And she got it how many years ago?

-I would say probably 40 to 50, I believe.

-And where does it live?

We keep it in the downstairs loo so the cats can't get at it and knock it over.

-Not because you're ashamed of it?

-No, we love it, and we don't want the cats to obliterate it.

It's a bit of a mystery piece, this.

It says underneath "Their bottle, June 1790..."

-Is that Hadleigh, Essex?

-Yes.

-So I think we can presume it's a local Essex pottery.

It's certainly that lovely native English red soil covered in a lead glaze.

Now if you put cider into a lead glaze, you get a nice little

amount of lead poisoning every time you take a swig.

-Super(!)

-And that's why they're a bit strange in those parts of Essex.

So we will never know what brought James the mouler

and David together, but whatever it was, it happened on 17th June 1790.

I think it's a really gorgeous honest pot and I guess it's worth

somewhere in the region of, let's say £500 to £800.

Oh, lovely, that's good.

They do say, as you get older and older, you retire more and more

into your childhood, and this reminds me of my childhood on the

south coast and summer holidays, catching crabs and shrimps

and prawns and eels

on the south coast.

On one glorious day I put down my net and a lobster walked backwards

into it and I came back, age seven, with a live lobster and this was

sort of post-war austerity and it was really very exciting

and my mother cooked it, and I've never eaten lobster since.

Don't try these.

This looks very much like the seashore down there at Bognor.

These are in fact Japanese

rather than Sussex, these are all late 19th century.

-Right.

-They're mostly made of bronze and they've been patinated.

-Ah.

-You didn't know?

-I thought they were bronze but then we saw brass,

when we moved those segments on the crayfish there.

-Well, what you can see here is the base colour.

-Yes.

It is actually effectively a brass.

-Yes.

-And that has then been patinated to give it this

coppery, browny, goldy whatever colour that they wanted on it.

Um, and that is what you will find on any bronze

where it stands, you'll find it rubs to that colour.

Do you have them at home crawling

across the carpet, or on a table?

Well, they belonged to my mother, and now they've come down to my

sister and me, and before that they were my grandfather's,

-and he was something of a naturalist, loved creepy crawlies like this.

-Ah.

-And so they've sort of always been there.

-Right.

On a shelf, in a row, actually.

-Really?

-So first time we've had them in the round as it were.

First time they've seen the light of day, like this anyway.

-They do look wonderful together, I think.

-They do.

Most of them are just

fixed...

demonstrations of a particular crustacean, but two are articulated

and the...

arms and legs and the claws are all moveable,

giving a very naturalistic...

Yes, we were very intrigued as children, as you can imagine.

I can imagine, and look at this one, absolutely fantastic.

It's really...

LAUGHTER

..lovely.

And these come out like that.

Now value. I think that the majority of these are in the region

of £100 to £150 each.

Once you come to something more amusing like that...

..you're in the £250 to £300 region,

and that one, we're looking at £300 to £500.

Overall we're looking somewhere at

-£1,500 to £2,000.

-That's very nice.

-Very interesting.

-So thank you very much indeed.

-A pleasure, thank you.

-Thank you.

I'm sure Disraeli would be quite happy that we're doing the Antiques Roadshow on his south lawn.

Unfortunately, of course, he's been lying here since 1881.

-Did he choose to be buried here, Jessie?

-He did.

When he died he was offered the chance of being buried in Westminster Abbey as he'd been a prime minister,

but he chose to be buried here, at Hughenden, the place that he loved,

just down the hill from the manor house and next to his wife.

And next also, I see, to Sarah Brydges-Willyams.

How did that come about?

Yes, throughout his life Disraeli made a lot of relationships with

older women who could look after him.

Mrs Brydges-Willyams was one of these.

She promised to give him her legacy when she died,

if he would let her be buried in the tomb next to him and his wife.

He and Mary Anne agreed on this, and here she lies, and the £30,000

that he inherited on her death enabled them to restore and remodel

the house and the gardens in the way that they wanted.

So the great statesman and reformer was actually short of a few bob?

He was, yes, many times through his life.

He lost all his money on South American mining shares

very early on in his life, he launched a newspaper which failed,

and he made his name for himself as a novelist, writing best-selling novels

but they made him a lot of enemies because of the thinly veiled attacks

on famous people that he put inside them, and throughout all

his life, he struggled against debt, using Mary Anne's money, money he

borrowed off friends, really to try and maintain the life he had here.

So there was much more to Disraeli than met the public eye.

Absolutely, he tried to keep it very well under wraps.

You know, I've probably said it before,

but if objects could talk, I'd be out of a job!

But I know you're going to do some talking about these plates.

-This is the focus of your attention today?

-It is indeed, yes.

Because in these two straightforward dessert dishes

lies a tale that connects these dishes with the house,

and Byron and Disraeli, yes?

-Indeed, yes.

-So just elaborate, just fill me in.

OK, my great great great grandfather was a Venetian gondolier, that's a portrait of him there.

The great man. He doesn't look very Venetian there, does he?

No, Disraeli had this picture commissioned in 1836, and had him

dressed up in a Turkish outfit for it, not quite the Italian look.

OK, now this is a copy, the original is in the house behind us.

-It hangs in Hughenden, yes.

-OK.

-It was commissioned by Disraeli

because he was quite a character.

Um, he came to England in about 1832

and went to work for Disraeli's father Isaac,

-who lived about five minutes down the road at Bradenham Manor.

-OK.

They worked there for 19 years, he was the valet.

When the house was broken up he went to work in London,

but the story that comes back to the

plates is that we were always told that they came from the house of

Benjamin Disraeli.

No-one had ever tried to verify it, but because we have Falcieri...

This is Giovanni Batista Falcieri.

..working in the house at the time, we have the perfect opportunity here

-for them to have come across some of these plates.

-Right.

But they have to have certain dates.

-They do?

-Yes, because the house was closed up in 1848,

so if the plates are later than 1848, I don't think the story works.

-All right.

-So this is the clincher really.

I want to know a little bit more about this chap because he's known as Tita?

Tita, he was nicknamed Tita, we're not too sure who nicknamed him,

but Byron always called him Tita, so he may have given him that nickname.

-OK. So I'm looking backwards and forwards in here.

-Yes.

And you do have a definite Italianate look,

you have a sort of a look of the Latin about you.

If you look through the family tree pictures, everyone looks Italian.

-Yes.

-It's a very, very strong look that's carried right down.

Now he is actually dressed in such a way, he looks more in the way

of a Greek or a Turk, doesn't he?

Which would work with a Byron connection.

Yes, well, he fought with Byron in the Greek War of Independence.

-Oh, did he?

-And when Byron died in Missolonghi in 1824, he was at

his bedside and he actually brought the body back to England for burial.

Fascinating stuff.

But Disraeli said, "Oh, yes, my father could do with a valet. Off you go to Bradenham."

So they sent him up there and he caused absolute havoc because he

was such an unusual character, for all these local people living

in this tiny village in Bradenham,

who'd never seen anything like it.

-I bet.

-He was... A lot of jealousy apparently between the staff over this character.

Was that the female staff, I wonder?

Um, I would guess so. He did actually end up marrying the housekeeper.

-Oh, did he?

-Yes,

So there must have been a relationship built up there.

Well, there was obviously a relationship because

-here you are today!

-Yeah.

You're living evidence of it, you know!

Absolutely, so yes.

So it all comes back to the plates, doesn't it?

It's all down to the plates, yes.

Let's have a look at the plates, let's just turn one up.

Um, well we can see a little bit of the history of the piece,

because it's been restored.

Now, getting to the point,

you were looking for a maker's mark, there's nothing there.

-No.

-There is a pattern number, OK. That is indicative of

quite a lot of pottery throughout the 19th century. You would have

thought whoever made these would have been happy to say, you know,

"I was proud to make that plate."

But it was just the way it was between 1820 and 1840.

-Right.

-So your plates, um,

are around about 1830 in date.

-Fabulous.

-Which I think works in well with your gondolier.

-Yes.

-With Byron, with Dizzy, as he was called in these parts.

-Absolutely, yes.

If you were to ask me what the plates are worth,

to be frank, they're the sort of thing that you can go on a local car boot and pick up for a fiver.

But we're not talking money here, we're talking treasure.

-Absolutely.

-And the treasure is in the story,

and the treasure is in the connection with a character who's long gone.

-Yes.

-What a nice little bit of family history.

-Thank you.

They've been in the family as long as I remember, then I inherited them,

and I believe my grandfather brought them home from the Far East

because he was in sanitation, and he worked out there, and I think

probably brought these home as a gift for my nan or family members.

-He was laying pipes, was he, in the Far East?

-Yes, yes.

Which countries in the Far East was he visiting?

I think he was China, Japan and those sort of countries,

back in 1900, 1910 sort of era.

He probably popped in on India on the way back, I guess.

-Quite probably.

-That's where the box comes from, the box is Indian.

-Ah, right.

-And they're all pretty much of a period. I'm going to put

the period around the 1890s, early 1900s, does that square?

Yes, yes, a bit earlier than I thought, but yes.

Yeah, OK, well, the figure we've got here is a Chinese Immortal.

He's called Lui Hai, and he's depicted with a toad...

-Can you see the toad peeping out of there?

-Yes.

Do you see this lovely little plume of smoke,

this is sort of auspicious vapour...

-Right.

-..that's coming out of the toad and he's got...

They've even inlaid the eyes.

He's rather a nice character

-and he's supposed to bring you good luck and good fortune.

-Right.

You can see the carver's actually followed the tip of the ivory,

this is the bottom part of an elephant's tusk,

the very last part of the tusk,

and they've put it onto a separate piece of ivory.

Very often, you'll find ivory figures conform to the outline of

the tusk because they don't want to waste any of the material.

-Right.

-So he's Chinese. What about this lady here?

Oh, she's beautiful, the craftsmanship,

-the exquisite...

-This is your favourite?

-Yes, I love her.

Well, I'm pretty sure I can say that today,

whatever we see,

however many thousands of pieces we're going to see today, and we see a lot of ivory,

I would be very, very surprised

if we see a piece as good as this.

In terms of carving, this is as good as it gets.

It's incredible, isn't it? And is this one Japanese or Chinese?

-This is Japanese.

-This is Japanese.

Absolutely.

There was an extraordinary

meticulous interest in total detail, obsessional.

-Right.

-I mean, when you look at this, it's obsessional, isn't it?

-Yes.

-The fan...

-The fan.

The fan, if we actually look down the edge,

you can see they've actually unfurled

just a couple of leaves out of there

and you can see the others folded back on themselves. The hairdo,

the way it's bunched...

Every time I look at it,

-I marvel at it.

-You get enjoyment out of this?

-Yes, I do.

-You're absolutely right, though,

the flowers are the crowning glory,

-aren't they?

-Yes.

That is absolutely amazing carving.

Now ivory's a very sensitive issue

because people like elephants, I like elephants. At the time

this was made, the elephant was not an endangered species.

I have no problem in enjoying this piece.

They were a farmed resource.

I know today it's a different matter,

so I don't think you should have any qualms

about owning something like this. Other people might disagree.

Remarkably, the artist's signature is incredibly modest,

in fact it's almost indecipherable, and it appears right down in the

bottom, at the centre of the piece. I think that is absolutely superb.

Right, your Indian box, not worth a huge amount of money, maybe £50.

-Right.

-Your Chinese Lui Hai,

he's probably worth about £200 or so.

Right, she's in good nick.

-Good.

-Any idea of value?

-Well, if that's £200...

-Yes.

..um...that's...£800.

Yes, I think you're right. I think if that came up for auction,

I would have thought £2,000 would be about right.

Not £800. £2,000!

Right.

Good gracious.

Do you mind if I'm a bit rude?

We see a lot of jewellery like this brought in on the Antiques Roadshow.

Do you know what they are?

-I don't, no.

-All right, well, what they are, are colourless glass

clusters for the ears.

-Right.

-And in fact there they are, mounted up in their pad.

-Yes.

-So they're white glass, known as paste.

-Right.

In colourless paste borders, mounted up in white metal and these were

made in around about, what, 1900, 1910. They're copies of diamonds.

Now what do you know about these pieces

here in the box all twisted up in this paper here?

-Shall I take them out?

-Yes.

-What do you know about that one?

All I know is that they all belonged to my great grandmother.

-Mm.

-She was from Buxton.

That's all I know, and it was passed through the family...

-So nothing was conveyed to you?

-No, not at all, no.

-This is just, this is the jewellery and it's yours.

-That's right.

So do you assume that that is the same as that,

as far as the material is concerned?

-I would have thought so, yes.

-Do you? Right.

-Well, those are diamonds.

-Right.

OK.

So those are paste, worth around about £10 or £15.

-OK.

-Those are diamonds and it's worth more than that.

-Yes.

The brooch itself was probably made in around about 1925-1930

and it's Art Deco.

It follows the clear defined design for Art Deco,

geometric, linear, mounted in platinum.

Now if I get to grips with it, the diamonds themselves are,

as I say, typically set,

but the quality of the stones is incredible.

-Mmm.

-They're practically pure white diamonds.

The centre stone would weigh around about 1.50 carat, 1.60 carat.

These weigh about a carat apiece, and you've got this

sprinkling of smaller stones within.

In the twist of paper wrapping the box,

-we've got this as well.

-Yes.

-What do you know about that?

-I would have said diamonds.

Why?

Just the way they're glistening.

-But nothing was told to you about what these were?

-No.

All right.

-Those are diamonds.

-Yes.

And they're big stones. Those are diamonds and they're huge stones.

-Yes.

-Hmm.

Let me try and tell you what sort of weight of diamonds we have here.

If I place it on the back of my hand,

-first of all let me tell you about the history of it.

-Mm-hm.

It was made in around about,

I suppose what, 1910-1915, this sort of period of belle epoque jewellery.

They sometimes called them negligee pendants and actually that means

a diamond or a gem with a bar and a bigger gem at the bottom.

Mm-hm.

But here, what they've done is

they've mounted three specimen diamonds

-and the top stone weighs around about 2 carats to 2.20 carats.

-Right.

And the bottom stones individually weigh, I suppose,

3.20 carat each.

Wow.

In other words, if you add up the total weight of diamonds here

-in this piece, in this screw of paper that you've got.

-Yes, yes.

-You've got the best part of ten carats...

-Wow.

..of diamonds in these three stones.

That's incredible.

Now, the...

So obviously you've never had them valued.

I think my mother had the necklace valued.

-She did?

-She did, yes.

-OK, but never intimated to you what it might be?

She mentioned it, yes.

-What did she say?

-£3,000.

£3,000. Well, that's a good price for a diamond pendant,

but you do not buy ten carats of diamonds for £3,000 today.

Wow.

No, this diamond brooch is, by itself,

in my opinion, worth, if you were selling it,

something in the region of £7,000 or £8,000.

-Gosh, wow.

-Just for that one.

Now you've got ten carats of diamonds, their cut is all matching

and they're reasonable clarity.

Now if you were to say to me what does the market want at the moment?

-They all want diamonds, they're crying out for diamonds.

-Right.

Frankly, there's a shortage of diamonds on the market,

and what's that doing?

It's pressing the price up and up,

so your £3,000...

I'm going to probably say something like £18,000-£22,000.

Gosh, that's amazing.

-It is really a very serious piece of diamond jewellery.

-Right.

What a spectacular thing to find,

-I'm absolutely bowled over, fabulous. Thank you very much indeed, thank you.

-Thank you.

Hughenden's owner, Disraeli, had the right phrase for every occasion,

he even had one that would suit the Roadshow

when he wrote, "The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches,

"but to reveal to him his own." Very true.

We plan to return to Hughenden when we shall reveal the story that the house kept a secret for 60 years.

Until then, goodbye.