Compilation Antiques Roadshow

Any programme that's seen as much of the world as the Roadshow

is bound to have picked up a bit of folklore along the way,

and many's the tale that is told by the old log fire

at the end of a day.

Some of the team beg Henry Sandon to tell them the one about the time

he single-handedly brought London's traffic to a standstill

when a bus driver spotted him, abandoned the vehicle

in the middle of Oxford Street, rushed over and gave him a huge, wet kiss.

Henry was flabbergasted...

As it turned out, the bus driver was a woman, but even so...

There's more where that came from, but tonight

as well things you won't have heard, we're concentrating on things you won't have seen before

with some more items that came our way recently.

Kedleston Hall was a lovely place,

and David Battie, a programme pioneer, man and boy

started his day there with one of his favourite Roadshow yarns.

We get a lot of items brought in

which are broken in some way.

The most bizarre I ever had, was a figure which the lady's mother had broken the hand off,

and in the 1920s, stuck it back again with condensed milk,

and 60 years on, it was still there!

It had worked perfectly!

-This is another variant on the theme.

-Yes.

Er, we've got a nasty donk in the side here,

and somebody has repaired it on the inside with bubble gum,

which is really rather nice.

-Where did it come from?

-Er, I don't know, it's just something

-what were always in our house.

-Really?

It's just from me mother's side, you know.

-Well, it's possible that it's made not that far from here.

-Mm-hmm.

It's made of earthenware pottery.

Yeah.

It's a very reddish clay, which you can see on here,

might come from Jackfield, somewhere like that

and then it's been joggled with coloured slips

to produce this extraordinary...

tortoiseshell effect, which is as good as I've ever seen.

It's absolutely fantastic and it's INCREDIBLY thin!

It's a wonderful bit of potting.

It's really thin.

And they've just relieved the mouth, with a little cream-coloured slip

and the handle is what we call a strap handle but it comes down

into this beautiful little terminal.

He's just gone...pip...pip

and you've got that.

It's just brilliant.

-D'you love it?

-Yeah, I like it.

-How much?

-No idea.

Well, I think, you know, it is a bit nibbled

and you have got the chewing gum repair to do something about,

but how often does one see a really good bit of mid-18th century -

this is 1750 - so it's been around for 250 years.

I didn't realise it was that old.

How often do you see one as good as that?

You really don't. I think, you know, there are dealers in London

who specialise in fine English pottery and I think

they would want that pretty much and the market is strong.

So I think we're probably looking at somewhere between

£600 and £1,000.

-So much?

-So much.

-That's a surprise, that.

-It is, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Well, I love this fantastic scarlet silk velvet on the shelves,

but unusually, they slope upwards -

they can't be good for displaying everything.

No, that's true but this is a very special cabinet

and the shelves slope for a very good reason.

In fact, it's the display cabinet for the trophies

from a local grammar school. It became surplus to requirements,

so I went to the proper authorities and said, could I buy it.

I made my bid and because it is such a specialist cabinet,

it wasn't useful for anyone else, so in the end I managed to get it.

And how much was your bid for?

I don't know if I should tell you!

-£40.

-£40.

-£40, yes.

It's the most fantastic quality.

It's this very, very richly figured rosewood.

-Yes.

-Carved in the solid, there's no wastage

of any of this rare timber.

You've got stylised fleur-de-lys clasps in the corners,

you've got this amazing shaping to the glazing

and even the shelves are carved in the solid with this bead and reel.

It's a really fantastic example from about 1825, 1830.

-As early as that?

-As early as that.

Did it need restoration?

-Not the cupboard itself, no.

-But it needed a base.

It needed a base, yes, and my wife carried the sizes of the cupboard

around in her handbag, and finally, several years later,

we were in the Lake District and looking in an antique shop

and we discovered this

but the two don't really go together.

No, because you've got rosewood and you've got oak at the bottom.

What's great is, because this is a bit earlier,

-1790-1800, George III...

-This?

-..oak chest...

and it would have been in all the servants' bedrooms in a house like this.

But this was definitely for public display

-in the grander rooms down below.

-Yes.

And your Lake District treasure, although it doesn't fit exactly,

is a sort of thing which - though slightly earlier -

wonderful quality, perhaps nowadays would be worth

-£1,000-£1,200 at auction.

-Oh.

-Very nice too.

-And this, which is a little bit later, fantastic quality,

is the sort of thing that instead of being worth £40

you could easily pay £2,500 for.

-Good heavens!

-So I'm delighted you saved it.

Thanks very much.

The back of the picture is, in many ways, the most interesting part.

You've got a little label here stuck on in 1982

suggesting that we've got a picture by Teniers

and maybe it's worth a lot of money...

-Is that what you're hoping?

-Hoping!

Well, in part, I'm going to have to let you down.

-Right.

-But we'll explain why.

-Yes.

The back tells us quite clearly

-this is not a mid-17th century painting.

-Oh, right.

Teniers was painting in the 1650s.

-Yes.

-And this is absolutely typically a 19th century canvas,

19th century stretcher,

-it's a completely 19th century picture.

-Right.

-And we know that from the back.

-Mm-hmmm.

And now if we have a look at the front,

we'll have some more detail shortly, but tell me, how did you get it?

Um, it was my aunt, who was Dutch, and she had to flee Holland

when the Germans invaded, and on her return

her father was given that as a welcome home present.

How lovely to have peasants carousing...

-Yes.

-..as a welcome home... it's a very jolly scene, isn't it?

Yes, I love it.

Well, having now decided for certain that it's not a period picture,

it's still full of all the charm of a Teniers

but with a slightly more modern approach to it.

This is not a face...he looks like a little garden gnome, doesn't he?

-Right!

-He's not got a very...

He's not got a 17th century face,

-it's very much a 19th century face.

-Yes.

I love how they're counting

how many drinks they've been buying each other.

Lovely detail, isn't it?

You've got a signature here which unfortunately, I can't read

-but it doesn't matter because we know that it's not by Teniers.

-Right.

-That having been said, it's still a very charming picture.

-Yes.

And if you were to sell it, at auction,

it's such a lovely scene, it would probably make somewhere between...

-£2,500 and £3,500.

-Right, thank you.

-So it's a lovely picture.

-Yes, we love it.

-But sadly, not by Teniers.

-That's all right, I still love it, I still love it.

-OK.

One of the most familiar images in cinema history

has to be this -

the great gorilla, King Kong... who drew these?

I've actually done these myself, using a graphite pencil.

-Why?

-Ever since, from a child, I've loved black and white horror movies,

but I think my favourite has always been King Kong

and I'm still a fan at 46.

So you've never escaped him?

-Never.

-What about you?

What's it like to have a dad who's obsessed with horror?

Um...it's a little bit weird but I've grown up with it.

Like, when I was little, I didn't always play with Barbie dolls and everything,

I used to play with Dad's little King Kong things.

So it's different, it's something to talk about.

-But your fixation goes further. If you come over here...

-Yup.

..we can actually meet him!

So, what is he?

Mr Kong, so the seller informs me

-comes from a disused cinema in Bridport in Dorset...

-Right.

..called the Electric Palace Cinema,

and when the gentleman purchased it, Mr Kong was standing inside.

Do you think he'd been there since 1933 or even '34?

We thought that he dates from the '30s and '40s

and probably was used as some kind of promotion or advertising

for the original film.

Right, now where does he live now?

At present, he lives in my back room.

I can fill you in a bit, because by a strange act of chance,

-I live in Bridport.

-Oh, right.

And I know the Electric Palace.

-Really?

-And I used to go to it, before it closed, but I can tell you

in all the times I've been to that cinema, I never met him.

You never met him?

-So all I can think of, is when it finally closed...

-Yeah.

..he was found in some store room and they must have thought,

-"Who wants this?"

-Yeah!

-"Nobody, only some lunatic would want it!"

-Only a mad person!

What did you pay for this extraordinary creature?

Er, I actually paid £200 which...

-Phew!

-..a few "phews" going around the country!

Well, I don't think that's bad at all. Let's give some Kong values.

-The rarity of the great issue of King Kong in 1933, is the original poster.

-Yeah.

It was simultaneously released all over the States - there were thousands of posters.

-Must have been.

-I think six survive,

and I think the last one that sold, fetched 34,000.

-Gosh.

-But don't get wound up.

-No!

This is not one of those great Roadshow movie moments - "And King Kong is worth... "!

-Yes.

-I think King Kong is probably, to an addict, worth £200-500,

exactly what you paid, he's very battered, he's had a hard life...

But if he is... which he appears to be...

an original 1930s foyer presentation piece

-which would greet people coming to see this exciting movie...

-Yup.

..he's a great survivor.

-Brilliant.

-Well, thank you very much.

Thanks very much, anyway.

-Well, this a wonderful photograph of E A Maund...

-That's right.

..the famous African explorer

dressed - he almost looks like a mannequin, doesn't he?

Sort of...almost stuffed!

There's another one, that's a little bit more English, isn't it?

Nothing African about that. And look at this moustache!

-Wonderful, yes!

-He must have spent hours waxing that in the morning!

It's quite incredible, absolutely splendid!

Now, you've got these two Africans here,

tell me the story.

Well...um... my grandfather was an explorer

and he was fighting against Rhodes for mining concessions...

This is Cecil Rhodes, the founder of Rhodesia, modern Zimbabwe?

..that's right, Cecil Rhodes... against Cecil Rhodes for mining concessions

in Rhodesia, and Rudd had just got a concession, perhaps a bit dubiously,

and he was trying to overturn that, and persuaded Lobengula that he ought to send two of his indunas

to see there really was a great, white queen,

and did she have the powers that were said, so it was agreed

and he dressed them up in Capetown, took them over to England

and they had an audience

with Queen Victoria and Lord Knutsford.

Rhodes was sufficiently worried while this was going on,

to go over to England to try and circumvent this,

and the company my grandfather worked for, did a deal with them

so when he got back to South Africa, his new boss was Rhodes,

so having been against him, he was now working for him.

And they became great friends, to the extent that Rhodes agreed

to be godfather to the eldest daughter, born out in South Africa.

And here it is...

"...shall be delighted to be the godfather..."

and it's Rhodes, that's wonderful.

This is quite a collection, very exciting.

African explorers don't turn up every day

and you've got some of your grandfather's papers here

on Matabeland and Mashonaland.

It's a tremendous collection. Obviously, you would never sell it,

-but do you have any idea about values?

-None whatsoever.

Well, I think it's a great story and some great photographs.

I think we're talking

-somewhere in the region of £2,000 here.

-Good Lord!

-Wonderful to see it!

-Thank you very much.

I've been looking at so many single vases today

where one has been lost or split up in a family,

it's so nice to see here the pairs staying together

-as they were always intended.

-Yes.

-Have these always been together in your family?

-Yes, they have.

They probably represent two generations.

Which d'you think are the earliest?

I'd have thought these, really.

They look that, perhaps, because they are inspired by Old Chinese -

one is looking there at a pair from the 1920s, in fact.

-Are these chinoiserie?

-Mmm.

If you look at the designs themselves

-that's the Old Willow Pattern isn't it, in a way?

-It is, yes.

-But look at those colours.

-Yes.

Where have you seen those yellows, orange, flame-reds?

You don't normally see the greens, do you?

-It's Clarice Cliff, isn't it? It's typical 1925-30.

-Yes.

And so, an old design brought up-to-date.

-Uh-huh.

-And there's the maker of those -

"Wiltshaw and Robinson, Carlton Ware".

And Carlton really was in its heyday at this period, so a pair of vases,

probably a wedding present from the '20s

going back a previous generation, a previous marriage perhaps,

can we think here, because these are even older.

-Are they?

-I mean, these would have been a wedding present

-probably in 1900-1902, that sort of time.

-Mm-hmm.

So going back a generation before, and what a splendid pair they are.

-They're nice.

-These are the work of the Moorcroft factory.

This one, the monogram there, it's not really very clear,

but we've got "W M Des" -

-that's William Moorcroft...

-Mm-hmm.

-..and a great British potter, he really was.

-Yes.

Starting off as a decorator within another pottery in Stoke,

in Burslem, in fact - "Macintyre, Burslem, England" -

and Macintyre's big designer was Moorcroft

who brought in a new technology and a whole new taste to Britain.

I mean these are Art Nouveau,

so a family buying these

-would have been really very much avant-garde and of the day.

-Oh.

So two pairs, of really very different generations,

probably rather different in price, too.

These pairs, as Carlton Ware, a good maker, and a pair

are going to be, oh...

-£500-£600.

-Mm-hmm, that's nice.

-That isn't bad!

And, here we've got Art Nouveau and Moorcroft and perfect condition,

good designs, so one's looking there...

a pair of them too...

What, sort of...oh...

-£2,500 to £3,000.

-Really?

-Mmm.

-Oh!

-Yes.

-Goodness!

Do tell me how you got him in the first place.

I was given him 33 years ago, by a friend of my parents,

whose wife had died a few years earlier. He was moving house,

and clearing out, and because I liked bears, he asked my parents

if I'd like him, so he gave him to me, and other than that

we don't know anything about him at all.

He is a spectacular bear and when you brought him in,

I couldn't believe it, because he's in such good condition for his age

and I actually would put his age at somewhere around 1910.

Now that's an ancient bear, as teddy bears go, because teddies really started in 1903, 1904.

Just a bit later, 1908, 1910, there was a firm in London

called J K Farnell, and they were making soft toys and they started teddy bears and...

It's very difficult to say, that is definitely a Farnell.

I am 90% sure it's a Farnell and I'll tell you why.

Because he's got his claws stitched inside, and now,

all other teddy bears have their claws stitched on the outside

and that was their, if you like, signature tune.

Whereas the Steiff had a button in their left ear,

Farnell have this, and very few of them have any other marks.

-So did you ever take him to bed?

-No!

-You didn't?

-No, I was told he was very, very old

and I'd got to take good care of him, so he sat on a chair in my bedroom.

So that's why he's in such good nick!

It's in immaculate shape compared with most bears

of a much later date.

They're very much in demand, these Farnell bears. I mean, have you any idea of his value?

-Not a clue!

-Not a clue, not a clue.

Well, he's not a Steiff, so he's not going to make hundreds of thousands,

but he is a Farnell and I'm going to stick my neck out and say that

you should be insuring him

for £5,000.

Good grief!

As you know, the Roadshow travels round Britain

and every time we go somewhere

I think what are the local products?

You know, what are we going to see?

Or what am I hoping to see, in that area.

Derbyshire means many things, but it means pottery and it means Denby pottery

but in this particular case, it means a particular designer

working at Denby who I've never seen.

And had I written my shopping list today, before I came here,

of the things I'd really like to see today, this is it.

All these pieces have one thing in common, don't they? What's that?

They were made at Denby pottery in the 1950s, by Tibor Reich.

Right, exactly. Why do you like them?

Um...they're very different and they fit in with modern houses

and they're original.

He was an interesting man, wasn't he?

He was born in Budapest in 1916, and then presumably in the late '30s

like some other Europeans, he came to Britain.

-He came to Derby.

-He came to Derby.

And then he looked round what to do, and one of the places he stopped

for six months was the Denby Studio.

Most of his career, actually, he was a textile designer.

The pottery is a very small sort of interlude

and although it's what appeals to you and me, we must never forget

that his primary function was a textile designer.

-That's fair, isn't it?

-Yes.

And he is much better known in that field

and I think his commissions included a lot of work

for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, cos he was in Stratford.

Designs were made for 10 Downing Street, for Concorde,

you know, he's quite an established figure in textile terms.

When I look at pieces like this, well, let's look at this bird...

I think that's a fantastic piece.

What it is to me is, South America meeting Picasso

and if you marry them together with contemporary design

this is what you get.

-Is that fair?

-Yes.

And I think there's a lot of Picasso influence on these pieces.

-Where do you buy your pieces?

-Um, at auction.

I go to a lot of auction sales.

-And how often do you find them?

-Rarely.

So how many have you got, in total?

Um, oh, about 30.

That's pretty good, that must be most of the output!

-I've not got them all!

-No, but I think in my life,

even though I've known all about it,

-I think I've seen about three pieces until today.

-Gosh!

-So...that's cos you've got it all, no wonder!

-Oh!

I'd love to find a piece. I've never seen a piece to buy,

but equally, while these are very rare and desirable

and I imagine quite expensive,

you could go to a boot fair tomorrow and find that,

-couldn't you?

-Yes.

Most of them aren't marked in an obvious way.

There's a paper label, often washed off.

That was in the bottom of a box of rubbish!

When I first saw it, it was in the bottom of a box of rubbish

at an auction sale!

And did you buy it then?

Unfortunately, somebody else spotted it

and the price was beyond me at the time.

So what was that?

-It went for £800.

-Gosh.

-But I caught up with it at a later date.

-And bought it?

-And bought it.

So that's a very expensive piece.

-Yes.

-To some people that would seem an act of complete lunacy.

I don't think that's so, I think, he is a very rare man

and for those who can appreciate really avant-garde design

in this period, which is certainly a burgeoning market,

these prices are entirely reasonable.

The plates, at £300, £400, £500...

I can go with that.

For once, you've fulfilled my ambition -

the right thing in the right place, thank you.

Paul Atterbury finding perfect happiness at Kedleston Hall.

And that's what all our experts hope to find, wherever we go.

Earlier this year, we pitched up

at Swansea's Brangwyn Hall

and the moment she arrived, Hilary Kay was able to indulge a personal passion of hers...

the bygone days of sail.

She's perhaps the most famous ship

that still exists today.

-Yes.

-The Cutty Sark. A lovely model of the Cutty Sark.

Do you know why she's called the Cutty Sark?

Yes, it's to do with, the figurehead is wearing

a short, white shift or dress.

-Called a cutty sark.

-That's right, yes.

People think that the Cutty Sark is such a wonderful name

it must be something to do with cutter, or tea clipper,

but in fact, it's from a poem by Rabbie Burns -

Tam O'Shanter features this particular figure,

the witch called Nannie, who's wearing this cutty sark,

her hand outstretched to grab the tail of the grey mare

to escape from the farmer.

It's a wonderful, completely obtuse kind of figurehead!

She's not the spirit of adventure, none of those things!

So there she is, a ship that was named after a woman's underskirt.

A shirt, yes!

But what is the relationship between the Cutty Sark and your family?

Is there a link there?

Other than that my father was a merchant seaman,

and on one of his voyages, the SS Pencarrow,

they left Barry with a load of anthracite coal

which was destined for South America, Buenos Aires.

On that voyage, which took ten months, Dad had a little cabin,

and in that cabin he made this.

And in fact, that's a picture taken during that voyage,

he's the one on the right.

So this is your father, on board the ship

-where he actually made the Cutty Sark.

-That's correct.

-Fabulous!

Well, I suppose if you've got that length of time,

-it's a great hobby.

-Absolutely.

Where did he get the plans?

Because this is a beautifully scratchbuilt model.

That is a question I cannot answer.

I know he had plans and I saw them, years ago,

but where he got them from, I don't know, but they are to plan.

-Yes.

-And in fact when I went up to see the Cutty Sark,

I purchased a set of plans and checked it, and it's perfect.

-A son checking up on his dad's work!

-Yeah, that's right.

I tell you what's going through my mind is...

If I was sitting down wanting to make this model

and thinking of an hourly rate over ten months,

we ought to be looking at the crown jewels

-from a financial point of view.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-Just doesn't work that way though!

-No, no.

I mean the value, for an object like this, is tiny

in proportion to the number of hours that went into the making of it.

I'd say an auction value would be...

£400, £500 - maybe £600 -

because of what she is, of who she is -

-because she is the Cutty Sark.

-Yes, yes.

As a piece of your dad's passion and as a piece of maritime history,

it's priceless.

-Absolutely.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you!

So you bought a collection of ceramics.

-Yes.

-What sort?

Mainly Royal commemorative ware, and I saw that jug in there

and I thought it looked quite nice, and I liked the inscriptions on it

and I thought it was funny!

You said it was a collection of Royals, this of course isn't.

-No, no.

-It's Imperial.

-It is.

Because the man at the centre of the action is none other than

Napoleon Bonaparte.

This is a delightful example of British cartoon art,

wrapped around the jug, so it's making a political statement.

Napoleon Bonaparte, after losing in 1814, was sent off to Elba,

in the Mediterranean, but unfortunately that wasn't far enough

because he escaped, and of course, he came back

and gathered another grande armee, and the Battle of Waterloo

was in fact just over a year later.

So, when this jug says,

"Bonaparte Dethron'd April 1st 1814",

-it's being triumphant rather too...

-Quickly!

I love the fact that he's in chains and begging for forgiveness.

What he's actually saying here, he's saying...

"Oh, Cursed Ambition, What hast thou brought me to now?"

And there is the Devil looking out of his pit, and saying,

"Why, to me, Come Come along, thou hast been a Most Dutiful Child".

In other words, Bonaparte has been playing the part of the Devil

throughout Europe.

-Yes.

-I love this thing, but it has, so to speak, been in the wars!

-Yes.

-The Napoleonic Wars have done for it.

-Yes.

-And that's a great shame, because it detracts hugely from the value.

-Yes.

But it's a classic example of something that...

showing the staples and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

is rather charming. If this were mine,

I wouldn't take the trouble to have it restored or even tarted up.

Where's it from?

-I was told it was Dillwyn Pottery, Swansea.

-Dillwyn Pottery, Swansea?

They certainly produced what we call these canary yellow jugs and...

-There's no mark.

-There's no mark on the bottom

it's highly likely to be them, and of course canary yellow

is very expensive glaze to put onto a piece of pottery.

Yellow is the most difficult monochrome colour

-on a piece of pottery.

-Oh?

-How much d'you think you've got invested in that?

-I dunno.

-50?

-£50?

I would be very happy to offer you £50 for it.

Would you?

But if you were selling it in a proper commemorative auction, you could, even in that state,

get a price certainly in the region

-of £300 to £500 for it.

-Oh!

That's nice to know.

Well, we're in this capacious Art Deco hall

and now we've got a wonderful Art Deco drawing.

How did you come by it?

Well, my father found it in his father's garage,

after my grandfather had died. He'd never seen it before,

but he did know that my grandfather worked

as an architect on Broadcasting House.

-Which this shows.

-Yes, this is the entrance hall, we believe.

It's a wonderful memento, and your father being intimately involved

with one of the most important civic architectural commissions

of the 20th century as well.

-What did he do?

-Well, we believe my grandfather

actually drew up the plans, that was the job that he was given.

Apart from that we're not too sure, but it was obviously a building that was very close to his heart.

What I love is - architects do this, and it's a whole subject in itself -

they commission people to give the public or the commissioner

an idea of how, from a human point of view, it would work,

and there seems to be at work here, an artist who,

in that suggestive, half draughtsman-like way,

manages to perfectly express it without putting too much

on the architecture itself,

-which after all has to be conveyed.

-Yes.

What do we know about the artist himself,

H R Thompson? I have to say, I've never heard of him.

I've not been able to find anything out about him at all.

Have you considered what it might be worth?

I don't know, I've never found anything remotely like it so...

I think it's a very chic piece.

I think its worth about

£5,000-£6,000.

Oh! Really?

Good grief!

Oh, I never would have thought that.

Really?! Ohhh...goodness me!

So who was Captain Samuel Blackmore?

He was my great-uncle on my father's side of the family.

He was a sea captain and he sailed

from Swansea to South America

at the beginning of the 20th century

and on one of his voyages

he managed to save a ship and save the lives of some people

and when he returned to Mexico, the people presented him with this watch

-to say thank you.

-What a lovely, lovely presentation.

So, the ship obviously was Mexican,

-as were, no doubt, the seamen.

-Yes.

This is in Spanish

and to be honest, I can't read that

because my Spanish isn't very good.

Have you just got any translation at all?

A friend did translate it, for me and it says...

You've got it there?

-Yes.

-Let's have a look.

"To the Captain of the English ship, Rosefield, Samuel Blackmore -

"Gratitude for saving the Mexican mailboat Morelos

"on 16th September, 1906".

It's a cracking presentation because...

Have you ever opened the back at all?

-Well, I have had a look, yes.

-Well, look at that, I mean that is,

that is absolutely...lovely.

Because basically, it's saying there -

"Repetition",

"Grande Sonnerie",

and, "in passing and at will".

Now, do you know what "grande sonnerie" means?

Not really, no.

Well, most clocks strike the hour.

Some clocks strike the quarters,

but a grande sonnerie

is something that on every quarter

strikes the hours AND the quarters.

So, to have a pocket watch

that's grande sonnerie, is technically superb

and also very, very rare.

And that is stunning, absolutely stunning.

Everything is fully jewelled,

it is as nice a quality Swiss movement as you'll ever, ever see,

and it looks rather unloved, sitting in a box...

Is it in a drawer at home or does somebody ever wear it?

On top of the kitchen cupboard.

-Top of the kitchen cupboard...

-Mmm, right on the top!

Because if you put that to auction now,

you'd get an absolute minimum - an absolute minimum -

of £6,000-£8,000.

-Thanks very much.

-So don't leave it on top of that unit!

And whatever you do, don't let it slip into a box of cereal

-and get chucked away.

-No, we won't do that.

I don't know where to start, to be honest,

because it's not very often

I'm faced with so many fantastic signatures.

I suppose I might as well start with some particularly famous people...

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy...

Here we have a signed photograph of them.

Superb, obviously definitely by them.

Diane... is that you?

-Yes.

-How did you happen to have this?

It's from my mother.

I was very young when they played the Empire Theatre in Swansea.

I imagine my mother or grandmother had their autograph from the theatre,

-they didn't stay with us on this occasion.

-What do you mean?

-We had a theatrical guesthouse.

-A theatrical guesthouse?

Most of these people stayed with us.

So, basically you, or your mother, was in a superb position

-to gain all of these signatures and postcards.

-Right, yes.

In this autograph book, there's not only a signed photograph,

we've also got the autograph book signed.

Normally, when I see Laurel and Hardy in an autograph book

I put £300 to £400 on those two signatures.

-You're joking!

-No, I'm not joking at all.

So, you've got two -

and I think that the postcard is better than the autograph,

so the postcard is £400-£600.

So, all of a sudden, those two pages

-are £700 to £1,000.

-Oh, my goodness me!

Where do we go from there?

I don't think I can deal with it all, there's too much here!

I mean, this album is just full

of music hall people, radio people, it's endless.

But this fascinates me as well, because what you have here,

is a sort of coverlet which people have signed.

-Yes.

-Did your mother embroider all of these afterwards?

-Yes, she did.

-Well, what's interesting is,

in effect, what she's done is devalue the signatures.

-Oh, right.

-Because in fact you...

OK, she's embroidered over the signatures,

-but we can't see them any more.

-That's right.

I see there's a couple she didn't embroider over,

maybe she just got fed up with doing it, I don't know.

Whoever it was didn't come to much,

could be dead so we didn't bother.

-She didn't feel it was worth embroidering over them?!

-No!

Well, there are a few that I can immediately pick out

which are quite interesting.

Here we've got the hypnotist, Peter Casson,

who was quite a stage show at the time. Did you meet him at all?

Well, I was a child at the time, but my mother did, he hypnotised her in our kitchen.

-No!

-He did, yes.

What, to do the washing-up?

-Yes, she said it was one of the worst experiences of her life.

-Really?

She said it was very strange, yes,

but he had her rising from a chair I believe...

Oh, fantastic, that's really amazing.

-Are any of the signatures duplicated on here and in the book?

-Yes.

Because if you've got double, then it doesn't really matter.

They all tie in to make a kind of cohesive example, really,

of everyone's signatures.

Even this on its own,

is probably worth maybe

-£500-£800, just as an item on its own.

-Well, well!

So if we start to flick, the price mounts very quickly.

-Mmm.

-And I think because of the history behind it

to keep it all as a lovely kind of unit,

I think is a nice thing to do.

-It's been a pleasure to look at it.

-Thank you very much.

This beautifully tooled leather box here,

is exquisite in its construction

with all the little gold flowers embossed round the edge

and I have to say that the content is really lovely.

Now, tell me a little bit about this, and indeed all these pieces.

They belonged to my mother

and she left them to me in her will.

And there were three children and they divided up the jewellery

and I got this section.

-So I don't know very much about it and I'd love to know more.

-OK.

This box here, with the name in the lid,

-Harvey and Gore...

-Yes.

..one of the most important London jewellers...

-Oh, I see.

-..specialising in antique jewellery.

I think this piece was probably made around about 1740-1750.

-Oh, really?

-Middle part of the 18th century

and it's a remarkable piece of jewellery.

Why? Because of its amazing condition.

-Yes.

-Now these stones here are all foiled at the back,

and there was an C18th tradition

-that a gemstone wouldn't just be set in a metal mount.

-Yes.

-They would put tinfoil behind to enhance the colour.

-Oh, I see.

And these are golden-brown topaz.

I wondered what jewels they were.

In typical fashion, if I turn it over

we can see that the back is all solid silver,

the back's enclosed and that is very much of that period.

How would they have worn it? There's a little clip...

-It's a corsage brooch, it would be worn as a corsage pin.

-OK.

-Here, I would imagine there was a matching brooch.

-Yes.

Now you mentioned you've got siblings.

-Yes.

-Is it possible the brooch at the bottom was given to one of them?

-No, no...

-No?

-They...

That's a relief by half!

Now, so that's that piece, there.

This piece here...

Well, I have to say, this is absolutely...wonderful.

This really moves me. This is a diamond double-headed flower brooch

and it is absolutely glorious.

Like all these antique diamonds, they're not the modern, flashy cuts,

they're the older, cushion shapes.

They have a soft brilliance about them.

These old diamonds come from places like Brazil,

and they come from all sorts of interesting sources around Calcutta

and places like that, so these are the old diamonds.

-They're not found deep in volcanic pipes...

-Yes.

..that you see in modern diamonds, from places like Kimberley.

The old diamonds were found in dried-up river beds.

You'd be walking along a river bed,

and there would be a ten carat diamond crystal.

These are the old goods.

-In India, or...?

-Indian stones.

-Fantastic.

These two flower heads are PACKED with antique diamonds!

-They are absolutely integral to this piece.

-I'd no idea, no idea at all!

Turning it over, we see

they're actually mounted up also in gold.

Now, look at this frame at the back.

That is a double clip frame,

and I would suggest that maybe your mother in the 1920s or '30s,

took the original brooches -

which weren't in this type of setting...

-D'you know where I think they were? On the front of a tiara.

-Oh, really?

She's had a jeweller remount them with a brooch frame on the back.

And then, and then!

A third piece, just to finish off the group.

This pink leather box...

I thought, "I wonder what's going to be in here,

"I wonder if it's going to be a pearl necklace".

What a lovely little piece of jewellery this is!

-These are made about the 1920s.

-Yes.

Now, this is before cultured pearls.

At the start of the 1920s, that man, Kokichi Mikimoto,

-introduced the world to cultured pearls.

-Yes.

These are natural pearls, they've got that smooth, even lustre.

-Yes.

-And in the 1920s when this would have been sold,

this piece of jewellery would have been an ENORMOUS amount of money.

A pearl necklace could cost the price of a house, in those days.

Good heavens!

Then, when cultured pearls were introduced to the world,

the market for natural pearls absolutely nose dived.

So, you've brought along today,

three absolutely cracking pieces of jewellery.

Well, let's talk a bit about what they might be worth.

This is a rare piece, it's exquisite in its condition,

and I'd suggest if you were selling it,

it would achieve in the region of

£2,500 to £3,000 today.

Wow.

The pearl necklace... they're not as expensive today,

but the beauty, the consistency and the colour of those pearls

leads me to suggest we're looking at around about

-£2,500-£3,000.

-I love this necklace. It's lovely to wear.

I'm not surprised, easy to wear, which is important with jewellery.

Now we move on to, in my opinion, the piece de resistance,

the diamond double flower head brooch.

I think you've got in the region of 12 carats of diamonds here.

Many of them are colourless and without flaws.

I think that this piece is worth around about... if you were selling it today...

£15,000.

Gosh!

Amazing, amazing.

-So, this is what I saw you filming with our Marc Allum.

-That's right.

Some fabulous signatures here.

Would you mind autographing it for me?

Oh, I say, that would be an honour.

-Thank you.

-Trouble is, there's not much room here!

Well, I'm sure we can find a small space.

-It's not easy!

-SHE LAUGHS

-Right.

-That's fine, that's lovely, thank you ever so much,

-Mum will be delighted.

-I'm honoured, thank you.

-What colour would you like to be in?

-Oh, a nice dark blue, I think.

-Certainly, I'll do that for you.

-Thanks.

And with that artistic moment, from Swansea, goodbye.