East Kirkby Antiques Roadshow


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# Coming in on a wing and a prayer

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# Coming in on a wing and a prayer... #

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Welcome aboard.

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We're back for a second visit to the former Lancaster Bomber Base at East Kirkby in Lincolnshire.

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Many good men and women served here, and the last time we came, we were inundated by visitors.

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We're hoping for the same, of course. Over and out.

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I must be one of the most vehement anti-smokers there is around,

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I really don't like cigarette smoking at all,

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but when it comes to some of the objects associated with it, historical objects, in effect,

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this must be one of THE classic items.

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This is a superb smoking compendium.

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Where did you get it from?

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It belonged to my father and it was handed down to me.

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Did he have any association with the aircraft industry? Was he interested in anything to do with aircraft?

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He did fly in a Lancaster.

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Ah right, OK.

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Of course, the Lancaster Association is particularly pertinent today, but how can I say,

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this lot would have been arch rivals because this is German, basically.

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This is a German manufacturer.

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There are certain places at which it is marked DRGM Germany.

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It's very interesting, the way it all fits together.

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Let's open the back compartment, where you would have stored tobacco.

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The whole thing is chromium plated on brass, but you've got a silvered interior

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which would stop the metal from deteriorating with the tobacco in it.

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The cigarettes or little cigars would have been housed in the wings,

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which are very neat.

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They both come to pieces like this and open up, which is rather clever.

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If you were smoking a small cigar or a cheroot,

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then you would have cut the tip with the propeller,

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there's a superb little cutter concealed in the propeller.

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Put it in there, spin the prop and cut the tip off.

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Then we've got a nice set of little ashtrays which could be spread out.

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There they are, nesting ashtrays.

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And, of course, most importantly, we have the match striker on the top

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and a collection of matches inside.

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Now what's superb about this example is that it's so complete.

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Often they're damaged or you find part of the ashtray's missing or whatever.

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-How has it survived so well?

-I'm not sure.

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Have any of you ever smoked, or did you father smoke at all?

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Yes, my father and mother smoked.

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Did they use it as a smoking compendium or was it an ornament?

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-I think they did, you know, occasionally, yes.

-Right, OK.

-Yes.

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And what would you say on date?

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Would you have any idea of the date?

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Um, well sort of 1930s.

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That's about right, about 1925-1930.

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It says much about the period, attitudes of the time.

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People smoked like troopers in that period,

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so, of course, it wasn't regarded in the same way, so putting it in context like that. Value...

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value is a difficult one.

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I've seen damaged ones of these make considerable sums of money

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and I think this is worth in excess of £2,000 at auction.

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Which is a staggering amount of money for a smoker's compendium.

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So, I have to say, it's one of the best examples I've seen for many years

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and it's been a pleasure talking about it.

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These are great. Do you know where they come from?

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The only idea I do have, apparently, many, many years ago, they stood at an entrance to a circus.

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And how long have you had them?

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I've had one, this one, for about 12 months.

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-Yes.

-And that one for roughly about ten months.

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And did they not come together?

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No, they didn't, no. We bought this one first.

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I found him in a garage because this person was advertising tools

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and with my husband being a woodworker, he was looking at the tools

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and this chap was at the corner, covered in mould,

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so I spoke to the chap and, er

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I managed to buy him off him.

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-Oh, well done.

-Then he informed me that he was one of a pair.

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-And the pair came back together.

-Yes.

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Actually, this circus connection is not so far off from the truth, actually,

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because I think these things were probably used in a showground,

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they were on a carousel that went around a Noah's Ark, and originally

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there would have been a vertical bar of metal

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that ran from the floor of the carousel

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up to the ceiling of the fairground carousel

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and that bar would have been attached to the rearing beast, Noah's Ark style,

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on the side of the neck here,

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and you can see on the other horse, there's also another vertical bar.

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So I guess originally there may have been 30 or 40 of these prancers, all mounted up

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-in an enormous carousel, which would have been a sight, wouldn't it?

-It certainly would have been.

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But the really oddball thing about these is, that instead of being made of soft wood,

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which is what you'd expect a European bit of fairground art, these carved figures, to be made of,

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these are made of a form of Oriental hardwood

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and I've a funny feeling that this came off, perhaps, a fairground in Singapore

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or in Hong Kong, so there's been a European twist with this, because these are Oriental-looking horses

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and there's also some age to them, because if we go down here to this haunch, you can see there's a large

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patch that's been crudely repaired where some child would have mounted the fairground horse like this.

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The bar is sitting here and he would have charged around the outside, probably given it a kick

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and a lump would have fallen off, and some person has simply nailed on that haunch piece.

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I think they're absolutely brilliant.

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Now, you bought one and then you bought the other one,

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do you mind me asking you how much you paid under a year ago, for each of these?

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Um, £300 each.

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£600.

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£600 for the pair, yes.

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Well, that I think is extraordinarily cheap, because they're very decorative,

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they have got this showground, this fairground connection, which is very popular with collectors,

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and I wouldn't be surprised, in the right sale, if you didn't get say between £1,500 and £2,000...

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maybe £2,000 to £3,000.

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Very nice.

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Well, I've got two questions for you.

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Do you know what these objects are called? And what are used for?

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Unfortunately, I've absolutely no idea what they're used for and I've no idea what they're called.

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Right, well they're known as dummy boards and they are

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a visual joke, they're sort of pieces of interior decoration that

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started round about the 1650s

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and really finished by the end of the 18th century.

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A lot of people have ideas that they might be fire screens, but if you put

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something made out of wood in front of a hot fire, the result is pretty self evident.

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They're really designed to fill space in buildings

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and on that basis, do you know where they've come from?

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Um, in 1835 a local club bought some furniture from Birmingham

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and it was transported from Boston

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and these just happened to be in the packaging with the furniture

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and to date, no-one's come to claim them.

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Really? There's quite a good story about these.

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During the time of the American War of Independence in the late 18th century,

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there was a diary entry of a lady who recorded that one of her friends had gone into a house

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and had seen one of these figures sitting in the hallway

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and had been so frightened she thought the British had arrived.

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Perhaps we might have done better in America if we'd had a whole load of cut-outs.

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-Where are they now?

-They're in a store room.

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So they're not actually in situ in a great house somewhere.

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No, they're just in an open room.

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That's the sort of thing that you would find them in the hallway of a big house

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and perhaps in a house of somebody who was a senior officer and perhaps there was a great big sort of

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trophy of arms over there and these two figures were flanking it, to get that sort of military air about them.

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What excites me about them is that they are pretty early, they're about 1730

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and I can be pretty certain about that from the style of the uniforms

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and there is a well-known drill book written by a chap called Bernard Lens, who also illustrated it,

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and the original, I think, is in the National Army Museum,

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and the uniform of these soldiers is almost identical.

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You can see all the detail of this man's costume and his equipment,

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even down to the big bag where he carried his

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ammunition and his hand grenades, the bayonet for his musket, even the sort of pose of them, because

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this book was designed for people who were the army's elite troops of the day, they're called Grenadiers,

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they threw hand grenades which are dangerous, like a sort of spy bomb, you light it...

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and they were the elite troops, the storm troops of their day.

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Well, they're not in the best of condition but there is a lot of good original paint left under there and

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I think that they are sufficiently important for somebody to have them conserved and cleaned.

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I think that, cleaned, they would be absolutely magnificent, they would show all their original colours

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and I can see those, if they were sold,

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making between £5,000 to £10,000.

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-Wow!

-You just don't see them, they're so rare.

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Better not use white spirit on them.

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Please!

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If you're going to get them cleaned, they need to be done by somebody who

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is a proper picture conservator

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who will be able to remove all the dirt and the grot and the tobacco smoke off them

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-and then they'll suddenly step out bright, as if they were painted yesterday.

-Fantastic.

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They are indeed. Thank you.

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Now I don't think I've ever seen an object like this.

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When I first saw it, I thought "is it a postcard album, is it a photograph album, what on earth is it?"

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you know with this wonderful piece of carpet on the outside

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and it's only when you open it, you realise it is actually about carpets,

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it's a whole sort of book about the making and selling of carpets

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and it's German but it's in English.

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It shows all the aspects of carpet making, we see the showrooms, we see the manufacturing processes,

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we see the selection of the dyes, all the types of carpets being made, very high-quality carpets.

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We even see the Scottish sheep from which they were made, and when we come to the end,

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which I think is fun, we actually see them in sort of what you might call a domestic context.

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-They're saying in the 1930s, "you in your smart villa, you need our carpets".

-Correct.

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And there is what is a really major enterprise, in Germany,

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you know, Axminster, Wilton, they'd all fit into there with ease.

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What I don't understand is where you come in.

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Well, my great aunt was a barmaid in Nottingham

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and the German businessman who owned the factory used to visit England

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to buy the wool to make the carpets

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and he met my great aunt in this hotel in Nottingham

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and eventually she went back over to Germany with him,

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and married the owner of the factory.

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So from behind the bar, she became, in a sense, a carpet empress.

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-That's correct.

-Do we know anything about her?

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-What did she look like?

-There are photographs in the album

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because the house in which they lived was also a show home for the carpets.

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And there are some photographs here of their silver wedding anniversary.

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And she's sat actually next to her husband here,

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and this is Leo Koch, the owner of the factory.

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-And this is silver, 25 years.

-That's right.

-Well, if we're in the '30s and they've been married 25 years

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-this must have happened quite early on, that they met.

-I think in the, early 1900s.

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-Yes.

-And she moved over there around about oh, 1910 I believe,

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but eventually had to come back before the Second World War because of the Nazi regime.

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-So she was never a naturalised German?

-Um, probably not, no.

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He stayed in Germany during the war and died during the war, so they never met again.

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So this is, in a sense, the end of the story.

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It is indeed, yes, and unfortunately they didn't have any children.

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-So that was the end of the line?

-It was indeed.

-It's an astonishing story.

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It is, it's quite fascinating, it's part of the family history.

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How do you descend from them? They had no children.

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My grandfather lived in Doncaster and my great aunt was his sister,

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so the family history's on my grandfather's side.

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-Right.

-In actual fact they sent quite a lot of gifts at Christmas time,

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over to this country, including this gold bracelet.

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-So this was sent from Germany for the family, in effect.

-Yes.

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Well, that's an expensive gift, you're looking at several hundred pounds.

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I believe so, it has been valued today at £300 to £400.

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So you've talked to somebody who knows about jewellery.

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It just looks a jolly good thing.

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-So they were sending, casually, several hundred pounds' worth of gifts at Christmas.

-They were.

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It was a grand family, and this, if I've understood, this is their house.

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This is the house in which they lived.

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Well, we can do the comparison.

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And so all through here their house shows the carpets, it also shows the incredible style...

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-Indeed, yes.

-..in which they lived. How big was the house?

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-It's, er... right at the beginning there.

-Oh, yes.

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-It is quite a sizeable house.

-It's quite substantial, isn't it?

-Indeed, yes.

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-I think this alone is a wonderful document about the carpet industry in Germany.

-Yes.

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But when you've put that sort of personal detail onto it, I find it so exciting.

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Suddenly, this wonderful but rather impersonal document comes to life, you know, she lived here.

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-That's correct.

-She sat at that dining table.

-She did.

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This is a great document. If I saw that in a shop for...

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£200 or £300, I'd be tempted to buy it, because it's such a wonderful vision of that industry at that time.

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-In a sense, this doesn't matter.

-It's family history.

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The way all this ties together,

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and it tells us a story about incredible enterprise and also how she rose from nowhere.

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-Absolutely.

-What a woman!

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-Good Lord, a whole squadron of Morris Minors seems to have landed!

-It has.

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-How lovely to see you.

-Welcome, Tim.

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So what is your role with this crew?

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I'm with the Lincolnshire branch of the Morris Minor Owners Club and we thought we'd

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-come along today to welcome Antiques Roadshow to East Kirkby.

-Well, that's brilliant.

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And is it a thrill now to see the Morris Minor on the pre-title for each Antiques Roadshow?

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Absolutely, it's displacing that make we won't mention.

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-The foreign rubbish, you mean?

-That's the one.

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Quintessential British car for a quintessential British programme.

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Quite right too. And how many years have they been making the Morris Minor?

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The very first one began in October 1948 and was at the Motor Show of that year

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-and it went right up until 1971.

-Did it?

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-Mm.

-So there's going to be quite a celebration coming up in 2008 then?

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Oh, there will be, the 60th anniversary celebrations,

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-we're hoping to have a rally with up to 2,000 Minors at Stanford Hall in the Midlands.

-Brilliant.

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So that should be another day to look forward to.

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And how many of these motor cars do you think have survived in this country?

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I would think probably in regular use, probably 25,000,

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could be more, could be double that number, sitting waiting to

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-be restored, brought back to life again.

-Lurking in a barn.

-Lurking in a barn, a garage.

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What about the international aspect? It went all over the world, didn't it?

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It did, because up to 90-95% was exported in the early years

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and they went all over the old Empire and dominions,

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Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa,

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the African territories and even into Europe.

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So where are you off to with the squadron now?

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We're going to go off to a little pub not very far away and have a meal and a wind down

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and enjoy the reminiscences of a great day.

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-Good for you, it's been extremely nice to meet you and safe driving.

-We will do, thank you.

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Well, I can think of nothing more appropriate, here we are in the shadow of this great Lancaster bomber

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and you bring me in a picture of a Lancaster bomber, so tell me about it.

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The picture is of a Lancaster bomber of 617 Squadron, the famous Dam Busters.

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The Dam Busters, yes.

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And back in 1980 I attended a function which was attended by many...

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the surviving members of 617 Squadron who carried out the raid,

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and I was lucky enough to get these guys to sign the picture for me, so it's got

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Mickey Martin, Geoff Rice, Les Munro and, of course, Bob Knight.

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Yes. So this was issued as a print, some, what I don't know, 30 years after the event.

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-Indeed, yes.

-Really.

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Now you must have done a lot of research. Whose is that?

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The aircraft was actually the aircraft flown by Bob Knight

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and his crew and which is why he's signed it at the top, Thumper,

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which was their nickname for the aircraft.

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Thumper Mark II. I think that's great fun.

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Well, you've crushed it, you've rolled it and crushed it

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and that's why there are all these white marks, you've actually

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broken the surface of it, but I don't think that really matters, it's all part of its history.

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The most extraordinary thing is that you've got this collection of Dam Busters here,

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probably the last time they all met up together, what do you think?

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-Almost certainly.

-Because quite a few are dead now, aren't they?

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Exactly. The event was organised by the 617 Squadron Association

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and I think that that probably was their last full meeting.

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And during it they flew up to the Derwent reservoir in Derbyshire and dropped a commemorative wreath

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in memory of their fellow squadron members.

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Yes, yes, and you have another print here of Spitfires, and this one is in good condition and is signed by

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-Douglas Bader.

-Douglas Bader and Group Captain Johnnie Johnson.

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-Both of them aces...

-Indeed.

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..in the Second World War, absolutely fantastic.

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Well, the one I obviously like most, the one I'm keenest on, I have to say, is this one.

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-If we have to put a value on it, and I suppose we must, that must be a very rare set of signatures.

-Yes.

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All together, the print is not worth very much at all,

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but that collection of signatures I think is probably going to be worth

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somewhere in the region of £300 or £400, possibly more, but it is a very fine collection.

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The other one,

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with the signatures of Bader and Johnnie Johnson I would put that in at about £100, £150.

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-Thank you very much indeed.

-Great to see them, and great to be under this enormous bomber.

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It's wonderful, isn't it? Thank you very much.

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Do you live in a really seriously grand house?

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-No.

-No?

-Only a small bungalow.

-A small bungalow?

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They don't, yeah, they don't belong to me, they belong to me grandma.

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-And does she live in a seriously grand house?

-No.

0:20:390:20:42

Because these are the kind of objects I'd expect to find in a seriously grand house.

0:20:420:20:48

Do you know where your grandmother got them?

0:20:480:20:51

A neighbour of hers decided he wanted to sell them and

0:20:510:20:55

he knew she was interested in antiques and things.

0:20:550:20:58

So he went to see her and she purchased them, but she can't remember how much she paid for them.

0:20:580:21:02

Right. I mean, do you know what they are?

0:21:020:21:06

Um, cornucopias.

0:21:060:21:09

Yeah, do you know who made them?

0:21:090:21:12

I think they're probably Sevres. She thinks they're probably Dresden.

0:21:120:21:17

Right. And you know the Sevres mark, the interlaced Ls mark?

0:21:170:21:21

Only because of the S underneath, that's what I was going on.

0:21:210:21:24

Ah, so if we have a look at the base of them to see exactly what there is, yeah, there we go. S48.

0:21:240:21:33

Well, I'm pleased to tell you they are Sevres.

0:21:330:21:35

They're quite late, S48...

0:21:350:21:38

48 refers to 1848. Do you know much about the Sevres factory?

0:21:380:21:43

Not really, I've heard of it, that's all.

0:21:430:21:45

Well, it is the most important French factory, arguably the most important porcelain factory in Europe

0:21:450:21:51

established under French patronage, making very, very best quality wares for the very best and richest people.

0:21:510:21:58

-So these are not rubbish.

-No.

-These are fantastic.

0:21:580:22:01

The quality of the decoration is truly stunning, there's this wonderful

0:22:010:22:06

painting of flowers around the inside of the lips, and an unusual

0:22:060:22:11

combination of biscuit porcelain here and glazed porcelain here and here.

0:22:110:22:15

And wonderful, rich gilding.

0:22:150:22:19

They're truly magnificent.

0:22:190:22:20

But I have to say, the market for this kind of Sevres,

0:22:200:22:24

this mid-19th century period is doing quite well at the moment.

0:22:240:22:27

I happen to know that one, just one,

0:22:270:22:31

sold in the last year

0:22:310:22:34

for £5,000.

0:22:340:22:37

Oh, dear.

0:22:370:22:39

-It was a slightly earlier one.

-Yeah.

0:22:390:22:42

But it was white and gold,

0:22:420:22:43

it didn't have this wonderful colouring, this wonderful painting.

0:22:430:22:47

So it's a question of balancing the fact that they're slightly later, there's a pair of them

0:22:470:22:52

-and they're just glorious.

-Yeah, yeah.

-They really are glorious and, I think

0:22:520:22:57

we could say as an auction estimate probably £8,000 to £10,000 for them.

0:22:570:23:03

Oh, dear.

0:23:030:23:05

She does know I like them and I've got my eye on them.

0:23:050:23:10

They're truly fabulous objects, the very best of 19th century Sevres porcelain.

0:23:100:23:15

During World War Two, Lincolnshire was known as "bomber county"

0:23:190:23:23

because it had more airfields and squadrons and aircraft than any other part of the United Kingdom.

0:23:230:23:28

As well as local people, several members of our team have close family connections with the area.

0:23:280:23:34

Bill Harriman, your dad was stationed around here.

0:23:340:23:36

He was an engineering officer and in 1941 he was at 58 Maintenance Unit

0:23:360:23:41

at Newark and I can remember him telling me that he spent his life

0:23:410:23:46

driving around Lincolnshire picking up bent aircraft.

0:23:460:23:51

-There would have been a lot of bent aircraft.

-Yes, yes,

0:23:510:23:55

he was an engineering specialist and they were looking

0:23:550:23:58

also, not for just the remedial work of mending bent aircraft, but improving their performance.

0:23:580:24:04

This is my father, Flight Lieutenant Joseph Fletcher Harriman, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

0:24:040:24:09

and this, I guess, was taken at the end of the war when he'd be in his

0:24:090:24:13

-sort of early mid-20s.

-So he collected a few medals on his way.

0:24:130:24:17

Yes, these are the ones that so many people bring to Roadshows

0:24:170:24:21

and these are my dad's and the advice I give to people is that they should put them on a bar,

0:24:210:24:26

as you would hang it on your suit in civilian dress

0:24:260:24:29

and if you have a photograph, get them all framed, and any other documents

0:24:290:24:33

-and then they make a lovely piece of family history.

-Do you want me to value them for you?

0:24:330:24:36

Oh, it would be very kind of you, and I might even just follow my own advice before I'm much older.

0:24:360:24:41

-Priceless.

-Well, they are to me, because I never knew about these when my father was

0:24:410:24:45

alive, and it was only after he died, when I was rummaging through his effects, that I came across these.

0:24:450:24:50

He never spoke about them, but that, I'm particularly

0:24:500:24:54

proud of that because that's an MBE which he was given for his work on working on engines for the...

0:24:540:25:01

I think it was the Second Air Force, that was sort of over and above.

0:25:010:25:04

Well, he certainly made his mark.

0:25:040:25:06

How did the young Bill Harriman get involved in militaria?

0:25:060:25:10

Well, one of the things that my father was very keen

0:25:100:25:13

that I should not have any involvement with was firearms.

0:25:130:25:16

I think he was actually quite keen on them and he had an old air rifle and I was occasionally allowed

0:25:160:25:22

to use that under supervision, but what he did have, and which I absolutely adored was an old revolver

0:25:220:25:28

which his father, who is this Lance Harriman, entertainer and humorist, he had his own cinema but during the

0:25:280:25:34

silent films when the cowboys were coming on, there'd be bang, bang, bang around the back with it...

0:25:340:25:40

they had a great big sheet of tin to do the thunder, Grandma used to play the piano for incidental music

0:25:400:25:45

and my father had these pistols and I remember discovering them in a box in the garage.

0:25:450:25:50

I was in absolute heaven and I've never looked back.

0:25:500:25:53

-He must have had a few casualties amongst the audience.

-Well, one hopes he used blanks.

0:25:530:25:58

So coming here today for you is quite an emotional experience.

0:25:580:26:02

Well, it is, because I heard what my father said

0:26:020:26:05

about his experiences and it's very much a sort of sentimental journey.

0:26:050:26:10

I'd love you to tell me about this brooch. How long have you had it?

0:26:120:26:16

It was my mother's. I think Dad bought it for her.

0:26:160:26:21

-And you have been given it...

-As a 50th birthday present.

0:26:210:26:25

-Fantastic! And have you worn it?

-I have.

-Brilliant.

0:26:250:26:29

Well, I tell you, it is just such a wonderful piece of jewellery, I have never seen anything quite like this.

0:26:290:26:36

-Really?

-Yeah, I mean, for me, jewellery is all about movement

0:26:360:26:40

-and this has everything going for it, so your mum was quite a mover.

-Yes.

0:26:400:26:44

-Was she quite a mover?

-I think so, in her day.

0:26:440:26:48

Brilliant. Well, you see here why I talk about the movement is...

0:26:480:26:53

you will see the sinuous lines of the leaves and of the fuchsias

0:26:530:26:58

and this is the fantastic bit here,

0:26:580:27:02

the baguette-cut diamonds that are dangling from each of the fuchsia stamens.

0:27:020:27:10

-This is also giving me an indication of the date of the piece.

-Oh, really?

0:27:100:27:15

So I would date this at around about 1925-1930.

0:27:150:27:20

-Oh, right.

-It's probably set in platinum, though there are no marks

0:27:200:27:25

and the rubies are these wonderful natural Burma rubies

0:27:250:27:31

-and to have this with the set with the earrings...

-Would have looked lovely.

0:27:310:27:35

Stunning, absolutely stunning, because this is jewellery

0:27:350:27:40

which is to be worn to be shown off.

0:27:400:27:43

Because it is so unique in terms of the fuchsias being used and the way that they've used the rubies

0:27:430:27:48

to compliment the colour and...

0:27:480:27:50

it's just fantastic, so I would say that in auction you'd be looking at around about £4,000.

0:27:500:27:56

Really? Gosh.

0:27:560:27:59

What a highly decorated box.

0:28:010:28:03

Where does it come from?

0:28:030:28:06

We rather think it might have come from my mother's family.

0:28:060:28:09

Her father was a printer in Northampton and after

0:28:090:28:13

World War One, when things were pretty tight, he took many of his

0:28:130:28:17

commissions in kind rather than cash and we think that's probably how it came into the family.

0:28:170:28:23

You don't remember seeing it as you were growing up?

0:28:230:28:25

No, because she didn't like it, so it was put away into a wardrobe and we didn't find it

0:28:250:28:29

until we packed my father's house up just before he died.

0:28:290:28:33

Gosh, how extraordinary, so your mother didn't like it, what do you make of it?

0:28:330:28:37

Well, we love it and my wife in particular loves it.

0:28:370:28:40

Well, I think the nice thing about it is that it incorporates such good quality materials.

0:28:400:28:46

The veneers that have been used are one of the nicest cuts of burr walnut I think that I've seen for ages

0:28:460:28:53

and then these very decorative high Victorian ecclesiastical-style hinges and rope twist borders

0:28:530:29:00

and then to top it all off, these lovely little plaques. Do you know what they're made of?

0:29:000:29:05

Well, we think it's probably Wedgwood, is it?

0:29:050:29:08

It probably isn't actually made by the Wedgwood company but you're right

0:29:080:29:12

that Wedgwood introduced this jasper ware, it was made in all sorts of urns and vases, but it was

0:29:120:29:18

also used quite a lot to decorate furniture and boxes of this kind.

0:29:180:29:23

I'm dying to open it up.

0:29:230:29:25

What a stunning tea caddy.

0:29:270:29:31

It just looks so fresh and so new and yet you can see that none of it's been restored, it's just the fact

0:29:310:29:37

that it's hardly ever been opened and I'm not at all surprised to see

0:29:370:29:41

a really good retailer's name in it.

0:29:410:29:45

"Howell & James & Co, Regent Street, London".

0:29:450:29:49

And they had a fantastic reputation as being jewellery retailers

0:29:490:29:53

and selling really high-quality objects exactly like this.

0:29:530:29:58

So we know that it's a tea caddy, because, helpfully, on the plaques here is written "black" and "green"

0:29:580:30:03

for the two kinds of tea

0:30:030:30:05

and normally you get small caddies like this, that just lift out,

0:30:050:30:10

but these buttons...Oh!

0:30:100:30:12

That is... That is absolutely remarkable.

0:30:130:30:17

I don't think I've ever seen that on a tea caddy.

0:30:170:30:21

-No.

-Did you get an awful surprise when you first opened it?

0:30:210:30:24

Yes, yes, thought it was a jack-in-the-box.

0:30:240:30:26

Let's have a look at the other one.

0:30:260:30:30

It must have been a patented sort of mechanism. Look at that.

0:30:300:30:35

This really is the element that puts it in a league of its own,

0:30:350:30:40

although the whole thing sort of oozes quality.

0:30:400:30:43

It has to be worth £1,000.

0:30:430:30:45

Really? Goodness me! Never thought it was worth that much.

0:30:450:30:50

Well, I never thought I'd be saying that a Victorian burr walnut tea caddy was worth £1,000

0:30:500:30:55

-but, you know, I just can't see it fetching any less than that.

-It's not going anywhere.

0:30:550:31:00

Well, it's obviously found a good home and I'm glad it's found somebody who appreciates it and enjoys it.

0:31:000:31:06

Well, this is a somewhat insignificant-looking little object

0:31:090:31:12

but it does have a great deal of charm.

0:31:120:31:15

-How did you come by it?

-Um, it belonged to my mother-in-law.

0:31:150:31:18

And some years ago she asked us what we'd like when she departed,

0:31:180:31:26

-and that's what I chose, and I really liked it.

-You chose this.

-Yes, yes.

0:31:260:31:30

It's what's known as either a pitcher cream jug,

0:31:300:31:34

or some people call them bird's mouth cream jugs

0:31:340:31:37

because that's a little bit like a bird's mouth and it's quite interesting to think that the

0:31:370:31:42

period this was made, it was actually made in 1730, that

0:31:420:31:48

tea drinking was quite at a premium.

0:31:480:31:51

It didn't start to come over from China until the end of the 17th century

0:31:510:31:55

and it was incredibly expensive, so much so, the servants used to dry the leaves and re-sell them

0:31:550:32:02

and used to keep the tea in caddies locked up because it was something like £1 a pound in those days.

0:32:020:32:08

But, of course, the Chinese did not have milk with their tea and so this was a purely British invention.

0:32:080:32:14

What intrigues me about this particularly is the way it's hallmarked.

0:32:140:32:19

Underneath it has the maker's mark, SL,

0:32:190:32:23

which is a chap called Samuel Laundry and the lion, which is silver,

0:32:230:32:29

and normally you get all four marks on the bottom but they must have been

0:32:290:32:32

rather anxious to avoid any forgery because they've put the leopard's head here,

0:32:320:32:37

which is the London mark and they've put the date letter there, the P,

0:32:370:32:41

which is the 1730 period mark. And where does it live at home?

0:32:410:32:46

For the last couple of years it's been wrapped in a piece of kitchen roll in a drawer.

0:32:460:32:51

Oh, that's a bit sad.

0:32:510:32:53

But well,

0:32:530:32:54

it's very special, it's special to me

0:32:540:32:58

and I just didn't really know where to put it or what to do with it.

0:32:580:33:02

Well, I think that if this were to come up for sale today, it would probably fetch somewhere between

0:33:020:33:07

£500 and £600 and should be insured for something like £1,000.

0:33:070:33:11

Gosh! Oh, lovely.

0:33:110:33:14

Well, behind us we've got the full-size Lancaster bomber,

0:33:160:33:20

but you've brought us something smaller.

0:33:200:33:22

Yes, I've brought a replica of the bomber behind, although the bomber behind

0:33:220:33:28

is slightly different to that one, because that bomber is Guy Gibson's.

0:33:280:33:32

-The very famous Dam Busters.

-The very famous Dam Buster one.

0:33:320:33:36

I notice it has the bouncing bomb underneath.

0:33:360:33:38

Oh, yes, yes, the bouncing bomb, and the wheels retract

0:33:380:33:43

-and it flies, or it did, but I have to ground it because it's too valuable now.

-You made it yourself?

0:33:430:33:48

Yes, oh, yes, yes.

0:33:480:33:50

How long did it take you to finish?

0:33:500:33:53

Two years, four months.

0:33:530:33:56

2,900 hours.

0:33:560:33:58

-Amazing.

-Yes.

-And why do you like Lancasters, what's your background?

0:33:580:34:03

Oh, well, I worked for AV Roe in the war.

0:34:030:34:08

-So you were actually an engineer?

-Absolutely, yes.

-So you were actually making these aircraft.

0:34:080:34:13

-The real ones.

-The real ones.

0:34:130:34:15

I kept the manual for the Lancaster and I copied it and, of course...

0:34:150:34:19

-Did the plans.

-Did the plans, reduced them.

-And you made all this by hand?

0:34:190:34:23

Oh, yes, yes, it's the only one in the world,

0:34:230:34:27

but the only reason why I made it was because, with me being retired, I was bored,

0:34:270:34:33

but I did promise myself that one day I'd built a Lancaster, a proper one,

0:34:330:34:38

-so this is the result.

-And you also brought us along some flying gear.

0:34:380:34:42

Oh, yes, now this flying jacket is different,

0:34:420:34:46

it's not like the Irvine one, the British one.

0:34:460:34:49

This is American. But this is British, isn't it, the goggles?

0:34:490:34:53

Oh, yes, yes, well they did the full trip over Germany,

0:34:530:34:56

they did 30 trips over Germany.

0:34:560:34:59

-So you know the history behind who owned it?

-Oh, yeah,...

0:34:590:35:01

By brother-in-law was a pilot, with 44 Squadron in a Wellington.

0:35:010:35:06

Let's talk about values. The goggles and the head gear...

0:35:060:35:10

they turn up quite regularly at auction.

0:35:100:35:13

-They do...

-And therefore...

0:35:130:35:15

They do but the helmet's usually anything from £100 to £170 just the helmet without the goggles.

0:35:150:35:22

Now with the helmet and the goggles and the original mask, this is from 1940,

0:35:220:35:29

-we're talking about £280.

-You know my job.

0:35:290:35:33

And what's the value, do you think, on the American jacket?

0:35:330:35:38

Between £500 and £700.

0:35:380:35:40

-You're pretty close. You know your values.

-Yes.

0:35:400:35:42

Because it's incredibly difficult to get them in this condition, and being American.

0:35:420:35:47

Now the model, it took you 2,900 hours, did you say?

0:35:470:35:52

And if you tried to commission somebody to make one of those today

0:35:520:35:57

it would cost tens of thousands of pounds.

0:35:570:35:59

It is a one-off, it is a unique model.

0:35:590:36:03

-Yes.

-All the gearing works, the navigational lamps work.

-Yes, yes.

0:36:030:36:07

It is the one that everybody remembers, the Dam Busters Lancaster.

0:36:070:36:11

At auction, if it came up, I could see it easily making

0:36:110:36:15

£10,000, £15,000, £20,000 but it's a unique piece. So, who knows?

0:36:150:36:20

-Hopefully one day it'll end up in a museum, because that's exactly where it should be.

-Oh, it will do.

0:36:200:36:25

-Thank you so much, it's been a privilege to meet you, sir.

-Yes, thank you, bye-bye.

0:36:250:36:30

Well, two quite different pots, two different owners.

0:36:360:36:42

I've decided to bring you together for this, because

0:36:420:36:46

these pots, in a way, tell the same story because they have something very, very

0:36:460:36:50

fundamental in common and, of course,

0:36:500:36:53

that is they're both for funeral purposes, they're funerary jars.

0:36:530:36:59

Yours is this one, tell me a bit of background.

0:36:590:37:01

It's been in the family for quite a long time, it was in

0:37:010:37:04

my husband's mother's side and her grandfather found it near Newark.

0:37:040:37:07

-When you said "found it"... In the ground?

-No idea.

0:37:070:37:12

Right. How do you feel about owning someone's funerary urn? You're not spooked by it?

0:37:120:37:17

I'm not spooked by it, no, no.

0:37:170:37:19

-Some people would be.

-No.

0:37:190:37:21

I like old things and heritage and things like that

0:37:210:37:25

and, you know, you feel proud to own something like that.

0:37:250:37:28

And yours? This one here.

0:37:280:37:30

Well, it was dug up in 1956 in Peru.

0:37:300:37:32

Do you have any Peruvian personages?

0:37:320:37:35

No, no, I'm into archaeology so...

0:37:350:37:38

So we've got quite a stretch between these two pieces,

0:37:380:37:42

some 6,000-7,000 miles between Lincolnshire and Peru.

0:37:420:37:46

The thing they have in common is that they both contained human remains and I'm going to start with this, because

0:37:460:37:52

here I think you have what is not merely decoration, but I think this

0:37:520:37:56

is almost certainly a portrait of the person who went inside the pot.

0:37:560:38:02

-Really?

-It's pretty typical of Peruvian works of the Chimu Tribe

0:38:020:38:06

and that would date it to sometime around the 14th-15th century, thereabouts,

0:38:060:38:12

just at the time when Spain was making contact with the so-called

0:38:120:38:16

New World, which was immensely old anyway, and I love the little

0:38:160:38:22

hands sort of stretched up and the anatomical details on the pot.

0:38:220:38:26

Well, let's put him back - or is it a him?

0:38:260:38:29

-What do you think?

-I don't know.

0:38:290:38:31

I think, you know, looking at the details on the pot and looking at

0:38:310:38:36

-these objects which were found in the pot, I think, I think it's almost certainly a female burial.

-Mm.

0:38:360:38:42

You've got two objects which, I have to admit, I don't know what they're for.

0:38:420:38:47

Well, some sort of spinning.

0:38:470:38:50

It looks as though it has something to do with spinning or thread.

0:38:500:38:54

You've got two little pottery falls at the centre of each,

0:38:540:38:58

but they are beautifully made, these tapered sticks.

0:38:580:39:01

-Yes.

-And in the dry atmosphere of Peru they have survived for

0:39:010:39:04

what, 500 years without any mal effects.

0:39:040:39:07

But this is older than the Peruvian pot, this is Anglo-Saxon,

0:39:090:39:13

so we're now going back to somewhere around what, 500, 600, 700AD, thereabouts.

0:39:130:39:19

I love this because I have seen people in New Guinea to this day, making pots like this.

0:39:190:39:27

This pot has been made by using a coiling method.

0:39:270:39:30

You take sausages of clay and you add them onto a disc

0:39:300:39:34

and as you grow the disc, the disc grows in your hand

0:39:340:39:38

and, using your thumb and forefinger, you squeeze the sausages

0:39:380:39:42

and gradually these sausages work themselves into

0:39:420:39:45

a very tight wall, the wall builds up and eventually it almost automatically encloses on itself.

0:39:450:39:53

This object, the shape that it is, has been determined by the human hand

0:39:530:39:57

and it's something that has been going on for thousands and thousands of years.

0:39:570:40:03

Well, to the uninterested eye, those are just two rather rough-and-ready little pots,

0:40:030:40:09

but these were of immense significance to the societies that produced them, and without ceramics,

0:40:090:40:15

we would know very little about the huge area of humanity.

0:40:150:40:20

We know so much about our pre-history because of ceramics,

0:40:200:40:25

-so you can't put a value on them.

-No.

0:40:250:40:28

But I'm going to.

0:40:280:40:30

-I think that the value of these is somewhere in the region of £1,000 each.

-Really?

0:40:300:40:36

Well, this is a tiny little ring. Where did you find it?

0:40:400:40:43

I was digging in the back garden trying to remove a root of a cherry tree that had died,

0:40:430:40:49

-and I dug down and I noticed this yellow thing, thought "ha it's not rusted, it's gold".

-Yes, very good.

0:40:490:40:56

And I dug it up, cleaned it up under the tap and I noticed

0:40:560:41:01

that there was an inscription on the inside which said "keep promise"

0:41:010:41:05

but keep promise not as we would write but "kepe"

0:41:050:41:09

so I looked for the spelling, in that spelling on the internet to see whether it was a family motto.

0:41:090:41:15

Mm, that's a good one, that's very good.

0:41:150:41:18

Looked on the internet and it only came up in that term in some 16th century solider in Holland

0:41:180:41:24

writing back to somebody in England and uses the term "kepe promise".

0:41:240:41:27

-So I thought, oh, is it 16th century, ah, you know.

-Mm.

0:41:270:41:31

But beyond that, that's as far as I went.

0:41:310:41:33

Well, I think you're on the right track, to be perfectly honest.

0:41:330:41:37

This is a posy ring, and posy is a corruption of "poetry" and they're very short, almost poems.

0:41:370:41:43

This is only two words and they vary enormously in their intensity,

0:41:430:41:46

some are very full-on messages of love and some are more formal.

0:41:460:41:50

This is actually a little bit more formal, it says "kepe promise"

0:41:500:41:53

and I think 'kepe promise' is a sort of vow in marriage.

0:41:530:41:57

I'm pretty confident that this is a wedding ring for a very tiny little girl, frankly,

0:41:570:42:03

I mean a tiny little woman.

0:42:030:42:06

She seems to have got the tiniest circumference to her finger

0:42:060:42:10

but, of course, our ancestors were a great deal smaller than us, their diet was really rather poor

0:42:100:42:15

and they simply didn't grow in the way that we grow today and so it sort of fitted her.

0:42:150:42:20

Quite a high-status gold ring decorated with enamel, black and white enamel,

0:42:200:42:26

and black and white decoration is very very much a part of Elizabethan and Jacobean decoration.

0:42:260:42:31

This thing is actually exactly contemporary with William Shakespeare, it's a marvellous thing

0:42:310:42:36

-and I'm very enviable, I might add, because actually digging out gold from the roots of trees...

-Yes.

0:42:360:42:41

..is almost something too marvellous to happen in one's lifetime

0:42:410:42:46

and it's sort of transporting for everybody.

0:42:460:42:48

And these things are very widely collected, so how to value it?

0:42:480:42:52

I think it's very cheap at £1,250.

0:42:520:42:58

Things like that happen to other people.

0:43:080:43:10

No, they don't, they happen to you, mate, and not to me!

0:43:100:43:13

I'm very envious, I dream of finding things like that.

0:43:130:43:15

-This is pulse-makingly exciting stuff and I love it, and thank you for bringing it.

-Thank you.

0:43:150:43:22

Thank you.

0:43:220:43:24

Got you all emotional now, hasn't it?

0:43:240:43:27

Well, another successful mission for the Roadshow.

0:43:300:43:33

Many thanks to the crew who run East Kirkby airfield for their help and enthusiasm

0:43:330:43:38

and to everyone who joined us for the day.

0:43:380:43:40

And now from the big skies of Lincolnshire, goodbye.

0:43:400:43:43

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