Browse content similar to Coventry. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
This week the Antiques Roadshow has found its way to Coventry, | 0:00:35 | 0:00:39 | |
once described as one of the finest medieval cities in Europe. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:43 | |
It was still looking good on the night of November 14th 1940, | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
when 500 German bombers amassed over Coventry | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
and subjected it to the most savage air raid of the war so far. | 0:00:50 | 0:00:55 | |
For eleven hours, the Luftwaffe pounded the city, | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
dropping 30,000 incendiary bombs and 500 tons of high explosive. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:05 | |
When the people finally crawled out from the shelters, | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
they found their beautiful city ablaze and in ruins. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
The onslaught was so severe that the Germans invented a chilling new word to describe the devastation. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:30 | |
"Coventry", they said, "had been Coventrated." | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
EXPLOSIONS | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
In the heart of Coventry, St Michael's Cathedral lay shattered. | 0:01:41 | 0:01:46 | |
Standing amongst the wreckage that day, the Provost, Dick Howard, vowed that his church would rise again. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:53 | |
In the competition that followed to find a replacement, | 0:01:57 | 0:02:00 | |
one plan stood out above all others- Sir Basil Spence - who was later knighted for his efforts, | 0:02:00 | 0:02:05 | |
proposed that the ruins should remain and a striking new cathedral built alongside. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:12 | |
The result was a testament to the cutting edge architecture of the 1950's. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:26 | |
Spence described his creation as a casket of jewels to be filled with exciting new works of art. | 0:02:26 | 0:02:33 | |
Sir Jacob Epstein contributed a statue of St Michael defeating the devil. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:39 | |
Graham Sutherland created a massive tapestry. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:48 | |
It was the largest in the world and weighed a ton. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
Other treasures include a Baptistry window by John Piper | 0:02:54 | 0:02:57 | |
studded with 195 panels of light. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:01 | |
And there are bronze statues by Elizabeth Frink. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:09 | |
And at the west end, an immense engraved window. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
Through it, the two cathedrals are brought together. | 0:03:16 | 0:03:20 | |
Still loved and never forgotten, the old St Michael's Cathedral | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
provides the setting for today's Roadshow, the perfect place to bring treasures from the past. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:36 | |
It's a little bit of Australia dropped down into Coventry. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
How does a bit of Australia get here? | 0:03:42 | 0:03:44 | |
Well, it was sent by some long-distance relations who emigrated to Australia from... | 0:03:44 | 0:03:48 | |
-Hang on, hang on, hang on. Emigrated, or were sent to? -No, emigrated. OK. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:53 | |
From Shropshire, from Bridgnorth in fact, around that area. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
And what they did, at Christmas 1890, they sent back a parcel full of these | 0:03:56 | 0:04:02 | |
emu eggs and various curios and Australian beads and bits of Australian shells and the like, | 0:04:02 | 0:04:10 | |
and what happened was that my great grandfather, I think my great grandfather, | 0:04:10 | 0:04:14 | |
-actually made them up into the dome that we see today. -Very interesting. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:19 | |
-What I love is this letter that goes with it. -Absolutely. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:21 | |
Um, and it says, "By this mail we're sending a parcel containing curios, | 0:04:21 | 0:04:28 | |
"there are three emu eggs, one painted on, and another carved" | 0:04:28 | 0:04:33 | |
which I presume is this one - | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
"and the third quite plain" so that you get a sort of view of decorating | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
emu eggs in the round, and then it goes on to say "there are a quantity of quandongs" | 0:04:39 | 0:04:46 | |
Don't ask me what they are, please. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:48 | |
Well, my knowledge of Australian fauna and flora has rapidly risen | 0:04:48 | 0:04:54 | |
because I now know what a quandong stone is | 0:04:54 | 0:04:57 | |
which is this, this little thing in the middle here. | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
I think when one's looking at a dome like this, my goodness, | 0:05:00 | 0:05:04 | |
20 years ago you would see hundreds of these in the course of a year. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:09 | |
People had them handed down from their relatives and they were Victorian curiosities. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:15 | |
And I have to say, we very seldom see them now, | 0:05:15 | 0:05:18 | |
they are about as unfashionable as you can possibly get, | 0:05:18 | 0:05:21 | |
except when they come with such an interesting story, | 0:05:21 | 0:05:25 | |
and also when they shed light on what must have been a real parcel of curiosities. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:30 | |
Imagine - there you are, sitting in Bridgnorth | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
and out of this parcel tumble | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
these extraordinary never-before-seen objects | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
from a - almost a sort of fairy tale land, far far away, that they're never going to see - | 0:05:40 | 0:05:45 | |
and out comes this sort of treasure of iridescent shells | 0:05:45 | 0:05:51 | |
and extraordinary beans and eggs the size of, you know, ten goose eggs. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:57 | |
You can imagine that this was almost like getting a piece of rock from Mars. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:02 | |
Do you like it? | 0:06:02 | 0:06:03 | |
Yes, I do, it goes in the house. It's in a nice place. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
-It suits the place where it is. -Exactly. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:08 | |
It's out of the way cos it's very, very delicate. It's 117-120 years old, I think I'd be delicate. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:13 | |
-And a bit cracked, maybe. -Well, yes. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
Value is not going to be huge. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:20 | |
I would say in auction, | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
you'd be lucky if you got more than £150 or £200 for it. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:26 | |
-That's not the point. -Not important. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:29 | |
The point is, looking into it and having the glimpse | 0:06:29 | 0:06:31 | |
of this wonderful foreign land. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
They were my grandmother's and they were on her mantel piece | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
and I got them when she died, and there was a note in them that said | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
that they came from the home of her great grandmother. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:46 | |
So this is grandmother saying they're from her grandmother | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
-Yes, sort of five generations back. -Heavens! | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
And there's a letter here. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
-From somebody who'd tried to find out something about them. -Yes. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:59 | |
It says, "The cache bowl with its stand is French, | 0:06:59 | 0:07:02 | |
"I've seen this decoration on a large piece before and I should say about 1775". | 0:07:02 | 0:07:09 | |
-Do you think that? -I have no idea. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
Have you looked into them at all? | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
I've tried but nobody's ever known, | 0:07:14 | 0:07:16 | |
well, nobody that I've talked to has ever known anything about them. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:20 | |
Now they have, inset into the small ones, they have a chunk of glass, | 0:07:20 | 0:07:25 | |
a glass sort of pot pourri, a pot, which I don't think should be there. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:30 | |
These are flower pots or cache bowls, in which you would grow a plant inside, | 0:07:30 | 0:07:36 | |
and they have a hole which is the - for the water to leak through | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
-into the, into the base there. -Yes. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
-So that's rather nice, and they're not French. -Right. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:49 | |
I think they're Coalport, English. They're English porcelain, | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
made around about 1800-1805 something like that, | 0:07:53 | 0:07:58 | |
and beautifully painted | 0:07:58 | 0:08:00 | |
and I think the painting has been done in London. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:04 | |
Coalport often sold the pieces to London decorators | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
and I think the decorating studio was Baxters, in London. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:13 | |
I've seen pieces decorated with exactly the same patterns | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
which are signed by Baxter, so I think if it's not Thomas Baxter himself, | 0:08:16 | 0:08:21 | |
it's one of the pupils in his studio in London. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:25 | |
I think they're absolutely splendid, beautifully decorated | 0:08:25 | 0:08:28 | |
but they're of fair value. I mean you're looking at, probably for a full garniture like that, | 0:08:28 | 0:08:34 | |
-you're looking at something worth around about £8,000. -Gosh! Yes... | 0:08:34 | 0:08:41 | |
-They're super things. Do take great care of them, won't you? -Yes. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
Well, this rainy weather absolutely reminds me of Scotland | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
and here we have the quintessential idea for me of Scotland | 0:08:54 | 0:09:00 | |
with the mist coming down the mountains | 0:09:00 | 0:09:02 | |
and these highland cattle here in the foreground. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:05 | |
-Tell me, are you Scottish, have you any connection with this part of the world? -No, I'm not Scottish, | 0:09:05 | 0:09:11 | |
-I've been up to Scotland a lot of times and I admire the place. -Right. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:16 | |
Well, as you can clearly see it's by Louis B Hurt, Louis Bosworth Hurt, | 0:09:16 | 0:09:20 | |
and I guess from the style it's around the 1880s | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
and, of course, it's oil and canvas. | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
What I love about typical Victorian artists is that | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
they paint so beautifully and so well | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
and, look, you can see almost every aspect of the coat on this Highland cow. Wonderful. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:38 | |
So have you always loved the artist? | 0:09:38 | 0:09:40 | |
My wife and I, we've admired these paintings for a long, long time, | 0:09:40 | 0:09:44 | |
-and we never expected to be able to own one ourselves. -Mmm-mm. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:48 | |
And my wife's uncle passed away, | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
left us some money and that's what we invested it in. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:55 | |
Well, he was a very prolific artist and yet not much is known about him. | 0:09:55 | 0:10:00 | |
We know he came from Derbyshire. So he wasn't even Scottish. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
But he, to me, is one of these artists that knew his market | 0:10:03 | 0:10:08 | |
and therefore he is best known, and only known really, | 0:10:08 | 0:10:12 | |
-for painting Highland scenes with Highland cattle. -Yes. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
Now, the pricing's quite interesting of Louis Bosworth Hurt, | 0:10:15 | 0:10:20 | |
because in the sort of '90s, or certainly the late '80s, | 0:10:20 | 0:10:24 | |
a lot of Japanese were coming to this country and they were all playing golf up in the North, | 0:10:24 | 0:10:29 | |
St Andrews or going to Gleneagles and all those sort of places, | 0:10:29 | 0:10:34 | |
and I think they thought "This is just what we want to remind us of these wonderful days of golf" | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
so the prices for Louis Bosworth Hurt went up and up and up. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:42 | |
They've come down a bit over the last five years, | 0:10:42 | 0:10:47 | |
possibly due to the Japanese economy, I don't know. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:49 | |
But this is a great, great example. He varies a lot in size. The big ones, obviously, are more valuable. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:57 | |
-I've seen the big ones. -You've seen the big ones. I think this is a great work | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
and if it appeared today on the market I'd expect it would make | 0:11:01 | 0:11:05 | |
sort of between £7,000 and £10,000 - | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
-it could even do a bit better with the wind behind it...as they say. -I hope so. I hope so. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:13 | |
It's a wonderful, wonderful work, and thank you for showing it to us. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:16 | |
-Thank you. -Pleasure. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
So what are you doing bringing us this bit of old log? | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
It's actually a bit of old log from HMS Victory in Portsmouth. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:26 | |
Ah, so what's the story, then? | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
Well, we were down in Portsmouth and we went to visit the Victory, | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
to see some of the restoration work and they have a shop on the premises | 0:11:33 | 0:11:38 | |
and they have a certain collection and I thought it was quite unique | 0:11:38 | 0:11:43 | |
because it was the only piece in the collection | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
that just looked like it had been actually taken off the ship. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
-What have you got to prove that then? -I've got this document. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:52 | |
-Oh I see, they give you a certificate. -Yes. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:54 | |
The deed of provenance which says, | 0:11:54 | 0:11:57 | |
"In 2004, this was sold for the 'Save the Victory Fund'", | 0:11:57 | 0:12:03 | |
which is great, isn't it? Yes. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:04 | |
-Because, frankly, you do need that piece of paper to stay with this for all time. -For sure, yeah. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:09 | |
But as they have to restore the Victory continuously | 0:12:09 | 0:12:14 | |
and they've got waste products which are effectively lumps of old oak, | 0:12:14 | 0:12:18 | |
-it's a perfectly legitimate thing for them to sell. -To generate income. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
You're quite right. And I think this thing's actually got great charm | 0:12:21 | 0:12:25 | |
because on the back side we can see this rather curious orange paint, | 0:12:25 | 0:12:30 | |
but certainly in the surgeon's department on Victory, | 0:12:30 | 0:12:35 | |
the wooden walls were painted red so that the blood, | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
as they were doing those terrific operations - wouldn't show. | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
This looks orangey, but I'm not saying it wasn't an original | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
kind of part of the vessel, | 0:12:45 | 0:12:47 | |
maybe from where the surgeon's quarters were. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:51 | |
Got a bit of scorched timber there which could be something to do with the galley. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:55 | |
-Here we've got what looks suspiciously like magnolia. -Yeah. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:59 | |
But not just one layer of magnolia, there are multiple layers there, | 0:12:59 | 0:13:03 | |
-so that's been painted up for a couple of hundred years. -Yeah. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:06 | |
-I think this is a great object. -I thought it was quite unique. | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
You paid how much for this? | 0:13:09 | 0:13:10 | |
-I think it was £600. -£600? -Yeah. -Did you really? -Yeah. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:14 | |
I mean, if you were to sell it at auction with the Victory provenance, | 0:13:14 | 0:13:18 | |
-I think you might get £200 or £300 for it. -Yes. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:21 | |
But it's a patriotic gesture in a way, isn't it? | 0:13:21 | 0:13:24 | |
Yes, yes, because you're making a contribution | 0:13:24 | 0:13:27 | |
to keep this vessel in prime condition. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
Quite, so what do you use it for at home? | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
It's on top of the cabinets | 0:13:32 | 0:13:33 | |
-and the wife puts just a pot pourri in it, that's it. -Pot pourri? | 0:13:33 | 0:13:36 | |
-Yeah. -Well, I don't know what Britain's premier naval hero | 0:13:36 | 0:13:41 | |
-would have to say about you keeping pot pourri in a bit of his ship. -Probably wouldn't be amused. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:46 | |
So, how long have you had this delightful-looking doodle? | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
Well, I think it's from 1973, when my daughter bought it for Daddy | 0:13:51 | 0:13:56 | |
-for his Father's Day celebrations. -Uh-huh. | 0:13:56 | 0:14:01 | |
And, um, she said that this is one of David Hockney's doodles. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:07 | |
-So this is a present, then? -Yes. -From David to your daughter, | 0:14:07 | 0:14:12 | |
-who in turn gave it to your husband. -Yes, that's right. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:16 | |
-As a Father's Day present. -That's right. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:18 | |
-What a hugely generous Father's Day present. -Well... | 0:14:18 | 0:14:21 | |
-Now, here's a photograph to go with it. -That's right. | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
And this shows David with his round glasses and rather slouchy hat, | 0:14:24 | 0:14:28 | |
-and on the left...? -His very great friend Mo, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
according to what Diane used to talk to me about them. | 0:14:31 | 0:14:35 | |
Now how did your daughter know David? | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
I do not really know how she met him, | 0:14:37 | 0:14:40 | |
-but she did know Ossie, Ossie Clark. -Ossie...the fashion designer, yes. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:45 | |
-They were friends of his. -And there's a charming inscription on the reverse - | 0:14:45 | 0:14:49 | |
-"All my love to you, from David". -That's right. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
-That would be to your daughter. -That's to my daughter, Diane, yes. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:55 | |
And the drawing itself - have you contemplated what it might represent? | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
No, I don't know, I just can't think. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
I think it could be him, because with the glasses - I don't know. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:06 | |
I mean apparently, according to Diane, he did numerous... | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
While he was talking or on the telephone, he was just doodling | 0:15:09 | 0:15:13 | |
and doing things like that, apparently. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:16 | |
Yes, he was a phenomenal... Is a phenomenal draftsman, because he's still alive. | 0:15:16 | 0:15:20 | |
He's extraordinarily important in the, in the late 20th century | 0:15:20 | 0:15:25 | |
-and he's still extremely active today. -Yes, yes. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:28 | |
Now, one thing that he was particularly good at, | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
and something that always mesmerises me, | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
-is his ability with crayons and with pencil. -Oh, yes. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
And you've got it here, this phenomenal cross-hatching. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:41 | |
There's a feeling of energy, almost violent energy | 0:15:41 | 0:15:45 | |
like the splash of water in a swimming pool, for example, | 0:15:45 | 0:15:48 | |
-to refer to one of his other works. -Yes, that was... I can remember that one. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:53 | |
Yeah, I can remember that one. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:54 | |
And then the glasses, you see he was very good at portraits, | 0:15:54 | 0:15:57 | |
and in fact he made portrait painting respectable again. | 0:15:57 | 0:16:01 | |
There was so much abstract art around in the '60s and '70s | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
that doing figurative paintings of peoples faces | 0:16:04 | 0:16:08 | |
-wasn't, sort of, overly cool. -No. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:10 | |
But he made it cool again. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:12 | |
Have you considered what a little doodle like this might be worth? | 0:16:12 | 0:16:17 | |
-It is, after all, a doodle. -Well, it never occurred to me at all. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:20 | |
I just feel honoured now that I've been able to bring it | 0:16:20 | 0:16:25 | |
and for you to see it and to talk to me about it. | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
-Well, my job is also to put a value on these things. -Oh, is that right? | 0:16:29 | 0:16:33 | |
And so I will do so. Um, believe it or not, I'm going to start, not with the drawing but the photograph, | 0:16:33 | 0:16:38 | |
because the photograph itself is a rather fascinating object. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:42 | |
It's intimate, it shows the man in a way that's appealing | 0:16:42 | 0:16:47 | |
and because of the inscription on the reverse, | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
connected specifically to an event and a person, it's... | 0:16:50 | 0:16:54 | |
From both an artist's point of view, | 0:16:54 | 0:16:56 | |
and also an autograph collector's point of view, | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
an interesting little object, and believe it or not, | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
-I think this photograph is worth £200 or £300 on its own. -Really? | 0:17:02 | 0:17:06 | |
I can't believe it. It's such a nice picture too, isn't it? | 0:17:06 | 0:17:10 | |
It is too, and the drawing? | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
Well, I'm pretty confident that there would be a number of people who would like this. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:17 | |
I think it is a self-portrait | 0:17:17 | 0:17:19 | |
-and I think it's worth between £5,000 and £7,000. -No! | 0:17:19 | 0:17:23 | |
No - really? | 0:17:23 | 0:17:26 | |
Oh, my goodness, I really don't... Can't believe it. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
I can't believe it. Really? I'm absolutely stunned. | 0:17:30 | 0:17:37 | |
Oh, Eamonn, did you hear? | 0:17:37 | 0:17:40 | |
Good gracious me! | 0:17:40 | 0:17:42 | |
So here we are, surrounded by the ruins of Coventry's old cathedral, | 0:17:46 | 0:17:50 | |
destroyed with much of the old city in November 1940, | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
and of course that's a moment | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
-that is forever in the city's history, isn't it? -Oh, very much so. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:59 | |
-Were you here? Or not you, but your family... Sorry. -Certainly not me! | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
I am a Coventrian and my mother was here. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
She actually lived in Bradford but they had a small shop just by the hospital | 0:18:05 | 0:18:09 | |
and she walked through this cathedral on the morning after the raid. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:14 | |
So as just a mess of destruction. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:15 | |
It was just total destruction and it was such a shock. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
Which takes us to that bit of burnt metal. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
Bit of burnt metal, yes. These incendiaries, this particular device | 0:18:21 | 0:18:25 | |
-was dropped in this area and... -During the raid? | 0:18:25 | 0:18:28 | |
During the raid, it was recovered during the raid, um, | 0:18:28 | 0:18:31 | |
and brought to the museum roughly about 10, 12 years ago. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:35 | |
The Midlands Air Museum has lots of local history to do with... | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
It is mainly about this area and the industry of this area. | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
So that was picked up in the aftermath of the raid | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
and that would have been a cluster of incendiaries. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
Yes. They did tremendous damage as we see above us here. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
With fire, more than high explosive, wasn't it? | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
Once the fire got the hold, there was nothing they could do. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
Talking of Germany and aeroplanes, here is, presumably, | 0:18:57 | 0:19:01 | |
-a piece of an aeroplane. A swastika... -That's correct. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
..and some strange colouration which I don't quite recognise. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
Well, the gentleman that brought this, or we acquired it from, | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
had used it in his garage to test spray paints on. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:14 | |
-So, to him it was just a convenient piece of metal. -Yes. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
Very kindly, though, he informed us about it | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
and as you can see, it has the original swastika on it. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:25 | |
-So, this is a tail fin, isn't it? -It's a tail fin of a Ju 88. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
Here's one I made earlier, as they say! | 0:19:29 | 0:19:31 | |
Here we have the model of the same plane. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:35 | |
-That's the actual aircraft model. -This is the tail. -That's the tail. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
That's a model made of the actual aircraft itself, based in France. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:43 | |
I'll fly that back into its hangar carefully! | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
It's made a safe landing. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
So, shot down in the area, this is the relics of that... | 0:19:48 | 0:19:50 | |
These are the relics, and the museum contains a wide variety of these relics | 0:19:50 | 0:19:56 | |
-and manufactured things in this area. -It's right you have them. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
They're museum objects, they're history and so their value is actually incidental. | 0:19:59 | 0:20:03 | |
-It is. -But let's not go there. This is living history, and I think it's great to see them. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:08 | |
It's important to get people close to these things so they can talk | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
-from families to relations... -And think about the people, the people in that aeroplane | 0:20:12 | 0:20:16 | |
flew over there, all that story, they were shot down or whatever. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:20 | |
-It's an extraordinary period in our time. -It is. -And we must remember it. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
-We must remember it, yes. -Thank you for helping me do so. -You're welcome. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:28 | |
Among 30 years of exciting Roadshow discoveries, there's been a fair selection of sporting relics. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:40 | |
One we all liked was a Wimbledon singles trophy that turned up when we took the show to Australia. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:45 | |
John Baddeley got to Melbourne and was amazed to find a magnificent cup | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
engraved with the name of one of his relations who won the title back in 1893. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:55 | |
Here's an action replay of various sporting highlights, including John's magic moment. | 0:20:55 | 0:21:00 | |
This, you might say, is the bat that won the Ashes. | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
A great swimmer with his multitude of trophies. That's absolutely fantastic. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:11 | |
That's one of the first gutta-percha golf balls. That dates from 1850. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:15 | |
It's one of John McEnroe's old rackets. Even though he's a really good tennis player, | 0:21:15 | 0:21:20 | |
he did have some arguments with the line judges and so obviously got a bit annoyed. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:27 | |
It's an England international cap? | 0:21:30 | 0:21:32 | |
It was given to him by Laurie Scott. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:34 | |
Oh, I see, it's inscribed. "Very best wishes, Laurie Scott". Yeah. | 0:21:34 | 0:21:39 | |
-What relationship is he to you? -He's my grandfather. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
He was an official in the FA for 20 years. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
"Jasmine, lots of love, David Beckham." Excuse me! | 0:21:47 | 0:21:50 | |
I like David Beckham so I got his autograph. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
Here are the great Campbells, father and son. Must be something in the air here! | 0:21:56 | 0:22:00 | |
Courage, I think, courage. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
This is the actual football that was used in the 1911 Cup Final. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:07 | |
Recently a cricket bat similar to this sold for in excess of £20,000. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:12 | |
You can't be serious! | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
-On the side there is 1893. -Yes. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
Wilfred Baddeley. Well, my name's John Baddeley, he's a distant relation of mine. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:26 | |
-How wonderful. -So I hope you don't mind if I give it a quick kiss. -No! | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
And then do the classic... | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
THEY CHEER AND APPLAUD | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
Oh, very good. No collection of beadwork would be complete without | 0:22:45 | 0:22:50 | |
one of those. Now, I have to ask. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:55 | |
-Yes. -What's a nice boy like you doing collecting beads?! | 0:22:55 | 0:23:00 | |
We've got furniture and basically I wanted something else to collect | 0:23:00 | 0:23:05 | |
and I looked at tapestries, and if you've got the money, you can buy a collection tomorrow. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:11 | |
Beadwork, I found, was hard to get because the stuff I've got now has took nearly 30 years. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:18 | |
Really interesting. And when you started out, can you remember | 0:23:18 | 0:23:22 | |
what sort of money you were paying for these things? | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
The first piece I ever bought was a tea tray, and I bought that from | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
a second-hand shop in Spon End in Coventry and it cost me 20 quid. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:33 | |
That's affordable, isn't it? Now, the history of beadwork | 0:23:33 | 0:23:36 | |
is sort of a history of Europe, because originally | 0:23:36 | 0:23:40 | |
in the 17th century and the early part of the 18th century, the English were | 0:23:40 | 0:23:45 | |
perhaps the best exponents of beadwork. You get some wonderful | 0:23:45 | 0:23:49 | |
beadwork objects, baskets, trays, as well as beadwork pictures | 0:23:49 | 0:23:54 | |
from the Charles II period. Then the French took over as being the greatest | 0:23:54 | 0:23:59 | |
exponents of beads, then the Germans took over, and then back in the mid-19th century, | 0:23:59 | 0:24:06 | |
back it came to England, so it's really... | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
-Gone full circle. -It's gone full circle. I'm going to zero in on | 0:24:09 | 0:24:13 | |
just a few that have taken my eye particularly. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
Now, the first, actually, is quite a modern piece, which is this... | 0:24:16 | 0:24:20 | |
1917 Turkish prisoner of war snake, which was, I believe, for their girlfriends originally. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:27 | |
That's the reason why the flower's in. | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
Exactly. Made by prisoners of war, from the Great War, they produced | 0:24:30 | 0:24:36 | |
-these rather crude, I have to say... The beads are huge. -They are. -And the work is quite crude. | 0:24:36 | 0:24:41 | |
-But brought them back as souvenirs for loved ones. -Yes. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
-And this is a... I suppose when it's uncurled it's what? About...? -Six foot. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:49 | |
This is six foot, is it? Heavens! | 0:24:49 | 0:24:52 | |
That's very impressive that that's six foot. So that I like. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:56 | |
The other piece which I think is just terrific is the parasol. | 0:24:56 | 0:25:02 | |
Now, I'm going to open this carefully because | 0:25:02 | 0:25:06 | |
the silk lining is just beginning to go. Look at that. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:11 | |
Again I would have thought probably dating from the 1840s, 1850s, this one. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:17 | |
Beadwork is a dying art. I've been fortunate enough to be out in Malaysia | 0:25:17 | 0:25:24 | |
and that's one area where you do see beadwork still being practised. | 0:25:24 | 0:25:28 | |
The Malays are very keen on beadwork and there are a lot of practitioners there | 0:25:28 | 0:25:32 | |
still doing it, so that's one area in the world where | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
it is very much alive. When we come to value it, you said that the first piece | 0:25:35 | 0:25:41 | |
you bought cost £20. What's the most expensive piece that you've bought? | 0:25:41 | 0:25:45 | |
-£800. -£800. Well, even that doesn't surprise me. I've seen pieces | 0:25:45 | 0:25:51 | |
of beadwork going for well into four figures and sometimes into five figures. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:56 | |
What does one say about a collection like this on the table? What's this worth? | 0:25:56 | 0:26:01 | |
Well, I would have thought we're certainly looking at | 0:26:01 | 0:26:05 | |
£8,000, maybe £10,000 just on the table, and... | 0:26:05 | 0:26:10 | |
I am shocked. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:11 | |
It's a great area to be collecting, well done for collecting it when you started out, | 0:26:11 | 0:26:16 | |
and good luck with filling the very small gaps that probably still exist. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:20 | |
I'm looking around me trying to work out where this | 0:26:22 | 0:26:25 | |
very appealing piece of stone came from. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:28 | |
I gather it was originally part of the old cathedral | 0:26:28 | 0:26:31 | |
and what I want to know is how come you have it? | 0:26:31 | 0:26:34 | |
I'm one of the volunteer archivists at the cathedral | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
and this sits on the windowsill in our office | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
and every time I come into the office I see it | 0:26:40 | 0:26:45 | |
and it just delights me. I think it's a lovely piece of stonework. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:50 | |
There's a lovely story to it. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:52 | |
On the night that the cathedral was actually bombed, a policeman on duty | 0:26:52 | 0:26:57 | |
was walking by and this fell at his feet | 0:26:57 | 0:27:02 | |
and he picked it up and he had | 0:27:02 | 0:27:06 | |
every intention of bringing it back to the cathedral at a later date | 0:27:06 | 0:27:10 | |
when things had settled down. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
But he never did and he didn't know what to do with it, so he buried it in his garden. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:18 | |
-So, not knowing what to do with it, he buried it? -He buried it in his garden. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
I suppose that's as good a solution as any! | 0:27:22 | 0:27:24 | |
Many, many years later, this policeman had retired by this time | 0:27:24 | 0:27:30 | |
and he'd become ill and he was taken to hospital. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:35 | |
And he started to worry about this little head. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
-This buried head. -This buried head! | 0:27:38 | 0:27:40 | |
So he said to his wife, "You must return this to the cathedral." | 0:27:40 | 0:27:45 | |
So she brought it back to the cathedral and it was very dirty | 0:27:45 | 0:27:50 | |
and he made a remarkable recovery from his illness, which he wasn't expected to. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:56 | |
-So...that's how the story goes. -A little bit of divinity at work. | 0:27:56 | 0:28:00 | |
-Well, yes. -What a wonderful tale! | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
Now, do we know who it is? | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
It's the head, supposedly, of St Osberg, who founded the original cathedral - | 0:28:05 | 0:28:10 | |
there's been three cathedrals on this site. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:13 | |
But I have a feeling this is part of a later regime rather than the original cathedral. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:18 | |
a slightly crisp, slightly romanticised appearance. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:22 | |
-I'm pretty sure that this comes from the late 19th century -Oh, right! | 0:28:22 | 0:28:26 | |
But it's not surprising, because I gather there was work done | 0:28:26 | 0:28:30 | |
on the cathedral facade in the late 19th century | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
and I think it's more than likely that it was part of that campaign, as it were. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:39 | |
Right. | 0:28:39 | 0:28:40 | |
But still a fascinating object, a very poignant reminder | 0:28:40 | 0:28:45 | |
of the terrible tragedy that befell the place. | 0:28:45 | 0:28:48 | |
Personally, I think it's an extremely attractive object. | 0:28:48 | 0:28:54 | |
It's the sort of thing I would love to put on a mantelpiece or a table, well-lit. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:58 | |
And with that tale attached to it, even though it's late 19th century, | 0:28:58 | 0:29:02 | |
I think it has a sort of appeal that gives it value. | 0:29:02 | 0:29:07 | |
-I realise the cathedral would never consider selling such an object. -No, we wouldn't. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:12 | |
But as we have the rough business of putting values on things, | 0:29:12 | 0:29:16 | |
I would say it was worth £800, £900, £1,000. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:20 | |
Goodness me! | 0:29:20 | 0:29:22 | |
Well, I think the cathedral would be delighted with that figure. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:26 | |
My goodness! | 0:29:26 | 0:29:28 | |
You're paying as much for the story as you are for the object | 0:29:28 | 0:29:31 | |
but the two together I think make it | 0:29:31 | 0:29:33 | |
a rather emotive and attractive little treasure. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
Oh, that's lovely. Thank you very much. | 0:29:36 | 0:29:39 | |
This is one of the most magnificent chess sets I've ever seen. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:44 | |
Tell me about it. | 0:29:44 | 0:29:45 | |
I don't know a great deal, but my father bought it, I understand, | 0:29:45 | 0:29:50 | |
in about 1930, surprisingly perhaps in a second-hand shop in Coventry, | 0:29:50 | 0:29:56 | |
I understand, for what was then the magnificent sum of £5. | 0:29:56 | 0:30:00 | |
£5! | 0:30:00 | 0:30:02 | |
Which I think was a lot of money in those days, in about 1930. | 0:30:02 | 0:30:05 | |
-Was he a keen chess player, your dad? -Oh he did play, yes. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:08 | |
He and a friend. | 0:30:08 | 0:30:10 | |
My father built in the garden a chess table out of tiles, | 0:30:10 | 0:30:15 | |
and he and a friend used to play of a summer's evening, in the garden. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:22 | |
They would take these chess men out | 0:30:22 | 0:30:24 | |
and because they were a little bit bigger than normal, | 0:30:24 | 0:30:27 | |
he had this slightly enlarged chess table which he built | 0:30:27 | 0:30:29 | |
and they'd sit in the garden and play chess. | 0:30:29 | 0:30:32 | |
How positively pastoral! | 0:30:32 | 0:30:34 | |
Not quite, in the centre of Coventry, perhaps! | 0:30:34 | 0:30:38 | |
If he bought them in a junk shop around 1930 | 0:30:38 | 0:30:41 | |
they were already quite old by then. | 0:30:41 | 0:30:44 | |
-Really? -These are Chinese and they would have probably been | 0:30:44 | 0:30:48 | |
exported out of the port of Canton | 0:30:48 | 0:30:51 | |
some time around 1880 to 1900, I expect. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:57 | |
You might call this chap, perhaps, the king. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:01 | |
On the other hand, he could very easily be the emperor, | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
because he IS an emperor. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:06 | |
And each of the pieces are mounted | 0:31:06 | 0:31:08 | |
on these concentric reticulated rings | 0:31:08 | 0:31:12 | |
and if I give that a little wiggle like that, | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
you can see that inside this ring, which has been | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
elaborately pierced out of a solid piece of ivory, there's another ring, | 0:31:18 | 0:31:22 | |
-and inside that another. -I think there are five. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:24 | |
Five rings of ivory all carved out of solid ivory within one another! | 0:31:24 | 0:31:30 | |
If that isn't a complicated enough process, | 0:31:30 | 0:31:32 | |
-you've done that for every single piece. -Yes. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:35 | |
The capital pieces as well as... | 0:31:35 | 0:31:37 | |
The small ones, I think, only have one inside - the pawns - | 0:31:37 | 0:31:41 | |
and these others have two, and the big ones five. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:44 | |
You really are showing off | 0:31:44 | 0:31:45 | |
if you've carved your ivory to this extraordinary degree. | 0:31:45 | 0:31:49 | |
-It's an odd way of spending your life. -Yes, quite. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:51 | |
But if you look at the emperor's robe, all the way round this robe | 0:31:51 | 0:31:56 | |
is the most incredibly intricate design of foliage | 0:31:56 | 0:32:00 | |
and the whole thing, in terms of its quality, | 0:32:00 | 0:32:03 | |
is reflected from top to bottom, | 0:32:03 | 0:32:05 | |
but not just this piece, | 0:32:05 | 0:32:07 | |
because all the other pieces are made to a similar standard, | 0:32:07 | 0:32:11 | |
which I think is quite remarkable. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:13 | |
I think in terms of arriving at some sort of value, | 0:32:13 | 0:32:17 | |
-you have to take into account the condition. -Yes. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:19 | |
And the condition of the reds is not as hot as it might be. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:23 | |
For me, this set ought to make | 0:32:23 | 0:32:26 | |
-somewhere around £3,000 to £4,000, that sort of amount. -Yes. | 0:32:26 | 0:32:30 | |
-Good return on a fiver! -On a fiver, yes! | 0:32:30 | 0:32:34 | |
Here we have a rather wonderful coloured lithograph | 0:32:38 | 0:32:43 | |
by Sir Terry Frost | 0:32:43 | 0:32:44 | |
and it's dated and numbered in pencil | 0:32:44 | 0:32:47 | |
on the bottom right-hand side here, | 0:32:47 | 0:32:50 | |
57, and a limited edition, 23 out of 30. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:54 | |
Interesting, Terry Frost. | 0:32:54 | 0:32:56 | |
Nowadays there's a huge amount of interest in his work. | 0:32:56 | 0:32:59 | |
He's one of the leading 20th century figures in British art, | 0:32:59 | 0:33:02 | |
he's represented at the Tate and international museums. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:06 | |
And he's certainly one very well-respected painter. | 0:33:06 | 0:33:09 | |
Can you tell me just a little bit more about | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
the history of the picture? | 0:33:12 | 0:33:14 | |
Terry was my cousin. | 0:33:14 | 0:33:15 | |
Was he a wonderful family man? | 0:33:15 | 0:33:17 | |
Yeah, he was very much a family man, yeah. | 0:33:17 | 0:33:20 | |
My sister and I lost our parents quite young | 0:33:20 | 0:33:23 | |
and he used to step in and look after us as much as he could. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:27 | |
They didn't have much money but what they had, they took us with them. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:31 | |
He was born in Leamington | 0:33:31 | 0:33:33 | |
but was one of the ones that was in the St Ives School | 0:33:33 | 0:33:39 | |
in the '50s. | 0:33:39 | 0:33:41 | |
And that was in '57, as you can see. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:43 | |
He was a prisoner of war and when he came back from the War, | 0:33:43 | 0:33:49 | |
my father, his uncle, was very disparaging of him wanting to be an artist - | 0:33:49 | 0:33:55 | |
"Oh, get yourself a real job, lad! | 0:33:55 | 0:33:57 | |
"What are you on about, talking about 50 shades of green?! | 0:33:57 | 0:34:01 | |
"Get yourself back in the bike shop," or wherever it was he worked before the War. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:05 | |
Do you know much about his imprisonment in Bavaria? | 0:34:05 | 0:34:10 | |
The bits that he told us, I think it was a pretty dark period in his life. | 0:34:10 | 0:34:16 | |
He didn't want to tell you much about it. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:18 | |
I think he had a lot of worries about whether he should continue his art | 0:34:18 | 0:34:22 | |
because as I've said, he wanted to do it, he felt a calling to it, | 0:34:22 | 0:34:28 | |
but people expected you to work then, especially just after the War. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:32 | |
Men in grey suits - there wasn't much colour, was there? | 0:34:32 | 0:34:35 | |
No, not at all. Can you tell me the subject of this picture? | 0:34:35 | 0:34:38 | |
No, I'm afraid I can't. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:40 | |
If you asked Terry what a picture represented, he'd say, | 0:34:40 | 0:34:45 | |
"It's whatever you make of it, it's whatever YOU want to see in it." | 0:34:45 | 0:34:48 | |
What do you have in the envelope? | 0:34:48 | 0:34:51 | |
I thought you might be interested in these. | 0:34:51 | 0:34:53 | |
The kind of Christmas cards he used to send which were | 0:34:53 | 0:34:56 | |
definitely a bit different, as you can see. | 0:34:56 | 0:34:59 | |
-These are wonderful! And that's an original Terry Frost? -Yes. | 0:34:59 | 0:35:03 | |
An original Terry Frost. | 0:35:03 | 0:35:04 | |
I love the Christmas tree. And then inside we also have | 0:35:04 | 0:35:09 | |
a piece of art by him too, | 0:35:09 | 0:35:11 | |
and a lovely note to you and your husband. | 0:35:11 | 0:35:14 | |
-They were always like that. -2001, only three years before he died. | 0:35:14 | 0:35:18 | |
That's right, yes, yes. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:20 | |
That's really wonderful. | 0:35:20 | 0:35:21 | |
This is an older one, that's '73. | 0:35:21 | 0:35:23 | |
That's earlier. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:25 | |
There's a bootlace tied through it. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:28 | |
That's a great design too, | 0:35:28 | 0:35:30 | |
-and so he'd send these to family and friends every Christmas? -Yes. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:34 | |
-What a wonderful thing to do! -It was lovely. He was a lovely person. | 0:35:34 | 0:35:38 | |
I suppose value doesn't really matter, they have such sentimental value. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:42 | |
I'd never sell it, I was just interested. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:43 | |
Terry Frost, the major oils can make | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
tens of thousands of pounds now, he's seriously well regarded. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:49 | |
A colour lithograph print from the '50s, which is a great period too, | 0:35:49 | 0:35:53 | |
this was just after he was working with Hepworth down in St Ives | 0:35:53 | 0:35:56 | |
and this is probably worth about £600 to £800. | 0:35:56 | 0:36:00 | |
And the cards, they can be worth anything from | 0:36:00 | 0:36:04 | |
£200 to £300, | 0:36:04 | 0:36:05 | |
maybe up to £400 to £600 for a truly original work, | 0:36:05 | 0:36:10 | |
but certainly works by Terry Frost now are seriously collected, internationally, | 0:36:10 | 0:36:15 | |
-literally worldwide, and it's a pleasure to see them. Thank you. -Thanks very much. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:20 | |
-Are these family jewels? -Yes, that's right. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:28 | |
What's their history in the family with you? | 0:36:28 | 0:36:31 | |
They always seemed to be there, you know, from Grandma, really. | 0:36:31 | 0:36:34 | |
-Did they? -Yes. | 0:36:34 | 0:36:36 | |
-And have you been wearing that one? -I have worn it, yes. | 0:36:36 | 0:36:39 | |
And most of your life? Tell me about its history for you. | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
Well, Mother used to wear it, yes. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:46 | |
-And you're a Coventry girl, aren't you? -Yes, that's right. | 0:36:46 | 0:36:49 | |
-You've lived through all Coventry's terrible history as well as its marvellous history. -That's right. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:54 | |
-At the time of its worst trouble, where were these kept in the house? -Upstairs. | 0:36:54 | 0:36:59 | |
And where were you? | 0:36:59 | 0:37:00 | |
I was downstairs when the Blitz was on, with Mother under the stairs, | 0:37:00 | 0:37:04 | |
and father was fire-watching on the corner. | 0:37:04 | 0:37:08 | |
-That must have given terror a whole new meaning. -It did, yes. | 0:37:08 | 0:37:13 | |
You know, when the bombs were dropping, we were all scared. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:17 | |
And then, cos it was the fire bombs that dropped on top of the cathedral, | 0:37:17 | 0:37:21 | |
they burnt the roof, the screen, the floor and the pews. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:25 | |
Then, you see, it just had to burn | 0:37:25 | 0:37:27 | |
because there was no water to put out the fires, | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
all the water hydrants were put out of action, yes. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:34 | |
What is remarkable about jewellery, about family jewellery really, | 0:37:34 | 0:37:38 | |
is that it is a link with the past and it goes from one generation to another. | 0:37:38 | 0:37:42 | |
The miracle for us today is you're sitting in the burnt-out cathedral, | 0:37:42 | 0:37:47 | |
sitting with your family jewels and both of them have come through. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:51 | |
Yes. That's right, through the Blitz. | 0:37:51 | 0:37:54 | |
This is a Victorian gold bracelet. | 0:37:54 | 0:37:57 | |
It may have been made in Birmingham which is incredibly close by. | 0:37:57 | 0:38:01 | |
-Yes, yes. -And it's nine carat gold. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:03 | |
It's a very popular form and a very desirable form because it's so wearable. | 0:38:03 | 0:38:07 | |
And I suppose it dates from about 1890 | 0:38:07 | 0:38:10 | |
-and might've been your Granny's present. -Yes, it was Grandma's. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:13 | |
-Perhaps for her wedding. -Yes. -It's a lovely thing. | 0:38:13 | 0:38:16 | |
-This one is a Victorian vinaigrette, a silver one. -That's right. | 0:38:16 | 0:38:21 | |
A vinaigrette actually more often than not contained scent, | 0:38:21 | 0:38:25 | |
-rather than vinegar as the name suggests. -Yes, yes. | 0:38:25 | 0:38:28 | |
In a time, frankly, when there was more of an assault | 0:38:28 | 0:38:33 | |
on one's nostrils than there might be today. | 0:38:33 | 0:38:35 | |
So you simply opened that up and found, you know, a scent within it, | 0:38:35 | 0:38:39 | |
held it to your nose, and it dates from the 1870s. | 0:38:39 | 0:38:42 | |
It's made by a popular Birmingham craftsman called George Unite. | 0:38:42 | 0:38:47 | |
The value of these things is jolly, jolly pleasing | 0:38:47 | 0:38:50 | |
because that one's so wearable. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:52 | |
If you were to go and buy that in a smart retail shop today, | 0:38:52 | 0:38:55 | |
well, maybe...maybe £600 or £700. | 0:38:55 | 0:38:59 | |
-Never! -To buy it again, absolutely! | 0:38:59 | 0:39:01 | |
And then this one here, | 0:39:01 | 0:39:04 | |
astonishingly £200 or £300. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:06 | |
Never! I can't believe it. It's fantastic. | 0:39:06 | 0:39:10 | |
-They're an emblem of survival, aren't they? -That's right. | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
You came through, these came through | 0:39:13 | 0:39:15 | |
-and that's the only thing that really matters. -Yes. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:17 | |
-What a wonderful thing, thanks for bringing it. -That's all right. | 0:39:17 | 0:39:21 | |
I've seen a number of three-handled cups, | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
and mugs and things over the years, they're usually called loving cups, | 0:39:24 | 0:39:28 | |
but I've never seen one with three handles and three spouts. | 0:39:28 | 0:39:32 | |
It sounds like you're up for some wild parties with this! | 0:39:32 | 0:39:35 | |
But the first thing I notice, | 0:39:35 | 0:39:38 | |
it's got an interesting inscription on the lid which says, | 0:39:38 | 0:39:41 | |
"Presented by the Guild of Freeman of the City of London | 0:39:41 | 0:39:44 | |
"to the City of Coventry Freeman's Guild | 0:39:44 | 0:39:46 | |
"to commemorate its incorporation, 9th March 1946." | 0:39:46 | 0:39:51 | |
-Well, I'm a Freeman of the City of London. -Oh, right! | 0:39:51 | 0:39:54 | |
So I'm interested to know how this has come into your possession, | 0:39:54 | 0:39:59 | |
and to know actually if it's used, and are you a member of this guild? | 0:39:59 | 0:40:03 | |
Certainly I'm a member of this guild, | 0:40:03 | 0:40:05 | |
-and the Coventry Guild goes back to 1300 or something like that. -Right. | 0:40:05 | 0:40:09 | |
But it was dissolved by Henry VIII. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:11 | |
-In the mid 16th century. -Absolutely. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:14 | |
It was reformed again in 1946, and at that time | 0:40:14 | 0:40:18 | |
the City of London presented us with this as a gift for our guild. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:24 | |
-You asked the question, is it used? -Yes. -It is used very regular. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:28 | |
How come you haven't brought some wine along for us to try it out? | 0:40:28 | 0:40:31 | |
I didn't know if it was allowed in the cathedral! | 0:40:31 | 0:40:35 | |
Well, that's great to hear that it's still used. And how... | 0:40:35 | 0:40:38 | |
It was passed from person to person, so would I hand it | 0:40:38 | 0:40:41 | |
with my right hand or left hand? Which direction does it go? | 0:40:41 | 0:40:45 | |
The ceremony of the loving cup means three people are standing at the same time. | 0:40:45 | 0:40:50 | |
-Right. -The person drinking, | 0:40:50 | 0:40:51 | |
one to the left, who will actually take the cup, | 0:40:51 | 0:40:54 | |
take the lid from the cup and bow to each other. | 0:40:54 | 0:40:57 | |
That's to your left, that would be. | 0:40:57 | 0:40:59 | |
The one to the right would actually turn his back on you | 0:40:59 | 0:41:02 | |
-and defend your back while you're drinking. -Ah! | 0:41:02 | 0:41:06 | |
It's to stop you being stabbed in the back whilst taking a drink! | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
-Well, I think Coventry's moved on a bit since that! -Yeah. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:13 | |
-And did you drink out the spout? -You do, yeah. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:15 | |
-Oh, right. -You need to drink from the spout, | 0:41:15 | 0:41:18 | |
if you try to drink anywhere else you're liable to wear... | 0:41:18 | 0:41:21 | |
two stripes down your shirt! | 0:41:21 | 0:41:23 | |
Well, you know, the history behind it is wonderful, | 0:41:23 | 0:41:26 | |
but I've got to tell you that as a piece of silver, this weighs a ton. | 0:41:26 | 0:41:30 | |
It's fabulously made. | 0:41:30 | 0:41:32 | |
If we look inside, we see that the decoration | 0:41:32 | 0:41:36 | |
on the outside is not embossed, it's not pushed out from the inside, | 0:41:36 | 0:41:39 | |
all this is applied, so that's a much more time-consuming procedure. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:45 | |
It also has all these rather interesting little... | 0:41:45 | 0:41:48 | |
what they call cabochon cut agates, cabochon meaning just the rounded surface to it. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:54 | |
But all this decoration, which is done in a very sort of Art Nouveau, | 0:41:54 | 0:41:58 | |
bordering onto Arts and Crafts style. And... | 0:41:58 | 0:42:03 | |
We've got a coat of arms on here. Do you know anything about it? | 0:42:03 | 0:42:06 | |
-Unfortunately, no, very little. -Right. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:08 | |
We've got other bits of information here. | 0:42:08 | 0:42:11 | |
The maker's mark, C & Co, is for Carrington and Company | 0:42:11 | 0:42:15 | |
who were well-known London retailers. | 0:42:15 | 0:42:17 | |
But perhaps most importantly, because this piece, | 0:42:17 | 0:42:20 | |
although it was presented in 1946, was actually made in 1908. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:25 | |
-Oh, right! -So we're right in the middle of the Art Nouveau period. | 0:42:25 | 0:42:30 | |
But a fabulous piece of silver. I've never seen anything quite like it. | 0:42:30 | 0:42:35 | |
I'd love to see it in action one day! | 0:42:35 | 0:42:37 | |
You'd be most welcome. | 0:42:37 | 0:42:39 | |
Well, I would say, because of the amount of workmanship in this piece, | 0:42:39 | 0:42:44 | |
it's got to be insured for anything between £10,000 and £15,000. | 0:42:44 | 0:42:50 | |
-Oh, right! -It's a really lovely piece of silver. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:53 | |
It's quirky, it's got history. Thank you for bringing it along. | 0:42:53 | 0:42:57 | |
Absolute pleasure, thanks for all your information, | 0:42:57 | 0:42:59 | |
that'll be most useful to us. | 0:42:59 | 0:43:01 | |
Two powerful themes at Coventry are remembrance and reconciliation, | 0:43:03 | 0:43:08 | |
and to prove the point, an exact replica of this statue | 0:43:08 | 0:43:12 | |
here in the ruins of the old cathedral, stands in the Garden of Peace in Hiroshima, Japan. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:17 | |
It was presented on behalf of the people of Coventry. | 0:43:17 | 0:43:20 | |
We shall certainly remember our visit, so thanks to the Dean | 0:43:20 | 0:43:24 | |
and all Coventrians for their welcome and showing us their treasures. | 0:43:24 | 0:43:27 | |
For now, goodbye. | 0:43:27 | 0:43:29 |