Guernsey Antiques Roadshow

I'm going to start this programme with a little bit of an apology.

You see, it's been 15 years since we last came to Guernsey,

and our Channel crossing is long overdue,

so time to make up for lost time now.

Welcome to the Antiques Roadshow.

Guernsey seems such a tranquil island,

a place surrounded by such calm waters

that it's easy to forget its turbulent past.

But a huge network of fortifications,

built from medieval to Napoleonic times,

stand testament to over 600 years of conflict with nearby France.

Guernsey fought off all attempts by the French to capture the island,

but nothing could stop the onslaught of the Nazis.

On the afternoon of June 28th 1940,

six bombers from Hitler's Luftwaffe attacked Jersey and Guernsey.

Like the rest of the Channel Islands, Guernsey was completely defenceless.

When the German invasion force landed,

islanders had no choice but to surrender.

One of Hitler's first acts was to fortify the island

with vast concrete gun emplacements and observation towers.

It feels quite eerie to be stood here by one of these concrete monoliths

and though they may scar the beautiful coastline here,

it seems only fitting that they should remain

as a reminder of a bleak period in this island's history.

These German building works

were coordinated from a French-style chateau in Saumarez Park.

It had been commandeered by the German Labour Corps,

who stripped it of its fine furniture and fittings.

Today, in these more peaceful times, it's a residential home

in the heart of one of the island's most popular parks.

And plenty of people have turned out to see us, I'm glad to say.

So over to our experts.

I can see you're a wine drinker.

-Yes, indeed.

-Do you have wine out of here ever?

No, I haven't done, because I haven't had any claret.

-I think you're permitted to put something else in, if you want to.

-That's a good idea.

-Yes.

-Yeah, I think you must.

Yes, yes.

It's such a beautiful object.

I was immediately taken by this glass

and the way it's been cut,

-and this is called rock crystal engraving.

-Oh.

And it was a technique which was done largely in Stourbridge,

-just south of Birmingham.

-Yes.

Many factories could have done it, but Webb is a strong contender.

Dates from the last years of the 19th century,

or the early 20th century.

In fact, these ran up to the '30s.

It's been mounted in what we call parcel-gilt,

which means that it's silver which has had gold onto it.

-In places, not all over.

-Hmm-mm.

And we can get the date of it from the date letter here, which is 1900.

Oh, I'd never noticed that.

Ah, you see, that's why we're here.

Now, I want to know...

did you buy it, for a start?

-Yes.

-And what did you pay for it?

I can't remember whether it was £70 or £700.

-Really? Now, wait a minute...

-It was a long time ago!

..if I give you an IOU, this could be money in this somewhere.

Very interesting. How long ago?

15 years ago.

At £70, it would have been seriously cheap,

unless you were really very lucky.

-So I think you must have paid £700 for it.

-Hmm.

Well, what's it worth today?

Yes.

The real wine buffs are... decanting wine.

They don't need to decant wine, because it's not throwing a sediment

but they're decanting it

because it shows off the colour of the wine so well.

So you take it out of that dark bottle

and you pour it into here,

and the colour absolutely comes to life,

-particularly with rock crystal engraving.

-Oh.

Your smart claret drinker is going to want that

and he's going to pay for it.

He would, you know, this is a top-of-the-range model, almost.

Um, I think that would make somewhere around £2,000 to £3,000.

-Wow!

-You did all right.

Wow! I sure did.

The jewellery,

the lady wearing one of the pieces of jewellery,

who was she?

She was, er, Doris Clapham

and she was one of the original Tiller Girls

in the beginning of the century, taken in by my grandmother.

-Right, right.

-Because she didn't get on with her step-mother.

Oh, interesting, interesting.

-What made her become a Tiller Girl, all those years back?

-Well, I think she was a dancer.

-Yes.

When she left home, I suppose it was one way to earn a living.

Apparently, the early ones nearly all married into the aristocracy.

Oh, really?

And she married Fred Day of Francis, Day & Hunter, music publishers.

He went to see her every night when she was a Tiller Girl.

They got married and lived a very high life after that.

What year did she get married, then?

-Er, 9...8...1912.

-1912.

-1912.

-Yes, because that's her diamond wedding.

All right, the brooch that she's wearing here, in the painting,

is this brooch here, made in platinum,

in around about 1925.

Diamonds, and look at the very white diamonds here,

in two-row formation,

in little borders of what are called calibre-cut sapphires.

-Baton-shaped sapphires.

-Yes.

But this is a really pretty brooch, wearable.

These two pieces here are not in the painting,

so what do we know about these?

They were given to her by her husband Fred,

and apparently she lost the bracelet

at some point when they were in Paris.

-Oh, really?

-And he had another one made.

The bracelet itself has got a highly technical name

that we describe these, which is called Tutti Frutti.

-Tutti Frutti, yes.

-Quite clearly, you can see they are a pair.

Now, these are later than the brooch.

These were probably made in around about 1935

and they are a tour de force

-of colourful, bold, strong, society jewellery.

-Yes.

And the gems themselves are interesting because,

when you look closely, you will see that they're carved leaves.

They carved leaves here of emeralds,

rubies and sapphires, in diamond frames.

-Tutti Frutti, would you not agree, is very descriptive?

-Yes.

-Hmm.

Let's move on to... some prices for you.

Well, the painting itself,

let me explain, I know NOTHING about pictures,

but I'm reliably informed by my colleagues that it's painted by a man called Cooper,

who was a society painter in the '20s and '30s, which figures.

-Hmm, yes.

-That's what we see here.

Now, the painting is damaged.

It's severely suffering from flaking here, caused by damp.

Apparently, I'm told it's worth £400 to £500.

The jewels themselves...

The diamond and sapphire brooch with its strength, its power, its beauty,

I suppose if I were selling that today - £6,000 to £8,000.

I think for that grouping, that style,

-I'm thinking about £20,000 to £30,000.

-Hmm.

It's beautiful.

You can imagine that when she went on holiday to Vienna -

they used to spend a lot of time at Vienna -

she probably travelled with all this.

Well, there she was, style, panache.

She was a woman with individuality, with jewellery to match.

Well, we've done a number of dressers on the Roadshow

over the last 25, 30 years, but none better than this base.

This is an extremely interesting base, from my point of view.

-It's got cabriole legs, which is the most desirable type, OK.

-Mm.

And we can put it round about 1735 to 1770.

Difficult to be more precise because they made them in the country the same way.

Once a fashion had come in, it tended to stay.

We can tell also that it's western seaboard.

So not necessarily a Welsh dresser,

but certainly up from there going north,

Chester, way up on the western seaboard.

And that's usually denoted

by this type of mahogany crossbanding around an oak drawer.

Got nice little details, a little extra curl here,

which was an overhang, really, from 1710s, 1720s,

and an overhanging drawer front.

All these little details go to confirm that sort of period.

So if we say mid-18th century, it's pretty safe.

-That's the base part. That's the valuable bit.

-Right.

This is later.

This is nothing to do with it, originally.

A pair of old doors, nice doors here,

and this part is not as old as the doors.

So we have a dresser base, which is valuable in its own right

and a later adaption of a top,

which adds utility value to it, but not commercial.

If this were on the market you'd take that bit away,

and probably hang it on the wall as a separate item,

and sell that part, which is the valuable bit.

-Good heavens.

-Now, I'm interested because it's quite insecure.

I mean, it's probably screwed to the base.

But an original one would have a retaining moulding around.

It wouldn't just sit, plonked on the top.

So is this where you screw it back to the wall

for security or something like that?

No, that has an interesting history, actually.

The dresser belonged to my grandparents,

who left the island hurriedly in June 1940,

and when they came back five years later, they discovered that,

like many local houses, theirs had been requisitioned by the Germans,

and they found that somebody had taken a pot shot

at the quails in that picture.

-This plate?

-Yes.

I think it's cloisonne,

-and because of that, they knew it wouldn't break.

-Good Lord.

They could have gone mad and smashed all the other ones,

but they just chose that plate, because you can see the two corresponding bullet holes.

-These are actual bullet holes?

-Yes. Yes.

I've never been able to find the bullets, sadly.

Look at...now!

If we were on a crime TV series,

we'd get a rod and we could tell at what angle they were -

were they standing up or sitting down?

-Absolutely.

-Ttfff!

I've always believed that they were two bored Germans,

sitting one winter's evening in chairs either side of the room,

-and one took a shot at the quail from one angle...

-Yeah.

..and the other, from the other.

-Fantastic!

-Both missed.

-They missed the quail.

-Yes.

Well, I... That's a unique story.

There's nothing like that I've ever encountered.

All I can tell you is this part, this bit,

-is probably worth between £4,000 and £6,000 as it is.

-Good heavens!

That part is priceless. Absolutely priceless.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

Well, you are Lord de Saumarez

and we're standing here in Saumarez Park,

which you know very well, don't you?

Yes, it's the old family seat

that my grandfather sold in 1936 to the States.

And you've brought along today an interesting sword.

Something that, actually, I recognise

and I recognise it by this incredibly distinctive grip,

the hilt, in the form of a crocodile.

I recognise this as a copy of the sword

that was presented to Nelson

to commemorate the victory at the Battle of the Nile.

Now, after the Battle of the Nile,

-his captains met on Saumarez's ship, the Orion.

-That's right.

And they decided to invite Nelson to accept a sword, paid for by them,

and a portrait that they were going to have painted later.

I don't think that ever happened.

I don't think it did. They also inaugurated the Egyptian Club.

-The Egyptian Club, sometimes called the Crocodile Club.

-Yes.

And this sword is one of the swords

that some of the captains had made for them afterwards.

Nelson had the original, which was made in gold,

and then his prize agent

arranged for several copies for the senior captains,

of which I guess your ancestor would be one, Saumarez would be one,

to have some copies made in gilded brass and this is -

and I can't believe I'm actually holding it -

this is Saumarez's actual sword.

It is, and I believe it's one of the few still in the possession

-of the family of one of the Band of Brothers.

-Because many of the others were sold, of course.

Let's take a look at this sword.

The hilt is made in the form of a crocodile

because of the Nile crocodiles, and there's an oval plaque here

that says "Victory of the Nile, 1st August 1798"

and that was the date, of course, of the great victory over the French.

And on the other side...

..it says - I can't quite read that.

-What does it say?

-"Captain James Saumarez, His Majesty's Ship Orion".

He was second in command at the Battle of the Nile.

-So he was Nelson's deputy, if you like?

-Yes, yes.

-How astonishing!

Now, I wonder what the blade is like?

Let's just take this... My goodness, that's stiff!

Aah! Good. Can I ask you to hold that?

That's a beautiful blade.

Now, if we turn it this way, we can see that, originally,

this would have been blued and gilded,

which is, which would be sumptuous,

beautiful blueing and gilding.

We can just see traces of the blueing and gilding left.

We've got a crown there, the King's crown,

and GR for George, George III of course,

and that's the period that this sword was made in.

But it's a fabulous piece. It's a really, really fantastic item.

And it does actually have quite a significant value.

Not many of these ever turn up on the open market today,

but if this ever did, it would sell for

somewhere between £150,000 and £200,000.

Not for sale.

-You can't be tempted?

-No.

I'm glad to hear it.

I find myself in a very lucky situation today of being faced by two very lovely ladies.

-Yourself.

-Thank you.

-And Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward.

Now, for all of those people who were growing up in the '60s,

-I'm sure they'll all remember Lady Penelope from Thunderbirds.

-Yeah.

Now, this is what appears to be an oil painting

and I want to know how you happen to have an oil painting of Lady Penelope.

Well, my husband worked at Century 21.

-Really?

-In Slough.

-Right.

And it was given to him when the firm closed.

Right, OK. Now, can you tell me what your husband did at Century 21?

Obviously that was Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's production company,

which made all the shows like Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet.

Did he work on all of those productions?

Yeah, he did all the explosions.

-He did all the explosions?!

-Yeah.

-Fabulous!

Of course, as a boy, that was the bit I probably most liked.

-You would.

-With all the explosions.

-All those fabulous models that used to sadly get destroyed.

-Yeah.

Interestingly enough, this is not what it appears to be at first sight.

In fact, even though it appears to be an oil painting,

it's in fact an overpainted photograph.

Really?

-It's in the, um, Penelope's house.

-Was it really?

OK. It's been overpainted by hand and we can see that actually,

because if you look at the detail in her face,

just here we can see there's some print work just under here.

So, er, it's not quite what it appears to be at first sight.

-Oh.

-But I don't think that really matters,

because I think it's quite a lovely little memento.

-It is, yes.

-Of that time.

Forgive me for asking, is your husband with you? Is he...

-No. No.

-He's passed away, has he?

-Yeah.

Well, in many respects, I think this is kind of a fitting little memento to him.

-It is lovely.

-Because without people like your husband,

boys like myself wouldn't have been entertained.

-True, true.

-I adored anything to do with Thunderbirds.

-Yeah.

In fact, I have an old car that I've actually called Thunderbirds Two.

Did your husband ever appear in any of the productions?

-Er, only once.

-Once. What was he doing?

-They used his eyeballs.

-They used his eyeballs?

-Yeah.

What I liked about Supermarionation

was that occasionally they would insert a real hand, wouldn't they?

-That's right.

-And one day he happened to be there and his eyeball came in useful?

-Yeah, it did.

-Wonderful.

It's an object that I almost hate to talk about value

because it has a great deal of meaning to you.

-Yeah.

-But I'm going to have to.

It's priceless to you, but on the open market,

to a serious collector of Thunderbirds memorabilia,

I think it would certainly be worth around about £200 or £300.

-OK. That's fine.

-I've really enjoyed looking at it.

-Thank you.

-It's made me very nostalgic too.

-Good.

-Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Sue, you're matron of the residential home here behind us.

Is this from inside the home?

We've been guardians of it for nearly ten years now.

And what is it?

We believe that it's a Victorian jockeys' weighing machine,

but it was used in a local sports shop for many, many years

to weigh everybody, before bathroom scales and things like that.

-Oh, I see!

-People went along to the shop and they were weighed.

And if it's a jockey's one, then,

was it for weighing adults or for weighing children?

I would imagine that originally it was for adults, but we don't know.

So this is something that is a common sight in Guernsey?

This has been around at least 95 years,

because some of the residents can remember paying their penny to be weighed on it,

when they were small.

-On this actual chair?

-On that chair.

It's known locally as the Podgers' scales, after the shop.

The Podgers' scales. OK, hands up, anyone here been weighed?

Oh, look! Lots of you!

You were weighed on here as well? How extraordinary!

Well, I've got to give it a go.

-Yes.

-So... Well, I know what I think I weigh.

-Right.

-This could be quite embarrassing.

But how much have you got on there now?

-Um...

-28.

-That's two stone.

Well, it's going to be more than that.

Two, four, five, six stone at the moment.

All right. I've got to say, I weigh more than that. OK, see how we go.

OK, we'll try these.

Right, OK. Here we go. Ready?

-CLUNK

-Oh, OK.

I think we're going to need considerably more weight.

-More weight.

-Er, now, we have a little assistant here.

Rob, lovely Antiques Roadshow assistant here.

Ooh, listen, hang on, that's a bit over the top!

That's another four stone, Fiona.

What, ten?! How much do you think I weigh?!

Right, OK.

-Oh!

-Ah, nearer there.

-Hang on, is that too much or too little?

-Too much.

Oh, you are kind.

That's it!

LAUGHTER

And what did that weigh, then?

How much is it? That's the 64,000 question.

How many?

Ten stone, four pounds.

Ten stone four?!

I don't weigh ten stone four!

Fiona, they always weigh more.

So you're all right.

It's not even, it's not on an even surface.

Can I just say for the record, nine and a half stone.

I knew I shouldn't have had that pudding last night.

This is a most impressive picture and, do you know,

I've hardly ever seen any work by this artist

and it's signed on the left here, A.B. Cull,

which I know as Alma Burton Cull.

Whenever I see his work, it's usually watercolours,

not big oils like this.

Now, I know that he lived down at Lee-on-Solent,

and I also know that when he died in 1931,

his wife put his pictures into store in Portsmouth,

and of course, Portsmouth was very badly bombed in 1940,

the majority of them were destroyed,

and that's probably the reason one doesn't see so many oils like this.

Do you know about the fleet here?

Yes, the ship in the front is the Dreadnought,

which, of course, was the name of the ship

that gave birth to a generation of big-gun warships.

And that was built in about 1906, wasn't it?

1906, and the other six are two different following classes

before they started changing the design.

They were the first really super battleships.

They were the super battleships of the 20th century.

And where did it come from?

Well, um, I saw it in a ship's periodical for sale.

I've always loved this picture since seeing it,

a photograph of it in a... On the wall at school.

-Mm-hm.

-And I've always thought it was fascinating.

Suddenly it came up for sale, 30 years ago.

And may I ask you what it cost then?

-Um, well it cost me £2,000.

-£2,000?

£2,000, and it was a silly price I offered,

and in the end, I got it for the silly price.

Well, I think it's a very wise investment

-and you obviously like naval scenes.

-Indeed.

What is so incredible about this, is the light on the sea.

-You've got these dark clouds, really very ominous.

-Yes.

And then you've got the sun setting in the background there,

and this is just superb, absolutely superb.

There would be a lot of demand for this.

I imagine one of the big museums or naval museum

might be interested in this, if this was ever sold.

To put a price on this is very difficult.

I mean, I've sold his watercolours for, you know, £1,500, £2,000.

With so much atmosphere, I mean, I'm going to say...

that's going to be worth

certainly £20,000 to £30,000 at auction, and that's conservative.

-You obviously love it very much.

-Very much, my pride and joy.

But it's only leaving my house with my coffin.

My goodness me!

I do get excited when I see a very large gem stone.

Do you know what it is?

I think it's a sapphire.

-I'm not sure. It's my father's.

-Right.

Um, and he calls it the maharajah's hatpin.

Why is that?

That's what my father calls it.

It was given to him by his father,

-who was a purser for P&O on their flagship.

-Oh, wow.

He used to do a regular run from England to India

in the early 1920s, and he got friends out in India, acquaintances,

-and apparently, he was given this on one of his trips.

-By a maharajah?

Um, as far as I know, yes.

Well, that would make, I mean,

India is just a complete wealth of stones

and the knowledge of stones and they really appreciate gem stones,

so that would actually make complete sense.

We see a lot of jewellery,

and what's so wonderful is to see a stone on its own,

and that's the beauty of it.

What's interesting is that a lot of people imagine sapphires just to be blue,

but sapphires come in all colours.

Greens, um, yellows,

and sapphire is part of the corundum family,

which is made of aluminium oxide,

and depending if there's too much chromium or iron,

-it is either a ruby or a sapphire. So they're the same family.

-Mm-hm.

It's just such a wonderful colour

and it probably will have come from Sri Lanka.

Now, what is interesting about this as well,

is that because of its intensity of colour, one would have to,

to be absolutely certain,

you'd have to take it to a laboratory to get it tested,

to make sure that it hasn't been heat-treated.

Sometimes when you heat-treat a stone,

it can just intensify the colour.

It's permanent.

To find something of a natural colour like this,

and I'm assuming that it is, is just quite stunning.

It's quite deep,

because the cutter has made sure to capture the maximum colour.

It's needed the depth to bring that colour back up to the eye.

This weighs about 90 carats.

If this was a natural coloured sapphire,

then I would say it's going to be in the region of about £12,000 to £15,000.

-Not bad.

-Very good.

-Very good.

And if it was heat-treated, then it would be more like £4,000,

so there is a big difference.

A reputable laboratory would be able to tell you the difference.

But I just think it's fabulous. I really do.

I mean, you can just lose yourself in it, couldn't you?

Well, this is the precursor to the waiter's friend, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Corkscrew.

-Corkscrew.

-And it belonged to?

-It belonged to my late mother.

She bought it in a box at an auction,

a lot of bric-a-brac, for a pound or two.

She wouldn't have paid more than that, some 20-odd years ago.

I wish I could find something in a box of bric-a-brac like this.

Well, she just stuck by it and felt there was something more to it.

Well, I'm delighted you brought it in.

-Well, for a start, you know how it works?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

So we screw it down and that comes up.

That comes up.

-Yeah.

-So you're in, you're now in. It's holding here on the bottle.

-And here is what we call the worm.

-Mm-hm.

Now, the most important thing,

when we're talking about an expensive corkscrew,

or any corkscrew,

the worm has got to be pointed like that, it mustn't be blunt.

-Right.

-Otherwise it loses its value.

So then you take the handle...

I'm imagining we're into a damn good bottle of claret.

Mm, that would be nice.

-And out comes the cork.

-Comme ca.

It's a Royal Club patent,

and it's by Charles Hull,

patented in 1864,

and it's patent number 480.

-Right.

-So you can look it up, anywhere in the corkscrew books.

It's a serious corkscrew.

Plus the fact that the worm point is wonderfully un-blunt. It's pointed.

The remains of the sort of gilding is still on it,

-which is a kind of orange paint.

-Mm-hm.

It's in very good condition.

It's worth between £2,500 and £3,000.

Good golly! Puh!

I will open a bottle tonight.

I think this is just the most wonderful object.

-I adore it.

-Oh, good.

-Do you know what it is?

-Palanquin?

Palanquin.

-Palanquin.

-Well, that's what we, in Europe, call it.

-Mm-hm.

But, of course, this is not European.

It's Japanese,

and there it would be called a kago,

and it would have been used -

I mean, the full-sized one, not this - the full-sized one

would have been used for carrying somebody of some substance.

It is effectively a sedan chair.

The person that would have been in it,

would be identifiable by this,

which is a mon, or badge.

So we could find out. I don't know who it is, but we could find out.

The reason these were made is absolutely extraordinary.

The Japanese are, or were, a very war-like nation,

and they weren't just fighting other people

like the Chinese or the Koreans or wherever.

They were fighting themselves,

and the samurai were going round the country with their swords,

chopping people to pieces. Each other.

And the shogun at the time, in the 16th century,

called Ieyasu Tokugawa,

he thought of this brilliant plan,

which was to have a castle at Edo,

which is now Kyoto,

and he said to the samurai and the daimyo,

who were the lords round the country,

"You will send me for six months of the year

"your wife and your children."

So you can't fight one another, because if you do...

So these were moving round Japan,

along the Tokaido road, the whole time.

And here we've got one, which I suspect was made

right at the end of the period when these would have been in use,

-which is about 1870, 1880.

-Mm-hm.

It's made of wood

and it's been lacquered,

and we've got metal mounts all over it,

which have been beautifully engraved,

and as the original would have,

we have a sliding door.

This one's been decorated as an original would be,

with painted paper on the walls

-and a brocade cushion.

-Mm-hm.

Because it's such a decorative object,

I think that would make,

even though the market's difficult at the moment,

-somewhere around £3,000 to £5,000.

-Mm!

-Not bad for a spare bedroom.

-My goodness.

I have to ask, what on earth is this?

Well, Fiona, this is something I've dug out from the Occupation Museum.

The Germans used a lot of horses during the occupation.

They had 700 of these, and they had this obsession with gas,

so they had gas masks for horses.

-So these two cones goes up a horse's nostrils.

-No!

They wouldn't go up yours, but they would go up a horse. Yes.

What do you think? It's a look!

But any horse would be terrified!

Yes, when a local farmer, not far from here, saw it, the horse actually bolted.

And did they ever actually get a horse to put this on? Comfortably.

Well, they did... They did practise, because it was part of their drill.

And so the Germans were worried, what, that the British forces would gas...

What, gas the good people of Guernsey along with the Germans?

Well, obviously, but we had civilian gas masks

which was issued at the outbreak of war in 1939,

and the Germans brought their own gas masks in their canisters,

and these were specifically for horses.

But gas was never used.

So when the Germans surrendered in 1945,

what happened to all the horses?

Well, before that, in June 1944, with the invasion of France,

we were cut off in the Channel Islands,

and there was very little food coming in.

In fact, there was nothing coming in,

so by the end of '44, the Germans were consuming,

they were actually eating their horses.

-Oh!

-And they were also catching a lot of fish.

The locals had to catch fish

and a percent of the catch went for the Germans.

So by liberation, out of 700 horses, there was only 302 left.

Well, I hate to think of a horse having to wear this.

I think it would be cruel in the extreme, I must say.

-But I've loved seeing them, thanks very much.

-Thank you.

Just looking at this dress, it takes me back immediately to the 1920s.

To flappers, to parties,

to women emancipated after the First World War,

-women really having their own place in society now and enjoying it.

-Yes.

So is this dress related to someone in your family?

Um, well, she wasn't a direct relation. We called her Aunt Mary.

We were close neighbours and my mother-in-law helped her and looked after her.

She got very old. She lived to 92,

and it was left to my mother-in-law and it passed to me.

-And this is the lady, this is...

-That's Mary Rust, yes.

-This is the lady who wore this fantastic dress.

-Yes, that's right.

-I mean, she was obviously a beauty in her time.

-Yes.

And what was her story? What was Mary's story?

Well, she was born in Louisiana, and she was in a relationship

with a young man that the family didn't approve of,

so they sent her to China, where they...

I mean, being sent to China,

it must have been a very, very unfortunate relationship,

-because I mean, Louisiana, Deep South in America, very strict moral values.

-Yes.

And of course, anything, any impropriety, you would be sent away.

I think she had missionaries in the family that were in China at the time.

Ah! So they decided, get Mary, pack Mary off...

They took her under their wing

and she went to, sort of, tea parties and social occasions.

I must say, with a dress like this, she went to more than tea parties!

-I think this was not a sedate tea party.

-Started off with tea parties.

-She obviously got rid of the missionaries quick.

-Yeah.

-But, no, because this was the height of fashion.

-Yes.

Women for the first time in public, smoking and drinking and having great fun.

Mm, that's right. She met a young man called Oliver Hume,

who was a self-made man,

and he became the postmaster general of China,

and she mixed in very high society

and she met the Emperor of Japan and such people.

-Shanghai was an open port.

-Yes.

And it was very much high society.

This was the period everyone came into Shanghai.

It was lots of wealthy people, lots of merchants

and lots of fantastic parties,

and I mean, a dress like this

would absolutely have been the height of fashion.

You would have worn this at something -

-I should think with a little slip underneath...

-Yes.

-You would have worn this...

-She was quite small, she wasn't very tall.

It's absolutely beautiful at the front and then again,

when you turn it round onto the back,

it's got that incredible beaded train.

I mean, this is so lovely.

You can just imagine her dancing with that.

I mean, really, really beautiful thing.

Just the detail of it is just fabulous.

I hope she had some nice shoes.

-Oh, I bet she had wonderful shoes.

-Yes.

Ooh, yes. Ooh, I think so.

A dress like this, so redolent of that period,

in such beautiful condition, so beautifully done.

Normally, these dresses I would say about £200 to £300.

That tends to be...

Good ones might go for a little bit more, maybe £500.

This one, I have no hesitation in saying it's £1,000 plus.

That's right. It's got to go in a glass case really, doesn't it?

It does, and I'm sure Mary would be delighted that we were looking at it.

Aunt Mary would love it and she'd be pouring herself a gin.

These candlesticks I would love to see on my dining room table.

-Really?

-They are gorgeous.

-What can you tell me about them?

-Er, not a lot.

Really can't, because they belong to my partner,

and they were left to her by her late husband,

who died ten years ago.

-Right.

-We know he acquired them, we don't know when,

we don't know much about them at all.

We love them because we put them on the table when we have a dinner party

and they just set the scene very nicely,

but Georgian is the one word that I know may apply. That's about it.

-Fair enough. In fact, they just scrape into Georgian.

-Right.

The dates are interesting.

-In fact, we've actually got two pairs here.

-Oh, right.

-One pair was made in 1715.

-Wow.

And the other pair was made in 1716.

-Really?

-But actually, they were probably all made together.

They were made over Christmas and New Year.

Well, in fact, May, middle of May,

because the goldsmith's year runs from May of one year

-to May of the next.

-Oh, I see.

So literally, they could have gone and -

one pair into the assay office on a Tuesday,

the next pair on the Wednesday.

So the fact they're two -

-if they were chairs or something, you wouldn't know.

-Yes.

But because they're silver,

we've actually got...

-that's the A for 1716 on that one.

-Right. Yes.

And let's see what we've got on this one.

-We've got - and that is the date letter for 1715.

-Oh, I see.

The other marks we've got there are for Britannia standard silver.

Oh, that's a very high quality silver.

The highest quality, historically, that we had.

-The maker is David Green.

-Is that London?

Oh, yes, they're London candlesticks,

and David Green, specialist candlestick maker.

And within goldsmithing, you have these specialties -

-spoon making, candlestick making.

-Yes.

All each to their own in that sort of way.

So, where do we go with value?

I'm going to be a bit conservative,

because the market's a little bit funny at the moment.

I would suggest we're looking at a value, at auction,

of at least £10,000.

-Good Lord, really?

-Yes.

-My word.

If they went towards 15, it wouldn't surprise me.

Good heavens, that's fantastic. Very unexpected. Thank you.

I wonder what we have in this little manila envelope. Ah!

It's an interesting banknote. A £1.

It's an occupation note, isn't it?

-Yes.

-That's been specially printed during the occupation of the island,

and I can see it's dated 1st January 1943.

What's the story behind it?

Well, from what I can gather,

my father, at the end of the occupation,

had a carrier bag of these notes.

Right. A carrier bag full of these notes?

I don't know how full they were, but he definitely had them in a carrier bag.

He also had quite a lot of German memorabilia

because my mother sort of said that when the Germans left the island,

-they just left everything.

-Right.

So you'd be walking around and you'd see German helmets and things just...

-Just left scattered everywhere.

-Yes, it was just left.

And so they thought nothing about it,

and then in the '60s and '70s,

my father realised that these might be collectable,

so he started selling them to local dealers for pocket money, really.

Can you remember how much money they were taking these for?

No, I don't, I don't know,

but it came to the thing when the dealers were coming to him

and asking if he had any more notes to sell.

Did that ever arouse any kind of suspicions?

Did you ever worry or did he ever worry about it?

No, no, we just laughed because it was just my dad,

you know, getting a bit of extra money.

Generally, I suppose that something like this probably isn't worth much money at all.

Do you have any idea of what it's worth?

No, I have no idea. Um, no idea.

No idea. OK. Well, if I were to tell you that this £1

was worth £500, you'd be pretty surprised wouldn't you?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

-Yes.

Well, not only is it worth £500,

it's worth six times that.

It's worth £3,000.

This is one... This is one of the rarest occupation notes there is

and this genuinely is worth £3,000.

Oh, my goodness!

To be honest with you,

it's a shame that your father gave away, or sold, so many.

Yes, well, there should be four others in existence,

because when he was coming to the end of the carrier bag,

-my mum gave one to each of her existing grandchildren.

-Right.

-So...

-So what you need to do is track them all down.

-Is track them down.

Because in reality, you have £15,000 worth of these,

if you can find them all,

-and...

-Good heavens.

-There was one sold recently on the island, I think...

-Yes, yes.

..which made exactly £3,000, and it genuinely is worth that.

Flabbergasting, isn't it?

Absolutely!

This wins the prize for the most unusual thing I've seen today.

It's a little handmade wooden box.

Inside...

..a little brush, look.

And what do you think those bristles are made of?

Believe it or not, the man who made it, it's his beard!

He had a long auburn beard

and he cut it off and put it into the bristles.

Which is charming...I think.

Anyway, from Saumarez Park in Guernsey,

we've had a great day, hope you have too.

From the Antiques Roadshow, bye-bye.