Stanway Antiques Roadshow

This fountain is fed by water travelling down a pipe

from high up in the Cotswold hills,

and gravity alone thrusts it high up into the air, 300 foot.

This is the highest gravity-fed fountain in the world.

It's a modern addition to this historic landscape,

which gave rise to a particularly British style of gardening.

Come for a stroll with me

around Stanway House and Water Gardens in Gloucestershire.

Stanway is a flower in the Cotswold countryside

and here saw the first buds of a distinctively British style

of country garden in the 18th century.

Before this, the trendy estate garden looked for inspiration

to Europe with its high walls and formal layout.

Stanway's revolutionary garden design

blew down the constrictions of the walled garden,

opening it up to the surrounding countryside.

It's hard to appreciate now, just how groundbreaking this idea was,

and it's all attributed to garden designer Charles Bridgeman.

The trick was to sympathetically blend

the natural features of the landscape

with some of the formal features which had been hidden behind walls.

This is a classic example of Bridgeman's work -

a 500 foot long canal,

and up here a cascade which is the longest in England

and it's fed from a pond up there, behind the pyramid.

They were marvels of their day.

Between 1725 and 1735,

Stanway became one of the grandest water gardens in England,

and it's hard to believe,

but all this was lost for over 150 years

until a lawnmower lost a blade on a stone from the overgrown cascade

back in the '80s.

Over the course of ten years,

the canal and cascade were revealed

and restored to their former 18th century glory,

and as a final flourish, the fountain was added.

Let's hope that's the only drenching we're likely to see today

as our experts are once again primed and ready for action

on the lawns of Stanway.

When I first saw this picture,

I saw it from about 100 metres away up the lawn, she really beckoned me.

I have to say, now I'm up close, I'm not the slightest bit disappointed.

-Good.

-She's lovely.

Yes, she's beautiful. We love her.

So how did she come into your life?

Many years ago it belonged to my parents-in-law down in Brighton,

they were antique dealers, small time antique dealers,

they went out on a house clearance

and it came home on top of their Vauxhall Victor Estate.

From then on it hung in their flat, and then a few years ago,

I loved her so much my mother-in-law gave her to me,

so we could hang her at home.

-And so you adopted her?

-We did, indeed, she's lovely, yes.

I have to say, she really is

and there's all sorts of reasons why it is, in my mind,

but let's start with the signature because it's very bold.

You don't often get them so clearly expressed.

Bottom left, "John Wood 1840". Now do you know about John Wood?

Not a lot. Um, we've tried the usual sort of internet search

and found out that he did exhibit at the Royal Academy,

but apart from that we know nothing more about him.

Well, John Wood was a very prominent, eminent figure in England

in the 1830s, '40s, '50s and '60s...

He exhibited a huge amount.

I think there's something like 110 works or so on record

as being exhibited by him,

and this, I guess is one of those, because I couldn't help noticing

behind there is a label and it says "Royal Academy Exhibition".

And so it's one of those.

This is one of those trophies

the artist was very happy to see represented at The Royal Academy.

But this artist was no normal portrait painter.

He was a subject painter as well, he painted biblical subjects,

he painted narrative pictures,

so his paintings have an undercurrent, a further message.

He's trying to say something through the face.

And I don't know about you but I find her face very reflective,

very introspective as well.

It's something more than averagely expressive, wouldn't you say?

Every time we look at her, we see something different.

Every time I walk into the dining room where she hangs,

sometimes I think she's sad, sometimes I think she's wistful,

sometimes I think she's just not really sure how she feels

about sitting there to have her portrait painted.

She's always got a different expression.

I love that, that's lovely.

-That's, I have to say, how I respond as well.

-Yeah.

I also like her slightly coquettish tilt of the head, don't you?

Mm. It's a little bit cheeky.

Yeah, and this is a very interesting time in portraiture,

because it's 1840 - we're into Victorian England

and yet this is the last gasp of - to my mind - of the Regency look,

the feeling of glamour,

the feeling of first quarter of the 19th century.

Oh, no, I envy you owning this picture,

I'd really happily live with that, you know.

And I'm very choosy.

LAUGHTER

So we need to talk about value.

Well, look, it came with a lot of other things,

it probably wasn't really given any value at all,

it just came as a job lot, so we have no idea to be quite truthful.

I would be very comfortable

putting a valuation of around £10,000.

Really? Wow! That's fabulous, yes.

That's really lovely.

Yeah, she deserves it. She's lovely. Thank you.

This is a super pot, isn't it?

I suppose it's an oil lamp base, isn't it?

Intended for screwing in an oil lamp,

and under the base there, on the side,

is the original factory mark.

WP for Winchcombe Pottery -

-not far down the road from here!

-About five miles.

Five miles!

-And MC for Michael Cardew himself.

-That's right.

The great owner originally of the factory.

He restarted the pottery, it was a little village pottery at one time,

and he restarted it in the 1920s and made a fantastic success of it.

He is now regarded as one of our great potters

and I think his work is remarkably great,

baked from the clay behind the factory

and they're wonderful little things.

It's absolutely splendid to see. How did you come by it?

We went to Cheltenham car boot and I bought it for 50p.

LAUGHTER

50p. That's not fair.

I didn't believe it either. I'd have paid a pound.

A public boot fair?

-It was in a box under a table.

-In Cheltenham Race Course?

-Yeah.

Well, it's a very unusual pot to have this screw top in it,

the decoration is absolutely marvellous,

I love him very much!

And I suppose your 50p is now £1,000.

Good Lord!

Wow!

-Really?

-Yes, yes.

-Oh, God!

Worth quite a lot. Congratulations!

Thank you.

Well, this is an amazing collection here of letters.

We normally encourage people to bring only five items in,

-because there's normally queues of people.

-Yes, yes.

You've brought well over a thousand.

-Yes, um...

-Tell me about it, tell me about them.

The tin trunk was not investigated by anybody in the family,

-we didn't know anything about it till my grandmother died.

-Yes.

And then it was handed over to me, as the eldest grandson

and after a little while I took the courage to open it

and started investigating,

and what I didn't know about at all

was that it would tell me about a secret engagement

that my grandmother had in 1912 for a whole year.

Why was it secret?

Well, it was secret because she was the youngest of ten children.

-Yes.

-And her father, it was obvious would not approve

of her getting married or engaged to a young man

who had not yet got a job,

-and had not finished his training as an accountant.

-Right.

So, they had secret meetings.

She used to go away from home to house parties

and he would meet her at Charing Cross.

-And here they are. Is that them?

-Here they are.

This is Clare, my grandmother, and this is Reggie, my grandfather.

Very First World War uniform there.

Yes, this is a formal portrait that was taken

after the beginning of the war.

So they had these meetings at London stations,

at Charing Cross for instance, she would come up to Charing Cross

and he would take her in a taxi across to Paddington.

Oh, it all sounds terribly Brief Encounter, doesn't it?

Very, very Brief Encounter indeed, yes,

but that was the only way they could manage really

in that sort of situation.

Then when they became engaged, it all went public,

so in the box there's lots and lots of letters from 1912 and '13

and then a blank until he went to the Western Front.

So what we find is, they advanced across the Somme battlefield...

-This is early 1917.

-This is the 1917 one?

These are April 1917, but these two letters tell us about the first time

he was actually under fire and they were advancing down a hill

to take this village on the next hill -

I've been to the site where this was -

and he was in the front line at this point, early in the morning,

and a snowstorm developed.

And as he says in the letter to his wife rather elliptically

"It was the snowstorm that saved us."

Because of the snowstorm, the German guns didn't know where to fire.

No. Now this one looks rather important, what is this one?

Significance of this one? It's got a little red seal on it.

Yes, well this, this is the letter he wrote at the end of 1917

when he's more of a hardened soldier

and he realises the chances of course of being killed are very considerable

and like many soldiers did, he sent a letter to the bank to be left,

as it says on here, on the front,

it says, "Left in the case of my death to be passed to my wife."

So he was actually killed during the...

-He was killed, he was killed on 21st March 1918.

-This is...

The great German offensive and it's a very moving letter of course.

"Well, the war is over for me

"and will I hope soon be over for everyone.

"It's a bad business for the whole world.

"Goodbye, my Clare, your own, Reg".

And then there's a PS -

"I meant to copy this out but just do not have time. Goodbye darling, Reg."

-Well, that's incredibly sad.

-Yes.

Well, where are all these going, what's going to happen with these?

-Well...

-Hundreds and thousands of love letters.

Well, the idea is to leave them to the college

-that he was at in Oxford, Merton College.

-Yes.

And the college is very pleased

and has agreed in principle to receive all these

and to look after them properly.

I think Merton College are getting a very good deal out of this,

and I think that it should be valued somewhere in the region of £5,000.

-That's interesting to know that.

-Thank you for bringing them in.

This beautiful musical box, I can date exactly to 1874

from the serial number,

and I believe actually the summer of that year.

But that's what I know about it. What can you tell me about it?

Well, all I know is that it was my grandmother's,

and I can remember seeing it in my grandmother's bedroom

ever since... Well, always.

So could have bought it new from her mother

or something like that?

Possibly yes, or grandmother.

What about its more recent history?

It was damaged in the floods of July '07.

I was actually down in Evesham shopping

and at eleven o'clock in the morning, the petrol station,

one of the petrol stations was completely under water.

-This was at eleven o'clock in the morning on that Friday.

-Frightening.

It was... Oh, it was just dreadful, it was unbelievable.

Anyhow, the water kept rising and it came up and over the garden wall

and it hadn't got anywhere else to go except in the house.

-To experience that must have been really frightening.

-It was.

And within ten minutes, it was complete and utter devastation,

it was devastating.

-So you thought at that stage your musical box...

-We thought...

-Your heirloom was gone for ever.

-Yeah.

Now what often happens with water damage

-is veneer and marquetry often pops up, had that happened?

-Yes, it did.

Yes, it had. Where the water had made it all sort of swell

and you could see... Well, it was just awful.

But now it's better than new.

It's beautiful. It's really, really beautiful.

And inside the mechanism is all shining

-and probably, as you say, better than it ever was.

-Yes.

What I like about this particular musical box

that makes it, in my opinion, quite a rarity,

is this tiny little document here.

I don't know how many hundreds of musical boxes

I've seen on the Antiques Roadshow,

but it's many many, and this is the original maker's -

Gremond directions concerning the musical box in the winter.

"To avoid affect caused by a sudden transition of temperature,

"you must on arrival with the musical box

"leave it during some hours in a warm room

-"before opening the glass cover."

-Yes, it's amazing, isn't it?

Then how to transport it...

These bits of document get lost, so, so rare.

Please do keep that in a very safe place, because it's an exception.

But also the proof of the pudding is what does it sound like?

It's beautiful, it really is beautiful.

Well, just before we play it, we have to talk about price.

It probably cost an arm and a leg to get it restored.

Yes, it was quite expensive.

-But it was worth every penny.

-Absolutely.

So, at auction, we're probably talking about a figure

of between £2,500 and £3,000.

-Really?

-But let's give it a whirl, let's see what it sounds like.

Yes, absolutely, yes.

MUSIC CHIMES

My great-great-great-grandfather left Essex to build bridges in China

-with the Royal Engineers.

-Right.

And he met and married Amoi, or Amy, as we've translated it.

And this is Amy here?

That's... Yes. And she was born and raised in China as a Chinese woman.

-OK, so...

-But she wore those in all her photographs that we have of her.

These ear pendants. Always worn them?

Always worn them, doesn't matter if she's gardening or wherever,

she is always wearing the pendants.

And when do you think...?

I mean, these to me seem to be in the date of around about 1860,

so do you think that she was given them?

Well, my belief is - from some of the letters -

-that she was given them by her mother.

-Oh, right.

She married my great-great-great grandfather in 1863.

-Right.

-And in all of his pictures of her,

she was certainly wearing them then,

and then in 1867 they moved back to England.

-Right.

-And I guess it was so totally unacceptable,

as actually we thought it would have been in China too,

-but she always had support from her family.

-What was unacceptable?

-A mixed marriage.

-Gosh.

A mixed marriage back in the mid 19th century, so...

-It was quite shocking, was it?

-It was quite shocking.

It was quite shocking when they moved back with two children

who had been born in China

and they managed to stay here for about 15 months.

I gather life was pretty miserable for them as far as acceptance.

-Here in the UK.

-And then they moved to Canada.

He unfortunately died about five years after they came to Canada.

-Oh, really?

-And she was left a widow with eight children.

Goodness me! That to me,

there must have been so much love there

to have gone through all that.

I think it really was a true love match.

Well, she was wearing these ear pendants

with these beautiful dragons that are curling round this ball,

-and the dragon symbolises good fortune.

-Yes.

So I think, no wonder she never took them off,

because I think she clearly had good fortune and good stamina.

What I love about these ear pendants is the attention to detail.

-Underneath, where you don't normally see it.

-Yes.

You know, that's what's fascinating.

Now the only thing negative about these

is that they're not the original ear fitting.

-Um, I believe my grandmother changed those.

-She did?

Because she liked to wear them because it was a hoop.

-Just a plain hoop.

-It was just a plain hoop.

-I think she thought she might lose them.

-Might lose one.

Unfortunately they're not, but I believe that's the reason.

And I would say at auction you'd be looking at around about,

in the condition that they're in, it's about £1,000 to £1,500.

-Thank you.

-I just love the story, it's a fabulous story.

It is and it's a romantic story.

It is and you wear them? Do you wear them?

I do occasionally, but they are very heavy,

so I don't know how great-great-great grandmother wore them.

They are hollow, but they have got a lot of weight in them,

they're 18 carat gold but maybe you should wear them

-and they'll bring you good fortune as well.

-That would be great.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

If you had to ask anyone in the Roadshow today

who the most famous wrist watch manufacturer was in the world,

they'd probably say...

-Rolex.

-Exactly right, which is what we have here.

And when you first took it out of your pocket and showed it to me,

I took a double take at this watch,

because although it doesn't look the part,

it is in fact quite a special piece.

But before I go any further, what do you know about it?

Not a lot really.

I brought some other watches and my friend said,

"I've got a couple of watches in a drawer,

"belonged to my grandfather".

He said, "Take them along with you" That's as far as I know.

No evidence of any scientific interest in his family, do you know?

He worked in a power station.

His grandfather, or him?

-His grandfather.

-Did he?

-Yeah.

-Now that's fascinating.

What's the significance of that?

The fact that if he was in the power industry,

this would have been given to his grandfather,

because they were resistant to the electromagnetic fields,

because they put a special coating around the movement.

It's a steel case, and it has a very special seconds hand

-shaped in the form of a lightning bolt.

-Yes.

And the only time Rolex used lightning bolts seconds hand

was with a special watch they produced called the Milgauss.

And the Milgauss...

I think I'm right in saying that 'gauss'

is a measurement of electromagnetic power.

And the Milgauss was specially made by Rolex

for workers in the electromagnetic industry

in around the 1950s, 1960s.

Now they made various different versions of it

and those that were made with this slightly browned version

of the honeycomb dial were the rarest of all.

When you take a glass, an eyeglass, and look closely at the dial

you get, "Oh, my goodness me! It's dreadfully oxidised and rusty

"and it's all gone wrong"

But that's what collectors like.

Now, an awful lot of Rolexes have been faked over the years,

as we all know.

Why collectors like them in this condition

is because they look right, they feel right.

There's always a downside to this though, there's always something.

The band going around the dial is plain, it's steel.

-This bevel band that runs around the dial.

-Yes.

If you put your finger inside it,

there's a little, there's a slightly sort of sharp edge to it,

and that indicates to me that originally

it had an enamelled band going around it

and that has been chipped and it's been taken out,

because it probably would have looked ugly.

That won't help its value.

But it's a rare piece and your friend's a lucky fellow.

-Is he really?

-He is.

If this were to come up for sale today, it's worth somewhere between

£5,000 and £15,000.

Is it really?

It is.

And if I were to say to you

that last week a Milgauss sold for just over 150,000,

but it was extra special and it was a rarer version of this,

that might tell you why your friend needs to go to Rolex

to get it researched.

-I'll have to tell him that.

-It's absolutely intriguing.

I'll be fascinated to hear more about it.

-I'll certainly tell him and see what he can find out.

-Fantastic.

He'll be over the moon.

People come from far and wide to see the Roadshow

and to bring their items along for the experts to have a look at.

Today we've got some people who've come from further

than I've ever heard of before, starting with you.

Now where have you come from?

-I've come from Toronto.

-From Canada?

-Yes, yes.

Goodness me! Do you know the Antiques Roadshow in Canada?

Oh, absolutely, there are three Antiques Roadshows at home -

the American, the Canadian and the real one, the BBC.

Oh, an embarrassment of roadshows.

Yes, but on Sunday afternoon I think Canada stops

to watch the Antiques Roadshow from the BBC.

Oh, that's what we like to hear. So Canada. And you've come from...?

-Sydney, Australia.

-Sydney, Australia.

And do you watch it out there?

Yes, every night, every afternoon, 5.30, Monday to Friday.

-What, you watch the Roadshow every day?

-Yeah.

Oh, my goodness, you must be our biggest fans. Thank you!

What devotion, my goodness!

-What is it you like about the show?

-Just very interesting.

There's different things which you don't normally see.

People bring things out the woodwork, it's just amazing,

what's in the closet.

You've come to Stanway in Gloucestershire today

because you're on holiday?

Or did you find out where we were and plan your trip around it or...

-Yes, yes, exactly right. Yes.

-Really?

Yes, this part of the trip, we did, yes.

-Fantastic!

-We're great fans.

Well, we're very glad to have you, wonderful. So you're from Australia.

Moving on.

-And where are you guys from?

-Wellington, New Zealand.

Wellington, New Zealand!

So you win the prize for having come the furthest, fantastic!

How did you find out that we were here?

Did you plan your trip around it?

We've followed the Antiques Roadshow for quite some time,

last time we were in England we planned on coming,

but unfortunately we weren't in the area in which you were in,

but this time you are

and we're coming to a wedding reception in Kendal,

so we're not too far away.

Now I know that the Roadshow has been to Canada,

it's been to Australia.

We haven't been to New Zealand.

-We're waiting on it.

-We're waiting patiently.

You and me both. I think next stop - New Zealand.

I'm sure people will be wondering

-why we're looking at furniture like this.

-Yes, on the Antiques Roadshow!

Exactly. And also perhaps why I'm doing furniture.

But it's interesting that the furniture chaps

were not particularly familiar with 20th century furniture.

Particularly, this is Cotswolds 20th century furniture.

Why did you buy it?

Well, we bought it mainly because John and I, at the time,

both worked from home

and we needed some office furniture.

We have quite a large room dedicated to the office

and just fell in love with it really,

the lovely sort of rounded smooth lines of it

and the contrast in the wood,

we felt it would be a real statement in the room.

So the manufacturer was Gordon Russell

and it takes us right back to the Broadway tradition,

where Gordon Russell's workshops were.

Rather different in style but very much a Cotswold's thing nonetheless,

so was that why you bought it?

When we found out it was Gordon Russell,

for me personally, with my family being from Broadway,

and obviously Gordon Russell originating there,

that made it sort of, "Yes, I really want that now".

Well, it was designed by a man called Ray Leigh.

Do you know what date it is?

Well, I thought it was 1960's, but I'm not entirely sure, actually.

Well, it's known as a sycamore suite.

-Right.

-And it was made in the early to mid 1980's.

-Oh, really?

-And each piece, I think, is so redolent

-of the 1930s with this use of blonde wood and contrasts and so on.

-Yeah.

And I think, you know, particularly this simple plain plinth

and cornice here

and the concealed handles is, so, so very 1930s, isn't it?

Mm, absolutely.

Well, when we bought it from the dealer in Pershore,

he said that it was made for an executive in Birmingham

and he paid £8,000 for it new.

What did it cost?

Well, we moved house and we had a Victorian oak wind-out table,

dining table and it didn't really fit in the house,

so we went back to the dealer we bought that table from ten years ago

and asked if we could exchange it for some office furniture.

And we looked at various pieces, but, as I say, when I saw this,

I just fell in love with it.

Did you buy the chair with it as well?

Yes. Although we were unsure

whether that was a Gordon Russell chair at the time.

-Yes.

-It seems to match perfectly.

-It seems to match, doesn't it?

-Mm.

Well, we can probably find out.

Oh, I'd love to know. Yes, I would.

We could find out now, because we have Ray Leigh here.

Oh, how fantastic!

-Hello, pleased to meet you.

-Hello, nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you, yes. And very exciting to see this, yes.

-Oh, fantastic.

-So you like it?

-I do, I love it very much.

-Good.

Well, Ray designed this suite and Ray, did you make the chair?

No, we didn't make the chair.

No, I don't know where the chair comes from,

-but, no, that wasn't us.

-Ah!

And how much were you charging for a piece like this?

Well, I'm trying to cast... Cos this was designed back in '84.

-Right.

-And casting my mind back, we think probably about £200-250

-for the desk at that time.

-Oh, gosh! Ah.

So the figure of 8,000 that I was told was inflated.

-8,000?

-Yeah, somewhat.

I'd like to think it was 8,000, but no, it wasn't.

-Right, OK.

-So you swapped the table.

-Yes.

-And you bought the suite

-and it cost you what, about £1,300 £1,400 in all?

-Yes £1,350 yes.

-You did well.

-It's probably worth perhaps £300 per piece.

-Right.

So that's 300, £400 per piece, so it's about what you paid for it,

which you know just goes to show

-how incredibly good value it is today.

-Yes.

So there we are, and you had no idea that it was by Ray Leigh.

-No.

-There we are.

-Oh, very nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you and nice to know...

I hope it gives you years of pleasure.

Yes, it will and it's very useful. We use it so...

-I'll leave you chatting then.

-Thank you.

-Oh, it's great fun.

-Thanks a lot.

-Thank you.

-Do you know you've answered two prayers.

-I have?

You have.

Lovely, I'm pleased about that.

One is arriving in this area

and I thought to myself, "What would be wonderful to turn up?"

And you've brought it along for me. Guild of Handicraft pieces!

Wonderful! And of course made in Chipping Camden, just down the road.

That's right.

Guild of Handicraft, absolutely fascinating, Ashbee's designs here.

What made you buy them?

I'm just fascinated with the Guild of Handicraft work,

the way they've made them, all by hand,

the craftsmen have done it

and it's just fantastic as far as I'm concerned.

The marvellous thing with the Guild of Handicraft

was this idea of getting back to the medieval system, a small workshop,

each man knew the limitations, the capabilities of the other -

they worked together, it was a creative joint process,

and all this of course had been inspired by William Morris.

The Guild moved - as I'm sure you know -

in 1902 to Chipping Camden and lovely,

this was actually - the mustard pot was made in 1902.

The bowl, 1905, so all very nicely within that period.

So, tell me about the saucepan.

I saw it and it was advertised as Paul de Lamerie,

so I like Paul de Lamerie's work, I'm fascinated with Paul de Lamerie,

so when I acquired it,

I looked in some books, did some research

and found it could have been Pierre Platel,

but not knowing the difference, so I thought the Antiques Roadshow,

-see what they can come up with.

-Brilliant.

It absolutely shrieks quality.

When you look at the back here, that's known as cut card work,

a strengthening plate essentially,

but the wonderful shaping we've got there.

Lovely formal baroque armorial.

And what you get so often with these top Huguenots -

just a maker's mark, no complete set of hallmarks.

They quite liked not sending things through the Assay Office.

So is it Lamerie? Is it Platel?

Please tell me.

-It's Platel.

-It is?

Which I think is brilliant.

Pierre Platel, one of the greatest goldsmiths the world has ever known.

Fabulous goldsmith!

He took on Paul de Lamerie as his apprentice in 1713

and, not surprisingly, Paul de Lamerie ends up

as one of the most fabulous goldsmiths in the world.

And how we know that it's not the sterling standard mark

of Paul de Lamerie, which would have been PL,

you look between the marks.

-Lamerie put a little dot in between the P and the L.

-Right.

-There's no dot here, it's Platel.

-It's Platel.

So values.

What did you pay for them?

-Er, I think that one was £800.

-Right.

-And that one, I think that was £200 £300 somewhere around there.

-Yes.

And that was £2,000.

Right, OK. I think that's easily doubled up on that - £1,600.

I mean, in recent years Ashbee's been doing very well

and even in the current situation Ashbee's doing jolly well.

That is a rare piece,

the mustard pot.

I think that's closer to the value,

but, you know, maybe £3,000 today for that.

It is an unusual one to find.

And the Platel, I think we're looking more

towards the £3,000, £4,000 quite easily on that one.

I mean, Platel is just so fabulous.

-Wow!

-So you really have made my day.

You've made my day, thank you very much indeed.

A pleasure.

Now is the reason you own this is

because there's a hairdresser in the family or something to do with that?

No, there are no hairdressers in the family at all.

This was bequeathed to me

by my father when he passed away two years ago at the age of 104.

-104 that's a very good age.

-Yes, it is indeed.

Goodness, he didn't have his cut like Samson or someone like that?

-No, he was as bald as a coot.

-Was he?

Yes.

-What a lovely story but...

-And not much taller than me either.

But to survive until 104, that's a great age.

Exceptional, yes.

And how did he get this bronze?

He was a gardener/chauffeur down in Thurleston in Devon,

and this was given to him as a leaving present

for services rendered.

What a lovely thing to get.

Well, here we've got an Italian bronze,

at the front it actually says "Roma".

-Yes.

-With a signature above it which could read Banellini.

-It's not terribly clear.

-Right.

-But it's dated 1881, so we've got that.

-Yes, yes.

And this man, I don't know whoever, if it's father or quite who it is,

has caught his child with his trousers down

for his first ever haircut.

And you can see the child doesn't really like it.

Definitely resistance there, isn't there?

There's a broken pot on the stand here,

and presumably this is the hair cutter's hat,

and I wonder whether he's an Alpine shepherd or someone like this,

who's come back with his sheep clippers,

enormously big for the job of cutting hair.

-Absolutely.

-Anyway, great subject, I think there's humour in it...

the first haircut being quite so ghastly for the child.

-It certainly is.

-Um, and I think if it went to an auction it would make

between £600 and £900.

Right, thank you.

Thank you.

My husband bought it for me from a second-hand jewellers in Cheltenham

about four or five years ago and I absolutely love it,

and I wear it on a long gold chain, but I don't know anything about it

other than that I love it and I imagine it's old,

but I don't know whether it's ecclesiastical...

Why did he go into a shop to buy a cross specifically?

-Because I love crosses.

-You love crosses, yes.

-So...

and I think he thought it was very, well I think he thought that it was

modern-looking but fascinating because it obviously wasn't modern.

Well, gold cap finials,

and the frame of the cross itself is made out of...

cut from solid rock crystal.

-Now rock crystal looks like glass but it's not glass.

-No.

Rock crystal is a natural material.

So what someone's done is carefully cut the rock crystal panel out,

and then they've very very carefully made these gold cap finials.

They've put little beaded motifs around the caps

and engraved the caps too.

And do you know where you think it was made? I don't.

I just couldn't imagine it being English but I just don't know.

It's difficult to say where it was made.

-It looks English to me.

-Really?

-That is amazing.

-Date, 1825, 1830.

-Oh, gosh.

-So it's a Georgian cross.

-How amazing.

-And it's the box that really adds to the virtue, isn't it?

I love the box, virtually as much as the cross.

Let's come back to that one and now let's look at this bangle.

"Dulcis vita"

on a yellow bangle, now tell me a little bit about that one.

Well, my husband again bought that from an auction

and I know on the description it just said "gold bangle"

inscribed "sweet life".

Sweet life, so the inscription sweet life...dulcis vita.

So I, yes, but I didn't know whether it was in its original box.

I mean I imagined it was gold, but I just didn't know whether

it was English in its original box.

He's got good taste, hasn't he, your husband?

I like to think so, yes. I've trained him!

He really has. Did you? Well, this is a quality piece because

the clasp is difficult to spot.

-Here on each side, we've got what you might call batons.

-Yeah.

And I think it's worth showing how we open it.

You put your thumb nail into that little groove,

and you pull it back

and look at the subtlety, look at the quality of that.

And may I just show that...

that when you push it back gently, that little bead slots into place.

Yes, I just think it's amazing and it's like the cross in the sense

that it's so modern-looking for something that...

-It's timeless, isn't it?

-Yes.

All right, now let me tell you a little bit

about the company that made it.

Phillips of Cockspur Street, London.

Robert Phillips of Cockspur Street was one of the great jewellers

who was working in the mid-part of the Victorian period.

Now at that time, there was an incredible interest for things

to do with the classics.

-And so what date do you think that is?

-About 1860, 1865 I would say.

All right, let's talk about some prices now.

This is very simple and plain.

Now crosses are not everybody's cup of tea, it has to be said,

so you have to take a little bit of a careful view on it,

but I think that probably if it were ever sold on the market again

-would make £1,500... that sort of figure.

-Goodness.

Now the dulcis vita, sweet life, bangle,

in that condition, Robert Phillips of Cockspur Street,

I suppose we're looking at what, £4,000, £5,000.

Oh, my God! Oh, my God!

Oh, my goodness, oh, my goodness!

Oh, my goodness!

Oh, my God, he's going to have a heart attack.

I hope not.

How bizarre! Oh, my goodness!

I'm imagining this in the middle of your table full of fruit...

am I right or wrong?

No, it sits on the display stand, but it is a fruit dish.

It is, so have you known it a long time, or have you just bought it?

No, I had it, it was left to me by my aunt,

and she's had it ever since I was a small child, and I always admired it

and she said, "that's yours when I go"

and it was left to me when she died.

So, other than inheriting it from an aunt,

-you've no idea where it was made?

-No idea about it, no.

Well, it's a type of ware called majolica

which is a glazed earthenware,

it was made in Italy in the 16th, 17th century.

But in the Victorian period there were some noted manufacturers,

-Minton, Wedgwood and George Jones in particular.

-Yes.

And this one was made by a firm called George Jones,

the big give away is this sort of tortoiseshell glaze underneath

and this little patch here where they've put a little crescent

and the pattern number, is a giveaway for being George Jones.

-Right.

-And it's really a rather splendid thing.

Made, probably it would have been a set, there might have been four

would have gone down the table.

Majolica is really quite collectible.

It has gone back a little bit in value.

Did you know the top's actually been restored, there's been some damage?

You didn't break it as a child?

-No.

-You weren't the guilty party.

-No I wasn't.

There has been a couple of cracks.

The good thing about majolica is, majolica collectors

aren't that bothered about damage and restoration.

-They're looking for key pieces and this is a rare piece.

-Yes.

And I think that if this was in the right sale and the right collector,

it could still make as much as between £4,000 and £6,000.

Really?

So here we have one of the most famous novels

in the whole of English literature, I would say, "Pride and Prejudice"

by Jane Austen.

Now it was not considered seemly for women to put their names on novels

because they wouldn't sell or people would be

prejudiced against them I suppose, and so her name is not there.

I mean, later on you get George Eliot,

who was Marian Evans of course, and people like that

who tried to disguise their femininity

to get their books published.

But one of the most famous books in the English language,

a first edition, 1813.

My worry about it is, you've got them all here, you've got "Emma",

"Pride and Prejudice" obviously, and you've also got "Mansfield Park"

but they're all in such appalling condition.

-Yes, dreadful, yes.

-Tell me about them.

They've been in the suitcase in an attic for a long time and I came,

they came down to me from my father who died 25 years ago, or so,

and I think they came to him from a Godmother of his,

and sort of had a close look at them.

Lovely, did you read them in first edition?

I haven't read them in first edition yet, no.

-But you've done it in paperback I assume.

-Oh, yes, often.

-And watched the telly.

-Oh, endlessly! I'm word perfect!

Absolutely splendid stuff.

They all need rebinding and so you've got nine volumes there,

it's going to cost you £1,000 plus to have them all redone.

Would it be worth it?

I suppose it might.

Are you asking me how much they're worth?

Yes!

That's what you came for, isn't it?

Well, yes, I suppose it is. But also

I was fascinated, I didn't actually know they were first editions.

-Yes. They're first editions.

-I hoped, but I didn't know.

-First editions but in appalling condition.

-Yes.

-They would well be worth having them rebound.

-Yes.

Because I think that we're talking about certainly £5,000

for this one "Pride and Prejudice", possibly £5,000 for "Emma"

and possibly £5,000 for "Mansfield Park".

That is a low estimate I hasten to add.

How very nice.

-And thank you for bringing them in.

-Well, thank you.

This series I'm finding out a little bit more about our team of experts.

Now, you wouldn't be surprised to hear that they've all got

wonderful collections and wonderful objects of their own at home,

but you might be a bit more surprised

to find out that even they have dropped the odd clanger...

bought a fake perhaps,

or something that's turned out to be a real disappointment.

Clive Stewart Lockhart, let's not start with that,

let's start on a high note, with which of these

-is your most prized possession?

-It's an object which...

I'm the only member of the family that likes...

my wife and children can't understand why I like it,

but to me, it's the most important thing I have.

And this is it?

This, this is it, yes, this is...

And what is it?

It's a piece of Fijian bark cloth or tapper cloth, and it was given to me

by my Godfather and you may ask why would he give me this?

And I never really understood until, sort of later in his life,

I unravelled his life story,

which was just the most extraordinary life story.

-Tell me a bit about him.

-Well, he was born in Canada,

he was a typical sort of Colonial,

he joined the navy and had an illustrious war, won a DSC and Bar.

His ship, HMS Zulu, was sunk at Tobruk, he was captured

and, on his way to a prison camp,

he was in a train and he decided that it was his duty to escape,

and so he said to all the men in the train, "Well, who's for escaping?"

and only two put their hands up

and he cut a hole in the floor of the train with his penknife,

and they dropped out through the moving train.

-Dangerous!

-And, er... very dangerous...and survived,

-and they did some skiing on the way back to England.

-No!

Absolutely yes, and he rejoined and finished his naval career

in the early, late '40's.

Disappointed with Britain as it was,

he decided to buy an island in the Pacific, as you do,

and this island called Rendova, which was in the Solomon Islands...

and set up this little mini-kingdom really,

-he was king of all he surveyed.

-Oh, and this must be him, is it?

-That, that's him, yes.

-You haven't told his name actually.

He was called Ninian Scott Elliot and in fact his middle

name was Balthazar which...

-so Ninian Balthazar Scott Elliot.

-What a name!

Extraordinary name for an extraordinary character.

Extraordinary character, and it turns out that

actually a gift of a long piece of tapper cloth is quite an important

gift from a tribal chief or a chief on an island, so I suppose he was

sort of you know, the chief of the island and he was giving it to me.

So this is your finest object.

This therefore must be your biggest disappointment.

It's not obvious, on the face of it, why.

Well, it's not obvious, no.

When I first started in the business I was still living at home,

and I was only 19 and one day I was walking

through one of the London salerooms and saw a painting by Alfred Wallis.

Alfred Wallis was a St Ives artist, he was a sort of...

rather like Douanier Rousseau...

he was one of those sort of primitive artists who didn't see

themselves as primitive, they just saw that's how you paint.

and there was this picture and I was absolutely captivated by it.

But the trouble was I didn't really know whether I should buy it,

and foolishly went home and said to my mother, "Well, what do you think?

"Can you come and have a look at it?"

so the next day she came with me and said,

"Oh, God, you don't want to buy that, it's awful".

-She just didn't like the look of it?

-She didn't,

-she just thought it was awful.

-And was it on sale for much?

It was about £120 which at the time was about a month's salary.

-Ooh crikey, so you...

-I was never very highly paid.

So you'd have to have really wanted it then.

Exactly, I really wanted it and she said,

"No, no, no you shouldn't, it's just no good",

and so I didn't buy it, I listened to my mother...cautionary tale...

and anyway,

today, that picture would be worth perhaps £12,000, £15,000.

-Ooh, no.

-So that in itself is a bit of a sadness,

but just to add insult to injury,

and I have to say it has become a joke between me and my mother,

she sends me Alfred Wallis Christmas cards.

-She bought me this Alfred Wallis mug.

-That's cruel!

It's very cruel, very cruel, but it constantly reminds me

that I should never have listened to her.

I think that would put me off my cup of tea every time I drank from it!

-Clive, thanks very much.

-Not at all.

I feel like Goldilocks with the three bears here... you know,

big one, middle sized and the baby.

And it's a huge privilege because each of these tin plate toy cars

is a rarity in itself,

and to have three here really is an embarrassment of riches.

Thank you very much. Now did you start collecting cars

or do you have a wider interest in toys and cars?

Basically I've always been involved and interested in vintage cars,

and I can remember many years ago being at Ragley Hall

and there was an auto jumble there and there was a small tin plate toy

again by George Carette, who made these, and I was just

fascinated by it and a friend said, "What on earth do you want that for?"

it was about £35 or something.

Anyway, years later I found one or two more,

because then this is 35, 40 years ago...

if you looked carefully you could find these things.

So, when one looks at a toy like this, you're looking at much more

than the actual object.

The maker, George Carette, based in Nuremberg,

went out of business in 1917 but up until then,

he was making some of the best toys that came out of Germany.

-Yes.

-Automotive, particularly, but also trains and boats.

-And boats.

These were the three sizes that the 1911 limousine came in,

but if one looks carefully, one can see huge detail...

the chauffeur, the lamps, both the front headlamps and the sidelamps,

the levers on the side for the brakes,

and the same with the middle size and the same with the small size,

but of course they came in different qualities, didn't they?

-Oh, yes, yes, yes.

-These are the lithographed versions

and the top quality was the hand-painted versions

which had glazed windows...

apart from just the front windscreen.

-I think pneumatic tyres as well.

-They did have rubber tyres.

-Rubber tyres.

-Yes, exactly, exactly.

I personally like the little one.

-I think...

-I do too.

-Do you?

I mean particularly the colour scheme of this one too,

but it's the size and the shape of it as compared,

out of all of them, that's the one I'd take home.

Exactly, exactly.

As far as value is concerned,

I would have said between £800 and £1,200 for that.

This one I would put at around £2,000 to £3,000,

and that one between about £5,000 and £8,000.

But we have something equally lovely...

May I?

Yes, of course you can. Of course you can.

Back here we have something much earlier.

Now did this come to you privately?

Yes, I bought it privately through another collector in Germany.

-Did you? Recently?

-Yes, yes, about three years ago.

The maker of this one, it's slightly less obvious,

I think it appeared in a 1901 catalogue by one maker,

-Gebruder Bing.

-Bing.

But it could be... it's patently not by that maker,

it's the wrong quality

and there are three or four other makers it could be by.

-Yes, yes.

-All that I can say it it's a cracking car.

What did you pay for it?

Mm, it was,

yes, it was...

I'm sitting by my wife!

Block your ears, you'll never know.

It's not important.

Seven...

The, I won't by any means divulge what that figure was,

but what I would say is that I would put this

at between £6,000 and £8,000.

It's slightly less easy to evaluate the price on it,

but it is a huge rarity and I may be proved wrong on that.

Yes, yes.

I'm delighted to see them and I'm really, really pleased

that you've decided to give me the little white one to go home with!

-Thank you very much.

-No problem at all.

Thank you very much, thank you very much.

Yes, such a simple little figure,

almost crude and clumsy, so it's easy perhaps to just

dismiss it as nothing, but holding it here I'm actually quite excited.

What do you know about it?

Well, I was given it. My mother in law was moving house and gave

me and my husband a box of china, and this was in the box of china.

Right, and has it been treasured at all or...

-No, not as far as I know.

-So you don't know much about its history?

I don't actually, I know it was kept in the kitchen I think,

she had it on a shelf in the kitchen and that's all I know about it.

Well, he's a little figure from the Italian comedy,

he's a figure of Scapin,

one of the great models made at Meissen in the 1730s,

but the original Meissen model is superb quality

and really a wonderful piece of early porcelain.

But this was a copy, but a copy made in England, it was made at

the Bow factory and it's really perhaps as rare an English porcelain

-as you can actually find.

-OK.

Because at that time the porcelain from Meissen was rare in England,

people wanted to own it,

the factories in London at Chelsea and Bow borrowed examples from

Meissen and made their own versions, but they weren't as good as Meissen,

and the modelling is usually rather lost in translation.

He has got a fair bit of detail added,

with scratching into the clay,

little scratching buttons and patterning there,

which is typical of the Bow factory right at its beginning,

we're looking here...

a figure made in oh, 1750, 1751 and that's early for English,

so it's a... and it's in wonderful condition, I mean, just in a kitchen

knocking around in a box, there's nothing wrong with it.

So, wonderful, very rare, very exciting.

Expensive too...

£6,000.

Oh, no, that it staggering, oh, I don't know if I can touch it. Oh!

There you are, hold it, you can hold it, there you are.

-That is amazing.

-But just be careful with it.

Yes, OK. Well, thank you very much!

I bought these as a young boy, 11 year old boy, early 1970's,

went to a house auction sale with my mother.

It was the contents of a house in Gloucester.

Now one of the rooms was a lot,

and within that room, all sorts of artist materials, et cetera.

But underneath the table was a big brown paper parcel,

I was a very busy-body 11-year-old, I thought I'd like to look at that,

so I ripped the top off and there was a travel poster in there.

I thought, "Ooh they look nice", so I went down to where they were

doing the auction and I noticed a lady marked on her programme this

particular lot, so I said to her, "If you buy that lot,

"could I buy the posters off you?"

and she said "I don't know that there are any posters but we'll see".

You know, so I stood by her

and she did win the lot, she bid for the lot, I think it was £13.

So I thought, great, can we go and have a look and do the, you know,

have a look at them, so went up.

And she said, "Well, how much will you give me for them?"

So I said "I'll give you 50p"

and she said, "Yeah, great". I took them home and when we got them home,

unwrapped them, and there were about 120 posters from about 1905 through

to just before the Second World War, travel posters, railway posters.

But what appealed to you, an 11-year-old boy?

It was travel, it was trains, it was all, you know, it was just

pictures of cars and boats and you know, who wouldn't be? You know,

I mean and colours and you know, it was just, they were fantastic things.

Because you really have got a great selection here

of some of the great movers and shakers of the 1920's and '30's.

I mean obviously ocean going ships, I mean wonderful Cook's ocean

passage tickets, you know, I mean this is the White Star Line,

really wonderful, the colours, the vibrancy.

-So this is what appealed to you?

-Yeah, when you see a ship like that

coming out of the page at you as a kid, it's great,

-just what you want on your wall.

-Well, it is a great collection,

I mean from, you know, you've got one here, the Buckingham Palace,

McKnight, Korfer, I mean the great... he was called

the Picasso of advertising design, highly desirable artist.

The great thing about lots of these posters, they were commissioned

by somebody called Frank Pick for London Transport who just wanted

to bring great art to the masses.

He thought "if we're having posters about London transport,

why not have great artists doing it?"

so he commissioned a lot of these artists

and then we had all these fabulous posters.

And you've got everything from really just sort of advertising

posters, the telephone, absolutely top, Frank Newbold,

great Art Deco designer,

really wonderful, and you know, as I say those ships, highly collectible.

I mean these in particular...

I mean Jean Dupain,

born in 1882 very well known as an artist and designer,

won the Prix de Rome in 1911, so well established.

By the time he started to work

for London Transport in the 1930's and these... because of this logo...

would have been done in 1933,

and they are particularly stylish, I mean they're everything about that

whole Art Deco movement, the very elongated slightly androgynous

women, some of the girls in sort of quite masculine clothes, so really

very, very stylish and quite avant garde even for the Art Deco period.

He went on to design interiors for The Normandy

and the famous liners of the day.

Well, you know, posters like this advertising the telephone,

that's wonderful typography for the Art Deco period

and I could easily see that going for £500, £600.

-Just a little one.

-The little one, yeah, and you know,

when you get into the White Star Line, the cruises, the ocean liners,

you know these can tend to go for, you know £1,200, £1,500 each.

And you know, McKnight Korfer, Buckingham Palace that comes from

a series and they come up quite regularly and that's anywhere

between maybe £1,200 to £1,500.

-Wow, wow.

-And then you come to the great Jean Dupain,

these are very rare posters.

Probably, this one would sell for maybe £7,000.

Oh!

And probably a little bit more for this one,

-maybe £8,000.

-Gosh.

And elephant, the one to the zoo, again about £8,000 to £9,000

so if I told you that the posters that we're looking at

will probably sell for an excess of £30,000.

So for a little boy of 11...

That's quite a good return on my investment!

I think I need a stiff drink after that!

That was a very well-spent 50p!

Wow! Gosh, gosh, well, thank you that's absolutely fantastic.

Gosh.

One of the wonderful things about Stanway House

is they have their own brewery on the estate. It's just over there.

It's been there since at least 1735

and the workers on the estate used to get paid in beer,

so if they did an hour's overtime, they got a pint of beer and then if

they did another hour's overtime they got another pint of beer.

Well, we've done quite a bit of overtime here at the Roadshow

and all I've got is this cup of tea.

Times have changed!

From the Roadshow at Stanway House in Gloucestershire, bye bye.

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