Chatsworth 1 Antiques Roadshow

When it comes to epic locations, it doesn't get much better than this.

Tucked away deep in a rainy part of the Derbyshire Dales

lies a treasure chest of a house,

where for five centuries its owners have had the collecting bug

written into their genes.

What better place for the Antiques Roadshow to set up stall than here?

At Chatsworth House.

From the 1st Duke to the present 12th Duke of Devonshire,

there's a strong history of updating

and re-invigorating their vast collections.

But they've courted controversy down the years

by placing the modern stuff next to the old.

The family obsession is sculpture,

and they have the finest 18th century collection in the country.

To the 6th Duke, this was bold and modern,

so how has the 12th Duke added to it?

With a bit of humour, that's how.

When visitors arrive,

they're greeted by a newcomer to this antique setting,

the carefree man who's tipping his hat in cordial greeting.

You might also say he's doffing his hat

to the historical masterpieces around him.

The tradition of portraiture runs through the house from room to room.

Old masters meet new pretenders in wide-eyed wonder.

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire,

famously painted by Thomas Gainsborough, eyes a successor.

The ever-changing digital portrait

of the present Duke's daughter-in-law, Laura.

You can't help wondering what they think of each other.

The Devonshire family put their traditional and modern collections

together because the past often

directly inspires the present,

as with these modern ceramics by the artist Edmund Duval.

He created them after seeing these incredible Delftware tulip vases

which were high-end home decor 300 years ago.

I think you'll agree, it's quite a collection inside,

but I've a feeling we've more treasures to

see outside as we meet our visitors

in the gardens of Chatsworth House for today's Antiques Roadshow.

Yesterday evening we were given a fantastic tour here of Chatsworth,

of the house, but including through the wonderful sculpture galleries.

Have you been through there?

-No.

-Well, you really ought to.

They're full of these huge classical white marble sculptures by Canova

and others, from about the 1790's

and your bust here,

is from exactly the same tradition, the Neo-Classical tradition.

Grand ideas of heroes and gods.

Where did you find her?

My husband bought her and she's been in the family for about 30...

I should think over 30 years and unfortunately my husband's dead

now so I can't have a conversation with him

to ask him where he got her from. But I know that...

She's just a wonderful person.

She's real to me.

I know they called her "Sadness"...

Whether she is called Sadness or not, I don't know.

Lots of people think she looks sad,

but to me she's been like a healer to me, because when I've been really

down in the dumps, and I look at her, she sort of says,

"Yeah, I know but you'll get through".

That's lovely, that's really lovely.

Well, getting very down to the practicals,

on the back it says "Wedgwood"

-here and it does have her title "Sadness" as well here.

-Sadness, yes.

Wedgwood of course was the father of English pottery

but also the person who brought Classicism to ceramics.

And she is, she's a very classical figure.

Now whether she is supposed to be The Madonna, which is quite likely,

bearing in mind she's wearing blue,

but the classical traditions also have other...

It's possible she's from antiquity.

There are many figures of Andromache weeping over the ashes of her

husband Hector who was killed in the Greek War by Achilles.

So it was great tradition at the end of the 18th century.

She's a fantastic thing.

So you've got a really, you've got a really good treasure here you know.

Most Wedgwood busts...

You get small ones here, you get ones this size... She's enormous.

Was that because of the plinth?

She was supposed to be a very grand bust

for very grand houses.

It's a great thing, it's really nice.

Um, and the fact that she's a healer, to you, I think that's terrific.

-To me.

-I think, the blue, she probably is The Madonna.

How very appropriate.

-Thank you.

-It really is.

And so at auction today she really would be in the region

of £4,000 to £5,000.

Thank you. I wouldn't sell her.

I wouldn't sell her. She's my best friend.

Standing in front of two absolutely stunning pieces of Stuart embroidery

and I have to say, with two belonging to the same person,

are you a collector?

Yes.

I've probably been collecting since I moved home.

The house was built about 1660 and I thought, well,

what would be nice to go with the house?

And saw that one first, many many years ago,

and then this one I bought probably about seven or eight years, as well.

Very good, and they must look fantastic in a house of the right...

In the setting with the beams and everything,

yeah, it adds to the atmosphere.

Let's look at this one first.

It's stitched on thick white satin,

it has a sort of glittery

feel that the silk gives from the...

It's almost like gold, isn't it?

Absolutely, this reflected light

really makes this rich and shiny, and reflective.

And then, on this side, on your side,

you can see what the colours originally would have been like.

It seems to me that this has been

displayed somewhere where half of it was in the shadow.

And half of it was in full daylight, because this half is, you know,

slightly sort of bleached out, but this side is really rich and vibrant

and you can see the strength of the colours

that would have been there when it was originally sewn.

So this is a real sort of...

A bit of real bling. This is footballer's wives' bling here.

Where would that have been in the house, and who would have made it?

Would it have been a child or...?

Because it's very naively done in some respects.

Two different questions there. The first is, who would have made it?

Well, it would have been made by a young woman, not a child.

And these were essentially to show her skills as an embroideress

not her skills as an artist.

And the pattern itself would have been copied from an engraving

or a woodcut, or something else.

Now if we shift down to this particular one below,

you can actually see what I'm talking about.

We've got the same motif here which is Rebecca and the well.

-Oh, yes, yes, yes.

-The same motif as in the one above,

but here you can see, this bit hasn't been stitched.

-Right.

-This is the under drawing,

this is the under drawing, there's the little under drawing

of the butterfly, the under drawing of the...

Oh, I've never spotted that, never spotted that at all.

-How long have you had it for?

-About eight years.

It's dark in my house.

OK, all right, you've got every excuse,

but you can see that the objects were drawn on by somebody

else and then the artistry, as far as the embroideress was concerned,

was in the stitching, and you can...

On the stitches that you CAN see, you can see how skilled

that particular job was.

So it was a mark of a real lady, to be able to produce a work like this.

So they'd be very much upper class

kind of people that would do this then.

Domestic embroidery in the Stuart time was a sign of

leisure and having made it, made it good, rather than being

-from the working class.

-So this was their entertainment then, basically?

Exactly right, exactly right.

OK, so you bought them relatively recently.

I'm imagining that you paid a fair amount for them, but

what I can say is although some areas of the antiques world

have settled somewhat, the market, particularly in The States,

for embroideries of that calibre in that condition, is very, very strong.

-Right.

-Perhaps less so for this, because of the condition.

Yes, the damaged one, yes.

So let's start with this one. I would have said that this,

in pound terms, would be around £8,000.

Sorry? Right.

OK, if you're pleased with that, I think we should get a chair for you

-for this one.

-I can't believe that.

Because I think that this would probably fetch

around £15,000.

-Phew!

-In a market which was

perhaps attracted American buyers.

That is an absolute cracker, £10,000 to £15,000 I see without any problem at all.

I'm sorry.

I must sit down, I'm absolutely amazed!

Now you seem to have brought a little bit of Regency Rocky

to Chatsworth today.

-On the face of it, it's a picture of two boxers.

-Yeah.

Do you know what the family history of the plaque is?

We've had it for several years.

Basically, my father was in the trade, he came by it, he restored it

and we've had it ever since but

it's always just been on the wall and never really looked at.

Well, what's firstly amazing about it,

it's pottery, what looks like a black frame

which if it was an ordinary picture would be made of wood.

It's actually moulded

integrally into the pottery, which is quite interesting.

What's wonderful for me,

as someone who's interested in pottery and porcelain,

is the size of the plaque.

It's really big, you don't often see English pottery plaques of this size.

They often buckle in the kiln.

-Yeah.

-And you know, are not flat enough to use.

So that's the first great thing about it.

You mentioned the two protagonists here,

the two boxers, Spring and Langam.

-The first thing you notice is the complete lack of boxing gloves.

-Yeah.

-These are bare fist fighters.

-Yeah.

And this plaque records a great moment in English sporting history

when in January 1824 Tom Spring and Jack Langam met at Worcester.

-Right.

-Tom Spring was the English heavyweight champion

and Jack was the Irish equivalent.

And they fought bare knuckle

in front of a crowd reputedly of 50,000 people,

which was a huge number for the time when the English population

was probably a quarter of what it is today.

They fought for 77 rounds,

-for two hours and 29 minutes.

-Right.

You can imagine what a gory spectacle that must have been.

-Yeah.

-In front of this crowd, and Spring won.

-Right.

And the plaque must have been made

fairly soon thereafter to commemorate the event.

The audience... I mean they make up a fascinating group of people.

You've got a soldier there on the left,

another

just visible there

in the middle.

And you've got a black man standing here with his hands behind his back.

-Yeah.

-Which in itself is unusual.

It might possibly be,

a lot of fighters at the time were freed slaves.

He may himself have been a fighter

-who is watching others fight.

-Yeah, right.

But you know, only rarely does one find a piece of boxing memorabilia

as important as this.

I've always been told that there's something special

-about the black man who's in the corner.

-I think that is,

if it would be interesting if we could find the source for it,

we might be able to find out who that is.

-Who he is, right.

-It certainly adds great interest to it.

-Yeah.

-I think,

although there is some restoration to the plaque,

this piece is going to appeal

to a collector of boxing memorabilia,

rather than to a pottery collector,

and they probably won't mind so much about the restoration,

especially in view of the rarity.

So I think it's certainly worth £3,000.

-Right.

-Maybe £4,000.

-Yeah, thank you very much.

-It's a pleasure.

So, this is a wonderful red Morocco album

with the royal crest here of Queen Alexandra, I think it is.

-Yes, it is, yes.

-Yes. And of course inside,

so it is, "Presented to Her Most Gracious Majesty

"Queen Alexandra, on the occasion of her birthday,

"the 1st December 1916, as a token of loyalty and appreciation

"of Her Majesty's kindness at all times to press photographers".

So tell me about it. What do you want this photograph album for?

Well, I'm very fond of Queen Alexandra.

She's an extremely beautiful woman,

and I know a little bit of her history.

And of course it's all about all her activities and her press photographs.

-Yes.

-So they gave them to her. How many photographs are there in here?

I'm not actually sure,

I've not really counted them, about a hundred I think.

And how much did you pay for it?

£1,000.

-Why?

-I think it's...

Well the gentleman I bought it from...

I know very well, and he actually said, "I think you should have it

"because you have such a large collection of memorabilia from her already".

So he saw you coming?

Probably.

Oh, dear. Anyway, look, this is a wonderful bit here which I think...

I mean yes, we could look at all these

other lovely photographs of Queen Alexandra

but here she is, with Shackleton, Ernest Shackleton,

who was the chap who went south.

First of all he went with Scott on The Discovery expedition.

He then made two expeditions of his own, one of them successful

and the other one not particularly successful.

And here is the Queen herself

and her sister Maria Feodorovna who was over from Russia.

During the Russian Revolution,

Queen Alexandra insisted that her sister was brought out

but the others stayed and the others were killed, but her sister

would undoubtedly have been killed, had not Queen Alexandra intervened.

That she must be brought out on a gun boat or something else like that.

Right, well you've paid £1,000.

These few photographs here I think are probably the most interesting.

I would value this...

not at £1,000...

I would value it at £5,000.

-Good heavens!

-Do you feel better now?

I do, I felt sick before.

-Thanks for bringing it in.

-Thank you very much indeed.

This has been one of the most admired pieces of the day.

People have been fascinated by it.

I can't make head or tail of it,

so you tell me what you know about it.

Well, if I could explain how I think it was done.

I've got a son called Andrew who's got a shed and he has

lots of bits of timber round it, and I say, "Shall I throw it away?"

and he says "No, I'll use that, I'm going to make something"

and I think about 400 years ago there was a chap in Germany

that had a shed, very similar,

he had planks of wood and a bag of nails

and he wondered what to do with it, and I think this is the result.

Right, OK.

Well, it's a lovely story.

I suppose I've got to try and unravel that now and decide whether

it really is an old piece or not.

So, did you buy it in Germany?

Yes, we did, yes.

Right, let's have a look at it anyway. What have we got?

I mean, I think this piece is off the wall, literally.

-Yes, yes.

-Do you know why I'm saying that?

Not really, no.

It's a modern expression, but it's an ancient cupboard.

-Yes.

-Why I say "off the wall",

I think this piece was actually inset into a wall.

Ah. Mm.

-Like an aumbry.

-Yes, yes.

-That's what we call them in England,

I don't know what the German for it is.

And it's been pulled out of the wall

-and then made into a free standing piece of furniture.

-Yes, mm.

So that's absolutely fascinating,

-so in terms of date, it could well be 1600.

-Yes.

Let's just have a look at one or two little points.

The metal work looks pretty convincing to me, nice oak planks.

Here, well it certainly looks old inside, doesn't it?

Yes.

Round here, now that's one of the most convincing things to me,

these lovely old fashioned rose-headed nails,

which are clearly very early hand made nails.

But also the way it's finished at the side.

-You can see on your side as well.

-Yes.

It's absolutely crude as anything.

Yes. That's where it's just been literally a hole in the wall,

shoved into the wall,

then pulled out, we don't know when. I mean, it's fascinating.

The trouble is, we can't ask this,

we can't get a DNA or a laser imprint of what life it's had.

-I find even nationality very, very difficult to be sure about.

-Yes.

Because I think it's very similar

-to something made all over Northern Europe.

-Yes.

In the late 16th century, which I'm sure this is.

Somebody said to me, "Is it a rabbit hutch or something?"

-but it is made as a food cupboard.

-A food cupboard, yes.

I don't what you put down here, flower pots by the look of it.

Well, we've had videos in there actually.

-Oh, right, perfect.

-Just for storage.

Well, perhaps it was made by your son Andrew, then.

I don't know how commercial a piece like this would be.

I think it's such fun, and just simply by the admiration

it's had everywhere this morning.

I think I'm going to put a figure of £2,000 to £3,000 on it.

Right. Mm.

Yes, well we've got a stove at home

and if it gets really cold we can always use it.

It's sturdy enough to keep us warm for a few weeks I think.

This is supposed to be a serious programme!

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

This is a handy looking gentleman, I believe he's a relative of yours.

-Yes, he happens to me my grandfather.

-Serviceman?

He was. He served in the Staffords.

And he actually fought in the First World War?

Er, yes, and also he was based in India.

Right, and I believe that's something he made.

That's right yes, tapestry, made with darning wool

that they used for socks, to repair the socks in the trenches.

It's a possibility.

I think more to the case you'd repair your socks

because without socks in a trench it's not much fun.

But I suspect he's fallen into the long tradition of the British

-soldiery of liberating something to make it with.

-I would think so.

Now, he's got the Staffordshire colours,

the rose, Egypt, their battle honour, the Staffordshire knot.

This is loosely described as trench art.

People would make things from shells, from bullets...

This is a bit more spectacular.

-I think that's a lovely example of First World War art.

-Oh, right, yes.

Values...

I'm afraid to say not a huge amount.

They crop up quite often.

I can't really see that more than perhaps £100, £150

but I think it's just a fantastic piece of First World War art,

and art from the Staffordshires.

Yeah. It's something that's going to be passed down through the family.

It's going to my eldest son.

Splendid, and that's what it should be.

-It should be hung on the wall and appreciated.

-Yes, yes, yes.

When I was a child, every year for Christmas,

my Godmother would give me one of the spoons.

-Really?

-Yes, over six years,

built up six spoons.

The good thing is, that they're all part of the same set.

So luckily she picked ones from the right set.

Cos they're actually made by a very good firm,

they're made by the firm of Peter and Ann Bateman,

who were the children of a famous Hester Bateman,

-and made in 1796.

-Oh.

-So they're pretty old.

-Yes.

And a very nice handsome set.

But probably much more interesting are these other two here.

They have the same crest on, with this lion at the top

-and that's not a family crest, or anything you know about?

-No, no.

These were my mother's and she has no idea of the history at all.

Yeah, well these are even older, because this one has a fabulous set

-of hallmarks down the back and this one's dated 1690.

-Oh, wow!

So that's... That's become quite a collector's spoon.

It's called a trefid spoon because of this funny shape at the end here.

Right.

It's got a maker's mark W. M.

and I don't think it's known who he is,

-but this is a really nice 17th century trefid spoon.

-Oh, wonderful.

Now the thing is that a trefid spoon is quite a desirable thing.

-Right.

-And I get the idea

that you don't really have an idea what this is worth.

Absolutely no idea whatsoever.

Well, I think if we start with the set of dessert spoons,

they are probably worth between

-£170 to £220 for the set.

-Fantastic.

This one...

about £600.

No! Six for one spoon?

-For one spoon.

-Oh, that's fantastic, thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

It was bought off the internet about six to eight weeks ago

-by my brother.

-Right.

Who unfortunately is on holiday at the moment

and I offered to bring it along for a valuation.

OK, and what did he pay?

Well, I think he paid £700 for the owl.

And what was this described as, when he went to bid for it?

It was described as a Martinware tobacco jar.

Right, well the Martin Brothers are really quite a serious name

in the decorative arts market, especially nowadays.

They're a trio of brothers that came to some great prominence

at the end of the 19th century, predominantly

through the manufacture of grotesque wares, grotesque birds.

And in fact their most popular range,

and the things that most people see them for,

and deemed to be most iconic for, are what we call the Wally Birds.

And they produced them in great quantities from sort of the 1880s

through to you know the end of the century,

and as a result, you know, they are incredibly sought after.

A bird of this size would probably realise

-somewhere in the region of £20,000 to £25,000.

-Really?

-If it were right.

-Right.

And that is unfortunately where I've got to be the bearer of bad tidings.

-OK.

-He is good, he is in fact incredibly good,

and that is the problem at the moment.

The market has become so strong

and so boisterous that there are some very, very clever people out there

doing some very, very clever work

and I have to say that unfortunately he is,

-we've got to use the right word, he's a fake.

-He's a fake, right.

There's lots of reasons why,

you know, the modelling is almost a little bit too...

It's almost too focused, it's too tight, it doesn't have the fluid

freedom of Robert Wallace, who was the main modeller.

The glazes, again, are not quite right,

because of course glazes have moved on, there's different processes

that we now use, and generally the whole sort of feel about him,

the whole, you know, the gut instinct

tells me it's just not there, he's not got that magic element.

I know £700 was paid for it but in terms of the value of it

I actually can't value it,

because there's a general thing in our business

where we say that you can't value a fake.

How can you value something that is incorrect?

He's potentially going to be an expensive lesson, I would say.

Maybe there is recourse, that's something for you to look into.

-Sure.

-But I would say when we're looking at things like this,

it comes back to the old adage,

if it looks too good to be true...

-It probably is, right.

-You've said it.

Now I am always fascinated by military documents, particularly

service records and certificates of discharge,

but one of the things I've noticed from this particular

discharge certificate is that he's been discharged

for being under 17 years of age.

-That's right, yes.

-Now, who was he?

Um he was my grandfather who was born in 1899 and he ran off to join

the army, fought in the trenches when he was 15.

His mother tracked him down and then asked to have him brought home,

so he was discharged when he was 16 years old.

So after he'd been discharged from the army,

he then went on to join the navy, when he was 17.

-You're kidding!

-No.

And so this certificate here, the certificate of service,

relates to his naval service then.

-Yes.

-Oh, I see it says "Portsmouth" here.

And one of the things I love about these certificates of service

-is it's a potted history of what they were doing.

-Yes.

A very unusual service record,

running off from home at the age of 15, joining the army,

being discharged because he was found to be under 17,

then deciding that wasn't enough, he joined the navy, and then,

by the look of it, he went through many years,

several decades actually, in the navy, and ended up in

Portsmouth and was discharged in 1933 by the look of this.

Yes, he did try to go back for the Second World War

but they said he was too old.

My goodness, he was a glutton for punishment. But I notice also

you've brought three medals with you.

Now this is the 1914-15 star, and on the back

-it has "Private CF Burdett".

-Yes.

So this is a medal to...

That was issued for his army service during the First World War,

and this victory medal also says "Private CF Burdett"

so this is the victory medal for his army service.

But this victory medal is also to C F Burdett.

He's got two victory medals and this one says "AB",

Able bodied seaman

and "RN", Royal Navy.

So this is for his naval service during the First World War.

But I think the incredible story

is the fact that he went to war at the age of 15.

I mean really that's just still a boy, isn't it?

Yes, you can imagine in the trenches.

And he was awarded two lots of medals,

which again is almost unheard of,

I mean that's incredibly unusual, it's very, very rare.

I can't think of another time when I've actually seen this occur.

What about value?

There are a lot of people out there, a lot of medal collectors,

who would be very keen on this little group of medals

and the documents that surround it.

I reckon a collector would pay

at least £800 for it.

OK. Well, they won't be being sold for a while.

I know everyone says that but...

Thank you.

The grounds here at Chatsworth are just wonderful,

and your father was a gamekeeper here, wasn't he?

He was working woods and looking after the pheasants.

One winter he had been out with them

and spent so long in the snow that he got frostbite in his feet.

As well as being a gamekeeper here, as a very young man,

he was also a wonderful artist.

This is a beautiful little watercolour

of one of the other gamekeepers.

He even had a studio here at Chatsworth, didn't he?

The Duke allowed him to rent a studio for a while

and then he moved to Bakewell to paint and built his own studio

and painted in Bakewell all his life.

And this is him, here in a self portrait...

look at that splendid beard... and what was his name?

-Bert Broomhead.

-And of course being a local lad, you know,

not only gamekeeper here, he was able to record Derbyshire at the time.

As it was. This one's from 1950, a beautiful view of Parwich. I'm sure Parwich doesn't look like that now.

-Because of course the road would be tarmacked now.

-That's right.

-Wouldn't it?

Very much England as it was.

Did you watch him paint?

I mean did he... have you followed in his footsteps?

I wasn't often allowed in the workshop but there

is a photograph of me watching him as a little one, painting.

It was all very hush-hush and secret and I was usually shuffled out of the way.

I have not inherited his talent, but I do think

people deserve a chance to see the work of an unknown artist.

And the fact he was given a studio at Chatsworth...

-he was obviously recognised as such.

-He had the approval of the Duke.

The Duke must have known he was an artist of some talent.

It must be the first time a gamekeeper was given his own studio.

It's lovely to see the paintings. Thank you very much for bringing them along.

Well, I normally wouldn't want to see two snakes near me,

but I'm so pleased to be seeing these two lovely gem-set necklaces.

How did they slither into your life?

They belonged to my grandmother who then passed them on to my mother

and she passed them down to me, so that's all I know about them.

-Is it?

-Yes.

-You don't remember your grandmother wearing them or anything?

-No, I can remember me mum wearing them, but not my grandmother.

-That's wonderful, isn't it?

-Yes.

-A lot of people wouldn't want to wear snakes, which is...

-Oh, no.

-..great that she did wear them.

-Yes.

-Do you wear them?

-Yes, occasionally, yes.

Excellent, brilliant. Well, they date from about 1850-1860 and the Victorians loved anything

-to do with animals and nature, love, sentiment, and of course all that is within these two necklaces.

-Yes.

We've got turquoise set to both of the heads of the snakes and the real

attention to detail was always with the snakes' heads which is fantastic.

And then we've got old cut diamonds, also highlights in the head, and little red ruby eyes.

Now this one's got a lovely plain gold necklace chain, but this one

-has also been set with turquoise as well, which is really quite special, isn't it?

-Yes, mm, mm.

Which one do you prefer?

-Um, that one I think.

-Yes.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, yeah, well that's interesting

because it's got so much more to it, hasn't it, with having the turquoise in the chain as well.

-Yes.

-Turquoise has always been associated with forget-me-not flowers.

The true colour of blue forget-me-nots is very similar to the turquoise blue.

-Yes.

-So you've got an instant hidden message there of "forget me not" and again, true love.

-Yes.

But the other sentimental thing about them is that they are necklaces and

during the Victorian period, anything that was a circle...

so a necklace, a bracelet, or a ring, was again seen as a true indication of true love, because you could

-actually end the circle and that you were joined together eternally.

-Yes.

So with regard to value, anybody who collects Victorian jewellery would love to have these two pieces

-together and it's great that you wear them as well, so you just know that people would want to buy them.

-Yes.

I think this one here, because it's slightly plainer,

might fetch somewhere between £1,500 and £2,000 at auction.

Wow. Really?

And then of course this one here, we've got a little bit more detail.

Obviously the turquoise has changed colour, and some people don't like that, they like to see it the really

beautiful forget-me-not blue, but even so, I think again we're looking at somewhere between

£1,800 and £2,000 for this necklace because of the extra detail in it.

Fantastic, thank you. Wow.

My pleasure. So you'll continue to wear them?

-Definitely.

-Brilliant.

-Thank you.

-My pleasure.

-Thanks.

Well, what a stunning portrait of a beautiful lady. Can I...

can I see a resemblance here?

I think I can, which is lovely.

-Yes, it is a picture of me.

-And how old were you when this...?

-I was 22.

22, and of course it's by the great, great painter, Stanley Spencer.

-That's right.

-That is fantastic.

How did your family... or how did you know Stanley Spencer?

-We lived in Cookham, which is where Stanley Spencer lived.

-Ah, of course.

-And my father was his doctor.

Gosh. And he got to know him very well, he was keen on art and things, and so we used to go up there and

have a look at his paintings when they were being done.

What an amazing... so what sort of man was Stanley Spencer?

He was a chatterbox, never stopped talking, and if he'd come to a cocktail party or something,

the only way to get him to go home was to take him home.

Really?

-Gosh! But was he good company?

-Oh, yes, yes.

Fascinating. And I note... I mean it's nicely signed, your portrait, "Stanley Spencer October 1959"

and of course he died in 1959, so...

Well, he was dying of cancer and my father said to my mother "He's not eating, let's get him,"

so he came to our house.

-Up to the house.

-And to keep him occupied he drew me and we gave him

some food and then soon after that he went into hospital where he died.

-Oh, so sad, because he was sort of 68, I think, when he died.

-Yes.

-So a young man.

-Yes, really, yes.

-He really lived in Cookham all his life, didn't he?

-He did.

I mean it was a sort of paradise for him.

-Yes.

-And he did a lot of Biblical subjects but set in Cookham.

-That's right.

-That's right. But he's an absolute genius and I think you

can see by this portrait, at the end of his life, how wonderful it is...

the attention to detail is phenomenal... he has that almost Pre-Raphaelite exactness.

I think he's majestic.

Now have you ever had this valued?

-No.

-Oh, dear, now, I mean they are just so...

I mean people just love Stanley Spencer, they love his work.

I mean this drawing's big, it's beautiful, lovely sitter, £10,000 to £15,000.

Oh, goodness me! Wow.

I think we'll take it to the gallery in Cookham to look after.

-Not bad for two days' work.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

Where did you get this marvellous tea set from?

My father bought it in the late 1950s from an antique shop in Sheffield.

Do you know what he paid for it?

He paid £45 at the time.

Right. It's very interesting because when I looked at it at first, it rather made me think of Liberty's,

the London store, which opened in the 1870s and which sold very fine artistic wares, and became famous

the world over for doing so, and sure enough, when I turned it over,

you can see the marks of Liberty, "L & Company"

-so it is Liberty's.

-Oh.

You also have a hallmark for Birmingham and then finally you've got the date mark for 1902.

So you've got a great piece of early 20th century silver,

made for the best retailer in, arguably, the world, in terms of the quality of its goods.

The Cymric range...

which this is from...

was introduced in the late 1890s so this fits perfectly, and here it is.

-Do you ever use it?

-No, it's never been used.

-Why not?

-Not by my father, or our family.

-No, is it just for...?

I think it's too special really. It's sort of more of an ornament.

Yeah, well it's absolutely marvellous and I would have thought that...

you said how much?

-£45.

-Forty-five pounds.

Well, I think I would be taking a liberty if I didn't value it at something more like £3,000.

Oh, gosh! Very nice, yeah, yeah, very nice.

So I think you will be having that cup of tea after all.

Yes, yes, yes, that's lovely.

A warm day at Chatsworth and we're looking at a pair of fire, or pole screens.

-Totally inappropriate, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

Well, it seems so, doesn't it?

-But we've got a view of Chatsworth on this one.

-Indeed we have.

This is the front of the house.

Down at the bottom of the picture is the River Derwent flowing and.. .

So I love the three stags in the foreground.

-It gives it a very relaxed look.

-Yes, exactly, it does, doesn't it?

-Yes.

-And these are hand-painted on to papier mache.

-I thought they were papier mache.

-That's a very favoured material which

came into prominence at the end of the 18th century but by the early 19th century was a great art form.

-Yes, yes.

-And of course papier mache with its surface is very heat resistant.

-Of course.

-So the Victorians used it for all sorts of things because of its strength.

-Yes, yes.

-So you see trays, boxes, and in this case, lovely adjustable sort of shield-shape panels.

-Yes.

To obviously keep the heat of any open fire off... off faces during conversations.

-Yes, complexions.

-Absolutely.

And have they been giving you active service for long?

Well, ornamental service, obviously, and they belonged to my grandparents

who had a farm on this estate, just outside Bakewell.

-Fantastic.

-I suppose they've been in the family about 120 years.

Yes, your Chatsworth heirlooms.

My Chatsworth heirlooms, exactly.

Now the borders are very much high Victorian with sort of scrolls of acanthus and sort of strap work.

-Yes.

-But do you know something?

I think that the stands that they're on, which are incredibly elegant and made of mahogany...

-Yes.

-I think the stands were made 20 years earlier.

-Really?

-These, I think are 1840s...

-These I think are 1820s.

-Really? Gosh, I didn't know they were so old.

-Because these are very much a Regency shape.

-Yes.

-But very elegant. I mean they're totally impractical today.

-Of course.

Have you got open fires still?

No, no, but they're in bedrooms and well away from the light.

-Yes, yes, well they're pretty.

-They're so pretty.

On that sort of basis, you'd need probably around £1,500 to replace them.

-Really?

-Particularly elegant and beautifully painted.

-Thank you very much.

I really feel that we're in the scene of a costume drama.

We're right in the heart of where a costume drama would be filmed.

It's such a beautiful Edwardian wedding dress.

I mean, who was it worn by?

My mother wore it last in 1942/43 and my grandmother in 1902.

Well, 1902 is an absolutely precise date for it, isn't it?

-I mean, it is a classic Edwardian dress.

-Yes.

It was presumably your grandmother's moment to look like Queen Alexandra.

Yes, yes, it must have been, yes, for that date.

But this is the most wonderful silk dress finished in lace, nipped in

just below this lovely high bodice line, which is classic for the era.

Very kindly modelled by a lady who's just come for

-the Roadshow today, so, and fits it like a glove.

-Yes. Perfect.

But where did she get it from?

Where did she buy it from? Do you know that?

It was from a shop in Liverpool. Lime Street, Liverpool.

I mean, the joy of it, I think is seeing it worn, and...

-Yes.

-It's interesting because you've brought these photographs along,

but there's not one of your grandmother wearing it, so in 1902

she wore it, but there's just a photograph of her...

My grandmother, unfortunately, had a birthmark on the side of her face, so she never really...

would never have a photograph taken.

Obviously that's my mother and father, with my mother wearing it.

When it was re-worn by your mother then, in the early 1940s, of course Britain was at war.

-Yes.

-And we had utility restrictions in place.

And we were restricted on the number of buttons, the number of pockets

and the amount of fabric we could use in clothing, so to wear vintage was actually quite a good call then.

-Yes. Yes, it would be.

-Did you wear it? So you're the third...

Unfortunately, no, I didn't know it was there.

I only found it about 15 years ago.

My father died and I had to clear the house out and it had been in the garage outside

in a chest of drawers, in the original box, and it had been there since... all those years.

I think the interesting thing about this is that ten years ago...

and that's not that long ago... a dress like this would have been

very much a museum piece, not considered anything that a bride today would...

you know... would want to wear.

But the market has gone through such a sea change recently, and suddenly today's brides are looking for

something really, really individual that doesn't look like anybody else and so vintage is really back.

And in that context, as something to wear today for a modern bride,

I would put a value of between £800 and £900 on it, maybe even, maybe even slipping into £1,000.

It's on the day, isn't it?

I'd pay that to wear it.

I don't think I'd fit into it.

In the glorious surroundings of Chatsworth, I can't think of

a better place to talk about treasures.

And in this series we're asking our experts...

what treasure would they most like to see?

What would they fantasize about turning up to a Roadshow?

Then on the flip side... what items do they see the most of?

Well, Hilary, it's your turn today, so let's start off with what you see the most of.

What do our visitors tend to bring along in great numbers to a Roadshow?

I see suitcases full of battered Dinky toys.

Now, there's nothing wrong with a Dinky toy, don't get me wrong and there

are plenty of people out there who love Dinky toys, but what everybody has is something a bit like this...

play worn, battered, bits fallen off.

Occasionally you might get one in a box but it's those

sorts of Dinky toys that really people aren't interested in, sadly.

And do they have a value?

Well, I mean a tiny value.

I mean we're talking about 50p, £1 here and there, so not much really.

I can hear the sound of sobbing off camera, from all the people that own these.

Yes, but I mean the fact is that you're very lucky...

you get one lot of pleasure from a toy...

either you get the pleasure when you get it and you play with it,

or you get the pleasure later and you can't have both.

And of course then, it's the ones that weren't played with, which are the rarities,

even though they were perhaps one of many hundreds of thousands produced.

And so if it's a rarity, if it is in its box, then the prices can be really quite startling.

So what would you be talking about?

Well, I mean the one record price so far is for this one here, which is a little pre-war Dinky about this size,

but decorated with the name of a particular maker, W.E. Boyce, which was a shop in London.

Incredibly rare.

-£20,000.

-No!

Why?

It's the simple laws of supply and demand.

Very, very rare object, thousands of people,

tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide collect Dinky toys.

Something has to give, and the price shoots up.

Now, if Dinky toys are what you see the most of,

what would you most like to see?

Well, I was incredibly lucky, when we came to Chatsworth

with the Roadshow back in 1996, it was in fact the Dowager Duchess who allowed us to film last time

and it's this object here, which is a toy by a manufacturer called Marklin.

Until I came to Chatsworth, there was only one of these known, and when I walked through

the corridors of Chatsworth House, there on a shelf, in a room, was the second one ever known

and there was just a little rope across the doorway.

A wonderful moment and an incredibly rare toy and worth about £100,000.

Wow!

And did the Dowager, or the Dowager's children...

did they play with it... or did she have it rather... because she knew it

was something that was so valuable?

-No, it was a childhood toy, from a previous generation.

-Gosh.

It's made by the best toy maker at the time,

a company called Gebruder Marklin.

They made exceptional quality toys

and this is just an extraordinary rarity.

Only two ever known, so it is that combination.

This... you've seen two of these now...

been rather spoilt actually... so what would you most like to see?

What would really set your pulse racing if it just arrived in a plastic bag -

who knows - at the Roadshow?

Well... now don't laugh...

because it does look slightly like a brick on wheels...

but it's this, which is another toy by Marklin.

I've only got a picture of it.

It's from their 1904 catalogue

and it's a picture of a toy steam tram called a Serpollet Wagen,

designed by somebody called Leon Serpollet, and

it's never turned up.

The image is there in the catalogue, so presumably one must exist.

And if one did turn up, could you put a value on something like that?

-Ooh yes.

-Well, go on then.

Well, I think putting it into context. If this one...

which is pretty rare...

is worth about £100,000...

that, which has never turned up...

would have to start at around £150,000 and go up from there, one hopes.

Gosh.

Right. Well, you heard it here... go search your attics.

Hilary says so.

If you think you might have one of these,

this is the Holy Grail for Hilary, so either just

come along to a Roadshow or contact us at our website, which is

bbc.co.uk/antiquesroadshow

Well, when I first saw this box, it reminded me of several others

that I've seen in the past

and I was absolutely sure that it contained a gold watch

emblazoned with the Imperial arms, the double-headed eagle.

And what does it mean to you when you open the box...

are you excited about it?

Well, I recall it from being a young child and my dad would get it out

of his secret hidden place in the wardrobe

-and allow us to look at it, but not touch.

-Not touch.

And it belonged to his grandfather, so my great-grandfather who was

Chief Superintendant of the Metropolitan Police

and was part of the king's bodyguard.

And he accompanied the king on a visit to Russia to see the Tsar,

who I think was his cousin, and he was given this watch

as a thank-you gift.

-Pretty good, isn't it?

-From the Tsar of Russia.

Well, I think it certainly was a thank you gift and in that regard

it's absolutely typical,

because the Tsar of Russia was the Supreme Autocrat

of All the Russias, he was Grand Duke of Finland, Ataman of Siberia,

and his dominions were so vast that

when the sun was coming up on one side, it was going down on the other, and what this is adding up to, is

-that it put him in a perfect position to give incredibly lavish gifts.

-Yes.

And this is not just a gold watch,

but it's decorated with black champleve enamel and blue enamelled

ribbons, with his cipher and he gave them persistently.

Curiously enough they're incredibly rare in everyday life,

but they're not rare in my life, because

I deal with Russian works of art and I must have seen tens of them,

if not hundreds of them, in my lifetime.

But at the same time, they're astonishingly rare in everyday life,

and I'm thrilled to see it.

I can also tell you from the lid satin here, that it's made by a firm

called Pavel Bure, and it means Paul Bure, and

his address and his name surmounted here with the

Imperial eagle, as is the watch,

which is a sign that he's under the direct patronage of the Tsar.

I think we can assume this is Nicholas II.

-Right.

-And that it's probably very early 20th century.

-Does that fit in with your...? Absolutely.

-Yes, yes, it does.

My great-grandfather retired from the king's service in 1920

so it would have been before that.

Absolutely and of course 1917 no Tsar at all, with the Russian Revolution,

so we've got a jolly good framework

for it, so it's very touching,

and a great memento of a fallen dynasty, I mean a fallen eagle,

quite literally, and after 1917 Russia fell into chaos,

and it's only really coming back again.

So we have what is a royal, an imperial souvenir and a great one.

Perhaps a valuation, I think rather cool for a Russian

work of art, of somewhere between £800 and £1,200 would be right.

Well, I don't think we'll ever get rid of it.

We want to keep it in the family because it's got such a history

-attached to it, and we really love it.

-Brilliant.

-Thank you very much.

-No, wonderful, that's great, lovely, thank you.

We were very short of money during the Second World War.

The impact of the Battle of Britain being considerable, and a lot of

aeroplanes were actually bought privately,

either by rich people, or by collections in towns.

I think a Spitfire cost about £5,000

and they raised that sum and that Spitfire, aeroplane,

whatever it was, would then fly with the name of the town on the side.

There's one in the museum in Stoke on Trent.

Tell me what you know about this.

Well, what I know about it is that one night me father came home and

brought that through the door and he says "I've brought you this"

and he threw it onto the settee.

What, just like that?

He just threw it onto the settee.

Luckily it went towards the pillow and landed.

If it had gone the other way it would have been onto the floor

-and probably broke.

-How old were you?

-I'd be probably eight, nine or, something

-Where did he find it?

It was found in a tractor bucket that was on a demolition site,

and how it survived, we don't know.

It just got unearthed out this tractor bucket, it was there,

and well, as you can see, it's not marked...

-survived.

-It's meant to be.

You know, it's survived that, it's survived the bounce,

it's survived all the way through.

Now as I understand it, you know,

this was developed as a way of raising money.

There was going to be a dog race and the prize was a silver cup

and the idea was that money being raised through the race

would go into the Spitfire fund.

I think when it came to the crunch, they couldn't quite do a silver cup,

and so you got a pot cup instead,

but it's relevant because it was made at Pearson's, the local company,

you know Pearson's of Chesterfield,

the great maker of stoneware, salt glaze,

oven wares and decorative pottery over a very long period.

I like Pearson's, I like their history and I think

it was a very stylish factory, a very practical factory.

Anyway, they must have been commissioned to make this

and I think probably the chap who won it was pretty disappointed.

He thought "where's the silver cup?

"I've got this blue pot"

and I think the problem was also that Chesterfield,

unlike some towns in this area, had a problem in getting the money.

Bolsover had a Spitfire, Buxton had a Spitfire

and Chesterfield never quite managed it and in 1943 they gave up.

They only got half way to a Spitfire and they gave the money away to some other fund.

-The owner of the dog track did actually buy a Spitfire.

-Privately.

-Privately, yes.

-Oh, well that's all right, so it all ends up happily.

It's very difficult to value, you know,

it may be the only one of its kind that survived,

maybe there are other ones in other towns that I don't know about,

but I think it's a wonderful

evocation of the hard times in 1940, efforts to keep us going in the war.

I'd love it, and I think I'd pay about £400 if I saw it for sale.

Impressed with that, because I've never looked on it as being worth

-anything at all, you know, it's been in the house and it's the history of it.

-But how do you value history?

You know, it's on our way now towards a Spitfire...

although they're rather more expensive these days.

It will go home tonight and sit in my kitchen.

You know it's incredible to come here to Chatsworth and find the earliest

piece we've had on the programme, here on this table before us, an ancient Egyptian head.

I suppose it's about Middle Kingdom which is....

Yes, 1,700 to 1,750 B.C.

Over 3,700 years old.

3,700 years old, that's older than me!

It's not looking in such bad condition, is it,

all things considered?

How do you come by it?

I dug it up out of a back garden in Derby.

-Dug it up?

-Yeah, doing some gardening

and I hit it with a spade, hopefully I didn't do too much damage to it,

but I hit it with a spade.

So presumably someone had used it as a garden ornament

or rockery or something like that.

Yes, something along those lines in the past.

I mean you don't throw away an ancient Egyptian head, do you,

in the garden without a reason.

Well, I wouldn't. You wouldn't think.

Of course the fascinating thing about being here at Chatsworth is...

we had a tour of the house last night,

and there are masses of these Roman and Egyptian things inside the house,

this would have fitted in in Chatsworth.

In my garden in Worcester I used to find Romans

and their pots buried down below,

it's what got me interested in antiquities and things and here is...

did it get you interested in ancient things?

My mum's always been interested in Egyptology

but I'm more into geology, so along similar lines.

Do you know the stone angle on it?

-What is it, schist or...?

-It's quartzite.

Oh, it's quartzite, quartzite, so absolutely beautifully made

and I mean it's had some damage...

well, what do you expect, poor old chap.

I don't know whether this had a beard,

-it possibly did have a beard, they did.

-Possibly yes.

..have a beard, and he's had his nose damaged a bit,

but what the heck, 4,000 years old,

-you expect it to be a little bit knocked about.

-Worn away, yeah.

But it's incredible to discover it.

I suppose... I mean you ought to have this

investigated in perhaps the British Museum or something like that.

I did take it down to them, 12, 18 months back

for them to take a look at.

Initially when I sent them the emails with the pictures,

they arranged for me to go down

but they said "in all honesty we're expecting it to be a fake,

"possibly an early fake, Roman, but a fake none the less."

I opened it up there and I think the guy's jaw dropped and before I

knew it, I had the whole department arrayed around the table

having a look at it because they were like...

"Yeah, actually it is, it's genuine."

4,000 years ancient and found in Derby.

It goes back before the city of Derby started.

Isn't that incredible?

I suppose one's got to think of a value.

It's extremely difficult, but I suppose one must be thinking in terms

of £10,000 upwards or something like that.

I mean, it's a major thing, it really is a fantastic object.

I'm longing to stroke the chap and to think that it is that,

and there it stands, having been found in Derby.

I think I'm speechless.

For the first time ever.

A little-known fact about Chatsworth for you.

In 1829, a banana plant was brought to

the 6th Duke of Devonshire and his famous head gardener, Joseph Paxton,

to grow in the greenhouse here.

It was named the "Cavendish banana"

which is the Devonshire family name.

A few years later, a missionary took back

some young banana plants from here to Samoa.

They flourished in Samoa and in fact the world over, and now,

the Cavendish banana is one of the most commercially available bananas

in the world, so there you are...

from Chatsworth and the Antiques Roadshow and the Cavendish bananas,

bye-bye.

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