Chatsworth 2 Antiques Roadshow

Our venue for today's Antiques Roadshow has a double boast.

Not only is it one of the most spectacular

country houses in the land, it's also in epic surroundings.

Welcome to a second visit to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.

Sometimes in history partnerships occur

that combine great ambition with great vision.

And that's what happened when the 6th Duke of Devonshire

employed a genius of garden design and engineering,

Joseph Paxton, as head gardener of Chatsworth in 1826.

On his first day at work,

so the story goes,

Paxton scaled the kitchen wall,

jumped over the garden gate, clapped eyes on a girl,

fell in love, and she with him, and all before nine o'clock.

And that's how his remarkable 32-year career

began here at Chatsworth.

Paxton was organised and ambitious

and after seeing the scale of his rockery, the Duke of Wellington

told the 6th Duke that he'd like Paxton as one of his generals.

Horticultural one-upmanship was rife

when it came to stately home garden design,

but never had such a gigantic

theatrical stage-set of rocks been conceived.

It was so monumental that Paxton invented special

steam lifting equipment to put the giant boulders in place.

Water features and fountains were a hobby of the rich and famous

in the 18th and 19th century,

so when the fountain-loving Tsar Nicholas was due to visit

the 6th Duke, Paxton hatched a plan to build one.

It was typically grand.

At 300 feet, the Emperor Fountain was the highest in the world

at the time, and it's staggering to think

gravity alone pushes it that high.

Sadly, the Tsar never saw it.

Paxton's crowning glory was his great conservatory.

In 1840 it was the world's largest,

and the forerunner to Crystal Palace.

To keep it tropically warm, men would drag 300 tons of coal

along this tunnel, under the glasshouse, straight to the boiler.

A maze sits on the spot now, but when Queen Victoria visited

the conservatory in 1843, she was driven through it

in a horse and carriage.

She said of Paxton, "He was a very clever man, quite a genius."

Paxton is buried in the grounds of the great house,

with his sweetheart Sarah, the girl he fell in love with

after leaping a Chatsworth gate on his first day at work.

What a superb horticultural setting for today's Roadshow.

So you like blue and white?

Yeah, I've been collecting blue and white transfer ware

for quite a while now.

Yes. And this one, this one depicts Chatsworth itself.

That's the newest one I've got, yeah,

just because of the interest of it being Chatsworth

and the date being erroneous.

-It says 1792 on there.

-Down there, 1792.

And that wing on here, wasn't actually built till the 1820s.

-I see, so they fiddled things a bit.

-Yeah.

So how do you know about Chatsworth, then?

-Because I've worked here for 25 years.

-Have you really?

-I work in the gift shop.

Oh, right, so that's where you acquired these plates, is it?

Unfortunately not.

Well, it's particularly interesting seeing this scene of Chatsworth,

looking up at it, and there, but of course it's a fiddled date.

-That's it and it's only a very modern plate.

-I mean...

Oh, it is quite a modern plate, I think, what is the date here?

It says "England" on it, so it's made after 1891.

-Yeah.

-And anything with "England" on it, or the country of origin,

isn't going to be before 1890, but these two are older.

-This one, the Ladies of Llangollen.

-That's right.

They were two bonny ladies, weren't they, who lived together and became, became rather famous didn't they?

So you know all about the ladies there. It's a lovely plate isn't it?

Yeah, I only knew about the ladies after I bought the plate.

Oh, yes, and that one is...

-This one is just...

-..a landscape scene.

That's right and it was just because of the unusual transfer, I particularly liked this,

because it shows a little bit of the animal falling off the bridge on it.

The animal, poor old animal falling off the bridge.

Rather like they do in the River Derwent here.

-But it's great fun, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-And these are sort of middle 19th century.

-Yeah.

1860s something like that.

But this piece is much earlier than any of those.

-Oh. I thought that was the newest.

-So how did you get one,

-come by it?

-Um, I saw a lady who was clearing out at a car boot sale.

She'd been collecting blue and white, I bought some things,

and that was among it, and I think it was 50p.

-Yes, but these were a bit more than 50p?

-That was £1.

That was a pound, and this one?

-I think that was a pound as well.

-That was a pound, a pound.

-That might have gone as far as a couple of pounds.

-Couple of pounds!

Well, these are going to be... that's going to be just your pound.

Even though it's got Chatsworth.

£10, £15, £15-£20.

But this little chappie,

who was 50p, is actually about 1760 in date,

so it's the date this one's pretending to be.

-Yes.

-It really is, it's made in Delft ware, that's English tin-glazed

pottery there, on little peg legs, and it's intended as a...

I suppose a bon-bon or sweet meat or something.

With little dishes put into those.

-Well, that's what we've been using it for.

-Well fine.

For nuts and stuff.

But made either in Bristol or Liverpool, must be one or other

of those places, and instead of being just a couple of odd quid,

your 50p is now worth £800.

Oh, my goodness!

Even in that condition?

It's a little bit damaged, but, what the heck?!

I mean, you're entitled to be damaged after 250 years.

I'm a little damaged after less!

Yes! Thank you.

Look at this fascinating 18th century example of footballers' wives.

These ladies sitting round this table

with the wonderful feathers in their hair, taking tea.

And of course tea was a tremendously important ceremony,

really, at this period.

Tea was coming in from China with all the porcelains.

People wanted to show off their fabulous wealth.

Look at their dresses, really dressed to kill, and of course,

you know, in those days, to have a black servant was very much in vogue.

It was one of the things, a lot of these people might have had estates,

and they would have had the black servants.

So this lady who's hosting this party is showing all along,

-look at this wonderful turkey carpet.

-Oh, right.

Which was made in Persia. Again there's so many details here that tell you how rich these people were.

-Yes.

-It was all these things about,

it depended what colour you painted your walls.

If you had purple on your walls you were incredibly rich.

Everything about this is quality.

-The person that commissioned this to be done, was again showing their wealth.

-Yes.

And what do you know about this embroidery?

The only thing we do know is that it came down through the family.

It was my great grandfather's,

and it's just come down through the family from him.

But we've no idea before then, where it's come from,

or anything, haven't a clue.

I think it's probably somewhere around 1740 when,

as I say, this whole thing about tea...

tea was incredibly expensive.

These ships that came over,

if you take the Nanking cargo, which sank in the 1750s,

-70% of the value of the cargo was the tea.

-Yes.

So it was very, very important to show off, and this is fabulous.

Look at the detailing.

I love these tassels, they're actually bigger than the...

-Yeah.

-..this person was not that good at perspective!

Because if you look at the table, then it's...

-Flat.

-It's flat! They're going to...

All the tea cups are going to fall onto the ground!

And fabulous, fabulous little dog curled up here.

-I know, he's so cute, isn't he?

-Cute.

And would you ever have seen this on the back of a chair?

Erm, I don't know.

-Did you consider this shape?

-Yes, it is, isn't it?

It's a very unusual shape.

-Yes, it is.

-So I can...

And can you imagine if you had a set of these? Wow!

I know. You wouldn't want to sit on them though, would you?

-Just look at them.

-Yeah, yeah.

So I think this is... fabulous colours,

really rare subject, these wonderful rich women sitting round taking tea.

It's a very, very unusual subject.

-So, the early ladies that lunched?

-The early ladies at lunch, exactly.

As I said, definitely the footballers' wives of the day.

And value?

No idea.

If this came up in a good specialist sale,

I could easily, easily, see this sell for £8,000.

Oh, really?!

How fabulous.

That's wonderful! It's staying in the family though.

Your son can have this now.

Yeah!

Yeah, he's one of four, so maybe not.

-They'll be arguing.

-There'll be arguments now.

Well, I'd normally ask you what you know about this,

but it actually says it all on the dial, doesn't it?

-It does.

-A bit of a giveaway. Liberty & Co., Regent Street,

it says it's eight days and it says it's a quarter repeater.

Now do you know what the quarter repeating bit means?

It means that when you press the button on the top, it tells you the time.

That's absolutely right. It repeats to the preceding quarter.

We'll come to that later, but meanwhile let's look at the watch.

It's what we call a Goliath watch, it's Swiss

-and it's nickel-plated.

-Oh.

-So, have you ever looked inside it?

-Er, no.

OK, there's a double back, so you've got that,

then you've got the inner back, the cuvette,

and there we have a three-quarter plate movement

with a nice lever escapement.

And you can see the coiled gongs on which the watch repeats.

The date is roughly 1910, when we imported these.

These were never worn on the person,

always made to go with a stand like this.

But this is a wonderfully ornate stand - and do you know why that is?

No, I don't know anything about the case at all.

-The case is made by Liberty.

-Oh, really.

And it is absolutely typical of the Liberty Arts and Crafts movement of the early part of the 20th century.

And being silver, it has a hallmark conveniently - L&C, Liberty & Co -

and that's hallmarked Birmingham 1911.

So it all ties in absolutely perfectly.

It is an Irish Celtic design,

typically Arts and Crafts, and it's on this lovely oak carcass.

Most of these things aren't nearly as nice as that.

So the watch - it's appearing to say about eight minutes to five,

let's do the repetition...

So it did the four and then the three individual quarters.

And it would have been used probably on a bedside cabinet or

a dressing table, so that somebody at night could have just stretched out,

pressed that button and told the time without having to light a candle or to turn on a gas lamp.

I love it. Do you like it?

-We love it.

-And how did you get it?

We inherited it in 1988, when my husband's godmother died.

-Lovely thing to be given.

-Yes, yes.

-Lovely thing.

When you inherited it, did you have any valuation or anything done?

We did, yes, and we had it serviced at that time, cos it wasn't working.

What sort of ideal did they come up with?

Er, they said £1,000 for the watch and £300 to £500 for the case.

-Right.

-That was in 1988.

Well, you'll be delighted to hear

that the market's moved on a bit since then,

and certainly in a good shop or at a good high-quality antiques fair,

somebody would be asking at least £3,000 for that today.

Goodness me. Thank you very much!

-Thank you.

-Thanks.

It belonged to my father,

who, since he was born in 1901, my guess would be that this was when

he was a young lad, so shall we say, I would reckon he had it about 1910.

Right, and do you remember it going?

Just once.

It was kept in my grandparents' house -

my father had never taken it from there.

and when we visited there, I think it must have been around about 1937,

when I was about six or seven years old,

it was got out and I was allowed to see it going.

-But you couldn't touch?

-I wasn't allowed to do much, anything, with it.

-And so that was a single experience.

-A single experience...

-And then it was back in the cupboard?

It was probably put away finally around about 1950...

-Right.

-..and hasn't seen the light of day until about a year or so ago.

Well, it's great that it's come out, you know.

It's an astonishing survivor of a train set, of about the period you're talking about.

-Yes.

-This is made by Bing of Nuremberg,

one of the great names of that period.

Germany was the dominant force in both model railways and toy trains through the Victorian period.

What we're looking at is therefore something made in Germany, but very much for the British market.

Clearly marked MR - Midland Railway - we're right in the heart of the Midland Railway here.

-It couldn't be in a better place.

-Quite.

Indeed the German manufacturers made them for various British railway companies at that time.

So if you were living in the west, you could have a Great Western set.

Steam-powered and fired by methylated spirits.

This was a common experience for wealthy children of that period.

The thing though that excites me most of all, apart from the train, is actually this catalogue.

I don't think you probably appreciate how rare this is.

I gather it must be pretty rare.

Here we have the catalogue for the railway of that day,

with lots of layouts, how to lay out your track, but best of all,

we've got a catalogue page of carriages,

and we can identify those particular pieces.

And if we turn over,

we've got wonderful visions of equipment and cranes and

sheds and stations and turntables. I imagine you've got all these at home.

Oh, wish I had!

HE LAUGHS

This is a 1903 catalogue,

so therefore it dates you precisely to what you were talking about.

-It came into your family 1905-1910, thereabouts.

-Yes.

I love it. What are you going to do with it now?

Well, probably sell it to help finance university fees for grandchildren.

I think that's a very noble effort. Have you asked them if they'd rather have the train?

-I haven't!

-Well, I think, please do that - they might prefer a train to a university education.

-They need the choice.

-They do.

You don't want them saying, "I wish you'd never sold that train. OK, I've got a degree - but so what?"

HE LAUGHS

Anyway, it's a great set.

In that case, what are you going to get for it?

All the vehicles, the track, the train set,

-should be £1,500-£2,000. So...

-It's more than I expected.

-But it won't pay a year's tuition fees.

-It won't, no.

However, the good news is that this actually is very rare indeed.

A collector would probably pay £400 for that.

That's much rarer than the train.

-So we're getting there.

-We're getting there.

£2,500. You've only got 500 to find.

First year looked after!

-Yes.

-It's easy.

-Quite.

-Thank you.

Thank you!

I've always been interested in walking, I've always been a walker and a rock climber and I always

spent a lot of time walking in the Peaks.

And where did you find your first Ramblers Handbook?

The Clarion Ramblers Club was selling off some

of their old books quite cheaply,

so I opted to buy, I think I bought five for about a fiver.

-Great. And how many have you got now?

-41 now.

OK - and what sort of range in date?

I've got them from 1923 up to 1964,

which is when the last one was produced.

Right, and this is your earliest, you said, 1923-24?

That's the oldest one, yes.

And what's in them? I mean I gather it's just a description of a walk?

Well, the books are the complete guide for anyone that's interested in the Peak District.

For instance it tells you that they'll meet at Leopold Street

-in Sheffield at 8.50 in the morning, get the train...

-Not too early then!

No, and it gives a clearly defined route that they're going to follow.

They're going to stop at Langsett for tea, and in a lot of them

it'll tell you it'll cost you one and nine pence

for a scone and a cup of tea.

It'll tell you you're going to walk 17 miles.

The fare will be two and three pence and the leader will be Mr W Marshall.

-That's incredible.

-Yeah, and as I say, that's the information you get for every week of the year.

It's absolutely fascinating.

Now I did notice inside the front cover, there's an advert for an old hobnail boot - 39 and six.

-Yeah.

-My god, they look uncomfortable though.

I mean, the blisters people must have ended up with.

Yeah, a little bit different to today's stuff, yeah.

Yeah, and no doubt the advertisers helped with the printing costs at the time.

Well, I notice there's a portrait of George Ward, who I have heard of,

and he, to me, he's almost like the Wainwright of the Peak District.

Yes, I'm an admirer of Wainwright, but actually I prefer

this chap, Ward, because he was involved from 1900,

and he was involved very early in the mass trespass on Kinder Scout.

Yes, which was a crucial moment, when the sort of the common people, for want of a better word,

wanted access to paths that had been formerly off-limits.

-Absolutely.

-And it was the start of something that presumably led to the formation of The Ramblers.

Which Ward was instrumental in setting that up, along with a lot of other things.

And even today, the Clarion Ramblers who still exist over 100 years later

still call him The Leader, and he's been dead since 1957.

Fantastic, and certainly a man of the hills.

-Yeah.

-Obviously I don't see too many of these on the market, but I know that if they arrive at a specialist

bookshop or seller, they're going to ask probably between,

-what, £25 and £100 each.

-Yeah.

-Which is no small amount, is it?

-No.

So you've got 41. We're looking at over a thousand pounds' worth.

Thank you.

I always think collections of cups and saucers look lovely displayed together.

-Are these ones you've collected?

-No, I inherited them from my parents.

Oh, right. And when did they buy them, or were they collected?

Well, I suspect they must have got them in the '20s, and they were living in Hampstead then.

And I know that they were sort of collecting things for their house at that time.

So these are for the china cabinets, presumably?

Yes, they lived in a display cabinet

and I've got the display cabinet and they still live in it.

Did they tell you much about them?

I know nothing about them whatsoever.

It's interesting seeing them here together,

they have the same basic border, a border associated with Meissen,

the great German factory.

But of course Meissen designs have always been copied for a long time,

and it's intriguing here to see

a copy of Meissen, which is what this is, with the border,

but done a long time ago.

But this armorial design is Chinese,

exported from China in around about 1740, the Meissen design gone out,

copied for the border and someone's coat of arms...

-You don't know whose arms?

-No, I have no idea at all.

There's a great coat of arms there, a lot of detail,

and the whole set would have had badges of the different families, made in China in the very thin,

delicate porcelain - as the Chinese invented the porcelain, and everybody wanted Chinese porcelain sets.

Here we've got a Meissen design of harbour scenes with Chinese figures

and a similar border,

but I mean not perhaps as well-painted as you would like.

-That's not bad but it's a bit sketchy, a little bit weak.

-Yeah.

This one, trying to be Meissen, but, oh, dear, the wrong mark.

A pretend crossed swords, a little bit awkward,

they're not the real Meissen - that one's a copy from 1880.

But this one, well, it screams out, doesn't it?

Just look how well-painted that is.

In the background, the trees are delicate, the faces are so real.

Little hand - isn't that beautifully painted?

And there's...

sprigs, flowers, filling up the design, and there's the Meissen

crossed swords as it should be, with impressed numbers and signs.

This is real Meissen, and that is 1740.

So, lovely condition, isn't it?

So, gorgeous things together, and nice comparison, because

in a way, two different copies of Meissen and the real thing.

And curiously, this one, although it's copying the design from Chinese,

a nice armorial one,

that's probably quite a valuable one, so I suppose that's going to be,

erm, £1,000, a nice cup and saucer.

Whereas that copy is the wrong one, out of period,

and so probably only £100 for that.

-Mm-hm.

-But the real thing, with that quality from 1740,

about 2,000 for that.

Wow. Well, that's very nice to know.

So, a lovely part of a display cabinet.

Well, they'll be going back in the display cabinet this evening.

Where they belong. Nice to see them.

OK.

Now, this photograph shows an RAF officer,

-possibly from the Second World War period?

-Yes.

Now, who was he?

He was my father, and he was based in the north-east of Scotland,

just north of Fochabers,

and he was part of the photo reconnaissance unit there.

His job was to review all the literature that came in,

film and such like, and interpret

what was going on, and then arrange to sort out for the next sortie,

the next day, or immediately.

Now I guess that's why you've brought along an album here with lots

of photographs of German shipping being attacked by Allied aircraft.

This photograph is extraordinary.

Look at the number of aircraft flying in this photograph.

Yes, and in this particular attack, the speeds at which they're going at

and also the fact that they're having to avoid fighters coming in, means that it's a general melee.

We don't know where that is, I guess?

Oh, it would be between what we call Fraserburgh and Scandinavia.

OK, and it looks like a home-made album - is this something that he would have made himself?

It doesn't look official to me...

No, it's something he put together, really because

he was told to destroy everything, so he decided to keep some of it for historical purposes.

What was this, after the war, when the war finished?

No, during. He felt that it would all be lost and for

the number of men who'd lost their lives, he felt - in the squadrons -

he felt this was a mark of respect.

It wasn't just the fighting force who were important,

but it was the men and the women in the intelligence

part of the squadrons that were just as important,

because it was their job to look at the photographs, to...

explore the different types of equipment

that the Germans were using, and if they realised that

the Germans were using something more modern, something different -

different ammunition, projectiles, flying styles, for example -

then they would bring in the boffins,

who would then interpret these photographs and come up with ways of countering the Germans.

Absolutely. He discovered several fancy antennae

on some of the submarines in this book,

and also on some of these ships,

which we weren't aware of, and that was the way, you know,

it was up to him to interpret it,

and send it off immediately for people to follow up.

And we have a photograph here which I find rather bizarre, rather peculiar.

Yes, this is a Mosquito,

and basically there were two ships in this fjord hugging the coast,

and what they're doing is coming in and strafing them

with rocket-propelled incendiaries.

Unfortunately, the German here has decided to fire up a grappling iron

on the end of a steel cable, obviously to put off the pilot,

and in this case the pilot will have been scared out of his wits and crashed,

which you can see down here.

There's no chance of pulling out of that.

Terrifying, isn't it, actually?

And all young men.

-Very.

-In the prime of their lives.

Yes, yes, indeed, yes, usually just 20 or just over.

-I think this book is a tribute to their bravery.

-Indeed.

Well, you know, these do have a value.

There are many, many collectors around the world

who are fascinated by photographs like this,

and the photographic evidence of this type,

and they do pay quite substantial sums.

Just this album alone, and the history that surrounds it,

if you like, would probably be worth £700, £800, maybe even £1,000.

Interesting. I don't know whether I would part with it personally.

I would be interested to

pass it on to a museum eventually, if there was one specifically for this, for these squadrons.

Now it's not often we see Constable at a Roadshow, but I know it's a name our experts dream of seeing.

Do you know if it is a genuine Constable or not?

No - I need someone to verify who the artist is.

I know it has Constable written on the frame, but...

in the past I've been told different things about the painting.

I just enjoy the painting, so it would be nice to know

who the artist is.

People have looked at it before - some people have told you it is a Constable,

and others have told you it isn't?

My husband and I were told that it wasn't, even though he'd bought it as a Constable.

And then later on, after my husband's died, I was told it isn't a Constable,

but because it has Constable written on the frame, when people visit me, they think

I've got a Constable and I keep saying it's not a Constable.

So I'd like to know who the artist is.

You're in the right place, and I know you've brought a number of paintings.

You're very gallantly holding them for us - and you want to find out more.

If it is a Constable, that's... It would be worth quite a lot of money.

Probably, I hope not.

-You hope not?

-I hope it's not a Constable in a way.

-Why is that?

-Erm...

Because I would have liked him to have enjoyed

knowing that it is a Constable, and to enjoy finding out what we're going to find out today.

-And good luck.

-Thanks, Fiona.

Well, here we have this wonderful shimmering gold work that just takes

us back right to the 1920s and the Charleston and the Flapper style.

It's all full of movement and great fun. How did you come to have it?

Well, I actually inherited it from my German aunt,

and sadly we don't know anything about the history,

but there is this date inside - 10th May 1928.

We always thought as well that it must be from this Charleston era,

and I thought how beautiful it would go with these lovely dresses

which are sort of flapping about, and that's all I know, really.

Oh, wonderful.

Well, it really is from that 1920s period,

and the date works perfectly with the bag and also the purse.

-It's a period which is always called the Art Deco period.

-Yes.

It's about the wonderful cinemas, about dancing,

about girls going out and having really wild and extravagant dresses and just having fun.

And there was one particular lady, Josephine Baker, who was a real sort

of dancer and singer and entertainer, and she's well-known for dancing the Charleston at the Folies-Bergeres,

so it really is just fitting to see a bag like this,

and tie it into that Deco period.

It is absolutely beautiful. I think what fascinates me about this is that

it is of course gold, it's 18-carat gold,

it's marked in the inside 750, which is a mark to represent gold.

-Right.

-And it's also got this lovely platinum work, bringing out that

lovely geometric look that you associate also with the Deco period.

-Yes, yes, right.

-And then also at the top here you've

got two beautiful cabochon-cut sapphires in the top, which are also seen in the little bag.

-In the little bag, yeah.

-Yeah.

So, absolutely amazing.

And maybe in the '20s, you'd just have your dance card in there and

just continue to dance the night away which just sounds a wonderful way to live, doesn't it?

-It's a collector who's going to go for this.

-Yes.

And as far as something like this coming up at auction, I think we'd

-probably expect it to be between £3,000 and £4,000.

-Ooh!

Well, I think that's a lot of money for a little bag!

Wow, that's brilliant, really.

It's just been fabulous to see it,

it's been wonderful for you to bring it along, and I can just sort of hear the Charleston in the background of

-the evening, and I'm sure you'll just be dancing your way home.

-Absolutely!

One has to assume that she's called Eve, or something like that,

from the style of it.

Do you know what the official title is?

The official title is called The Temptation,

but we've always known her as Eve in the family.

She's got the apple and this wonderful serpent all the way through,

-and it's signed on the back NA Trent - now, that's Newbury Trent.

-Yes, it is.

-What does the A stand for?

-Abbot.

-Abbot.

-Newbury Abbot, Trent.

And the books say that he dies either in 1953 or '63 - which is right?

-'53.

-And how can you be so sure?

-He's my great uncle.

-Right, OK!

And you obviously knew him, did you?

I met him, but I don't remember him, I remember his wife, who was a very imposing woman

and I was terrified of her, so I remember her and not him.

Oh, what a shame, because we've got this lovely photo of him, and he looks really a very charming man.

Well, he seems to have had quite an interesting range of friends and contacts as well.

He exhibits quite often at the Royal Academy and clearly gets to know Royal Academicians and so on,

and he lives in a smart part of Chelsea - well, smart today - near

Sir Alfred Munnings, who was the President of the Royal Academy.

And there is a bust of Munnings by Trent, which is rather nice,

but it's sort of slightly different to his normal work.

He was working in the 1920s, largely doing war memorials,

and it's so beautifully sinuously carved, it's...

-It's lovely, isn't it?

-It is terrific, and it's dated 1926.

So you know, probably absolutely at his peak.

You inherited it, so you didn't ever have to buy it, so you've no idea...

-No.

-Well, this whole period of sculpture is now very much in demand,

and I can see she would make somewhere between

at least £2,000 to £3,000

possibly maybe as much as £4,000 at auction today.

So establishing a good price, I think.

Indeed, yes. I'm sure that my great uncle would be very pleased if he knew that today,

because I don't think he was desperately well-off in his lifetime.

I had an uncle who was a sculptor and I'm afraid that sort of thing happens.

-'Twas ever thus.

-Yes, I think so.

I understand you've been talking to Fiona and that you're interested

to know more about these pictures and indeed who painted them.

-Yes.

-Right, well, I hope I can help you.

This is potentially by

one of the great British artists, John Constable,

who painted at the end of the 18th century, early 19th century.

But I'm going to let you down very quickly - it is not by John Constable.

If I got a pound for every time someone said to me,

"I've got a John Constable," I'd be an extremely rich man.

That's fine, it's because it said "Constable" there, and people think it's a Constable.

I don't want people to say, "Oh, you've got a Constable,"

-because I don't know whether it is or it isn't and...

-Exactly, exactly.

It's not by Constable, and there's a number of things that we need to look it.

First of all, JC here, do you see that?

-Yes.

-He hardly ever signed, so that was my first sort of worry.

The second thing,

if you're talking about the greatest artist of this period,

it's just not quite good enough.

-Yep.

-If you look at the figures here,

the gentleman fishing and so forth,

the quality isn't quite strong enough,

and the background of the house, just a bit weak.

The colouring is right,

typical, this sort of splurge of red that he often used, but...

-It's not.

-Thumbs down, I'm afraid.

-That's fine, that's great.

-It's still got a value.

-Yes.

-Because you know, he influenced so many people - so who is it by?

We'll just say "follower of John Constable".

I think that's the closest you're going to get.

If you and I went out to paint something, you know, 200 years ago,

and we didn't put our name, we would just go, how do they know who we are?

If you see what I mean. So we're never going to find out who it is.

-Right.

-So, "follower of."

And it's probably worth £1,000-£1,500.

-That's fine.

-As a nice, decorative, typical English landscape.

-That's fine, thank you very much.

-Enjoy that.

But, I know you're going to see Rupert with two more pictures,

so let's hope that the news is better than the news I've given you - so, fingers crossed.

Thank you, thank you.

It was always a family joke that I would inherit it eventually.

It's never been my favourite piece of furniture

so I said to my mother, "Don't leave it to me, cos if you do, I'll to sell it."

Well, she died four years ago and actually wrote it into her will

that I had to keep it as a family heirloom.

Basically I was stitched up by my mother which was very nice of her.

I have grown to appreciate it slightly more over the years but

I have a very modern house so it stands out a bit like a sore thumb.

So did she know that when you stitched you up?

-No, I've moved since.

-She thought you were a modernist?

-She knew I liked modern furniture.

Well, we haven't had a Davenport on the Antiques Roadshow

as long as I can remember, because they all look the same.

But this is just so different and so exotic that I think we just had to show it to everybody.

Now we've got the standard type of opening here and down here

for the writing compartments, a bit stiff,

-you clearly haven't been using it a lot, have you?

-No.

What do you know about it? Where do you think it's from?

Well, my mum's family originally came from Lincolnshire.

I don't know whether it's come from there.

I don't know enough about it and, really, that's why I brought it

-because I'd love to know more.

-It's not from Lincolnshire.

-Right. OK.

-It's from Italy.

Oh! Wow!

OK. It's travelled a fair way, then.

In fact the design, the basic design we can see of this inlay,

is all Moorish.

-Oh, right.

-So it's the Islamic culture that came into Europe

and when the Moors were conquering

southern Spain and southern Sicily and southern Italy,

they brought this culture into southern Europe.

But that was 1,000 years ago. This is not 1,000 years old.

It's about 1880.

-Right, OK.

-And so there is no representation on this geometric

design of anything made by God and that is part of the Islamic culture.

You can't reproduce animal or plants.

However, the Italians, being Catholics, liked the style of this alla Certosina, this very exotic

Moorish influence and just said,

"We don't care about that, we're going to put in our

"typical Italian figures here with these little Cupids flying around."

Heaven knows what they're doing really, they're sort of

flying around in mid air on this heavenly background,

but this is copper here, this lovely coppery colour, it's real copper,

mother of pearl and ivory.

These little babies' bottoms are made of ivory.

They've been etched there to give them shadow and shade whereas this decoration here, I think is bone.

-Oh.

-So Italy,

1880ish, possibly Sorrento, not quite sure where it came from.

I don't think we'll ever find out who made it.

-No.

-It's the sort of thing that they've seen the English style of

Davenport and thought "Mm, yeah, we can do this in the Italian style."

Have you got woodworm at home?

Not that I know, but I know this piece appears to have, yes.

-Well, it's certainly had woodworm, hasn't it?

-Right, it has, yes.

Because at this point here you've got these very obvious holes here.

We'll have to be a bit careful. I think come next May, I want you to put a piece of paper

underneath it, tap it a few times and if there's dust, then perhaps you'd better get the woodworm killer.

That's when they start hatching and they start saying, "It's a bit warm in here"

-and find another piece of furniture.

-OK.

It's great fun, it's lovely to see it.

Thank you for bringing it in, it's a lovely story

but can I persuade you to keep it or are you going to break the will?

Oh, gosh no, because knowing my mother, she'd come back and haunt me for ever.

The condition is slightly against it but I want to put a value on it.

-I'd like you to insure it, cos you're going to keep it, you're not going to sell it.

-No.

For £2,500.

Right, excellent, thank you very much, that's great.

-With woodworm.

-With woodworm, thank you very much.

Thank you.

So, I understand you've been through the wringer a bit today, haven't you?

-You've seen Fiona.

-Yes.

-And you've seen Mark.

-Yeah.

-And they've given you some rather bad news about your things, unexpected bad news.

-Yes.

It's been fine, it's been everything that I thought it would be.

Oh, well that's OK then.

Yes, and what about these? What do you think these are?

I actually know what this one is.

-Oh, you do, go on.

-Yes, it's a Marcus Stone.

-Ah-ha.

Different people were saying different things.

-Some people were saying it wasn't, some people said that it was.

-I see.

But I was told by a reputable auction house that it was a Marcus Stone.

Ah-ha, yes, that could very well be so.

I suppose you could understand it,

if somebody said it wasn't a Marcus Stone,

because he's a 19th century painter and he's not really known

for this sort of, I suppose it's an Arthurian subject, isn't it?

It's the resting knight.

Well they did say to me, the first auction house, that he only painted romance and that it wasn't.

-That's what he became known for.

-Yeah, that it wasn't.

-So then I ended up getting confused.

-Well, let's see if we can put that one to rest.

I can see why the first auction house said it wasn't as well,

because it's got what appears to be a fake signature on it.

-Do you see that there?

-Oh, right.

-That's a very "added later" look to it.

-Right.

You know, and I don't trust it at all,

and if I'd only seen that, I would have thought, "Oh, I'm not at all sure."

But we'll come back to that and let's look at this because this has a proper signature on it.

-Have you seen it?

-Er, Peter Monamy.

But I took it to be cleaned, restored.

-Yeah and had it cleaned and then it came up like this.

-And I love it.

I know that people don't like the frame, but I like the frame as well.

I think it all goes together.

Peter Monamy was obviously a marine painter and he loved this sort of

letterbox format and it really suits

marine subjects who of course, you know,

when you're looking out across a big sky and the sea,

it suits to have a very, very long horizon,

quite low in the picture as well,

so that you've got room for tall masts and big ships.

And he was particularly influenced in the 18th Century by Dutch painters, particularly Wilhelm van der Velde,

who was famous for what he called his "calms"

and as you can see, it is very calm, it's almost flat.

All the sails are slack and there's no wind at all, just enough to move

that pennant at the top but it's still looped over a yard arm.

The atmosphere's rather good.

But I suppose the problem with it is, that you can't see any of the rigging

any more and there are various bits of it that don't quite make sense.

I'm not really sure about that cloud of smoke there

which is presumably from a broadside.

What's he firing at?

It looks as though it might have been added later.

The cleaning of it has removed what rigging might have been visible

-so it's been through the mill.

-Yes.

-It's lost a lot.

But it's still quite an attractive picture and you do get a sense

of the calm and the still and very much a sense

of the age of all the shipping sitting in the roads here.

It might be Plymouth, I'm not sure.

But it's got a good sky and a good feel to it.

-I think it's the real thing, that's what we're saying here.

-Right.

It is definitely the real thing, it's a Peter Monamy.

But almost a ghost of a Peter Monamy.

I know, but I still like it.

I still like it too. Right, coming back to the Marcus Stone again

and the great thing about this picture

is it's actually got a real signature on it as well, a rather jokey place

because his name was Marcus Stone and what he's done is

put his initials on a stone, just down there. Can you see it?

-Oh, I can see it, yeah.

-And the date of 1858. MS.

-Very small as befits a young artist showing his first Royal Academy piece.

-His first?

His very first exhibited work in the Royal Academy, it's called "Rest."

So it is a Marcus Stone then?

-Yes, it is.

-Well, because when you said that this is not right, so that one down there makes it right?

-Yes.

-Oh, right.

-What it also means is that somebody's been messing about with it.

-Oh, right.

With the cleaning, it's the same with the Monamy, they've both been cleaned

and they've both had things added and taken away,

by the cleaning and the cosmetics, and the thing is that we're looking

at two honest pictures by the people they're supposed to be by.

-Right.

-They're real.

-Does that cheer you up at all?

-It does, because I love them.

I do like them and I've always felt that they were real and when

people have said that they're not, it's not bothered me because I like the contents of the pictures.

Well, good because that's really why you should you be getting them in the first place of course.

Now values...

That's quite good news, but not fantastic, because although they're real, you've got condition problems

in each and this one is atypical, it's not what people expect from Marcus Stone and that's why the first

people were thrown by it and with the dodgy signature at the top as well, it doesn't help.

But with a little bit of work, you clean that signature off again and perhaps getting it looking a

-bit more real. We're probably looking at about £3,000 or £4,000, perhaps a little more.

-Right.

-That's fine, thank you.

-That's good, and then on the Monamy, well

this kind of marine picture has sunk a little if you'll forgive the pun.

Nonetheless I think we're still looking at £2,000 to £3,000.

-Right, thank you.

-That adds up, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

Taken all in all, we're probably looking at about

five, six, seven, £8,000 on a really good day perhaps.

-Right, thank you very much.

-No, not at all.

Where are you going to take me, babe?

-They're going back on the wall.

-They're going back on your wall?

At the moment. I just like them, thank you.

People were evacuated to some pretty unusual places during the war, but being evacuated to Chatsworth

as a schoolgirl must rank as one of the most extraordinary.

What did you think when you first arrived?

Well, I was rather over-awed.

I should think so. And what was it like?

You spent how many years here as a schoolgirl?

I was here for four-and-a-half years.

What, living here in the dormitories?

-Living here, yes.

-And what was it like?

-Very, very cold.

And this is, this is the snow, look at that.

Yes, this is settling off for church.

Gosh, and how many of you were there?

-250 girls.

-250 girls, and where were you evacuated from then?

-Colwyn Bay.

-Colwyn Bay.

-Yes.

-And so in the winter it was freezing.

-Yes.

Those are your bad memories, what were the good memories?

Oh, the good memories, the summer was lovely.

In this garden, we would have the whole run of the garden.

-Swimming in the lake, that kind of thing?

-Swimming in the lake.

We took our test in the round pond.

Are you in this picture, Nancy?

Yes, I'm there in the white cap.

I was all ready to go.

-Oh, look, which one is you here, Nancy, let's see?

-Oh, that one.

And how old were you?

I think I was probably about 13 there.

And did you ever get any raids overhead, anything like that?

-Yes, we were machine gunned.

-You were machine gunned?

Yes, two enemy planes, they didn't know what we were

and they were just going back and they thought it was

some sort of military place so they just emptied their bullets

onto the north side.

-You can still see the bullets in the wall.

-And where were you?

We were just in the painted hall, on a summer evening, finishing prayers, it was five to eight.

-Must have been terrifying.

-So it was, we all went to the cellars, to the beer cellars,

our air-raid shelter and

stayed there, till we heard that they'd been shot down.

-A trip down memory lane for you. Thank you.

-Thank you.

Well, you've brought a pair of pink glass vases

-which commonly get called "cranberry."

-Oh, right.

But I'm going to use the proper name,

which is "ruby gold glass."

OK.

Ruby gold because real gold is used to create this wonderful ruby colour.

What do you know about them?

-They were given to my mother by her late mother-in-law.

-Right.

And apart from her taking them to an auctioneers about 30 years ago,

they said they were Venetian and that the paintings were

painted on a lot later and that's about it, that's all we know.

The paintings they're referring to are these wonderful,

I suppose they're Viennese in style actually, these Neo-Classical panels

and when you look closely, you can see that they're bolted on

with little metal bolts, top and bottom.

So my guess is that someone looked at these, and thought,

"Well, why are they bolted on?"

because normally glass of this type is cased.

You have a white outer layer

which is attached naturally to the ruby inner layer.

-Right.

-It's quite unusual to have them bolted like this.

-Yes.

But not so unusual that we haven't seen it before

and I am sure that these are all of a piece,

they were made at the same time.

-Right.

-And the handles are also bolted on, when you look inside.

Oh, right, I didn't realise that.

So the other thing, Venetian, these scream to me Bohemian.

A great centre for this kind of glass in the 19th Century.

They're not Venetian, they are definitely Bohemian.

The other issue is date.

But these vases are a gift because their shape

tells us so much about when they were made.

They've got

some oriental feet made to look rather like hardwood stands.

Despite the European Neo-Classical decoration,

they're quite Japanese in shape

and that was a fashion very much in vogue in the 1870s and 1880s.

So these are beautiful

and very unusual Bohemian vases.

Have you ever thought what they might be worth?

-Many times.

-Many times, many times.

Every time I looked at them on my mother's mantelpiece.

Well they do look extremely glamorous.

In fact we're standing here in front of Chatsworth, one of the great

stately homes of England and similar Bohemian vases stand on a mantelpiece in a bedroom in that house.

That's how good these things are, that's how grand they are.

-So I think...

-They don't want them back, do they?

No, oh, no, no, no. HE LAUGHS

Unless you know something I don't,

no, no. It's a measure of the quality of the things you have here.

That's fantastic.

So what are they worth?

I think an auction estimate for these vases

would be between £3,000 and £5,000.

Lovely. That's very nice to know.

If I dare go back in time and to the days when me granddad

was alive giving me advice and he always said to me,

"There are three things you should watch for on a man that will tell you an awful lot.

"One will be his shoes, if they're polished.

"The other will be his watch and the third would be the pen that he uses."

And I have to say that you're using a rather stylish pen.

-Is this because penmanship is big in your family or what?

-Not really, no.

I bought it in a box of playing cards and it was in the bottom.

Well, let's have a look at the pen.

First of all, this is a dip pen of sorts.

I mean you've got a lever there to act as a fountain pen,

but this originally would have actually sat

in probably a circular stand, so it never had a cover, OK.

And then, then there's a signature down here as well, all in Japanese.

Because this is a very stylish pen

which probably dates to around about 1930 and the name here, there are

two names, one is probably well known to most folk and that is Dunhill,

and a Japanese name which is Namiki.

In 1928 they combined forces to produce this type of pen.

So it's beautifully lacquered,

it's very scant in the decoration but with the Japanese, less is more.

And if you look very carefully it's dusted with tiny, tiny particles of gold.

So, I mean this really is a pen that any pen collector would be very keen

to have and Namiki pens can vary dramatically in price,

depending on whether it is a large fountain pen with very elaborate

dragons or whether it's something

of relatively modest decoration like yours, and consequently,

this particular one, I can tell you now,

if I saw it at auction, I'd expect it to be worth

in the region of maybe £500 to £700.

Really?

I'm amazed, amazed.

It's just sat in the cupboard for years.

-Well, you bought it with playing cards.

-Yes.

I think it's fair to say that you played your cards right, didn't you?

I think it is, but that's the good news, OK.

The bad news is had it been a large size with barrel and cover,

decorated with dragons, I actually saw one sold

in the saleroom that I worked in, about 15 years ago, wait for this,

for £187,000.

-Really?

-And how much did you pay, for that pack of cards?

Well, if it was £5 that would be it, yeah.

I think you're quids in, quids in.

-Yes.

-Thank you.

-Lovely, thank you very much.

So this is part of a really large archive of jewellery designs. Tell me about them with you.

Well, basically,

my granddad worked for Cartier designing and when he died, well,

when my grandmother died, we found all these in the loft in a big pile

and have slowly gone through them over the years

and just amazed by them.

Well, they are totally amazing

and in a way they're rarer than the jewellery itself because

the jewellery is made and then very often the design is thrown away

or it becomes dirty and in the course of it

being taken to the workshop, to the bench for the craftsman to make it.

Now, of course, Cartier is the greatest name of 20th Century jewellery design, and we can see,

left, right and centre, huge precious stones mounted in platinum and gold.

But that's a slight distraction from the fact that

this is a very important part of the decorative arts of the 20th Century

and it's very close to genius,

but it seems that the real genius comes from your family. What was his name?

My grandfather's name was Charles Alexander Kennedy Ambrose

which is a bit of a mouthful.

And I think he died in the 1960s but he worked for Cartier during

like the '30s to the '60s and that's about it really.

And that is actually what we can see here.

This is a little archaeological trip in a way.

If you were able to go into Cartier in the early 20th century it meant

-that you were able to afford what they were offering for sale.

-Yes.

A necklace like this, with the most dramatically beautiful emeralds and

diamonds, would have been literally a king's ransom at Cartier, because

kings and maharajahs and sultans were going in and out

like fiddlers' elbows, asking for these things.

And we can just examine some of them a little here.

This is made of Siberian amethysts, sort of stylised fall of grapes,

perhaps in deep purple cabochon stones surrounded by turquoise.

-This was a style invented by the Duchess of Windsor.

-Oh, right.

The wife of King Edward VIII,

and the combination of turquoise and amethyst

is extraordinarily contemporary

and I think it's safe to say that that design probably

derives from a commission from

Edward VIII for a vast necklace of turquoise and amethysts

that she wore with stunning effect.

She said that it was impossible to be too thin, or too rich.

And I think there's no doubt at all about the too rich bit.

I'm not sure about the too thin. But anyway, she wore these things

as an extension of her dress and she was a stunning woman to look at and Cartier was their favourite choice.

So, and even more interestingly, you've also brought wax maquettes

for jewellery and if somebody came to Cartier and wanted something made,

it was very important they were completely and utterly satisfied

with what they had, because to break it down and start again

would have been a disaster.

The only way to make that happen, was to model them in wax in three dimensions and put

the stones onto the wax so that the person who, very imaginatively here, has asked for three brooches in the

form of the three polar bears, which is beyond belief, frankly,

it really is. I mean it's a stunning, stunning concept and remains so and that was

shown to her and she would agree it with the absolute confidence that the back would be sensationally made too.

Here a lizard, a salamander, a legendary beast that renews

itself from fire and here yet another polar bear.

So, are you breathless?

I'm nearly worn out. I can hardly cope with the excitement.

I need to go on a Valium drip or something,

but anyway there must be some future for this.

I mean there has to be, it needs to be very carefully conserved.

You must look after it, you must find out more about him, you must be in touch with Cartier,

see what they say, what were his greatest commissions and to value them in every sense of the word

because they are utterly invaluable

-and this is very, very hard indeed because they're not jewels.

-No.

They're only on paper, little lumps of wax,

this, that and the other, but none the less they are very sought after.

There's a small band of connoisseurs and collectors who want these things very badly.

I suppose I'm one of them, actually.

But I could never afford them

because to be perfectly honest I think you'd probably have to fork out

somewhere between £15,000 and £20,000 to buy this from you.

Oh, my god!

GASPING

You are joking!

Oh, I thought they'd be like £20 each.

Oh, my good lord.

That's amazing, that is just amazing.

Thank you so much, thank you.

Brilliant.

Chatsworth House is renowned for having the finest

private collection of Neo-Classical statues in the land.

Now this may not be Neo-Classical, but it's a classic.

I think you'll agree. Henry, I think I recognise this figure.

It's made for me and it's of me.

I think it's wonderful, made by a great potter in Northern Ireland

called Peter Meanley and it's in salt- glazed stoneware, which is very much

a material to my heart and its wonderful colours and glaze and oh,

-it's super, I love it very much.

-Where do you keep it?

Well, it's in the drawing room on a very strong table

because it's such a hefty weight.

I daren't, I can't even move it myself.

Oh, no, I mean it certainly is a conversation piece.

Oh, yes, it's great.

As Toby jugs go, I've never seen anything like it. Have you seen any Toby jugs here?

Yes, we've seen a lot of Toby jugs.

We've had a great crowd and a marvellous time.

Well, but nothing on this scale I have to say.

Well, from Henry and me at Chatsworth

-and Henry Number Two here, until next time, bye-bye.

-Goodbye.

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