Hampton Court Castle 2 Antiques Roadshow

This week, we've set up stall in a county that has as its mascot

these gorgeous creatures... Hereford cattle -

known for their gentle nature, I'm relieved to say -

and once hundreds of them roamed this estate.

Welcome to a return of the Antiques Roadshow

from Hampton Court Castle in Herefordshire.

Since it was built in the 15th century,

Hampton Court Castle has been through good times and bad.

During its heyday in the 19th century,

this was a 10,500 acre estate,

owned by one of the largest landowners in England.

Johnny Arkwright was heir to the famous family who'd

made their fortune in the cotton mills of Lancashire.

He was considered the epitome of the English country squire.

His pride and joy was his herd of Hereford cattle,

which he called his "ruby moos"

because of their claret coloured coats.

Johnny had the heads of his prize-winning cattle cast in silver,

and then placed upon the dinner table.

At the end of the meal, guests would turn the heads upside down,

fill the cups, and raise a toast.

So here's to what we're hoping will be a special day

at Hampton Court Castle.

Well, how appropriate

to be in Herefordshire

and to see a wonderful portrait of Hereford cattle.

It means a lot to me and my family here, because it was my

grandfather's very great pride and joy to own that cow, the "Lovely".

He owned "Lovely" and here

-it's got even an inscription of her name here.

-That's right.

-Well, this is a very British thing...

-Yes.

-..to have portraits of one's cattle...

-Yes.

-..or portraits of one's sheep, is a very, very British phenomenon.

-Yes.

And do you know why?

This was a particularly favourite cow of his,

and she rather remarkably had two sets of twins.

-Ah.

-The twin heifers which are there, Theodora and Dorothea.

-Who are portrayed here.

-Yes.

-Yes.

And then she had twin bull calves.

Sir Julius, he named, and Sir Julian,

and I think they both went, were exported to the Argentine.

Oh, that brings me to the artist, because it's clearly signed here

-by "A. M. Gauci 1885".

-Yes.

-That doesn't sound a very British name, does it?

-I thought that.

I always have thought it, I couldn't make out why.

Well, there's very little information about Gauci, but

from his name, he sounds like he may well be Argentinean or Spanish,

or certainly have connections there.

-Yes.

-And we only know him because he paints portraits of cattle.

I often say, slightly jokingly, that an Englishman

often would rather have his cattle or his horse

-painted than perhaps his wife.

-That would probably be true!

Now tell me, so this bloodline, does it still exist?

-Are you in the business? Are you a cattle breeder?

-Yes.

-We've got descendants of this bloodline still.

-How amazing.

But they aren't registered as pedigree Herefords.

Right, and am I right in saying that we have three generations of farmers

-in front of me now?

-Yes.

-Wonderful.

The picture lives at my house.

Ah, so you've already passed it on, have you? So I mean this really is

-part of family history.

-Very much so.

-It always has been.

-And I guess you'll pass it on to your...?

-I'm looking forward to it.

-He's got a smile on his face.

Yes, yes, he's got a girlfriend.

Well, now we know. But let's get back to the portrait.

I mean, I think this is absolutely lovely.

I mean, it's very personal to you, so value wise...

-they're slightly out of fashion these portraits.

-Yes.

And it has a sort of semi-naive sort of feel to it,

and yet here is an artist that's probably got the character

of each cow and heifer well, I'd say.

-Very much so.

-So, have you ever had it valued?

-No.

-Perfect.

Well, I would have thought that if it came onto the market,

we would look at something between £3,000-£5,000.

-Heavens.

-Not bad?

We wouldn't sell it, but it's interesting to know that.

But if "Lovely"

appeared on the market today, what would she be worth?

She would be worth, as a cow, I would guess £3,000 or £4,000.

Right, so same as the picture.

-Yes.

-Interesting. Well, I can't thank you enough, and look after it.

-OK.

-Thank you very much.

You've brought me a little piece of Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre.

Oh, well,

I knew it was Wedgwood, because I saw the title underneath,

but I don't know much about it because it was given to me way back.

-And who gave you this present?

-Well, there was this lovely, lovely lady

who was our babysitter, gave it to us. We were rather poor,

and she looked around where we were living

and said "You've got no ornaments."

So I said "Well, no, we've had to spend our money on other things."

and she said to me, "I've got something I'm going to give you."

And when I saw it, I just could see it was, I thought, exquisite,

and I said, "Oh, no, it's too good, don't, it's too precious."

And she said, "No, no, no, it was given to me by a wealthy lady

"I used to clean for, and I don't really need it, you have it.

"And when I come to babysit I can see it." So I took it.

Somebody took pity on you...

-Exactly.

-..and gave you this.

-Exactly.

Well, it is Wedgwood, we know that, it's got the mark on the bottom.

It was designed by somebody

called Daisy Makeig-Jones, who worked for the Wedgwood factory,

and she was actually related to the Wedgwood family by marriage.

And she was working in the period just after the First World War

in the 1920s and the 1930s. And in fact in the early '30s

she was sacked by one of the Wedgwood family, and she was in such a temper,

-she went to her studio and smashed everything...

-Oh, no.

..because she felt as a member of the family, she shouldn't be sacked.

But it is a lovely thing, and it's lustre and it's got fairies on it,

and it was called Fairyland Lustre for obvious reasons.

It's very collectable. Every time I have one of these in my auction,

I get calls from American collectors. Do you know what they say?

-No, do tell me.

-"Will you hold it to the telephone and ring it for me?"

-So shall we try?

-Right.

DULL RINGING

-It's not ringing clear, is it?

-No.

-What do you think that might mean?

If it's not ringing clear, it sounds like there might be a crack.

Yes. That's why they do it,

and obviously if you imagine you're in America, you want to hear

a clear ring, and somewhere there will be a crack in this.

So that means it's not going to be worth as much as if it was perfect.

But it is still collectable.

How much did you pay your babysitter in those days?

Well, probably 50p an hour or something, you know.

Well, this bowl, given by your 50p an hour babysitter,

is worth about £500-£800.

-Good heavens!

-So that's a lot of babies.

It is.

I would have paid her more if I'd known.

Well, she paid you very well.

-Thank you so much for bringing it in.

-Thank you.

So two magnificent volumes here

of one of the most famous books on Egypt and Nubia.

Can you hold that for me?

That's lovely. I hope you're not parked too far away, are you?

Did you have to carry them in?

Well, yes. I did have a glamorous assistant to help me.

You've got a glamorous assistant.

Now, this is David Roberts'

"Egypt and Nubia", printed in 1846, with the most magnificent plates.

He spent about six months in Egypt and Nubia,

and also in the Holy Land, as well, to produce these books.

And there are two issues of these books.

There's the coloured one which is the same plates, but hand coloured.

And there's this one, which is the tinted lithograph copy.

But the plates are still absolutely magnificent, even tinted like this.

I mean, look at the depth of these.

Nothing had been seen really like it before.

Obviously people were very keen, as Napoleon was, on Egypt,

and David Roberts went out there

and you could say these are tourist books.

But they're enormous, aren't they?

-They're huge, very heavy.

-So, where did they come from?

Well, they've been in my family for over 100 years,

and we recently inherited them through the family.

I don't know much about the background of them.

And you've got the other volume here too, which... Let me...

And there's the pyramids, and that is an absolutely fantastic view

of the pyramids, and the Sphinx without its beard too, here.

And it would have had a beard.

The beard is in the British Museum at the moment.

So what do you like about these things?

I just love the depth in them, and they're just beyond words.

-They're beautiful, I love them.

-I think they're absolutely tremendous.

My worry is that you don't have volume three.

It's very difficult to get hold of, as you can imagine.

But we are, we have been looking for it for...

over 20 years, 15 years, and it's just very hard to come by.

I don't think you'd find an odd volume of it, really, at all.

Anyway, you've got two out of the three volumes.

Had you had three, do you know how much they'd be worth?

No.

£15,000.

-OK.

-I'm afraid only two, we're going to have to talk about

£5,000, £6,000, £7,000 possibly, but no more than that.

But they're fantastic, and so nice to have them come on the Roadshow.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

Gemstones are my passion, and unusual gemstones even more so.

So it intrigues me how you

got this stone, and what do you think it is?

It belonged to my granny, and I believe it to be something

called a Ceylon trembler, but I don't know what that is.

-Ceylon trembler?

-Yes.

-Right, excellent.

-And that's all I know.

And when did your granny get it?

It was given to her by my grandfather,

because he was a bit of a ladies' man.

He travelled the world,

in his position as chauffeur, with a companion.

He travelled to the West Indies, India, China

and on his return each year, he would give

my granny a present for being away,

and this was one of the presents that year.

-She never wore it.

-Why didn't your granny wear it?

Because she didn't like being left.

He was having a wonderful time as this lady's companion, and, er,

she was very offended, so each present that he bought her,

she put in a cupboard.

So it's never been worn, this ring?

-I wear it.

-You wear it?

-But she never did.

-Well, a Ceylon trembler you called it.

-Yes.

I don't think that's in my gemological book somehow.

No.

It's in fact, what is really interesting

is that it is an alexandrite.

Now what is very interesting about alexandrites,

which is part of the chrysoberyl family, is that it changes colour.

-And it does, yes.

-Ah, have you seen that? You've noticed that?

Yes, it does change colour, yes.

Well, and it is the change of colour which gives it its price.

Ideally you want it to change to red.

-Ah.

-But it goes a bit muddy brown?

-And it's been purple as well.

-It's been a bit purple.

-But not red.

-Well, it's interesting

that you've mentioned purple, because I see a lot of synthetic corundum

made to look like alexandrites, which are purple in colour.

-Oh, right.

-But this one is lovely, to see the real McCoy,

the real stone, so at least

he was giving her real things and not the synthetics.

Yes. That's good.

I don't think she thought very much of it,

I'm afraid, which is a shame, but there we are.

-I hope you enjoy wearing it.

-Oh, I love it.

-Oh, jolly good.

Oh, well, it's in very good condition

and it is about probably about 1910, something like that.

The value... Have you had it valued?

I did have it valued a few years ago at a jewellers,

and he said he would buy it from me there and then.

-He offered me £200.

-£200.

And I thought...

I'm very sentimental, so I thought,

-"No, I won't, I'll just hang on a bit longer."

-Well,

I would say... I mean, it is an unusual stone. If it turned

more of the red colour, rather than sort of the muddy purply colour,

then it would be more expensive. But for this one, I would say,

in its mount, I would say it's in the region

-of about £1,500-£2,000.

-Ooh!

Well, that is lovely. Thank you very much indeed.

-Oh, well, it's lovely.

-Not that I... I won't ever sell it, but...

-No.

Well, that is... Ooh! It's great.

-Thank you very much.

-My pleasure. Thank you.

So are you avid antique collectors?

No, we're not antique collectors, no,

but we're inheritors.

-Oh, right. And this was obviously inherited.

-Inherited, yes.

And what do you keep in this?

Er, rubbish.

-Rubbish?

-Yes, bits and pieces.

-Well, that's honesty for you.

When I took the drawers out

and poured it all out, it was a lot of rubbish.

-Do you have any idea where it's from?

-I inherited it from my uncle,

-who lived in Hove in Sussex, about ten years ago.

-Oh, right.

-Right.

-It's been in the lounge, we've walked past it every day,

and we've sort of, you know...

-It's always been there.

-We know nothing about it.

The big question is, is it Italian?

That's an interesting question, because you look at it

and, at first, you say... Well, when I see this decoration on the top

and the sides, I thought Spanish. Then when I look at

the mouldings around the drawer fronts, and on the base here,

it looks Dutch.

And then when you look at the panel in the centre here, it's Italian.

So I think it's made by a migrant worker who ended up in Italy.

Its original purpose, what do you think it was for originally?

Putting collector's items into it?

Yes, it was like a cabinet of curiosity for some wealthy merchant,

because this is dating back from the late 17th, early 18th century.

They would have kept things in here, curios, to show their friends.

-Nothing of really high value, because there's no doors.

-There's no locks.

Exactly, there's no locks - I noticed when I pulled one of the drawers out.

But the whole thing, when you look at the facade, is really faux.

-Do you know what I mean by that?

-False.

Mmm. Because when you look at this, it's actually imitating gold.

It's actually copper laid on glass.

-It sort of sparkles, doesn't it?

-It sparkles.

I mean, it's beautiful. When the sun's on it, it shines. And here,

this is imitating blue lapis, and again

it's all false, it's painted on the glass.

And this is real here.

In the centre we have blue lapis and we've got some agates.

When we look at it, it didn't start life on this base.

This base is later.

-Really? Oh.

-The base was made in the Victorian times to hold the cabinet.

This style of cabinet would have stood on

little ball feet, or little spheres, and it would have been carried

-from one room and just placed on a table.

-Yes.

It's quite an interesting thing, even though I'm saying it's false.

-It is very, very attractive...

-It is, it's lovely.

..and quite desirable.

Well, it's a nice sunny day, and the sun's shining upon you,

and I would put a value on this between £4,000-£5,000.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah. It's a very collectable item.

-Now the sun's shining, look at that.

-Yes, look at that.

-Isn't that wonderful? Absolutely fantastic.

-Marvellous.

So what on earth do you think this is?

Well, it was found in a shed.

I think it's something agricultural. I'm not sure. A venomous substance?

Funnily enough, it is a kind of venomous substance actually.

What it is,

despite everything that you might think it could be,

is a fire extinguisher.

No! I don't believe it.

No, it really, really, really is.

It's the Minimax,

and we've got some writing on it here.

We've got a design registration number

and all sorts of information. There's a patent number here,

a design registration number, which places it to 1924.

It's full of carbon tetrachloride, and carbon tetrachloride

is a substance which absorbs oxygen.

And so the fire breaks out, you grab the extinguisher,

-you lob it into the fire and Bob becomes your uncle.

-OK.

-I shall keep it in the kitchen.

-Keep it in the...?

I have to say that carbon tetrachloride is carcinogenic.

-We now know it's really ghastly.

-OK.

-So in a way, it's a bit of a toxic object.

-Mm.

And when it comes... It actually has a value, because there are people,

believe it or not, who collect these.

And I think it would probably sell,

with or without the mouse poo on it...

-..for about 100 quid.

-Wow, that's amazing!

-Isn't that good fun?

-Yes, yes. Incredible.

Every now and again

you get something turn up which needs further investigation.

This dish by Omar Ramsden

in silver, arguably the best Arts and Crafts designer

of the 20th century.

When you turn it over it shouts at you. There's more going on to it.

"Pax", the Latin for peace, "1938". Tell me about it.

Well, this belonged to my family, the Chamberlains.

I'm Neville Chamberlain's granddaughter, and my mother

had quite a lot of memorabilia, and we've shared it out.

And I was rather intrigued with this dish and wanted to bring it along.

I know that it represented the peace in 1938,

which was brought about by the Munich Treaty.

Sure. In a nutshell, Britain, Germany, France and Italy

were trying to allow Germany to sort of regain its border lands.

There were opponents, such as Anthony Eden and Churchill,

they were opposed to the agreement.

-Yes.

-But Prime Minister Chamberlain thought it was a good idea,

because he thought it would stop war with Germany, and that's

the famous saying, "Peace in our time."

Yes, but that's got a bit distorted over the years.

Everybody thinks it was that.

If you see the tape of it, he seems to be saying "Peace for our time,"

not, "Peace in our time," and, actually, what he was trying to say

was, "Peace for a time,"

because he wasn't sure it would last. He didn't trust Hitler.

This records the fact that lots of people were thrilled with him,

and they showered Downing Street with lots of presents -

countries and individual presents.

We don't actually know who it came from.

I mean, there's a lot of symbolism going on in the dish.

-You've got the four sides.

-Yes.

You've got the number four, the four nations involved in the treaty.

I mean, it's such a beautiful object, you know, the symbolism,

and to collectors these sort of things just don't turn up.

With that history, you being a descendant of Chamberlain

adds hugely to its value.

As an Omar Ramsden dish it's worth 700-900, somewhere in that order.

With that Chamberlain connection, it's worth sort of £3,000-£4,000.

Goodness me! Thank you very much.

I didn't realise it would be so valuable.

So your 18th century family

was immortalised by an artist who learnt in America.

Apparently so, yes.

Do you know about the painter?

We understand that he started in Bristol.

For some reason that we don't know,

he fled to America,

where he became quite well liked by the various burghers,

and then having made a reputation there, he came back to England,

and presumably Mr Taylor heard of him,

and asked him to come and paint him and his wife,

and, after that, the rest of the family.

And what a wonderful way of doing so.

Why it is such an interesting painting

is that the deportment of the features, that slightly odd way

that he's leaning on his finger, and the massive emphasis on the waistcoat

and the decoration are all of the things that you see in America.

And yet he's doing it in England.

Why? Because the artist, Joseph Blackburn,

has learned to paint

in a different country, and has imported that style to Britain.

And then next to Mr Taylor, you have Mr Taylor's children.

But what a wonderful concentration again on all the paraphernalia -

the extra details. Even the flowers are done

with a delicacy that you don't normally see in British portraiture.

They're rather more generalised.

This is, as it were, you know,

the Transatlantic take on the English face and the English body.

And I can also see that it's signed.

Yes.

So satisfying to get a clear signature like that.

I mean, what also you're beginning to see -

and we're about to move to their mother -

that these portraits have been slightly over-painted in the past.

There's some very crude areas, like her nose, that's been given

the appearance of a snout here, for a very simple reason.

This is really bad over-painting. Someone has taken a brush to this,

and made these pictures unnecessarily crude in order to conceal damage.

Take off the over-paint, and I think you'll find that those children

could hatch into rather beautiful innocent creatures.

They need restoration, in other words.

Then we move to her,

who I assume is the wife of the Mr Taylor,

-and the mother of the children.

-Yes.

I have to say, I am deeply struck by this.

Why? Because you have got the best of English

with the best of Colonial American.

You've got a wonderful flashy look that's reminiscent

of the works of George Romney, or Joshua Reynolds,

and yet you've that delicious concentration on detail, on lace.

Apparently he learned to paint the lace when he went to America.

I have actually a piece of material with some of the lace on here,

that came from her dress.

-How terrific.

-We don't know quite which bit, but there is the lace.

There it is! Oh, unquestionably it is.

I mean, it is such a brilliant sort of scratch

and sniff extension to a painting,

when you can actually hold the fabric that the artist has portrayed.

I have to say, it's a beautiful piece of fabric as well.

I think she was inclined to have the best at the time.

-She could afford it.

-And she looks the best, doesn't she?

I mean, she's a very striking woman.

Again the over-paint on the face, not very good.

Gosh, she could be so much nicer.

I mean, I feel like a makeup artist, wanting to re-do her.

You can see in the cracks of the paint,

just where the infilling has disfigured her brow.

But gosh, she would be beautiful if she could be restored and cleaned.

Let's talk about values. Let's start with Mr Taylor over here.

I would say that,

particularly if he could be restored well,

he's worth something like £7,000 to £10,000.

The three children I think have got great potential, and I would put

a valuation of about £15,000, possibly even a little bit more.

-Right.

-And we come to her,

who I think is a really beautiful example of this artist's work.

It's signed. She looks at you with that seductive dead look.

She's got that hugely decorative presence.

It would go with cushions and curtains in the wealthiest homes

anywhere in the world. This is worth £20,000-£30,000.

Well, I hope that the relations

that are scattered over the world don't come and claim them.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Now something unusual's going to happen. Alex, we haven't really met,

and I know you've got two books, and that is all I know about them.

So I shall be as surprised as you are when I find out more.

Now, tell me about these.

Well, these two books were given to my husband when he was

nine-years-old and he was at prep school in Farnham, in Surrey.

They were tied with string, with a little loop,

just like something out of a Dickens novel,

and he was told that they would be his summer time reading, age nine.

Looked at them, thought, "These are a bit stuffy."

-"Mart of Nations".

-And "The Island Secret".

That could be interesting, but "Mart of Nations"

doesn't sound like a great read.

Well, anyway, they were chucked into the back of his cupboard

and totally forgotten about,

and 25 years go by, and I get married to this nine-year-old.

Considerably older by then, clearly.

Yes, absolutely. And I find the books,

and I'm putting them into our bookshelf at home.

I notice that they're stuck together, and I can't understand

what's the matter with them, and look what I found inside.

Look at that!

Take them out and see what's in there.

-Brilliant!

-8d. Everything's 8d and in perfect condition.

-Mars Bars.

So it wasn't a detention, Fiona, it was a treat!

Oh, and he never opened them!

-No.

-So he never realised?

-No.

Isn't that amazing?

I love it. That was definitely worth a surprise. I'd never have guessed.

I think we'll have those now!

Well, on the Antiques Roadshow, when we look at medals,

we're normally looking at medals from past campaigns,

from major wars - the First World War,

the Boer War.

But now we're going to look at medals from much more recent campaigns.

Relatively modern by those standards, and I think by the end of this piece,

I think viewers will be absolutely stunned at the value

we might be putting on some of the medal groups.

We're here, not far from Hereford, a stone's throw from Hereford,

which to many people mean the headquarters of the SAS,

the Special Air Service,

an organisation that of course is surrounded in mystery.

But why do you collect modern medals?

Well, I've been collecting medals from the age of 12, and the trouble

with collecting old Victorian medals is there's very little research.

After all, the recipients have died many, many years ago.

So I've sold all my old Victorian medals and I concentrate on

modern medals. The recipients generally are still alive,

and I can interview them, buy them a few drinks,

get their stories, write them down. I find them

far more interesting to research than the old Victorian medals.

What puzzles me, and I guess would puzzle a lot of people, is why,

if the recipients are still alive,

that they're willing to sell their medals.

I think because they've no-one

to pass them down to in the first place, and because they know

they're worth a lot of money. These guys don't wear their medals,

they don't have occasions to wear them, so why not sell them

for large amounts of money, and someone like me can do the research

and preserve their memories?

Only one of these gentlemen has died,

that's the owner of the Military Medal.

-He died last year.

-This group here?

-That group.

But before he died, I got to interview him.

Of the others, I've interviewed everyone else as well,

so I've got their life story and their military history as well.

And you've brought some photographs here. Tell me what these are.

Right, that's the regiment, it was D Squadron.

They're about to take South Georgia,

and that's the only remaining helicopter that's left out of three,

and the gentleman on the far left, he's the winner

-of the Military Medal group down there.

-So this group...

-Is his.

-..belongs to him, on the far left.

-Yes. It's very nice to have

a photograph of someone about to go into action.

This is, of course, the Falklands War we're talking about.

-Yes.

-And I can remember...

sitting in front of the television in 1980...?

-Two.

-1982,

and hearing on the news that the Argentineans

had invaded OUR territory, British territory of South Georgia.

And of course we went to war to protect the Falkland Islands.

So you've also brought along another group. Tell me about this group here.

Yes. Well, that gentleman, I've interviewed him about a dozen times,

and I've written over 25,000 words on his life history.

It's a fascinating history, but in South Georgia, there was only about

15 of them actually took South Georgia,

and they posed for that historic photograph.

-This is a photograph that I've seen in many books.

-Yes.

And was famously used in the newspapers

-and the news at the time.

-Yes.

-And which one is he?

-He's kneeling on the bottom right.

So this chap here, with the moustache?

-Yes.

-Well, it's incredible.

I mean, do you know, these groups,

to Special Air Service, very rarely come on the market.

And they are worth considerable sums of money.

Now I guess I don't need to tell you this,

because you must have acquired these yourself.

-Yes, indeed.

-And how... what did you pay? Give me an example

of some of the amounts of money you've paid for these medals.

I paid 25,000 for the Military Medal.

-How much?

-25,000.

-So for this group of three medals, you paid £25,000.

-Yes.

-How long ago?

That was about three years ago.

OK.

-I paid £6,000 for that group there.

-For this group, yes.

Yeah. These belonged to my friends, so I didn't buy those,

-and I paid £4,500 for this one. Right.

-Well, OK,

we know what you paid for some of these groups, but you know,

you've made, I think, an incredibly good investment,

because I think today, if they came up on the open market,

I think this group of three, with the history that surrounds it,

could easily make £30,000,

and I think if you took a total of the medals, the flag,

the pennants that you've got together here,

I think we would be looking at something in the region of...

-£80,000 to £90,000.

-Very good.

It's a serious, serious collection. Are you carrying on?

-Still collecting?

-Oh, absolutely. I'm running out of money,

-but I'm still collecting. Yes.

-I feel very, very proud

for the fact that you've shown these to me today.

Thank you.

This is a most remarkable album of postcards.

I'm flicking through it,

and page after page of nothing but dollies, teddies, toys.

Who collected them?

It was a very dear old friend of mine who was a doll restorer

and teddy bear restorer,

and it was her collection of a lifetime, 40 years plus.

So she collected to that theme because she was in the business?

-Yes.

-I've cheated, because I've gone through them

and I've pulled a few out here, which...

I mean, they're by no means the best, but they're the ones

that tickled my fancy.

And you know, when you look at them, there's so much detail here.

Here we've got a little group of dolls, lots of different ones,

and another group here with some boy dolls in there.

This one's a little bit foxed.

-And these I love, because there are the dolls with their owners.

-Yes.

And that's just great to see them, you know, the looks on their faces -

some of them serious, some of them smiling.

This is great, with the child with her doll and the little teddy.

Absolutely. I think it's the mere fact that the children

-with their toys, and also the expression on their faces.

-Exactly.

And some are beautiful children.

And then steering away a little bit from the dolls, we've got

something perhaps more for the boys here.

We've got a Christmas tree

decorated with the Allied flags from the First World War.

Oh, and this, this is great. A letter to Father Christmas.

"My Christmas wish. Dear "blank".

"I do wish Santa Claus

"would bring me a "blank" this year from Harrods Toy Fair. Your loving

""blank"." And the address. How lovely. And here we've got

Father Christmas holding a zeppelin,

which would have been the toy of the moment, you know.

-Exactly.

-Absolutely of its period.

Oh, well, now I know why I picked this one out,

-because this is a Steiff card.

-Mm.

There's a Steiff teddy bear in a cart,

and what's more important for me, is that all these figures

are actually Steiff figures as well.

And those I've only ever seen in line drawings

so, you know, to me, it's a great discovery to see

-that they actually did make them.

-Make them.

-Or at least

-they made one for the postcard.

-Yes.

I could go on, but I think really what I'm going to talk about

just briefly now is about postcard collecting in general,

because lots of people have collections of postcards,

usually in albums that are falling to pieces.

And the question I'm always asked is, "Are they valuable?"

And the answer is generally

a lot of postcards aren't valuable, because people collect by theme.

When they go to a postcard fair, they're not aimlessly buying,

they're flicking through and saying,

-"I need railway cards and I haven't got this one."

-Yeah exactly.

So that's obviously what your friend did, she collected in sets,

she filled all the gaps, and what she has got here as a result

is something really quite remarkable.

-Yes, I agree.

-These cards are valuable.

They would work out at around £10 a piece.

-Right.

-And you've got, how many?

-There's 300.

You do the math.

Well, to be honest, I inherited them, I suppose,

because she wanted them... somebody to look after them.

She didn't want them to be broken up, sold on, and so really,

they've been in the cupboard for a long time,

and that's where they'll stay, I think.

-They're in safe hands.

-They are.

-Thank you for bringing them.

-Thanks.

Now then, I wonder how much action

this has seen? It certainly looks as if it's seen some. There's a notch.

I wonder whether that's been taken out on the back of somebody's head!

This is a Great Western Railway, or as Brunel would prefer us

probably to say, "God's Wonderful Railway,"

constable's truncheon, which dates from probably the 1850s.

But certainly, before the telegraph,

when they needed these people to stop saboteurs

and other people pinching railway property.

This is quite an unusual thing to see.

Are you a collector of truncheons or...?

-No, no, just I'm a railway enthusiast.

-Yes.

And I was given it over 40 years ago

by a gentleman whose family owned it originally,

and it comes from Lansdown Junction, Cheltenham,

and he thought that I would treasure it more than his family

when he passed away, as they would only sell it.

-So he gave it, through my father, to me.

-Good.

It's in lovely condition for its age. Most of them are quite damaged.

The Great Western Railway constables' truncheons

were really nicely decorated.

I understand that it was only the Great Western who decorated

in such an elaborate fashion. And you can see, although it's transferred,

the quality of the transfer is high,

and there's a wonderful imperial crown at the top,

which makes it look very important and official indeed.

Well, because these are so scarce, it is difficult

to actually arrive at a price on them, but I could well imagine

that if you actually wanted to replace these,

which you'd have considerable difficulty,

you could easily be talking as much as £1,000 to replace one of these.

Very good.

Very good. Thank you very much.

These shells have a distinctly Pacific feel in Herefordshire.

How did you come by them?

Well, they came into our family through my great aunt,

who was the daughter-in-law

of a well-known ornithologist, Edgar Leopold Layard.

He was Honorary British Consul in New Caledonia,

-in the sort of Indonesian area, I think.

-Yes.

-The Pacific anyway.

-The Pacific anyway.

They have wonderful details here.

There's sort of native scenes carved here and, then,

quite a European scene here, although this is marked

-"New Caledonia".

-Yes, yes, yes, yes.

-I think something like this

would be done obviously because they were trying to please

their European visitors or masters at the time, and so, you know,

the carvers would take an engraving,

-an etching from a European piece, and put it onto this shell.

-Yes.

This one in particular fascinates me.

Well, we have a note which my father left, that apparently

that was engraved, we believe, by a French forger called Tournere,

who was sent to New Caledonia as a prisoner for the rest of his life,

because they were so concerned that if he was left in France,

he'd forge more bank notes, and make fortunes I suppose. He certainly,

-obviously, was a very capable...

-He's an exceptionally fine engraver.

Exquisite this, and so difficult to engrave on a shell.

The chances of breaking it...

It's a very difficult thing. Many of the ones

I've seen that are engraved, just have one small scene on it.

This one has all these different little vignettes.

Beautifully detailed,

and there's a native inhabitant with a quite a European idea on the head.

Terribly difficult thing to do, wonderful example.

This engraving here

is very reminiscent of something nearer to sort of 1850-1860,

I would say on this one, whereas these, I'd say, are slightly later.

-OK.

-How many of these examples do you have?

-We have six.

I think there were more once. My sister looks after them,

and one was stolen when their house was burgled,

and another one actually was given to some friends

who were very close to the family. So six or eight or so, altogether.

They're extremely decorative.

-These two I would put at £250-£300 each.

-Yes.

-This one,

because of the European subject, rather slightly rarer, and obviously

with the New Caledonian, I'd put a little bit more, maybe £300-£350.

This one...

has so much detail.

I've never seen one as good as this. I have seen a few of these shells,

but I've never seen one as good as this.

Really?

He obviously was a great engraver,

which the French government obviously knew.

And valuation, I would say...

-£1,000-£1,200.

-Really?

Thank you.

We see lots of tea caddies on the Antiques Roadshow,

but this one just breaks the rules.

-What can you tell me about it?

-It belonged to my granny,

who was given it by an old lady, Miss Ravenshaw, when she died,

and I know that they had it in their family

about 1850-1860, because she's mentioned it in her diary,

and that's really all I know about it.

It's been in our family since about 1830... sorry, 1930s.

I just want to open it up,

because this is what got my heart racing when I saw the interior.

Got these three canisters for holding your tea - the green tea

and black tea.

But what makes this really, really special is this. It's another caddy.

-So it's a caddy within a caddy.

-Right.

And I just want to take these out,

because the cut glass is absolutely exquisite.

This is to me what's special, because tea was very, very expensive.

Now we have a cup of tea, it's in a mug.

When they were drinking tea at this period, in the 18th century -

this is an 18th century tea caddy - tea was a real ritual.

So they would have mixed it in that one?

No. I think, because this was locked, this was another caddy as well,

-because there's no locks on these.

-No.

-When did it get damaged?

I don't know. It was like that when I remember it from a little girl.

Right. OK.

-The box itself is made out satinwood, hence its weight.

-Right.

Inside the lid you can see, this is sycamore,

and it's got this lovely chequered decoration.

It's all in the detail, it's fabulous.

Even the lock is actually numbered here, you see?

It's like a little safe, holding this treasure of tea.

Any idea what you think it may be worth today?

I've always thought about £200-£300, because it was just a pretty...

-the decoration on the outside is very pretty.

-Yes.

-But I've no idea.

Well, the box is worth a couple of hundred pounds,

just as an interesting item.

When I look at these other items,

-to me, that's worth £1,000.

-Oh!

What, in that condition? Cracked and...

-In that condition.

-Right.

-So, overall,

we'd say in this condition,

I'm quite happy to say it is worth £2,000.

-Three?

-Two.

-Two.

It'd be nice to be three.

I'm getting my hopes up now!

If it was perfect, it would be a different story altogether.

It could be even £5,000.

-Right.

-This is a lovely little piece of furniture.

Lovely little piece.

So, two little thimbles. Have you had these a long time?

Yes.

They were given to me by my Godmother

when I was christened in January 1941.

Oh, lovely, and you like them?

-I think they're beautiful.

-They're sweet little things.

-Thimbles now are getting quite collectable.

-Yes.

There are thimble collectors clubs,

so they go mad on these things.

Especially on this little one.

This is Worcester, Royal Worcester, painted by Willy Powell.

-His signature is just...

-Can you see it?

-Willy - W Powell.

-Oh, I never saw that.

-Right.

-He was a little hunchback.

-Oh, was he?

About four foot tall.

He used to have to sit on a special stool to paint the paintings,

-but he was a beautiful painter of birds. Isn't that lovely?

-It is.

1935 is the date coding, so a nice early one,

and that's very, very beautiful.

This one is much earlier. This one is the end of the 19th century,

decorated with little tiny jewels, and all hand gilding.

All these little jewels are put on by brush, little tiny...

imitating turquoises or gold spots or something or other,

and while the little bird thimble is very collectable now, a little bird

thimble like that by Willy Powell, the great painter of birds,

is going to be something like about £200.

-Right, right.

-The little thimble

with jewels is almost unfindable by thimble collectors.

-They'd go absolutely bonkers over that one.

-Do they?

So we're looking at something like about £500-£600 for a little thimble.

Gosh, right.

-That's lovely.

-So now you must go on sewing, mustn't you?

-I keep them in my cabinet, safe.

-Oh, use them.

I mean, Willy Powell would love to know

someone was using his little thimble.

He was a beautiful little man,

and I know he'd love you to have it and use it.

Oh, that's nice. Thank you.

Well, here we have two letters from Winston Churchill.

One from Christmas 1949,

and the other on his birthday, 30th November 1946.

So where did you get these?

I got those from an antique market.

-Right.

-I thought they were very interesting

-and Winston Churchill is a...

-A hero of yours?

-Yes, very much a hero.

-And what did you pay for them?

For those, £150.

Yes. Well, let me tell you that had they been right,

they would have been worth a lot of money.

-Yes, I thought they might be wrong.

-Well, they're facsimiles

and they're not worth £150, I have to tell you.

There was an auction house in London who used to have these pinned up

on their wall at the reception desk, because people who used to come in

with these and say that they're real,

and they would say, "No they're not, look up there on the wall."

But there we are, anyway.

More exciting I suppose

is this, which is Edward Elgar's

"The Dream of Gerontius" by Cardinal Newman.

The interesting thing about it, it is signed by Edward Elgar,

and it's also signed by Jaeger,

who happens to be...

-Nimrod.

-Nimrod. Yes, who was

Elgar's great friend, of course, and he writes a lot of these things.

But this is not the score, this is just the words to it.

But it is the first edition,

the "Book of Words, with analytical and descriptive notes

"by AJ Jaeger". Now what did you pay for this?

Well, it was in a box of items in a local auction,

-and I paid £6 for the box of items.

-I think you've done slightly better.

It's very rare to see Elgar autographically with his friend,

Jaeger, and I think that that makes this rather exciting.

My valuation of it is, what?

-Somewhere in the region of £800.

-Oh, super. Very good.

-Nice one.

-Yes.

THUNDER RUMBLES

So where did you find these, down the offy?

No, I did a barn conversion some years ago

and there was a crack in the wall, so I had to put concrete underneath,

and when I dug under the barn, so these popped out.

OK. I think that's pretty good fortune, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Tell us about the date of the building.

Well, that building was about 1860, I think.

No, no, earlier than that. Come on, there's got to be something earlier.

Well, there was a farm next door to it,

and that was probably dated back to about 1700, I think.

-It was certainly on maps of 1740.

-Oh, you see, now,

-now we're getting there.

-Right.

-Because 1720 is this one.

-Yes.

-And 1740

is the date of this one, so actually we've got good dates.

I mean, what's amazing, is bearing in mind

that they're hidden in a wall,

and you're smashing around with concrete and pick axes

and barrows and all the rest of it, they're in really good nick.

Um, this one is...strangely is Northern European.

-It might be German.

-Right.

Has a nice crisp pontil under here, with a nice iridescence actually.

-It was covered in iridescence when...

-Yes.

..I picked it up and it came off in my hands.

If we can look down the neck, there's some really nice iridescence in that.

So this is for Rhenish, German wine.

-It would have been probably imported with the wine in it.

-Oh.

-1720.

-Right.

And this one is more unusual. This is an English mallet shape,

and it's distinguished by a very large, sharp

pontil mark under the base here.

And isn't that a rustic piece?

Look at that. Wonky donkey!

You know, you can see...

Really, you can imagine some old glass maker in 1735,

puffing his lungs into that,

and, having done so, still while the glass is still hot,

is picking up a seal for AB, whoever AB was...

You should check the deeds.

-We tried. We can't find anyone.

-No? ..dropping a dob of glass

onto here, and pressing that,

in the manner of the seal, of sealing a letter,

his initials onto the bottle. And what's strange

is that, it's a bit like me, it's got a really big mouth!

Well, I wasn't going to make any...

-I may have to deal with you later.

-OK!

So what is basically the rubbish in a wall

is not bad money.

So we've got, I don't know, £200, £300 on this one.

-500, 600, 700 on here.

-Right.

So what we have is over £1,000 for two green bottles...

hiding on a wall.

THUNDER RUMBLES

It's that moment on the Antiques Roadshow

when it's time for a rendition of Singing in the Rain.

It was glorious earlier! What's happened? The heavens have opened.

But we're going to enjoy ourselves, aren't we?

-ALL:

-Yes.

-In your blue macs.

Takes more than a spot of rain to put us off!

This is such a pretty little box, a little

rosewood box with pewter inlay and mother of pearl, little steel handle.

Could be 1840s.

-Ah, but it's got a treasure.

-Yes.

And it's got a dear little wax doll. Tell me what you know about it.

She was given to my daughter.

She was left by an old family friend,

and it came with some information about it in German,

that it belonged to the Brothers Grimm and was given to a little girl

-all those years ago.

-Fantastic. Well, let me just... Hang on.

Oh, this is all in German. "Im Jahr achtzehn

"achtundvierzig". My German isn't what it was!

I do have a translation for you.

Thank goodness! OK. "In the year 1848..."

la, la, la...

Oh, this is interesting.

"The father of little Dorothy was friendly with the Grimm Brothers

"and they brought with them one day, to the apartment, the doll." Amazing.

Well, I mean, the Grimm Brothers, I suppose, whether we know it or not,

they are part of all our childhoods.

In 1812 they wrote the great fairy story book

"Tales of Children and the Home", in which were Snow White, Cinderella,

Sleeping Beauty. And basically any other fairy stories

that we've ever heard about, first appeared in that book.

So what a wonderful thing to have been given by them.

Let's just have a look at this little doll.

Well, she's a poured wax doll.

She's got her head very realistically turning to one side.

I love the little printed cotton dress that she's wearing,

with these tiny buttons.

They look as if they've been sewn on by a mouse.

-Interestingly, I think that she's an English doll.

-Really?

But having said that, the English were very well known for wax dolls

in the early part of the 19th century.

As a little doll,

she's all right, but not stupendous.

But she's been sprinkled almost with fairy dust,

because of her connection with the Grimm Brothers, and I think

that that then puts her into a different league,

and I would put her value

at perhaps £400-£600.

-So a real...a real treasure.

-Yes.

And something that has her own fairy story to tell.

It does, yes.

-Wonderful. Thank you for bringing her along.

-Thank you.

It's a really unusual thing to bring to a Roadshow. Lovely thing to see.

Where did you get it?

I had a dear friend, an elderly friend, who died last year,

and she requested that I could choose several things

from her home, and this was one of the items that I chose.

So what do you know about it?

Very little. I don't know how to pronounce it,

-but we believe it's called a cloisonne.

-Cloisonne, that's right.

It was called Oriental,

and we understand that it might have had pot pourri in it.

But again, we really don't know.

Well, that's a good start. It is Oriental, it's Chinese

and it is cloisonne, and cloisonne is a type of enamel,

where you have these little cloisonnes or wires,

which are soldered onto the surface, and the colour here

is coloured glass, which is floated into the gaps

and then ground off. So that's what cloisonne is.

It's not really a pot pourri.

It should be filled up with sand to a level,

and then have incense put into it and then it rises out.

Oh, we've got dragons all round these reticulated panels here,

so smoke would be rising out of it. It's an incense burner.

-Right.

-It's a pretty impressive one too.

This one dates from somewhere in the 19th century,

probably the first half of the 19th century.

Chinese cloisonne can be valuable. If you put that in auction, it would be

8,000 to 10,000.

Goodness me! Wow! Whoo!

Oh, thank you very much.

That's quite amazing.

We saw this earlier in the programme, but do you actually know what it is?

Well, I think it's a stirrup cup.

Absolutely.

Stirrup cups first appeared in the mid-18th century

and were always foxes. But the Victorians

decided that was a bit boring, so they decided

to make other things, like dogs' heads as stirrup cups.

And stirrup cups were handed up

to the Master of the Hunt, just before they went off hunting.

And what I've got in my hand,

I've got to say, is one of the best ones I've ever actually seen.

It's got a nice set of marks down the bottom here.

Made by the firm of Hunt and Roskell, who were one of the best

makers of the 19th century, and it's got a date letter here for 1869.

But what has made this possibly one of the best days

I've ever had on any Antiques Roadshow,

is the fact that in front of us we've got 11 more.

So how on earth did 11 come to be made?

Well, they are all models of real Hereford cattle

that were shown and won prizes at shows up and down the country,

and so every time that the owner won

with one of his real Hereford bulls,

-he had a cup modelled on the cow or the bull to celebrate.

-I see.

So that's why each one has a name on, and this one has "Sir Hungerford".

Yes. That was Johnny Arkwright's grandfather,

actually, Sir Hungerford Hoskins.

The bull was named after his grandfather.

Sir Hungerford didn't look like this?!

-No.

-No, no. Good. OK.

So Johnny Arkwright was resident here at Hampton Court

in 1869 when they were made.

That's right. He was the owner of the house and the estate.

-And are there any records of him ever using these?

-Oh, yes, very much so.

They were used on, I think, the dinner table

as a sort of place setting perhaps. I don't know.

Well, the good thing about this particular model is, if we put him

-upside down he sits absolutely like a goblet.

-Yes.

So it must have looked pretty impressive to have

12 of these all around a dining table.

I've never, ever heard of 12 - "herd" -

and there's no joke there, never heard of a set of 12,

even though there are some smaller ones

and larger ones, and they've all got different names on, as you say.

But I have to tell you that stirrup cups are enormously collectable.

-Oh, right.

-There's been a surge in interest

in them over the last seven or eight years.

There are lots of collectors, and bulls

happen to be one of the rarest forms of stirrup cup you can get.

Right.

-So, now, how long have you had these, or...?

-They're not mine,

-I'm sorry to say.

-They're not yours?

-I wish they were.

Because I knew a little of the history of the herd,

-I was asked to bring them today.

-I see.

And I know that they are kept very safe

under lock and key most of the time.

Very occasionally, used,

but mostly kept safe and sound.

Well, so you probably haven't got a great idea

about what this little lot is worth.

No. I know more about the value of the creatures themselves.

Well, I wouldn't know which was more valuable, yet.

But maybe you'll tell me. But if I tell you that...

this one, which is a wonderful bull, with a great big chubby neck.

It's a beautiful model, fabulously textured here,

really super, super example.

Something like this is probably worth at least £10,0000-£15,000.

-So times twelve.

-Right.

And for a set, there's not going to be much change left out of £150,000.

I'd better take them home carefully!

Well, they are an extraordinary lot.

If I ever see anything like this again, I will be truly lucky,

but I've been more than truly lucky just to handle these and see these,

so thank you so much for bringing them along.

It's been lovely to bring them back to Hampton Court today.

-Couldn't be a better home.

-Thanks.

-Thanks.

So we're ending the programme as we began,

with those amazing cow stirrup cups. Aren't they fabulous?

From Hampton Court Castle, until next time, bye-bye.

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