Browse content similar to Brighton College 1. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
This week we're in a seaside town that was loved by royalty and was | 0:00:03 | 0:00:06 | |
a magnet for the aristocracy and high society. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
So the Antiques Roadshow team should feel quite at home. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
Welcome to Brighton, a Prince's playground. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:15 | |
It was Brighton's lively reputation and seaside that attracted the Prince of Wales here back in 1780. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:08 | |
And where the Prince went, the rest of London's high-society followed. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:13 | |
In 1800 it was described as being, without exception, one of the most fashionable towns in the kingdom. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:19 | |
It was a Prince Regent, later King George IV, who was | 0:01:20 | 0:01:23 | |
largely responsible for Brighton's air of elegance and decadence. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
He came here in the 1780s hoping the sea water would ease his gout, | 0:01:27 | 0:01:31 | |
but the attractions of racing, gambling and the theatre proved even more alluring. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:37 | |
The Prince decided that Brighton, just 50 miles from London, was a perfect place for a country | 0:01:38 | 0:01:43 | |
house, and instructed his aides to look for a modest seaside residence. | 0:01:43 | 0:01:49 | |
We don't know whether sea water did improve the Prince's gout, | 0:01:49 | 0:01:51 | |
but certainly he's not alone in thinking that being by the sea is good for your health. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
And although a charming little beach hut is good enough for peasants like | 0:01:55 | 0:01:59 | |
us, the future king could afford to be a bit more flamboyant. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:03 | |
And this is the seaside pad he ended up with. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:07 | |
Brighton Pavilion, in all its eccentric glory, was | 0:02:09 | 0:02:13 | |
designed by John Nash and completed in the early 1820s when the Prince Regent was crowned King George IV. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:19 | |
And what had started out as a respectable farmhouse was transformed into a fabulously | 0:02:19 | 0:02:24 | |
over-the-top Indian and oriental fantasy. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
And inside, the sumptuous furnishings designed from floor to ceiling for maximum dramatic effect | 0:02:35 | 0:02:42 | |
created a magnificent setting for the new monarch. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
One of the King's passions was food, and the most elaborate banquets were | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
held here in the banqueting room, where the French chef | 0:02:51 | 0:02:54 | |
Marie-Antoine Careme created menus with as many as 60 dishes. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:59 | |
However, Queen Victoria was not so amused by this Oriental exuberance, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:06 | |
and in 1845 the pavilion was put up for sale. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:10 | |
Among the prospective buyers were the founders of a new school, Brighton College. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:14 | |
But they couldn't afford it, so they designed this, their own school, just down the road. | 0:03:14 | 0:03:19 | |
But its pupils haven't entirely escaped the Pavilion's oriental influence. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:24 | |
Mandarin Chinese is compulsory for all students. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
We don't know whether local or far-flung items will turn up | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
here today, but our specialists are all set for the unexpected. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:35 | |
-Is this a Brighton boy? -No, he's a Londoner, north London. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
So who is he? | 0:03:45 | 0:03:47 | |
He's Frank Wollaston, and he's my grandfather. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
-This is your grandfather? -Yes. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
This is your grandfather as Icarus? | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
As Icarus, yes. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:55 | |
Who got too close to the sun and got burned? | 0:03:55 | 0:03:57 | |
Absolutely. I'm sure he did at times. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:00 | |
Why do you say that? What sort of man was your grandfather? | 0:04:00 | 0:04:04 | |
He was a very interesting character, very cosmopolitan, he spoke several | 0:04:04 | 0:04:08 | |
languages, they travelled with the act they had, the Montague Brothers. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:14 | |
So your grandfather was an actor? | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
No, he was actually, he was physical training, this was the act. | 0:04:17 | 0:04:23 | |
That's him? | 0:04:23 | 0:04:24 | |
Ah, the Montague Brothers. So, what were they? | 0:04:24 | 0:04:27 | |
They look like sort of nude models. | 0:04:27 | 0:04:30 | |
They were sort of painted white to look like statues, and the act | 0:04:30 | 0:04:34 | |
was that somebody played the sculptor | 0:04:34 | 0:04:36 | |
and then they came alive and did all these poses of the typical Greek... | 0:04:36 | 0:04:43 | |
But obviously pretty naked, the original Full Monty. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:47 | |
The original Full Monty! | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
-As you can see, there's not much there. -I've never heard about this type of act. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:54 | |
-Did you ever meet your grandfather? -No, he died, unfortunately, before I was born. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:59 | |
He died in 1939. So quite young. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:01 | |
And this picture, I suppose, is painted, what, about 1900? | 0:05:01 | 0:05:04 | |
Yes, he was 18 then, that sounds right, I think. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:09 | |
So we can assume that the artist, we can see it's signed in the bottom | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
left-hand corner of this picture, Albert Herter, may have seen them, been impressed by these figures, | 0:05:12 | 0:05:18 | |
and decided to incorporate it into the picture in the form of | 0:05:18 | 0:05:22 | |
your grandfather as Icarus? | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
Mm. Absolutely, yes. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:25 | |
Do you happen to know, did your grandfather go to America? | 0:05:25 | 0:05:29 | |
-Yes, he did, actually, yes. -New York. | 0:05:29 | 0:05:31 | |
Yes, he went to New York, but I don't think that's how... I know the artist was American, I believe. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:36 | |
Albert Herter was an American painter. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
He painted murals, interiors, portraits, landscapes. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:43 | |
A bit of everything, really. He's also quite collected as well. | 0:05:43 | 0:05:47 | |
The only problem with this picture is, rather like Icarus, it seems to have got too close to the sun. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:52 | |
I don't know what's happened to it, | 0:05:52 | 0:05:54 | |
but there's a sort of craquelure that's become overly accentuated. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
In really good condition, this painting would be worth £12,000. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:02 | |
-Goodness. -Gosh. -But in this state, it's worth, I should think, £3,000 to £5,000. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:07 | |
Right, OK. Thank you. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
-But what a portrait of a grandfather! -Yes. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:11 | |
Now, anybody gazing at this vase would be forgiven for thinking that it was a piece of | 0:06:15 | 0:06:21 | |
Japanese Satsuma pottery, because it's got all the credentials, the colour and the decoration. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:28 | |
But we both know that it's actually a piece of glassware. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
And what I'm intrigued to know is how a piece of glassware of this type found its way to Brighton. | 0:06:32 | 0:06:39 | |
It came from my Aunt Betty, a cousin of my mother's. | 0:06:39 | 0:06:42 | |
She either gave it to me when we helped her move house, or | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
unfortunately she passed away just before Christmas so it could've been with her belongings then. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:50 | |
-But it was in a big black sack in the garage. -Like a plastic bin liner? | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
-Afraid so, yes. -Yeah? -Yes. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
-OK. -Until this morning. -Until this morning? | 0:06:55 | 0:06:58 | |
Yes. It's been sitting there, and it was only because we were coming along | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
today, I thought, I saw it poking out and I bought it with me. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:05 | |
Was there anything else poking out of the sack, or just this one at the moment? | 0:07:05 | 0:07:08 | |
Er, a game of Scrabble! | 0:07:08 | 0:07:10 | |
No? OK. Well, you've made the right decision, you brought the vase. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:14 | |
First of all, have you noticed how it tones? | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
It goes from this sort of rich, almost coral colour, | 0:07:17 | 0:07:21 | |
and it's sort of slightly paler around this bulbous base. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:25 | |
But what I find lovely | 0:07:25 | 0:07:26 | |
is this decoration, because this is quality enamelling. | 0:07:26 | 0:07:31 | |
And whenever you see a piece like this, the first thing you do, you want to turn it upside down. | 0:07:31 | 0:07:36 | |
You want to have a look to see if there's any mark whatsoever. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
But there isn't, but what you have got, look, you've got these multi-layers, if you will. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:46 | |
So you've got almost three layers of glass. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
Good sign, that's called overlay. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:50 | |
But the decoration is pure Japanese. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:55 | |
These are chrysanthemums, if my knowledge of botany is right, | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
and that, of course, is the flower of Japan. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
But if this could talk to you, it would talk to you in a quasi | 0:08:02 | 0:08:07 | |
French Black Country accent, | 0:08:07 | 0:08:11 | |
because this was actually enamelled by the great Jules Barbe, | 0:08:11 | 0:08:18 | |
a Frenchman who came to work for Thomas Webb. | 0:08:18 | 0:08:22 | |
Thomas Webb and Sons in Stourbridge, | 0:08:22 | 0:08:26 | |
the greatest makers of Victorian glassware. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
It isn't marked, but, to be frank with you, | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
you don't need a signature, because this is the signature, the quality of the decoration. | 0:08:33 | 0:08:39 | |
So, Jules Barbe, craftsman. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:43 | |
I'm looking at you now, are you liking this a bit more as I've been talking about it? | 0:08:43 | 0:08:47 | |
I think it's hideous, but the more you talk about it, the more I'm beginning to like it, I think. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:53 | |
If I was to tell you that if I want to go and buy one of these, | 0:08:53 | 0:08:55 | |
I wouldn't get one for less than £1,500. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:59 | |
-You're joking? -1,500. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:01 | |
-Even to people in Brighton, that's a lot of money, isn't it? -1500 pounds? | 0:09:01 | 0:09:05 | |
-Yes, 1500 pounds. -I like it better. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:07 | |
-I do like it better! -Can I make a suggestion? -Yes. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:10 | |
When you go home, go back to that black plastic bin liner and look | 0:09:10 | 0:09:15 | |
very careful, because these would almost certainly have come in pairs. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:20 | |
-In pairs? -In pairs. -I'm looking tonight. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:22 | |
So look at these opals breaking up the sunlight. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:29 | |
They're refracting the light, they're actually making a spectrum | 0:09:29 | 0:09:32 | |
of it, and it's a miracle of natural science. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:35 | |
Did you feel that way about it when you first saw them? | 0:09:35 | 0:09:38 | |
Yes, when I first opened the case, I went, ah! | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
-That's fabulous. It's like a butterfly's wing, in a way, isn't it? -Yes. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:45 | |
I'm very interested to know where you first saw these. How did that happen? | 0:09:45 | 0:09:49 | |
They belonged to a friend who passed on, and we were able to buy them from her estate. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:55 | |
I can't remember what we paid for them, | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
but it was in the early 70s, it wouldn't have been an awful lot | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
because we didn't have an awful lot of money at that time. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:04 | |
Well, in a sense opals are not particularly valuable stones, particularly when they're small | 0:10:04 | 0:10:09 | |
like this, but it doesn't diminish their amazing appeal. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
And, in a sense, the stones of which these objects are made | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
are not central to their importance, | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
because the people that made them weren't interested in intrinsic value, in fact they scorned it. | 0:10:17 | 0:10:22 | |
What they really were interested in was craftsmanship, and these are two | 0:10:22 | 0:10:26 | |
superb jewels from the arts and crafts movement. | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
Tell me, what did you think about the lid satin when you saw that? | 0:10:28 | 0:10:33 | |
The inscription is to a Mr and Mrs Gaston? | 0:10:33 | 0:10:37 | |
I thought that was probably that Mr had had them made for Mrs. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:42 | |
In a way, he probably did make them for her, but they're a very, very famous married couple of arts | 0:10:42 | 0:10:47 | |
and crafts jewellers of the highest possible calibre, and they had some very high calibre friends, too. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:54 | |
They were Quakers, and they were friends of the Cadbury family, who had all the means to have | 0:10:54 | 0:11:00 | |
jewellery made, but, rather like the Gaskins, they scorned intrinsic | 0:11:00 | 0:11:05 | |
value for its own sake and everything had to be made by hand. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
-It's very evident from this, this is exactly what happened. -Oh, right. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
And they learned all of that from an even more distinguished source. | 0:11:11 | 0:11:15 | |
They were a friend of William Morris, and so were | 0:11:15 | 0:11:18 | |
right at the absolute pinnacle of English arts and crafts jewellery. | 0:11:18 | 0:11:23 | |
A high point, but a later point, really. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
They date from anywhere between 1900 and 1920, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
and so they're a late expression of what William Morris wanted to achieve, | 0:11:28 | 0:11:32 | |
and so these are very, very good things. Do you enjoy wearing them? | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
Yes, I do. I don't wear them every day, obviously, because they look a bit fragile. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:40 | |
They are a bit fragile. Probably less fragile than you think, | 0:11:40 | 0:11:43 | |
but they would've wanted you to wear them. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:45 | |
They wanted, actually, a beauty to pervade everything | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
in the tradition of William Morris, so having said all of that people want these things really badly. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:53 | |
I must say, I think they're absolutely perfect. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
They're in perfect condition, in their original boxes, they're signed, extraordinarily attractive. | 0:11:56 | 0:12:02 | |
So, without mincing words, £3,500 for that one. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:07 | |
Never? | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
-Gosh. -And £2,000 for that one. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
Well, that is a surprise. Really. | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
Carved ivories like this are a real passion of mine. Is this from your collection? | 0:12:16 | 0:12:21 | |
Yes, it is, and it was passed to me from my father, | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
who brought it at an antique shop in London. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:27 | |
And, as my mother says, he paid far too much money, | 0:12:27 | 0:12:30 | |
and, at that time, it was in the hundreds. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
-Wow. And when was that? -That was about 30 years ago. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:35 | |
And do you know much about its history, or where it's from? | 0:12:35 | 0:12:38 | |
Not really, only that my father had put a little note on the back, so | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
that's all I know about it, which is why I bought it here today. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
The note says it's Flemish, which isn't entirely wrong. | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
There were centres for carving ivory like this | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
in Dieppe in France, Germany, you know, Flemish. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:56 | |
-But this one, I think, is German. -Oh, right. | 0:12:56 | 0:12:58 | |
And it would date from the early part | 0:12:58 | 0:13:01 | |
of the 18th century, 1700, 1720, and it's carved in such high relief. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:06 | |
The scene is almost like a bacchanalian wine party. | 0:13:07 | 0:13:13 | |
This one here falling in this unfortunate position, | 0:13:13 | 0:13:15 | |
you wouldn't want to be him. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:17 | |
Today, it's not so much it's not acceptable, | 0:13:17 | 0:13:19 | |
but it's just a little bit odd, but then it was the norm. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
The condition of it is fantastic. | 0:13:22 | 0:13:26 | |
The carving, which is done with wheels, all this is done by hand, | 0:13:26 | 0:13:29 | |
Carved with foot-pedalled drills, and it is exceptional quality. | 0:13:29 | 0:13:34 | |
And it's even got the little initials here of the workman. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:37 | |
Looks like a GV, or a CV. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
That again would add to it. It's in the lovely frame, which I don't think is as early as the ivory. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:44 | |
It's a later frame, this is more of a late 19th century frame. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
But I'd have thought, well, what did he pay? | 0:13:47 | 0:13:51 | |
In the hundreds. I don't know exactly, but it was about maximum £200. | 0:13:51 | 0:13:56 | |
Which was a reasonable amount. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
-Exactly, yeah. -These have, sort of always on the up. | 0:13:58 | 0:14:02 | |
Condition is the key. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
This one, I'd have thought, a couple of thousand. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:06 | |
-Oh, lovely. -Not bad, is it? | 0:14:06 | 0:14:08 | |
So he had better taste than he was given credit for. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:11 | |
And I'll tell my mother that. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:12 | |
-She'll be happy about that. -Good. Well, thank you for bringing it in. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:16 | |
Thank you very much indeed. | 0:14:16 | 0:14:17 | |
You've probably gathered from the dragon and the bamboo | 0:14:20 | 0:14:22 | |
all over this mug, where it comes from. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
-Yes, yes. -China. -Yeah. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:26 | |
It's what's known as Chinese export silver. | 0:14:26 | 0:14:29 | |
It is, indeed, made in China but it was made for Europeans to buy and bring home to wherever they lived. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:36 | |
Most often you get engraving of ownership from sea captains or from the commercial fleet | 0:14:36 | 0:14:43 | |
that were doing so much business with China in the 19th Century. | 0:14:43 | 0:14:47 | |
They treated themselves to a mug or large tankards and coffee pots and things. They came home with them. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:52 | |
Where did you get it from? | 0:14:52 | 0:14:54 | |
This was a gift from my uncle who was in the Merchant Navy. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:59 | |
-He was. -Yes, he was, indeed. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:01 | |
That link doesn't surprise me at all in that sense. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
That's extraordinary that he should be a sea captain and you've got a direct connection back to China. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:09 | |
-Presumably he bought it in China? -I would guess so, yes. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:13 | |
I would imagine they did stop off at some point and pick one of these up. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:17 | |
-So, yeah. -This is made in around Hong Kong or Kowloon in about | 0:15:17 | 0:15:23 | |
1900, 1910 by a man called Wang Hing who was a very prolific Chinese silver maker. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:29 | |
This silver now is going up and up in popularity | 0:15:29 | 0:15:31 | |
because it's being exported back to China. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
It's come full circle. Now it's going back into the hands of Chinese | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
-people, the descendants of those who made it in the first place. -OK. | 0:15:38 | 0:15:41 | |
Erm... It's a little bit rubbed, the faces on the side of the mug are just losing their detail a little bit. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:47 | |
However, it's a very nice object and I would suggest that in order | 0:15:47 | 0:15:51 | |
to go and buy that you're going to have to pay the thick end of £1,000. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:56 | |
That's quite sensational, yeah. Wow! | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
EXPLOSION | 0:16:12 | 0:16:14 | |
That was spectacular! | 0:16:15 | 0:16:16 | |
Tell me how it started? | 0:16:16 | 0:16:18 | |
Well, I've always been interested in the theatre and I spent most of my life in Hong Kong | 0:16:18 | 0:16:24 | |
and I used to get fed up with the dinner parties and talking about the supermarket and all the rest of it. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:30 | |
So, I said, "Let's go upstairs because I've got a small, little theatre and I'll perform on it." | 0:16:30 | 0:16:35 | |
They all thoroughly enjoyed it. When I retired I wanted a bigger theatre and I found this in an antique shop. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:41 | |
-I paid £60 for it. I got this and two other theatres as well. -£60? | 0:16:41 | 0:16:48 | |
Fantastic. When was that, when did you start performing this one? | 0:16:48 | 0:16:53 | |
This was about 27 or 30 years ago. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:57 | |
How splendid! So this is your seascape. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:01 | |
Tell me, how many others have you got? | 0:17:01 | 0:17:03 | |
Quite a few! I've got a full Round The World In 80 days which lasts for | 0:17:03 | 0:17:08 | |
an hour and a half but you don't want something to last that long. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
-No. -I mean, I've got the Cinderella, I've got Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:17 | |
-So you can keep children happy for hours on end. -Yes. | 0:17:17 | 0:17:20 | |
The thing is each one is planned so when I pass over I can give it | 0:17:20 | 0:17:25 | |
to my children and they can bring it out and completely resurrect | 0:17:25 | 0:17:29 | |
-what's all been done before. -That's wonderful. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
But what a lovely, lovely thing and you've also these wonderful sound effects. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:37 | |
You invented them. | 0:17:37 | 0:17:39 | |
Well, I put them together, let's put it like that. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
THUNDER SOUND EFFECT | 0:17:41 | 0:17:43 | |
Yes, well I really covet this. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:44 | |
But it's such a delight to see you using it because you don't see people like that any more. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:51 | |
If you do they're using modern things. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:55 | |
This is such a lovely one because it dates right back to Benjamin Pollock | 0:17:55 | 0:17:59 | |
when he was the famous printer of toy theatres | 0:17:59 | 0:18:03 | |
in probably the mid-19th Century and it went | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
-right on and he was so well known that even Charlie Chaplin... -Yes. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:11 | |
-And Robert Louis Stevenson... -Winston Churchill had one. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
-And Winston Churchill, so it was the most fantastic time of entertainment instead of a television. -Yes. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:21 | |
So this probably dates from 1880, it could be 1870. | 0:18:21 | 0:18:26 | |
Of course, the back drops are a bit later. You've added... | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
The back drops are German. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
They're reasonably modern, not Pollock's. | 0:18:31 | 0:18:35 | |
No. But if you've got all those other drops, and stories, | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
and this wonderful antique | 0:18:39 | 0:18:42 | |
facade, it must be in the thousands, possibly 1,000-1,500. | 0:18:42 | 0:18:47 | |
-The price doesn't matter to me. -Good! -I would never, ever sell it. | 0:18:47 | 0:18:51 | |
Wonderful. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:52 | |
Well, the name Tiffany is a name probably we all know. | 0:18:57 | 0:19:01 | |
This is a little, silver cigarette case quite boring, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:06 | |
got the date on it, 1963. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:08 | |
But, actually, | 0:19:08 | 0:19:10 | |
it's quite a resonant object, isn't it? | 0:19:10 | 0:19:13 | |
Tell me about how it came into your hands? | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
Well in 1963 President Kennedy came to Ireland | 0:19:18 | 0:19:23 | |
to visit his ancestral home in Wexford. | 0:19:23 | 0:19:26 | |
He spent three further days there in Dublin, Cork and Galway and | 0:19:26 | 0:19:33 | |
on his Cork visit he was received by the Lord Mayor of Cork, | 0:19:33 | 0:19:38 | |
Sean Casey who was my dad. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
He gave this as a present to my mam and dad. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:44 | |
And were you there on that day when he visited Cork? | 0:19:45 | 0:19:48 | |
I was only eight years of age but it's a memory I'll always have. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:52 | |
-And this is a photograph that records that particular event. -Yes. | 0:19:52 | 0:19:58 | |
There's JFK in the centre here, and your father, presumably, he's the mayor with his | 0:19:58 | 0:20:03 | |
-chain of office. -That's right. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:05 | |
And it's engraved, "To his worship, the Mayor Of Cork," | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
your dad, "From President John F Kennedy" | 0:20:08 | 0:20:12 | |
-and the date, June 1963. -That's right. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:15 | |
-He was with you in Cork in June and the 22 November 1963... -The whole world was shocked. | 0:20:15 | 0:20:22 | |
As a result, this is a box which already had a great sort of aura with it, the fact that it had been | 0:20:22 | 0:20:29 | |
given to your dad by President Kennedy, but also | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
it must have been an object almost of remembrance then, later on that year. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:40 | |
Yes, and very much so, because my dad died four years later. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:45 | |
So, it's a memory of them both, really. | 0:20:45 | 0:20:49 | |
It's not really something that one should be thinking about value | 0:20:49 | 0:20:53 | |
but I'm going to talk about value because the two values I'm going to give are so completely different. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:59 | |
On the one hand you have a | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
basically pretty, modern, unexciting, very unfashionable object, ie a silver cigarette case. | 0:21:02 | 0:21:09 | |
And, as such, the weight of it, | 0:21:09 | 0:21:13 | |
I would have said value around £120-£125. But... | 0:21:13 | 0:21:18 | |
You have this kind of fairy dust sprinkled over an object like this. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:24 | |
I could easily see that, in auction, probably in the States, | 0:21:24 | 0:21:29 | |
fetching well into four figures. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:32 | |
So £1,000 plus. | 0:21:32 | 0:21:33 | |
It is a piece of American history, it's a piece of Irish history | 0:21:33 | 0:21:37 | |
and it's a piece of your own family history. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:39 | |
Very much so. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:41 | |
Well, it wouldn't be a day at the seaside without a seagull | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
and I have to say this has to be the most stylish seagull I've ever seen. | 0:21:48 | 0:21:53 | |
But tell me, where did he come from? | 0:21:53 | 0:21:55 | |
Well, I used to live in London. | 0:21:55 | 0:21:58 | |
Many years ago it was bought at Heal's in Tottenham Court Road | 0:21:58 | 0:22:03 | |
by my late sister and then she gave it to me. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:06 | |
So what year would your sister have bought this for you, do you remember? | 0:22:06 | 0:22:11 | |
I would think it must be about 1940 something or the other. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:15 | |
I can't be really sure. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
I think it might be a little bit earlier. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
I have a vision of you girls tripping down the Tottenham Court Road | 0:22:19 | 0:22:23 | |
-maybe in the 1930s. -Could well be. | 0:22:23 | 0:22:26 | |
Especially with it having that feel, it's in the height of the Art Deco movement. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
I mean to have gone into Heal's or a similar store and buy something like this for me is such a statement. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:37 | |
You're saying a lot about you as a person, the things | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
that you want in your home and the things that you like around you. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
-True. -Because this is Art Deco at its absolute pinnacle. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:49 | |
It's designed by Adnet. Now there are two Adnets, Jean and Jacques. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:54 | |
Brothers who were leading forces in the field of modernism. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:58 | |
They really created some of the best Art Deco of the period from 1925 | 0:22:58 | 0:23:05 | |
at the big Paris Exhibition, right through. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:07 | |
They had a vision of everything being clean and pure. | 0:23:07 | 0:23:11 | |
They would take a form like this and pare it down to the finest and most simple line. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:17 | |
I think if you look at this you can see there's nothing left but what is completely essential. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:24 | |
-So where does it live at home? -On my television. -Of course. -Yes. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
Why would a seagull not live on top of your television, quite frankly. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:32 | |
-It's the perfect place. -It is a nice place for it. | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
Well, he's a wonderful thing and they are popular because they are | 0:23:35 | 0:23:39 | |
-so stylish and they fit with modern design and modern homes today. -True. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:44 | |
And, to go and find another one, well, even taking into | 0:23:44 | 0:23:46 | |
-consideration there's a little bit of damage to him. -Yes, there is. | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
Even taking that into consideration, you're going to have to go out with £300-£350 to go and buy him again. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:57 | |
-Oh. -But I'd certainly be happy to pay that for him and if anyone can | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
distract you for a few moments, I'd like to see if I can whisk him away. | 0:24:00 | 0:24:05 | |
I'd think you'd be lucky to do that. | 0:24:05 | 0:24:07 | |
You're going to come after me? | 0:24:07 | 0:24:09 | |
You've brought along today, I don't know how many objects | 0:24:15 | 0:24:18 | |
which I've selected just a few. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
Where did they all come from? | 0:24:21 | 0:24:22 | |
My grandfather was the Austrian ambassador to China after the war | 0:24:22 | 0:24:27 | |
and these are some of the things that were | 0:24:27 | 0:24:30 | |
passed down amongst an awful lot of other stuff as well. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
-Right, do you like them? -Yes. -You do. OK, well I'm gonna go through these. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:37 | |
This is a snuff bottle. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
Snuff-taking in China was a major activity | 0:24:41 | 0:24:46 | |
in the 18th and 19th centuries. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:48 | |
They are now very collectible. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:52 | |
This one is enamelled with insects, butterflies, there's a cricket down here. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:59 | |
A beetle. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:01 | |
It's terrific fun. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:03 | |
This has got a Jiajing reign mark on it, which is a late 18th and early 19th century reign mark, | 0:25:03 | 0:25:09 | |
and reign marks, of course, on Chinese objects, | 0:25:09 | 0:25:13 | |
you never trust them. | 0:25:13 | 0:25:14 | |
Once in a while, it's right, and I think this is right. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:18 | |
I think it's of the period. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
And, as such, I think it would make £700 to £1,000. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:26 | |
Oh, my goodness. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
-So, that's quite nice. -Oh, wow. | 0:25:28 | 0:25:31 | |
This is a seal. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
If you were a Chinese calligrapher, or if you painted paintings, | 0:25:33 | 0:25:38 | |
you used a chop, as we are pleased to call them - a seal. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:41 | |
Here we've got one which is in soap stone. It's a very soft stone. | 0:25:41 | 0:25:48 | |
That was ideal for carving intricate characters. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:50 | |
It's in the form of a Buddhist lion | 0:25:50 | 0:25:57 | |
and two pups. | 0:25:57 | 0:25:59 | |
Absolutely charming. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:01 | |
They've used the stone cleverly so the faces are reddish | 0:26:01 | 0:26:07 | |
and an inscription in here as well. | 0:26:07 | 0:26:10 | |
Date, difficult. I think that's early-19th, possibly 18th-century. | 0:26:10 | 0:26:16 | |
It could be 1750 and a jolly nice one. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
-£1,000 to £1,500. -Oh my... | 0:26:19 | 0:26:23 | |
-The other two are Japanese. -All right. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:27 | |
This one is of a potter, decorator, we see a lot of. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:33 | |
A man called Sobei Kinkozan. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:35 | |
This little box made for the West, it's not an object that the Japanese or the Chinese would use at all. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:43 | |
What it is is an incense burner. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:45 | |
So you'd burn a little bit of incense in there and it would all smoke out through those holes. Date? | 0:26:45 | 0:26:53 | |
That's about 1900. | 0:26:53 | 0:26:56 | |
In stonkingly good condition. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:58 | |
£2,000 to £3,000 on that. | 0:26:58 | 0:27:01 | |
-That's my favourite. -Is it?! | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
-That's cos it's the most expensive! -No! | 0:27:04 | 0:27:08 | |
This is a really unusual piece of Japanese cloisonne work. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:16 | |
It's on a silver body which is always a good sign. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:23 | |
Usually they are on a brass body and they may have | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
a silver top and bottom but I think this is silver all the way through. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:30 | |
And... | 0:27:30 | 0:27:32 | |
A mark. And very rarely do you get a mark of one of the top makers. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:38 | |
This is Kyoto Namikawa. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:42 | |
And Namikawa is the tops. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:45 | |
Date? | 0:27:45 | 0:27:47 | |
1900, 1910. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:50 | |
Glorious little object. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:52 | |
That would make in the region of £2,500 to £3,500. | 0:27:52 | 0:27:58 | |
Oh my... That might be my favourite now. | 0:27:58 | 0:28:01 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:28:01 | 0:28:03 | |
Now, that's the least. I'll have that one, then. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
-Thank you very much, indeed. -Thank you. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:11 | |
Well, "bottoms up" is the phrase that comes to mind with all these cocktail shakers here. | 0:28:14 | 0:28:18 | |
-You've got a large collection of these. -Indeed. Absolutely, something in excess of 120. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:24 | |
-120! -Indeed. -Have you used them all? | 0:28:24 | 0:28:27 | |
I have, with one exception, tried all of them. | 0:28:27 | 0:28:30 | |
-I like your style. You're obviously keen on a cocktail. -Indeed. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
-Which is the oldest? -The oldest one is this one. That's about 1900-1905. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:39 | |
Why did you start collecting cocktail shakers? | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
I've had an interest in cocktails for a number of years, | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
initially with a drama group that we ran in central London and cocktails | 0:28:45 | 0:28:50 | |
were fairly high on the agenda. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
-Higher than rehearsals? -Indeed, indeed. -Quite right! | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 | |
On the subject of cocktails, I have actually developed one for you. | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
It's called Bruce's Blue. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:01 | |
This is my very own cocktail, created in my honour? | 0:29:01 | 0:29:04 | |
-Indeed it is. -Do you know, that's why I love working on this programme. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:08 | |
It will become obvious why it's called Bruce's Blue. | 0:29:08 | 0:29:12 | |
Actually, it reflects your punk era. | 0:29:12 | 0:29:16 | |
-Oh, when I had blue hair. -Blue hair, absolutely. Absolutely. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:19 | |
That was a long time ago. | 0:29:19 | 0:29:22 | |
So Bruce's Blue. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:24 | |
Absolutely! | 0:29:24 | 0:29:25 | |
-Chin-chin. -Be truthful about this. | 0:29:28 | 0:29:30 | |
Ooh, that's lovely. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:35 | |
That's delicious. | 0:29:35 | 0:29:37 | |
Sorry, folks, definitely not for you! | 0:29:40 | 0:29:43 | |
-What's in it? -It's whisky, | 0:29:43 | 0:29:46 | |
blue curacao and lime juice. | 0:29:46 | 0:29:48 | |
-It's nothing complex. -Oh... | 0:29:48 | 0:29:50 | |
Bottoms up. Mmm... | 0:29:52 | 0:29:55 | |
Ten or 15 years ago you'd have been looking at this in a skip, | 0:29:55 | 0:30:00 | |
quite possibly, or in a charity shop. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:02 | |
Did you get that from there? | 0:30:02 | 0:30:05 | |
No, I actually found it at the back of my father's garage. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:10 | |
It was just covered in cobwebs. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:12 | |
Aw, I'm almost feeling sorry for it but you saved it. | 0:30:12 | 0:30:15 | |
Yeah, my brother threatened to put it out into the skip | 0:30:15 | 0:30:20 | |
which was just outside my dad's house and I couldn't have that, | 0:30:20 | 0:30:24 | |
so I took it home. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:26 | |
I think you did the right thing. | 0:30:26 | 0:30:28 | |
1950s, probably late 1950s, and it's obviously a cocktail/drinks cabinet. | 0:30:28 | 0:30:32 | |
You would have your glasses displayed inside here | 0:30:32 | 0:30:35 | |
and maybe some bottles of nice things to drink underneath there. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:38 | |
What really interests me about this is you're looking | 0:30:38 | 0:30:42 | |
at a fantastic piece that shouts the 1950s. | 0:30:42 | 0:30:44 | |
Starting at the bottom, you've got these splayed legs. | 0:30:44 | 0:30:47 | |
Very typical of the 1950s into the 1960s. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:51 | |
Moving up this nice curved front | 0:30:51 | 0:30:53 | |
and then this wonderful patterning on this yellow here. | 0:30:53 | 0:30:56 | |
The colour itself is quite important. | 0:30:56 | 0:30:59 | |
This was a new colour, a new furniture for a new generation | 0:30:59 | 0:31:01 | |
and new style, post-war. Things were moving forward. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:04 | |
The key to that is the 1951 Festival Of Britain. | 0:31:04 | 0:31:08 | |
This was all about the world of tomorrow, today. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:11 | |
Science, nuclear, atomic patterns. | 0:31:11 | 0:31:13 | |
That's reflected in the patterns on here. | 0:31:13 | 0:31:16 | |
If you look down here, this little star motif, | 0:31:16 | 0:31:18 | |
as well as being like a star in the sky, | 0:31:18 | 0:31:20 | |
it's almost like an atomic structure, too. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
These look almost like little cells, whizzing around under a microscope. | 0:31:23 | 0:31:27 | |
The great thing about this is the superb condition. | 0:31:27 | 0:31:29 | |
It's not worn, it's got its original panels of glass underneath. | 0:31:29 | 0:31:33 | |
Even its original handles, super. That's going to make it appealing. | 0:31:33 | 0:31:38 | |
Any piece that shouts the style of the day really has to be collectible in the future. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:43 | |
If you looked at it in a shop, perhaps even here in Brighton, or in a good retro shop | 0:31:43 | 0:31:47 | |
in the centre of town, you'd be maybe £150, £200. Perhaps a bit more depending on the shop. | 0:31:47 | 0:31:53 | |
You seem a little disappointed. | 0:31:55 | 0:31:57 | |
That's what I thought it would be, maybe 200. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:00 | |
-You're absolutely spot on but the most important thing is enjoy it. -Thank you. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:04 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:32:04 | 0:32:06 | |
Is that the school tie of Brighton College? | 0:32:10 | 0:32:12 | |
Is he a Brighton College schoolboy? | 0:32:12 | 0:32:14 | |
-He is, yes. -All right, and who is he? | 0:32:14 | 0:32:16 | |
-That was my father. -How old is he in that? | 0:32:16 | 0:32:20 | |
I guess about 12 or 13, starting at the school. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:23 | |
-Just at the outset. -Which I think was about 1919. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:28 | |
I see, and it's by...? | 0:32:28 | 0:32:30 | |
By Harry Mileham, my grandfather. So he painted his son. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:34 | |
And this, this amazing painting. | 0:32:34 | 0:32:36 | |
-And that, yes. -This huge, amazing painting. -Yes. | 0:32:36 | 0:32:39 | |
First of all, I love the shape, don't you? | 0:32:39 | 0:32:41 | |
It's a kind of letterbox shape, really. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:43 | |
-Yes. -But it's very good for lots of figures. | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
Very like a last supper. The composition is probably based on a famous last supper. | 0:32:46 | 0:32:50 | |
Yes, I've heard that. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:53 | |
I see from the label on the back that it's called The Pardoner's Prologue. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:57 | |
-Yes. -So this is the beginning of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Is that right? | 0:32:57 | 0:33:02 | |
Yes, I think it was a stop half way. | 0:33:02 | 0:33:04 | |
-A stop half way. -It was the first, yes. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:06 | |
I see, so these are all the people who were going to tell their tales | 0:33:06 | 0:33:10 | |
and that must be the wife of Bath in the middle, surely. | 0:33:10 | 0:33:13 | |
It is, with her cherry stone saying "amour". | 0:33:13 | 0:33:15 | |
-Yes, which is love, of course. -Yes. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:18 | |
Tell me a bit more about it? | 0:33:18 | 0:33:21 | |
Well, this is the Pardoner... | 0:33:21 | 0:33:23 | |
-The fellow here. -This chap here. | 0:33:23 | 0:33:26 | |
-He looks unpleasant. -He was an unpleasant person. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:29 | |
It was his trade to sell pardons, religious pardons, | 0:33:29 | 0:33:31 | |
-to people who'd sinned but he'd sell them to them, was that right? -Yes. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:35 | |
I think he went on about money being the root of all evil | 0:33:35 | 0:33:38 | |
-which is exactly what he was. -Yes, exactly. | 0:33:38 | 0:33:41 | |
-And then... -Who's this fellow? | 0:33:41 | 0:33:42 | |
-That's Chaucer. -I thought it might be. That's the man himself. | 0:33:42 | 0:33:46 | |
And on his right is the knight. | 0:33:46 | 0:33:48 | |
-From the Knight's Tale. -This is my uncle, this little boy here. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:52 | |
-Your father's brother? -His brother, who also went to Brighton College. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:55 | |
-OK. -And I think that's him again. | 0:33:55 | 0:33:57 | |
Well, it's an extraordinary mixture of colours. Very bright. | 0:33:57 | 0:34:01 | |
It's like a piece of stained glass. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:03 | |
We've got a signature and a date of 1924. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:06 | |
It's an interesting time in British art generally because it's just after the first war | 0:34:06 | 0:34:11 | |
and a lot of artists were going completely modern - | 0:34:11 | 0:34:13 | |
goodbye to all that, reject all the Victorian values. | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
This one stayed firmly in British history for his subject, didn't he? | 0:34:16 | 0:34:21 | |
-Yes, he did. -I have a feeling he might be one of those artists | 0:34:21 | 0:34:24 | |
who's been slightly passed by, by fashion that dictates these things. | 0:34:24 | 0:34:28 | |
I absolutely agree. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
It's painted meticulously. He must have been a hard worker. | 0:34:31 | 0:34:35 | |
-Did you know him, did you ever watch him paint? -No, no... I saw him... | 0:34:35 | 0:34:39 | |
He was an old man when I was young. | 0:34:39 | 0:34:42 | |
I think I was about eight when he died. | 0:34:42 | 0:34:45 | |
I remember him working in his studio which was at the bottom of the garden. | 0:34:45 | 0:34:50 | |
In those days he was just doing stained glass. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:53 | |
-He made stained glass? How interesting. -There's quite a bit in local churches. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:57 | |
But it remains a marvellously decorative thing, I think. | 0:34:57 | 0:35:02 | |
And it's rather a long time since I read my Chaucer. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:06 | |
I can't exactly remember all the stories. | 0:35:06 | 0:35:09 | |
But I would have fun remembering them through this picture. | 0:35:09 | 0:35:13 | |
They're all there, actually, if you do. | 0:35:13 | 0:35:16 | |
I think it's worth about £8,000 to £12,000 now. | 0:35:16 | 0:35:21 | |
Right ... Well, thank you very much. | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
Thank you. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:25 | |
He's lovely, isn't he? The nicest lion that I've seen. | 0:35:27 | 0:35:30 | |
I bought him two years ago at an antique shop near Guildford and it cost me £5. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:35 | |
Excellent. What do you know about it? | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
I just liked its face and I thought it looked old | 0:35:38 | 0:35:40 | |
and kind of hope that it is old. I'm not sure if it's a reproduction. | 0:35:40 | 0:35:45 | |
Sure, they do reproduce these. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
He isn't a reproduction. I think the face is beautifully done. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:54 | |
It's hard to say where it's from. I think it's Scandinavian. | 0:35:54 | 0:35:57 | |
The lion features heavily in Scandinavian iconography. | 0:35:57 | 0:36:00 | |
-I think it's 17th, if not 16th century. -Wow, fantastic. | 0:36:00 | 0:36:04 | |
And, actually, it looks to me - and it's hard to say - | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
but it's actually a mount or a foot of a piece of furniture. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:10 | |
It's made of bronze. So, you say £5... | 0:36:10 | 0:36:16 | |
-Bought in an antique shop two years ago? -Yes. | 0:36:16 | 0:36:20 | |
I don't think I would've paid £5 for it. | 0:36:20 | 0:36:24 | |
I would have had to pay £1,500 for it. | 0:36:24 | 0:36:26 | |
Wow! Wow! | 0:36:26 | 0:36:30 | |
-Gosh. -Slightly better than... -Good grief. | 0:36:30 | 0:36:33 | |
That is... Wow, that's amazing. | 0:36:33 | 0:36:35 | |
-Pretty good, eh? -Wow. -It's the nicest thing I've seen today. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:39 | |
Well, I've not seen a table cabinet on the Antiques Roadshow | 0:36:43 | 0:36:47 | |
for five or six years and now I have two. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:49 | |
They're both totally different in construction and decoration. | 0:36:49 | 0:36:52 | |
This one, probably south German, could be Scandinavian. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
Not quite sure, difficult to determine, | 0:36:56 | 0:36:58 | |
but painted biblical scenes, | 0:36:58 | 0:37:00 | |
architectural columns and, without doubt, 17th century. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:05 | |
1670 to the end of the century. | 0:37:05 | 0:37:09 | |
And this one, totally different. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:11 | |
But we know precisely where it came from. | 0:37:11 | 0:37:14 | |
This is Spanish and this could be any time between 1710-1720 and 1750. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:20 | |
I'm relying on you now to tell me a bit more about it. | 0:37:20 | 0:37:23 | |
Yes, it came from my ex-partner's family estate in northern Spain. | 0:37:23 | 0:37:28 | |
And I inherited it when he died. | 0:37:28 | 0:37:31 | |
Right. And it was a Spanish family? | 0:37:31 | 0:37:34 | |
Yes, an old Spanish family. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:36 | |
Right. This, at first glance, is a table cabinet. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:39 | |
On the other hand, the feet are not original. | 0:37:39 | 0:37:43 | |
It looks very much like the centre part of the interior | 0:37:43 | 0:37:48 | |
of a Bargueno, which is a drop-down writing cabinet. | 0:37:48 | 0:37:52 | |
This could be the part that slotted in. | 0:37:52 | 0:37:56 | |
Particularly with this architectural cabinet here. | 0:37:56 | 0:38:00 | |
This traditionally was where the great man would keep | 0:38:00 | 0:38:04 | |
his secrets to show his new cabinet friends, as they were called. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:08 | |
Let's have a look at the construction. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:10 | |
Basically, this is an early use of tortoiseshell or turtle shell | 0:38:10 | 0:38:15 | |
as it should be called and brass inlay with walnut around it. | 0:38:15 | 0:38:21 | |
This was a natural tortoiseshell which is given the colour | 0:38:21 | 0:38:24 | |
by a background of red which shines through. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:28 | |
It was a sort of equivalent, if you like, | 0:38:28 | 0:38:31 | |
of brass and tortoiseshell veneers, and marquetry, | 0:38:31 | 0:38:35 | |
which was boullework, which was going on at round about the same time. | 0:38:35 | 0:38:39 | |
Does it have pride of place indoors? | 0:38:39 | 0:38:41 | |
Not really. I have a fairly modern house with modern paintings and stuff in it. It's in my bedroom. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:48 | |
It's quite dramatic though, if you have one dramatic item on its own, | 0:38:48 | 0:38:52 | |
rather than a cluttered look of antiquity. | 0:38:52 | 0:38:54 | |
So, Spanish, difficult to say which part of Spain it came from. | 0:38:54 | 0:38:59 | |
Today's value, probably in the region of between £3,500-£4,500. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:04 | |
Just a fascinating thing and thank you. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:06 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:39:06 | 0:39:08 | |
At every Roadshow, I long for someone | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
to bring in something related to the most famous sea battle of all time, | 0:39:14 | 0:39:19 | |
the Battle of Trafalgar. | 0:39:19 | 0:39:21 | |
And you've brought in this naval general service medal, with a Trafalgar clasp. | 0:39:21 | 0:39:27 | |
Now where did it come from? | 0:39:27 | 0:39:29 | |
My great-great-great-grandfather was Admiral Spencer Smythe | 0:39:29 | 0:39:36 | |
who's shown in the picture there and he was a midshipman. | 0:39:36 | 0:39:40 | |
He joined the Navy when he was 11. | 0:39:40 | 0:39:44 | |
At the Battle of Trafalgar, he was 13 years old. | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
-He didn't serve on Victory? -No, he didn't. On HMS Defiance. -OK. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:52 | |
On the edge of the medal | 0:39:52 | 0:39:54 | |
is impressed his name, Spencer Smythe, midshipman. | 0:39:54 | 0:40:01 | |
These are very rare medals. | 0:40:01 | 0:40:03 | |
But I can't believe that you've actually got a picture | 0:40:03 | 0:40:06 | |
of the person who was the midshipman at the Battle of Trafalgar, | 0:40:06 | 0:40:10 | |
while all the wood splinters were smashing around you | 0:40:10 | 0:40:13 | |
and the cannonballs were coming through the side of the ship. | 0:40:13 | 0:40:16 | |
A horrendous scene of carnage and blood. | 0:40:16 | 0:40:21 | |
But this portrait here, when do you think that this was taken? | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
Well, we're not certain. | 0:40:24 | 0:40:27 | |
Obviously they're all very elderly gentleman and there's only a few of them left. | 0:40:27 | 0:40:31 | |
They're all wearing their medals. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:34 | |
I would imagine when he was in his 70s. | 0:40:34 | 0:40:37 | |
So this is that medal there, is it? | 0:40:37 | 0:40:39 | |
-That he's wearing on his breast? -Yes. | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
The very medal that I'm holding in my hand. | 0:40:41 | 0:40:43 | |
Do you know, I think the last time that I saw one of these naval general service medals | 0:40:43 | 0:40:49 | |
with a Trafalgar clasp has got to be at least two or three years ago. | 0:40:49 | 0:40:53 | |
They're so rare with the Trafalgar clasp. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:55 | |
You've also brought this watercolour in. | 0:40:55 | 0:40:57 | |
Tell me about the watercolour. | 0:40:57 | 0:40:59 | |
It was painted by my great-great- great grandfather after the battle, | 0:40:59 | 0:41:04 | |
some years after the battle, | 0:41:04 | 0:41:06 | |
I would imagine just from memory. We've got two of them. | 0:41:06 | 0:41:09 | |
-You've got a pair? -Yes, a pair. | 0:41:09 | 0:41:11 | |
OK. | 0:41:11 | 0:41:13 | |
Well, certainly | 0:41:13 | 0:41:15 | |
this clasp alone with this medal | 0:41:15 | 0:41:18 | |
fetches quite a considerable sum. | 0:41:18 | 0:41:21 | |
It's pushing on to £5,000. | 0:41:21 | 0:41:23 | |
I think with the print here, | 0:41:23 | 0:41:25 | |
with the pair of watercolours which are beautifully executed, | 0:41:25 | 0:41:30 | |
I think we would be talking about | 0:41:30 | 0:41:34 | |
an auction value... | 0:41:34 | 0:41:35 | |
of between £8,000 and £10,000. | 0:41:35 | 0:41:39 | |
Goodness me. Thank you very much. | 0:41:39 | 0:41:43 | |
So how did this splash of colour come into your life? | 0:41:45 | 0:41:49 | |
When I bought a house 25 years ago, it was left in the house. | 0:41:49 | 0:41:54 | |
-This was left in the house? -Yes. | 0:41:54 | 0:41:57 | |
Right, well, that was quite something to leave in a house. | 0:41:57 | 0:42:00 | |
Have you reflected on what it might be that was left in the house? | 0:42:00 | 0:42:05 | |
I've no idea what it is, actually. I know... | 0:42:05 | 0:42:09 | |
Because it's by Henry Miller... | 0:42:09 | 0:42:11 | |
Because it's signed in the bottom right-hand corner. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:14 | |
We've looked it up on the computer and there are similar paintings of his. | 0:42:14 | 0:42:19 | |
That's as much as I know about it. | 0:42:19 | 0:42:21 | |
This watercolour, with washes, heightened with body colour, | 0:42:21 | 0:42:24 | |
is signed and dated in the bottom right-hand corner, Henry Miller. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:29 | |
1955. | 0:42:29 | 0:42:30 | |
You haven't just got an interesting picture here. | 0:42:30 | 0:42:33 | |
You've got a painting by a celebrated writer - | 0:42:33 | 0:42:36 | |
one of the great celebrated writers of the 20th century. | 0:42:36 | 0:42:39 | |
Henry Miller was also a bit of a shocker. | 0:42:39 | 0:42:42 | |
He wrote a book called Tropic Of Cancer, which was the equivalent | 0:42:42 | 0:42:47 | |
of Lady Chatterley's Lover, which was banned because of its sexual heat. | 0:42:47 | 0:42:52 | |
And later on he was feted - George Orwell and others called him | 0:42:52 | 0:42:57 | |
one of the greatest writers of our times. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
But then he turned into a painter as well. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:03 | |
This man had no end of talents. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:05 | |
What you've got here, in a complex, colourful way, | 0:43:05 | 0:43:09 | |
is a writer expressing himself in another medium. | 0:43:09 | 0:43:13 | |
-I mean, if all writers could paint like this there'd be an awful lot of interesting pictures. -Yes. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:19 | |
Have you thought what it might be worth? | 0:43:19 | 0:43:21 | |
Absolutely no idea. | 0:43:21 | 0:43:22 | |
It was a very generous little house-warming present. | 0:43:22 | 0:43:25 | |
It's worth £2,000. | 0:43:25 | 0:43:27 | |
Really? Fantastic. | 0:43:27 | 0:43:29 | |
I never expected that. | 0:43:29 | 0:43:31 | |
Well done. Thank you very much. | 0:43:31 | 0:43:33 | |
In this series, I'm asking our experts which items did they see | 0:43:47 | 0:43:50 | |
most often, what's brought the most often on to the Roadshow? | 0:43:50 | 0:43:54 | |
And which item would they most like to see, that they really fantasise about finding? | 0:43:54 | 0:43:59 | |
John Bligh, you're our longest standing | 0:43:59 | 0:44:01 | |
-furniture expert. -Still standing. | 0:44:01 | 0:44:03 | |
I'm assuming that you would most like to see some kind of furniture? | 0:44:03 | 0:44:06 | |
Well, yes. And I was trying to think and I | 0:44:06 | 0:44:09 | |
think honestly it has to be the bow-front chest of drawers. | 0:44:09 | 0:44:12 | |
Clearly we don't have one here. I guess it's rather difficult to cart it along! | 0:44:12 | 0:44:16 | |
It's a different story with furniture. Not as easy to bring. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:18 | |
Basically, they bring photographs, like this. | 0:44:18 | 0:44:22 | |
That actually is the most popular, the commonest. | 0:44:22 | 0:44:26 | |
Now we have to remember that this is the standard form. | 0:44:26 | 0:44:29 | |
Too short, three long drawers. Fairly deep, commodious indeed. | 0:44:29 | 0:44:33 | |
They were made in huge numbers throughout the 19th century. | 0:44:33 | 0:44:36 | |
Believe it, these things, although they're 150 years old, | 0:44:36 | 0:44:40 | |
probably £100, £150, and it's a fine, it's a good antique. | 0:44:40 | 0:44:44 | |
Drat! I knew you were going to say that | 0:44:44 | 0:44:46 | |
because I've got one like this and I paid more than that! | 0:44:46 | 0:44:49 | |
-And they're terribly commonplace? -I'm afraid so, but the market goes up and down. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:54 | |
-So this is the kind of thing you see most often? -Absolutely. | 0:44:54 | 0:44:56 | |
I will have four or five photographs of chest of drawers like that. | 0:44:56 | 0:45:00 | |
Either straight front or bow-front in every programme. | 0:45:00 | 0:45:03 | |
What would you most like to see? Presumably something French, ornate, a bit of Chippendale perhaps? | 0:45:03 | 0:45:08 | |
Well, it's always nice to find something one can | 0:45:08 | 0:45:11 | |
have an attribution for, either a maker or a particular house or area. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:16 | |
And here, of course, probably one of my favourite places in England, | 0:45:16 | 0:45:20 | |
is Brighton's showpiece, which is the Royal Pavilion. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:24 | |
And there, the Prince's architect and designer and interior decorator, was Henry Holland, | 0:45:24 | 0:45:29 | |
who liked French furniture, modern French, Greco-Roman and Chinese, | 0:45:29 | 0:45:33 | |
or Oriental, and it's the Chinese that gets me. | 0:45:33 | 0:45:36 | |
I just find it fascinating that they were importing flat-pack tables and chairs. | 0:45:36 | 0:45:40 | |
Flat-pack furniture? I assumed that was a modern mass-produced phenomenon that we have these days? | 0:45:40 | 0:45:46 | |
No, it was that, really, that caught the imagination of Henry Holland, | 0:45:46 | 0:45:51 | |
and it was 1802, 1804, | 0:45:51 | 0:45:53 | |
that the Prince started to redecorate the inside, | 0:45:53 | 0:45:56 | |
and it took probably the next 20 years. | 0:45:56 | 0:45:59 | |
Sadly, after which, he only visited twice. | 0:45:59 | 0:46:02 | |
The great hedonistic days of the pavilion were when he was Prince Regent. | 0:46:02 | 0:46:06 | |
He spent all that money on it and only visited twice? | 0:46:06 | 0:46:09 | |
Oh, God, yes. After 1822. | 0:46:09 | 0:46:11 | |
Up to then, he nearly lived here. | 0:46:11 | 0:46:13 | |
Is it then because it's so delicate | 0:46:13 | 0:46:15 | |
that there's so little of this furniture left? | 0:46:15 | 0:46:18 | |
Up to a point, but also, when he died in 1830, | 0:46:18 | 0:46:21 | |
the place was closed up and Queen Victoria, particularly, | 0:46:21 | 0:46:25 | |
-was slightly embarrassed at what had gone on here. -It was all a bit hedonistic for her? -It was too much. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:30 | |
And it was closed, and they took a lot of the things out | 0:46:30 | 0:46:33 | |
and put them into the royal palaces. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:35 | |
And that's when a lot of things disappeared, | 0:46:35 | 0:46:38 | |
and that's why we always think there's a possibility, and actually | 0:46:38 | 0:46:42 | |
that's the excitement, of finding something that can be traced | 0:46:42 | 0:46:46 | |
to one of Crace's drawings like this. | 0:46:46 | 0:46:48 | |
I was in New York recently | 0:46:48 | 0:46:49 | |
and there was a pair to that table in New York. | 0:46:49 | 0:46:52 | |
If I'd got any money I'd buy it. It's actually 85,000, which is not | 0:46:52 | 0:46:56 | |
a huge amount of money, but it's a lot for a table that collapses. | 0:46:56 | 0:47:02 | |
If we could say it came out of Brighton Pavilion, anywhere | 0:47:02 | 0:47:06 | |
-with a definite attribution, you can treble that or quadruple it. -Really? | 0:47:06 | 0:47:09 | |
Oh, yes. That's the great turn-on. It's so exciting. | 0:47:09 | 0:47:13 | |
Any of you can oblige? | 0:47:13 | 0:47:15 | |
Yes, well, it hasn't walked in so far. | 0:47:15 | 0:47:18 | |
No, there's the rest of the day. | 0:47:18 | 0:47:19 | |
Yes, there's the rest of the day, as you say. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:22 | |
And, if you have any of this furniture that would quicken the pulse of John Bligh here, | 0:47:22 | 0:47:27 | |
do please bring it in or contact us, and you can find us at our website. | 0:47:27 | 0:47:31 | |
Some people are going to look at the screen and say, | 0:47:41 | 0:47:43 | |
"Oh, no, here he comes again, | 0:47:43 | 0:47:44 | |
"Will Farmer with yet another piece of Clarice Cliff." | 0:47:44 | 0:47:47 | |
But, in my defence, there is Clarice Cliff | 0:47:47 | 0:47:50 | |
and then there is Clarice Cliff. | 0:47:50 | 0:47:52 | |
Shall we say the best and then the rest? | 0:47:52 | 0:47:55 | |
And, for me, what we're looking at is by far the best. | 0:47:55 | 0:47:58 | |
I'm glad to hear that. | 0:47:58 | 0:47:59 | |
Tell me a little bit about it from your side. | 0:47:59 | 0:48:01 | |
About 50 years ago I was at an auction. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:03 | |
I bought a big box of stuff, china, etc. That was in the box. | 0:48:03 | 0:48:07 | |
I paid the equivalent of about 20p. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:09 | |
-20p? -Took it home, kept it in my apartment for a couple | 0:48:09 | 0:48:12 | |
of years until I went to America, and my mother said, I love your vase. | 0:48:12 | 0:48:17 | |
I said, Ma, you can have it. Gave it to my mother. | 0:48:17 | 0:48:20 | |
Came back 20 years later and she went to the Brighton Museum and she saw | 0:48:20 | 0:48:26 | |
Clarice Cliff in Brighton Museum, thought it might be worth something. | 0:48:26 | 0:48:29 | |
She had it valued about 15 years ago, | 0:48:29 | 0:48:32 | |
and I think it was about 1,200, 1,500, | 0:48:32 | 0:48:34 | |
which I thought was a little high. | 0:48:34 | 0:48:36 | |
But she said she didn't want to sell it. | 0:48:36 | 0:48:38 | |
Let's see what more I can tell you about it. | 0:48:38 | 0:48:40 | |
It sounds like mum's a bit of a detective, to have gone to Brighton | 0:48:40 | 0:48:43 | |
and seen Clarice Cliff in Brighton | 0:48:43 | 0:48:45 | |
she will have gone to the first ever exhibition of Clarice Cliff's wares. | 0:48:45 | 0:48:48 | |
-It might have been. -But what we are looking at is a pattern that's called sliced circle. | 0:48:48 | 0:48:53 | |
The design was created in 1929. | 0:48:53 | 0:48:55 | |
It sometimes does overlap into 1930. | 0:48:55 | 0:48:59 | |
-And today it really does tick all the boxes. -Oh, good, I'm glad. | 0:48:59 | 0:49:02 | |
So you paid, just remind me? | 0:49:02 | 0:49:04 | |
It was three and six | 0:49:04 | 0:49:05 | |
in those days, just under 20p. | 0:49:05 | 0:49:08 | |
-For the whole box of other stuff as well. -And we'd like to see a profit. | 0:49:08 | 0:49:11 | |
-Yeah. -Something was muted around 1,200 a few years ago? | 0:49:11 | 0:49:15 | |
-Yeah. -Well, I'll happily give you the 1,200. Is that all right? | 0:49:15 | 0:49:19 | |
-No. -No, OK. You're quite right, | 0:49:19 | 0:49:21 | |
cos if I gave you £1,200 I would be quite seriously short-changing you. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:25 | |
-Really? -Let's be dead straight and cut to the chase and say that you | 0:49:25 | 0:49:28 | |
would struggle to replace this vase for much less than £5,000 to £6,000. | 0:49:28 | 0:49:32 | |
Really? Very nice. My mother's going to be really happy to hear that. Excellent. | 0:49:32 | 0:49:36 | |
Do you know this is a bit of a clonky old candlestick, | 0:49:36 | 0:49:39 | |
isn't it? What's happened to it? | 0:49:39 | 0:49:41 | |
It's all bent. It's got cracks | 0:49:41 | 0:49:43 | |
in the top and it's very worn out. | 0:49:43 | 0:49:45 | |
Why's it so worn out? | 0:49:45 | 0:49:46 | |
My granddad dug it up in the back garden of my dad's holiday house. | 0:49:49 | 0:49:55 | |
He dug it up in the back garden? | 0:49:55 | 0:49:57 | |
It's quite old you know. Look at it, look at the way it's made. | 0:49:57 | 0:50:00 | |
Did you ever notice it's got a line down the side there? | 0:50:00 | 0:50:04 | |
-No. -Well this candlestick is made in two halves | 0:50:04 | 0:50:06 | |
and the two halves are then fitted together. | 0:50:06 | 0:50:09 | |
Now that tells me something about it. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:11 | |
Also on the bottom, which is quite unusual for this type of candlestick, there's some initials. | 0:50:11 | 0:50:16 | |
GMD. | 0:50:16 | 0:50:18 | |
Now, I don't have any idea what those initials stand for. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:22 | |
But one thing I will say to you | 0:50:22 | 0:50:25 | |
is that this candlestick is 250 years old. | 0:50:25 | 0:50:29 | |
Can you believe that? | 0:50:29 | 0:50:31 | |
-No. Not really. -250 years old. | 0:50:31 | 0:50:33 | |
When your granddad was digging in the garden, he dug up one of a pair of Georgian candlesticks. | 0:50:33 | 0:50:39 | |
So this was made around in about 1765 to 1770. | 0:50:39 | 0:50:43 | |
Now, what do you think would make this more valuable? | 0:50:43 | 0:50:46 | |
Er, maybe a bit of polish. | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
Maybe bit of polish, yes. But how about the other candlestick? | 0:50:50 | 0:50:54 | |
-Do you fancy going to dig up the other one? -No. | 0:50:55 | 0:51:00 | |
-A pair of Georgian candlesticks like this would probably be worth around about £300 at auction. -Wow! | 0:51:00 | 0:51:08 | |
But one on it own is worth a little bit less than half than that, given that it has some damage. | 0:51:08 | 0:51:13 | |
-Anyway, it's fabulous and it's very old, and maybe you should give it a little polish, eh? -Yes. | 0:51:13 | 0:51:20 | |
Now, you have brought along this beautiful car mascot. | 0:51:25 | 0:51:28 | |
But what happened to the beautiful car that she once sat on? | 0:51:28 | 0:51:31 | |
Well, it wasn't sitting on a car when we bought it. | 0:51:31 | 0:51:34 | |
We acquired it like that. | 0:51:34 | 0:51:36 | |
But we had a collection of vintage and veteran and sports racing cars, | 0:51:36 | 0:51:40 | |
including a Silver Ghost Rolls, and my husband thought that she was | 0:51:40 | 0:51:45 | |
so similar to the lady on the Silver Ghost Rolls that she might have been a prototype of an earlier mascot. | 0:51:45 | 0:51:51 | |
Obviously, you and he had great eye, because you're absolutely right, | 0:51:51 | 0:51:55 | |
this mascot is made by the same sculptor, Charles Sykes. | 0:51:55 | 0:52:00 | |
He made the famous Flying Lady. | 0:52:00 | 0:52:02 | |
But what is little known he also made this lady, and she's actually called Mystery. | 0:52:02 | 0:52:09 | |
Now, Rolls-Royce were thinking about producing a car and going to call it | 0:52:09 | 0:52:14 | |
Mystery, and this was going to be the mascot that sat on top of that particular radiator cap. | 0:52:14 | 0:52:20 | |
However, that project got scrapped and also the design of this didn't really work. | 0:52:20 | 0:52:25 | |
Because as you were going along and it rained, | 0:52:25 | 0:52:28 | |
the rain must have actually got caught in her drapes there. | 0:52:28 | 0:52:31 | |
So they produced a prototype, and I have to say, | 0:52:31 | 0:52:36 | |
in all my years of looking at mascots and classic cars, | 0:52:36 | 0:52:41 | |
this is only the second one I've ever seen. | 0:52:41 | 0:52:44 | |
So extraordinarily rare. | 0:52:44 | 0:52:46 | |
My husband always intended to try and find out more about it, perhaps when he retired. | 0:52:46 | 0:52:50 | |
Unfortunately, he didn't live long enough to do that. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:55 | |
But did you have the same interest in cars as he? | 0:52:55 | 0:52:58 | |
Well, yes, because my brother and my father were both interested in cars and motorbikes, | 0:52:58 | 0:53:03 | |
and my brother advertised the vintage Bentley that he had bought and decided to sell and buy another one. | 0:53:03 | 0:53:09 | |
And my husband was 21, and it was advertised in Motor Sport, | 0:53:09 | 0:53:13 | |
so we met through an advert in Motor Sport - my husband came and bought it. | 0:53:13 | 0:53:17 | |
So buying the Bentley, he met you. | 0:53:17 | 0:53:20 | |
-He met me. -Fell in love. | 0:53:20 | 0:53:21 | |
Well... My brother always... | 0:53:21 | 0:53:24 | |
-Or did he fall in love with the Bentley? -My brother always said he had to marry me to get the spares! | 0:53:24 | 0:53:29 | |
So I had to endure that when I was young, you know what brothers are like. | 0:53:29 | 0:53:34 | |
Well, I'm envious of all your cars and I'm very envious of this mascot, | 0:53:35 | 0:53:40 | |
because she is not only a beautiful mascot, but extraordinarily rare. | 0:53:40 | 0:53:45 | |
And as I said, only two are known. | 0:53:45 | 0:53:48 | |
One turned up in America and it made in excess of 20,000. | 0:53:48 | 0:53:53 | |
But that was a signed one, Charles Sykes. This isn't signed. | 0:53:53 | 0:53:56 | |
So I think here in the UK, if she was sold, it would be more like £5,000 to £7,000. But... | 0:53:56 | 0:54:03 | |
Lovely. We're going to keep it. | 0:54:03 | 0:54:05 | |
I'm delighted. All you need now is a car to put it back on. | 0:54:05 | 0:54:08 | |
Well, true. I've got a Bentley still. | 0:54:08 | 0:54:11 | |
-Do you have any French connections in your family? -No, none at all. | 0:54:14 | 0:54:17 | |
So can I inquire how you actually came by this, which is a very French clock? | 0:54:17 | 0:54:21 | |
It was a gift to my father from his employer. | 0:54:21 | 0:54:24 | |
-I would say 35 to 40 years ago. -And it's just sat around in the hall. | 0:54:24 | 0:54:28 | |
Just sat indoors on a little table. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:32 | |
Well, it's called an annular clock or a circle tournant, | 0:54:32 | 0:54:36 | |
because of the two horizontal chapterings | 0:54:36 | 0:54:39 | |
which actually turn on a horizontal basis. | 0:54:39 | 0:54:42 | |
So it is a turning circle, or an annular because of the circular chaptering. | 0:54:42 | 0:54:46 | |
And it's a particularly good one. | 0:54:46 | 0:54:49 | |
It does have a name, which is going to be extremely difficult to see, because it's buried. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:54 | |
But I managed to have a quick look. | 0:54:54 | 0:54:55 | |
It is signed by a maker called Lechopie a Paris, | 0:54:55 | 0:54:59 | |
which is engraved in rather fine script along the bottom. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:02 | |
And there were three or Lechopies. | 0:55:02 | 0:55:05 | |
One particular one called Adam, who was Adam Lechopie, was working | 0:55:05 | 0:55:10 | |
until 1789, and I reckon that absolutely pins the clock to him. | 0:55:10 | 0:55:14 | |
It's the third quarter of the 18th century. | 0:55:14 | 0:55:17 | |
And it is absolutely a staggering piece of work. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:20 | |
Because the quality of chasing, the bronze the gilding which is | 0:55:20 | 0:55:24 | |
in very fine condition, clearly it's never been cleaned since you had it. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:29 | |
And the inlaying of the marble into the panels of the side doors is exceptional. | 0:55:29 | 0:55:34 | |
One interesting point I would like to show you is, | 0:55:34 | 0:55:37 | |
-if you look at the case, can you see a thin line running down there? -Yes. | 0:55:37 | 0:55:43 | |
And down there. The same line is repeated on the back. | 0:55:43 | 0:55:46 | |
So to make the case, they basically cast two halves, two pieces, identical and then they soldered | 0:55:46 | 0:55:54 | |
them, or welded them, in the fashion of day, soldered them together, and after which, the "sizzler", | 0:55:54 | 0:56:01 | |
the chaser, would have gone over and covered every detail and put all this in. | 0:56:01 | 0:56:05 | |
This would have been cast in sand, so it's a rough piece of work at the time. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:09 | |
The reason you can see those lines is because, in the soldering process, | 0:56:09 | 0:56:13 | |
they used to use arsenic, and it just bled through. | 0:56:13 | 0:56:17 | |
If the clock was cleaned, it would disappear again. | 0:56:17 | 0:56:20 | |
If we look at what effectively is the front of the clock, because here is where the hours are read, | 0:56:20 | 0:56:26 | |
we've got a door that opens, and that's how you get in to wind the movement. | 0:56:26 | 0:56:30 | |
Basically, it is a standard clock movement, made to fit in here | 0:56:30 | 0:56:34 | |
by using a right-angled bevel gear. | 0:56:34 | 0:56:36 | |
They shoot the power up to the top, and there's a couple of wheels in here that turn this. | 0:56:36 | 0:56:42 | |
So you've actually managed to drive from the vertical movement | 0:56:42 | 0:56:45 | |
to a horizontal plate, and it's easy to see. Striking on the hour. | 0:56:45 | 0:56:49 | |
It is a stunning piece. I have been thinking about the value. Have you ever had it sort of valued? | 0:56:50 | 0:56:55 | |
No, a few years ago, a gentleman offered my dad...he just said 4,000. | 0:56:55 | 0:57:00 | |
That's not a bad bid, was it? | 0:57:02 | 0:57:04 | |
It was a long time ago. But I don't know what it is now. | 0:57:04 | 0:57:08 | |
Well, I have been struggling between the two and I'm going to go in the middle of what I thought. | 0:57:08 | 0:57:12 | |
-I reckon we're probably looking at 12,500. -Oh! | 0:57:12 | 0:57:15 | |
God! | 0:57:15 | 0:57:16 | |
It's a good thing he didn't accept it. | 0:57:19 | 0:57:22 | |
Goodness! | 0:57:22 | 0:57:23 | |
-Ooh! -Very nice piece. Thank you. -Thank you, thank you very much. | 0:57:23 | 0:57:28 | |
We have been bathed in glorious sunshine all day here at Brighton College, | 0:57:31 | 0:57:35 | |
and lots of old boys from the college have turned up, | 0:57:35 | 0:57:37 | |
and one of greatest old boys of all has turned up - | 0:57:37 | 0:57:40 | |
our Antiques Roadshow old schoolboy Michael Aspel! | 0:57:40 | 0:57:43 | |
-How nice to see you! -Well, thank you. And you. Isn't this glorious? | 0:57:43 | 0:57:46 | |
Were you just paying a social call or did you bring something along? | 0:57:46 | 0:57:49 | |
Both, really. I just wandered past and heard people enjoying themselves and I thought I'd pop in. | 0:57:49 | 0:57:53 | |
But I did bring an object, which was given to me | 0:57:53 | 0:57:57 | |
on a very special birthday about 30 years ago, | 0:57:57 | 0:58:00 | |
and I asked... They said, what would you like? And I said a telescope. | 0:58:00 | 0:58:03 | |
Because I wanted to study the heavens, and they had these great things on tripods, and I got this. | 0:58:03 | 0:58:07 | |
Which is very nice. | 0:58:07 | 0:58:09 | |
But not quite what you were expecting? | 0:58:09 | 0:58:11 | |
No, but I consulted an expert, and it's just what I thought - sort of 1820, worth 150 quid. | 0:58:11 | 0:58:16 | |
Belonged to a midshipman. Story of my life. I see no ships! | 0:58:16 | 0:58:18 | |
I can't believe you've waited this long to bring | 0:58:18 | 0:58:21 | |
something along when you worked on the programme for such a long time. | 0:58:21 | 0:58:23 | |
Well, I felt shy about it, really. | 0:58:23 | 0:58:25 | |
I didn't want to embarrass them. | 0:58:25 | 0:58:27 | |
-Now that I'm not working on it, I can do what I like! -Exactly! | 0:58:27 | 0:58:30 | |
-Well, on that note, from Brighton College and the Antiques Roadshow, until next time, bye-bye. -Bye. | 0:58:30 | 0:58:37 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:45 | 0:58:49 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:58:49 | 0:58:52 |