Castle Coole 1 Antiques Roadshow

Today we've headed as far west as the Roadshow has ever visited in the UK.

We're in Northern Ireland, near the town of Enniskillen in Fermanagh.

In the distance is our venue, which may be welcoming a few first time visitors today,

because even though it was built in 1789, it's still a relatively well-kept secret.

Time to change all that.

Welcome to the Antiques Roadshow from Castle Coole in County Fermanagh.

There's always a flutter of excitement among our experts

when they get the list of the venues the Roadshow's going to be visiting.

None more so than Castle Coole. We were very keen to come here.

You in particular, Christopher Payne.

What makes it so special? It's one of my favourite Georgian buildings.

I'd never seen it until today. Just look at it.

That fantastic austere avant-garde edifice made of Portland stone,

all the way from Dorset.

It came here in Lord Belmore's brig, The Martha, all the way by sea.

Can you imagine?

And what about inside? Go and have a look. It's exquisite, very expensive.

Go and have a look.

I will.

Castle Coole was built between 1789 and 1798

as a summer retreat for a prominent Irish politician,

the First Earl of Belmore.

And as Christopher said,

the architect was a fashionable young Londoner called James Wyatt.

Castle Coole is said to be the perfect example of his work.

But do you know what?

He never came here.

The fact that James Wyatt never visited here is surprising.

Apparently, he was hopelessly disorganised

and soon lost interest in his commissions,

leaving infuriated owners

with half-finished houses seething in his wake.

So really, they're very lucky here at Castle Coole

that not only did he finish it, but it's also such a beautiful house.

It wasn't just the house that he designed.

He also had quite a lot to do with the interior as well.

A very talented chap.

This room, the saloon, was the heart of the house.

It was where important family gatherings were held.

It was where the entire household, family and servants,

used to hold morning prayers.

And I can see what Christopher Payne meant about the exquisite craftsmanship.

The family spared no expense bringing over the best artisans

from as far afield as Italy.

And there's a ladies workroom where they used to sit

and do their needlework, furnished in the fashionable Chinese style.

It reflects the importance of being seen to be cultured

and cosmopolitan.

I can see why our experts were so excited about seeing this place.

I think it's time we joined them outside.

And our hosts here at Castle Coole near Enniskillen

are The National Trust.

It really is rather a special watch and chatelaine.

Now tell me, what do you know about it?

Nothing really at all. I found it in a cupboard.

Sorry, you literally found it? As I was cleaning out...

Yes, as I was tidying up the little cupboard

and I found this in the box and wondered what it was.

Somebody must have collected this, or loved it, at some stage.

Well, I presume my father bought it.

He was interested in clocks and restored clocks,

so I presume he had it in the house, but I wasn't aware of it, no.

That's absolutely fantastic. I mean...

So this is something you've just come across, literally discovered.

Yes. Wonderful. Yes. Yes.

So had you thought of it as a man's watch or a lady's watch?

Well, I wondered if it would be a lady's watch for days gone by,

but I wasn't too sure.

You're absolutely right.

The lady of the house would have worn that, on a belt,

and there would have been all sorts of other things here,

little etuis perhaps with baby scissors, maybe a needle and thread,

we've got the key.

It might have had more little objects applied to the chatelaine. I see.

It is actually English through and through, dating from 1775-1780.

Right. It's 22 carat gold, amongst other things,

but the inset stone is what we call a dendritic agate.

Oh.

These impurities are dendritic because they look like trees.

It's from the Greek "dendron," meaning a tree. Right.

What do you think of it? It's very pretty.

I think it's pretty.

I mean, we've got this absolutely magnificent diamond push piece here,

lovely white enamel dial,

winding through the dial, obviously, because it's a consular case.

Gold beetle and poker hands,

exactly what you'd expect for the period, and there we are,

a lovely verge movement, and signed "Crosthwaite of Dublin."

So having said it was English, it still is English, but he would have been the retailer of it. Ah.

He didn't make this. So he didn't make it?

No, he put his name to it. I see, right.

It would have been a special commission. Oh.

From an extremely rich client.

You've never seen this thing before, it's just sitting at home.

Been sitting at home.

You think your father, as a clock enthusiast, found it. Well, bought it, yes.

Bought it, put it somewhere safe

so that prying hands couldn't get near,

but prying hands have now found it. Absolutely, yes.

And would prying hands be rather glad to know that at auction

it would make ?7,000 to ?9,000?

GASPS

Very nice.

That's very good.

It's wonderful to come to Northern Ireland here

and for you to have produced three things that are just so Irish.

Yes. These cups...

The idea of having the set with one large and a pair of smaller cups

is something which you find time and time again in Ireland. Yeah.

And the quality of the workmanship,

and we are talking 18th century with these,

they are really fantastic, equal of anything being produced in London.

And when you look at the way the handle is produced...

Most handles, when you look at the top there,

just go straight into the body from that scroll.

Here, you've got these lovely mouldings

and look at that lovely little diminishing baluster just there.

The sort of period we're looking at, of course...

Had you thought about date at all? I don't know, I've had them a long time, they were handed down to me.

I didn't know they were Irish until you said they were Irish! Right.

Never knew that. Well, there we are.

And I've had them for about 25 years, you know, in my own house.

But I know nothing about them.

No, no, well, you're a lucky man. No, know nothing.

So you're looking at the reign of King George II with these. Yes.

And actually, there's one very useful pointer

when you look at the actual marks.

What we've got here is the figure of Hibernia, obviously for Ireland.

Yes.

But that was a tax mark for agricultural development projects

that was introduced in 1730.

They've got to be after 1730.

I mean, here we're looking at a date of around 1740,

that sort of period.

Beautiful original armorials there,

and what's fascinating as well

is that if we look at the reverse,

we've got the family crest there.

Now, when we look at this cup,

we've actually got a different maker,

but that same crest appears there.

This should be your ancestry.

Could be.

Yeah, well, you've got to look into that. Yeah.

The Irish market has... shall we say been a little bit turbulent.

Downhill.

So, my thinking is for the pair,

we should be looking in the order of ?2,000-?2,500.

And for the single cup, the same sort of value.

That's wonderful.

So you've got the best part of 5,000 there.

That's great, yeah, didn't realise that at all, they've been lying... up for 25 years...

Didn't cost me anything. So, there you go.

What could be better? That's it.

You might wonder why

a lump of moulded glass has got me very excited,

which actually it is because it represents a rough diamond,

and from this rough diamond came nine very, very famous stones which are in the Crown Jewels.

Ah.

So tell me first, what made you buy this?

Well, I was in a charity shop and I saw it,

and I thought it was very interesting.

I've always been interested in geology

and when I read that it was the Cullinan diamond,

I thought "How interesting,"

and I looked at it, I liked the glass and the form of it,

and I bought it.

Do you know, what is very interesting with diamonds is

that people don't realise that this is how diamonds can look like,

in the raw, before they are cut and polished.

This is around about 3,106 carats.

It was found...the replica... Obviously, this is a replica.

Replica, yes. But...

Otherwise I'd be off down the road if this was a real one, right now.

No, no, it was found in 1905 in South Africa. Yes.

And only about 18 feet below the ground,

in a mine, in an open cast mine.

And would it have looked like this?

Yes, this is exactly how it would look.

It's pure carbon that's been crystallised under real...

lots of heat and pressure. Yes.

The pressure,

if you can imagine you've got a coin and you put the Eiffel Tower

on top of that coin,

that is the pressure needed to crystallise carbon and a lot, a lot of heat,

and it's about 160 kilometres below the earth's surface is where diamonds are formed.

It then travelled, eventually,

to King Edward VII,

and he gave it to the Asscher family to cut.

Now, to cut a diamond,

you can only cut a diamond with another diamond.

There's two ways of cutting it.

You either cut it with the grain, or against the grain.

So they made the two stones that are really famous.

One's in the sceptre, the Star of Africa, so the 500 carats,

and that's in the sceptre in the Crown Jewels.

And the other one,

which is called the Cullinan Two, is in the Imperial State Crown.

Now, when Mr Asscher had to start cutting this,

they spent a very, very long time

working out how they were going to cut it,

and he decided to cleave it himself.

Now, if you cleave it incorrectly, you can shatter,

maybe, the stone, so... and it's only one blow.

My goodness.

So he sat there, he carved a little groove in the stone. Yes.

And with a chisel, he just had to make that one cut,

that one bang to make it split where he wanted it to split.

Where he wanted it split.

And the story goes that he did that, and then he fainted.

As you would.

As you would, and it went according to plan.

Lovely silver label you have there.

The hallmark is 1908, and that was when it was cut. Really? Wonderful.

So that's really lovely. Yes, it is lovely.

So what did you pay for it in..? I paid ?60 for it.

All right, well, I just think...

I just love what it represents, and quite a few other people loved this as well.

I would say, if one was to sell it at auction, you'd be looking at about...

in the region of about ?1,000 now.

Oh, my goodness, oh, my goodness. Yes, oh, it's fabulous.

I can only assume you've got a very large house.

You would be assuming quite wrongly, but it fits into the room.

How? With great difficulty.

Why did you buy it?

I bought it because I loved it.

I had gone out to buy a suite of furniture,

and I had bought the suite of furniture,

and then I went around the corner to look at other things,

and I saw this, and I thought it was the most beautiful thing,

and I thought, I wish I could have that,

and then I thought, why not have it? And I bought it.

Fair enough. So what happened to the suite of furniture?

I went back to the man and I said,

"I've seen something beautiful that I want, I would prefer to have,"

and he said, "That's OK," and he give me back the cheque.

Well, anyway, thank you for bringing it along to us.

I know already there is a signature here somewhere, isn't there? Yes.

Do you know anything about Lamb of Manchester?

I just knew that it was Lamb of Manchester.

He pointed it out to me, but I know nothing about it.

I mean, it's a very important firm, Lamb of Manchester.

Oh, right, yes. They were working until around 1900.

And their earliest work was what we call the Aesthetic Movement,

William Morris, Arts and Crafts, if you like.

But this is much more a Renaissance style. Right.

It's rather unusual for Lamb and I think it probably makes it date to around 1900,

right at the end of their... or Lamb's life, anyway. Yeah.

What I think's fascinating about it,

and I hope somebody can tell me about it,

this does appear to be machine-carved. Yes, yes.

You seem to know that. Well, I thought, looking at it, it would be.

But I wouldn't know.

In 40 years of looking at furniture,

I've never found one of these machines. Oh.

And I'd love to find one because I don't know how they worked, it's extraordinary. Yes.

It's very regular carving, and this wonderful oak. I bet you know what the wood is.

It's supposed to be burr oak.

Yes, it's a type of cut of oak, not exactly burr oak,

but it's beautiful quality wood, isn't it? Yes.

Is this a favourite piece in the house?

It is for me. I think it's like a work of art.

It is a work of art, and to me,

I just sit and have a cup of coffee and enjoy it.

And talk to it?

I think, I think of the person who would have worked

and did all of this sort of thing, and...

I would like him to know who... is now in his grave...

that I get as much enjoyment out of it as he would have done creating it.

That's a lovely story, it's a lovely story.

I like that very much. Did you pay a lot of money for this?

Well, I haven't told my husband. Is he listening?

But I did...

Well, I paid ?3,999 for it.

So just under ?4,000 for it. Yes, yes, yes.

What would the leather suite have cost you?

It was something... a thousand and something.

So, what would the leather suite be worth today?

Nothing.

And you paid a lot of money for this. Yes, yes.

More than I've ever heard anyone pay for...

Well, I thought I... Why shouldn't I sit and enjoy something?

And the money...money be there when I'm not there.

Well, I think the value is going to hold. Yes.

I'm not going to value it at less than you paid for it. I don't mind.

But I think around ?4,000. It seems quite a lot. Yes, yes, yes, no.

It's worth a lot more than that leather suite. Yes, yes.

Thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much.

Take a look at these diamond rings.

They are gorgeous,

and our jewellery specialist Jo Hardy

tells me that one is worth about ?2,000,

one is worth ?20,000

and one is worth ?50,000.

And she's set me, and you, a little challenge to try and work out which is which,

so I'm going to have a little look,

ask our visitors here and then all will be revealed.

So, you've brought in this rather lovely carriage clock,

and the first thing I notice on the top is a rather unusual inscription

that's been engraved into the glass.

"William Jenner Esq MD."

Who was he?

I did some research after buying the clock,

and he's mentioned in the Dictionary of National Biography,

and what I discovered about him was

he was President of the Royal Society of Physicians,

he was the Chief Physician to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Fantastic. And he would have looked after Prince Albert up to the time that he died.

Right, and we've got a date there,

1865, which is lovely,

and then we've got a donor here. "From George Thompson."

Do you know anything about him? No, no.

He didn't come up in research. No. But another very grateful patient, perhaps.

Very good, yes, yes.

Makes sense, doesn't it? Yes, it does.

Well, the clock is absolutely top of the range.

This would have been a very, very generous present at the time. Right.

You're probably well aware of the fact that it's got three subsidiary dials,

the central one being an alarm.

The hands have been changed. That's not the original hand. Right.

And then the other two subsidiaries...

Well, basically starting this side with the day of the week and then the date.

Very nice feature, all with an engraved and machine-turned mask.

The case is what we call a gorge case. That's the top of the range carriage clock case,

with all the pinched corners,

and let's see if there's any details of the movement,

as to who might have made it.

I cannot see any factory mark there at all,

but it's almost going to be... certainly be someone like Drocourt or one of the other very good makers,

and the wonderful give-away here

is we've got two hammers striking on two bells.

Right, OK. Now, I'm hoping it might be either a petite sonnerie or a grande sonnerie...

Do you know what I mean by that particular expression? No, no.

OK, well, let's just have a look.

And there you've got the selector lever in the base,

hours and quarters, quarters only, or silent.

I wasn't aware that that facility was there.

Well, it's a good facility because otherwise you're going to get fed up with the quarter striking.

So it's a grande sonnerie. It's a grande sonnerie carriage clock.

So it's beautifully made, absolutely top of the range clock.

It needs a little work on it, but in top retail condition,

this would be retailing for probably anything between ?9,000 and ?12,000.

Very, very nice. I wasn't expecting that, actually.

Were you not? No, I wasn't, no, that's very nice.

It's a lovely clock. Well, thank you very much.

We've got three diamond rings here. A basic one...

They all look pretty nice, frankly, but a basic one worth ?2,000.

The better one worth ?20,000, and the best one is worth ?50,000.

Have a look and...

I mean, use these.

Tell me which you think is which. It's just pot luck, isn't it?

You think that's basic, why? It looks it.

OK! If you're right... Hope that's not the most expensive one.

It's very difficult because they're beautiful. I think maybe that one.

I'm not too sure.

You think that one's the...

The dearer of the two, more expensive.

The ?50,000. I'm not sure.

I think basic here because it's quite blingy

and it doesn't look as expensive.

Is there a lady in your life? Yes, she's standing over there.

Have you bought her a diamond ring? I did yes, not so long ago.

So you should know what you're talking about.

Well... Come on, then. She picks, I pay.

I'll go with the bigger one being the basic one. Oh, really? Why?

Small is best, sort of thing. Are you saying that because he's listening over there? Yeah.

Fancy a diamond ring yourself?

Yeah, I wouldn't mind one.

Do you know, back in the Ming Dynasty,

they had stables in the Forbidden City. Right.

For elephants.

In China, they were given as a tribute by the Kings of Burma,

to the Chinese.

So they actually had stables for them. That was, what, 1368-1644.

By the time you get to the 18th century,

elephants had become really quite an important imperial symbol.

The Emperor Chien-Lung, who reigned in the middle of the 18th century,

for his birthday processions, he had elephants paraded in front of him

with vases tied on their backs, and they symbolised peace.

They have a really interesting history.

These ones here are a little bit later,

they date from the 19th century, but when...

How did you get them? My father-in-law bought a chest of furniture.

He bought a chest of furniture? Yes, and they were in one of the drawers.

So that's how they come about.

That's a pretty damn good find.

Extraordinary little faces they've got on them, haven't they?

These date from the middle of the 19th century, they're Chinese.

It's called famille rose decoration, it's a French term, actually,

related to the decoration, which is this pink enamel. Yes.

Which you don't see in Chinese art until after about 1720.

These ones here would be made for the export market,

so they were made to be decorative, and they certainly are that,

with all these flowers all over them and so forth.

I just can't believe they turned up in a drawer. Yeah!

So they've been what...passed down the family since? Yeah, my husband's.

And what do you do with them now, then?

They were wrapped up in a box.

What, just wrapped up in a box?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

OK. I think you've got an amazing find there.

He did extremely well. They are really quite valuable things now.

There is a bit of damage. There's a bit of restoration, on one of the trunks

and on the tail, a little break here. Yes.

But it's not going to make a huge amount of difference.

In auction today, I could see these making ?6,000, ?7,000.

Mm. There you are.

You know, the crowd behind you are far more astonished than you are.

It's a lot of money to find in a drawer.

It is, yeah, yeah, right.

This utterly captivating little painting really caught my eye

because I loved all the different chiming colours in it,

and I thought, how sweet is that?

And then I saw that it's actually signed by Rex Whistler,

the great muralist and society portraitist

and illustrator of books, and I wondered,

who is that little girl and why is she sitting up in bed like that?

Well, it's me. It's you, you're the little girl. Yes.

Why are you in bed?

Because I'd just had my tonsils and adenoids out

and I think my mother thought that I would sit still if I was in bed.

Rex Whistler came round and painted my picture.

You're being kept busy by cutting up little bits of coloured paper.

That would keep any child busy, I'm sure. It did, yes.

But how old were you? I think I was seven, six or seven.

Because that looks like a child's portrait of Rex Whistler on the blackboard behind,

and he's signed it "Rex Whistler" on the blackboard and dated it there.

I think he probably asked me to do it.

I might have said, "You're painting me, now it's my turn to paint you."

But it's typical of the wit that he had, isn't it? I know.

That he would do that. I know. In that little thing.

Don't you love the way that yellow works with the blue ribbon and the nightie and then this pink flower.

I love the way it's lit from the window,

the whole thing beautifully lit, and it's a painting in oils.

Quite thinly painted, but beautifully glazed and finished.

There's no question that you're getting better, is there?

You look really healthy in there.

Talking of wit, you've got a drawing there by him, haven't you?

Yes, he gave it to me as a present.

Let's see. So after he painted you... he gave you this. He gave me a present, yes.

Because, you see, I grew up with that book that he wrote with his brother Laurence,

and illustrated with reversible faces.

This is a reversible face. Yes. So on one side we've got Henry VIII...there he is.

Yes. I love this. It just gets me every time.

You turn it upside down and you've got one of his wives,

Anne of Cleves.

Yes. Who was very, very ugly.

But didn't he call her the Mare of Flanders?

That's right, and sent her straight back again.

Well, I think it's absolutely hilarious,

and this is the original? This isn't the print from the book? It's the original, yes.

This is the actual original. He must have liked you very much. I don't know.

Well, he certainly did, I would say. Right, right.

So, he's a great muralist and society painter, isn't he?

And isn't the cafe in The Tate painted in murals by him? That's right, yes, yes.

Let's talk about the drawing first.

If that drawing came onto the market,

then I'm afraid it's not in fantastic condition.

It's been through the wars, hasn't it? I'm afraid it has, yes.

In which case I could really only put ?1,000 to ?2,000 on it. Right.

But it's still quite a lot for what it is.

Amazing for the size of it, isn't it? Yes, but it's such a funny thing, I love it.

Yes. And then on this painting...

Well, that's a little more difficult.

I can't remember seeing anything quite as lovely as this by him.

And I feel that it would make between ?6,000 and ?8,000 at auction.

Right. But I think that if the right people saw it,

well, it would soar away and it may not stop until you get to ?15,000.

Really? Really? Really? Well, hopefully I don't need to sell it.

Well, of course not.

No. Well, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Jo, you set us this task earlier on

of trying to work out which of these diamond rings is the basic one,

worth about 2,000,

the better one worth a great leap to 20,000

and then the best worth a socking 50,000.

It was so difficult, I have to say.

I, in the end decided, to be perverse, thinking you might have bowled me a googly...

to put this as the basic because it looks the most ritzy, this is better because I had no idea,

and this is best because it has a slightly yellowish tinge to it, looked beautiful.

That's about it, that's as scientific as it got.

What should we be looking for?

Well, with diamonds, you have the four Cs,

which is cut, clarity, colour and carat weight.

All four of those elements make up to how you value a diamond.

So it's not just the size of it, then?

No, no, no, no, it has to be... either be the inclusions...

If there's inclusions... What does that mean?

Impurities in the diamond, then the price drops,

because that's allowing less light to come back to the eye.

The colour... What you want is like an ice cube.

And you put an ice cube on the white of a card and it's colourless,

well, that's what you're looking for with a diamond, the colour is colourless. Oh.

And then a little bit more yellow that comes into the diamond,

the less the price.

OK. I can see which way this is going already, but right.

Until you get to a really amazing yellow

and that's a fancy coloured diamond and it shoots up in price again. Right.

Cut is also very important because you want to be able to get the maximum light back to the eye,

so you want to have the light coming down through the diamond,

bouncing across the diamond, and coming back up again,

and if it's too shallow or too deep,

the stone will actually look dull.

And then the weight, the carat weight, that's obviously sort of the size of the diamond.

So putting it altogether, but just having a big one,

but with lots of inclusions,

is not necessarily good

because you might want one that's smaller but better inclusions and a whiter stone.

I've got a sinking feeling because I think I've got them completely wrong,

in completely the wrong order then.

Go on, move the signs, let's see.

Well, you've done pretty well, actually. Have I?

Yeah, you have sort of done very well.

I'm going to move... That's going to stay the same.

You were trying to trick us with that, weren't you? This one...

I'm going to change this one to here, and this one to here.

Right. Why is this the best one, then? Because it looks quite plain.

It does, but it's very, very white,

it is one of the top colours you can get for a diamond

and it has a wonderful signature, Cartier. Which I didn't spot!

You'd think after working on this programme for four years, I might have worked that out.

Can I put this one on, just to show how fabulous it is? Yes, yes.

Because I suspect it's what it looks like on the hand, look at that.

Oh, it's beautiful, it really is beautiful. Those...

It's a perfect cut, you can see how much the light is coming back to the eye,

how much it's sparkling. That is beautiful.

It is gorgeous. OK, Mr Cartier, I didn't spot that.

And for a diamond like that, you don't need a fancy setting.

The diamond's doing all the talking.

This one, that I thought was better because it was slightly yellowy, is the reason it's not. Exactly right.

Now you can see, quite obviously can't you, against this one,

how it is slightly more yellow, and you can see that visibly,

so that's why that is the second one.

And this is the basic one, even though it looks the fanciest one.

Mmm.

It's in an Art Deco mount, and they are diamond baguettes,

but the centre stone is a fake.

Oh. Crafty. It's a cubic zirconia.

I wondered if you might have slipped one of those in,

but I thought 2,000 seems a lot for a fake but... Right.

Well, the stone itself is worth ?10, it's the mount,

it's all in the mount. Right, right.

But you know, sometimes what happens

is that someone who has a fantastic diamond,

they might put it in the bank and put a cubic zirconia in so they can...

They don't have to walk around with the real thing.

The secrets of the trade! Right. So that's the basic one.

Well, how fascinating.

I sense we have an avid collector of tea caddies here.

That's correct. How long have you been after these chaps?

20 years.

And where did you actually get these from?

They come from an auction.

Right.

Is this a recent auction?

It was only last week.

Oh, right, oh, so right, fresh. OK, right, OK.

Well, let me have a look at them.

They're very interesting and this is obviously tortoiseshell as you...

I'm sure you realise. Yeah. And this lovely Regency shape...

the sarcophagus shape of this one, but let's have a look.

Studied silence.

What were they described as in the... catalogue, presumably, was it?

It was tortoiseshell tea caddies.

Right. Did they date them?

No date.

What date do you think they are?

I think about 1780, 1790.

Well, the shape is a little bit later than that,

I'm not going to split hairs with you, but we would call them Regency, 1810. Yes, that's what I mean.

But we're roughly in the same date as the house that we're standing in front of, yeah, yeah.

Well.

These aren't old. A week?

Well, they're probably older than a week.

But I'm afraid they're modern copies.

Made in China?

Possibly made in China, or Taiwan, anyway, somewhere like that,

and I'll try and explain a few reasons why.

I think, picking them up, looking at the underside here,

that is fabricated date and age.

The baize in here... well, that can be replaced, obviously.

An awful lot of silvering left in there,

and usually that's gone for this period.

The lock... I'm not aware of any of these being made...

It's essentially an English type tea caddy

with a circular pin and circular hole there.

That's more of a Continental lock and pin,

and the brass isn't quite right.

This to me, again, the outside is the same, a bit too good to be true.

I'm sorry about this. OK.

Why have you got this oak here? Why, what's that for? And there's no...

When you look at that, when you think about it... Really fresh.

You've got the experience of 20 years of collecting,

and in hindsight, you can see how fresh that is.

There's a lot of dirt around, and, you know,

you don't see dirt in tea caddies very often,

not unless they've been buried or something like that.

I'm afraid you have two modern fakes.

Forgeries.

It's your word. I'm afraid so, they are absolutely brand new.

Whether it's last year or last month, I'm not sure.

And you wonder how many are around when you see these.

Did you pay a lot of money for them?

I wouldn't like to tell you.

You're not going to tell..!

Well, I wonder if there's a recourse.

Don't think so.

I'm not sure that I really should be giving a value on the Antiques Roadshow of these,

because I don't want to give any credence at all

to the fact that these are fake pieces,

they shouldn't be on the market.

And another reason for that is that this is...we always call it tortoiseshell...

it's turtle shell. That's splitting hairs in a way, but it's illegal to trade in this,

and you need a CITES licence to get them in and out of Europe,

so, you know, I think I'm going to leave the value out.

They're not old. I'm afraid you were sold a pup.

Looks like it.

Tell me what you paid for them.

Whisper it to me. Nobody'll hear.

I'll say it out. This is for all your benefits.

The larger of the two was ?1,500 before fees,

the smaller one was ?1,100 before fees.

Thank you for being so frank with us.

So you're chatting roughly ?3,000.

I'm so very grateful that you've allowed us to record these,

because I think it's important that the public see what's going on. I agree with you.

They're really good copies, they're fakes, they've taken you in.

You're an experienced collector. We all have this problem.

Not experienced enough on this occasion.

Well, well, it's very important people get the very best advice.

I'm very grateful you've shown them to us and to everybody else. Thank you.

I don't want to give the impression of being rude when I say this,

but these three pieces have been worn out.

Give me some information about why they're so worn.

They belonged to my father, and he inherited them from my great uncle.

He worked in London and he was a maitre d'

in a gentleman's residence. What, like a club? A gentlemen's club.

A private gentlemen's club. Right, right.

He acquired them from a gentleman

who unfortunately ran up quite a substantial account.

Oh, really? Yes.

So he was somebody who was there and he enjoyed himself enormously

and then on the day of presenting him with the cheque, it evaporated.

He couldn't... Correct, yes.

Oh, dear. So what did he say to him?

"Well, you've got to pay for your bill somehow or other"?

Yes. He said to my great uncle,

"Well, have you any other means by settling your account?"

and he said that he had actually three sapphire and diamond rings in platinum, and a watch.

Yes.

And would that do, to settle the account, and he liked them so much

and decided to purchase them and settle the gentleman's account.

Yes, it has to be said that it worked out rather well for the family, didn't it? Don't you agree? Yes.

When was he working at the club in London? He would have been working probably during WWII,

right up until about 1960. '65, he died.

I think that these two rings... Now, you know what they are, they're diamond, sapphire and platinum.

Yes. I think they were made in around about 1935.

Right.

But the sapphires are these Burmese blue,

this royal blue that we find with the very best of the best sapphires.

Now this one is a faceted sapphire.

Right.

And this one is a polished en cabochon.

The diamonds are on the shoulders. Yes.

There. Ultimately, if someone were to buy them,

they would have those sapphires polished. Right.

Now we move on to the most seriously distressed item of the three,

which is the wrist watch, which is so distressed that it is...

I mean... What word could one use to describe it?

It's in a mess, isn't it? It really, really is.

My father says it's worth something in scrap

and I thought I'll bring it along.

Well, it... All right, well, first of all I'm going to start off

by saying that the bracelet is simply white metal, it's steel.

So there's no scrappage there, sorry to say.

Let's have a look at the case. The face... You can see, it's worn out.

This is very difficult to touch because it's very loose,

but what I've done is, I've taken the little screws out of here.

OK, right. To reveal the core, to look inside it.

Right.

Now we move on to the interesting feature of this.

Now remember the man who owned it in the first place before your great uncle. Yes, the gentleman.

Now, do you see that mark there? Yes.

That little stamp there, platinum. Definitely.

Now, look at the combination here of the yellow gold

against the platinum. Yes.

Now, that's a bit classy.

You can see that here there's a tiny little individual number

that's been stamped onto the case at the back. Right.

So we're moving things up a stage, this is numbered. OK.

Platinum and 18 carat gold.

Oh.

And the little mark there is French.

The reason that I wanted to unscrew the screws from the side of the case

was to have a look at the movement.

Now, you're going to be disappointed. Not signed. Oh, right.

But the movement is by something called the European Watch and Clock Company Ltd.

So that throws up a very interesting conjecture,

because if it's by the European Watch and Clock Company,

they were people who used to make their movements

for a very significant company.

Right.

Shall we move on to values?

I'm scared now. This is stored in the garage.

It ain't going to be stored in the garage any more, that's for sure.

It's been 30 years in our garage. Right. I'm scared.

Right. OK, ready?

OK. I don't know.

This is going to be...in its existing state ?1,000 to ?1,500.

OK. That's very good.

Right. This one here, I love that sapphire,

it's got a real glow of blue to it.

?1,500 to ?2,000, I suppose, something like that.

Now, do you remember I told you about the European Watch Company?

Yes. They used to make movements for a company called Cartier.

Oh, no. I don't...

I don't...!

Are you ready? No, I'm not!

Are you ready?

We'll be all right.

?5,000.

Oh!

Worth getting fixed, really.

Can we have them fixed?

What needs to happen with that, it needs to be restored,

it also needs to go to Cartier

so that they can state categorically that it is their watch.

Subject to their confirmation, that it is Cartier,

all the factors in place, so what are we talking about here?

Between the one, two, three pieces here...

oh, I don't know, ?7,500 to ?10,000.

Thank you very much, John. Thank you.

Thank you very much. You're a treasure.

What a great result for those two ladies. That was just fantastic.

And all I can say is, ?7,500 to ?10,000,

that must have been one heck of a bar bill!

From Castle Coole in County Fermanagh,

from all of us here, until next time, bye-bye.