Hartland Abbey 2 Antiques Roadshow

Today's Antiques Roadshow returns to the spectacular coast

of north-west Devon.

What a view!

And it's certainly windy.

Down there, nestling in its own little valley,

is Hartland Abbey,

which is today's location for the Roadshow.

Back there is Hartland Point,

marking the end of the Bristol Channel

and the start of the Atlantic.

That way is Cornwall.

This is a dramatic coastline with wild weather

and stories to match.

This is Hartland Quay, 15 miles along the coast from Bude.

Once it was a thriving harbour,

the only way of bringing in supplies to the remote Hartland area.

But there isn't a harbour here any more.

Its pier was washed away after the last cargo came here in 1893.

Strong winds, treacherous seas, vicious rocks,

mean this coastline is famous for one thing,

shipwrecks.

And the first recorded wreck

was at Hartland in the 14th century,

and since then, hundreds of ships

have been lost here, some with terrible casualties.

It's still dangerous now.

As long as there have been wrecks, the sea has washed up objects

on the shore, like this find from the ship, the Green Ranger,

that was wrecked here in 1962.

Thankfully, no-one was killed.

The ship was being towed to be re-fitted

when a line broke in fog,

but a heroic lifeboat rescue attempt was thwarted

because the Green Ranger's seven crew members

were so convinced of their watery fate,

they were sitting below decks drowning their sorrows,

and couldn't be tempted out.

It wasn't until the next day that the men of Hartland

finally brought them safely to land.

And there's a direct link between shipwrecks and Hartland Abbey,

because the story goes that when it was founded in the 11th century,

it was as a gesture of thanks for the safe delivery from a shipwreck

of the father of King Harold.

Anyway, let's hope the lifeboats are in for a quiet day,

as hundreds of Devonians have arrived

for today's Antiques Roadshow.

It's a beautiful pot.

I think it's absolutely lovely with these swans swimming

-on this matt blue ground.

-Yes.

Which is fantastically rare.

Usually, flying in the sky.

-Oh, really?

-Wonderfully done, and the date of it...

Oh, here we are!

The Royal Worcester mark gives you a date of five...ten dots, ten dots.

-1901.

-Oh, was it? Oh, I thought it was older than that.

But it's absolutely beautiful

and very, very rare to get the swans swimming in the water.

Charlie Baldwin was an incredible painter

-of swans.

-Oh, right.

And specialised in them.

And they are now, of course,

some of the most collectable of Royal Worcester pieces.

-Oh, really?

-So, what's its history?

Well, it's been in the family, I would think, about a hundred years.

My mother passed it on to me.

I did have it valued about 20 years ago,

and they put 2,500 on it.

I think you'd better change your insurance.

Right. Really?

-I think, if this was flying swans...

-Yes.

..it would be £5,000, £6,000, perhaps.

Because of the rarity of the swimming swans, £7,000 to £8,000.

Good grief! Oh, dear.

I'd better not drop it on the way out, then.

No. I hope you won't.

Thanks, Mum.

God bless her.

It's very realistic, this snake.

It moves and feels uncannily

like the real thing.

Spookily good. Ssss.

I'm sure it hissed at me, there.

-Do you know what it's made of?

-No.

It's made of iron, by an armourer in Japan.

Japanese metal work was breathtakingly good.

They would spend two years, three years on one blade,

hammering it, folding it, heating it,

until it was fantastically sharp.

And as a, sort of, sideline,

they would make amusing metal work objects, like this.

The articulation is... Ooh, he's alive, I swear it!

..is all on the inside so you can't see it.

So would this sort of thing have been exported or...

This would have been exported.

He has gold eyes. We've got a tongue in there and a row of teeth.

He's brilliant.

The greatest maker of these, in fact,

I think the man who developed them was called Myochin.

And I... Because this one's so good

I had hoped that this was by him.

But we have a maker's mark, which is Su Shin.

One would call it school of, school of Myochin.

What sort of date, is there, on it?

Well, they're fiendishly difficult to date.

-But I'd be happy to date this one to mid-19th century.

-OK.

Where did he come from?

I inherited it from my grandfather,

and I don't know where he got it from.

He was a Scot, so it could have come from trading activities

in the Far East in the beginning of the 20th century.

-Yes, yes, yes.

-Possibly.

I think he's utterly wonderful. Do you like him? You like it?

Really scary when I was a child.

-Really?

-I didn't like... He moved...

Thought it was real, yeah.

Didn't like it.

He's actually quite valuable.

£1,200 to £1,500, possibly a bit more.

Thank you.

We've got this fabulous quilt,

photo of royal memorabilia,

and a car. What's the story?

I inherited it from my mother,

and she inherited from a gentleman,

who had been in service at Sandringham,

whose father was head chauffeur for royalty,

and his wife was lady-in-waiting and she was a seamstress at the time.

His wife was given this piece of patchwork in recognition

for her time in service,

and it was said that it was all ballgown dresses

of the ladies of the household.

So, if that's true or not, I'm not 100% sure,

but it's all silk.

And when she retired she came to Devon to live

she didn't complete it because, sadly, she passed away,

but my mother inherited it

and we've had it wrapped up in tissue paper in the wardrobe ever since.

I mean this is stunning silk, beautifully done,

and you would like to think that these pieces

might have been dresses worn by the princesses.

Yes, that's what we were told, yes.

Well, I mean that's lovely,

and, you know, I'd love to think that,

and with its royal associations, you know,

we've got to give it some value.

I don't think it's going to be tremendously valuable.

No, no, no.

I think this is a piece that's going to be more valuable to you.

Very much so, it's a family heirloom, really.

You know, I would say, if it came up for sale,

with its royal connections you know maybe £100 roughly.

Yes, yes, I understand, yes, yes.

The photograph.

The photograph is what was wonderful

because Mr Cornell senior, the actual chauffeur,

was given this on his retirement,

and it was signed by all the princes of the household,

of Sandringham, which was quite special.

So these are all the children

-of George V.

-Yes, they are, yes.

And this was in 1908.

We're looking at, you know, the future George VI,

we're looking at the Duke of Windsor.

-Yes.

-We're looking at the lost prince, John.

-Yes, John.

-And, of course,

-you have all the signatures here.

-Yes.

Probably, John signed by Mary,

-because he'd be too young to sign his name.

-Yes, could be, could be.

This is a really momentous time in British royalty.

Well, yes.

You know, we see lots of royal memorabilia, obviously.

I've seen a lot of photographs,

not of all of them together, actually, that's rare in itself.

But it's the signatures that make this so special.

To have all those signatures of those youngsters.

Pessimistically,

I think it could sell for £3,000.

Oh, goodness me, gosh.

Optimistically, maybe even £5,000.

Oh, my goodness me! Would never have believed it.

Better look after it a bit better, didn't I?

Absolutely superb inkstand.

-Actually, I'd love to own it myself.

-Really?

But how long have you had it?

-Well, it actually belongs to my mother-in-law.

-Right.

And she bought it in a jumble sale. She's 91, now.

It's Alice and she bought it when she was ten.

Her mother gave her two old pennies to spend in the jumble sale

and she spent one on this one.

A very shrewd mother-in-law.

And she took it to school and used it, the ink well.

Oh, I love it, I love it.

Well, there are so many collectors

who would give their eye teeth for this.

-Really?

-There are three groups.

There are people who collect owls, and this as I say an absolute joy.

There are people who collect ink wells, and of course ink

going in there, and there are people who collect... And what we've

got here is the maker's mark

of Sampson Mordan and Company.

They are the one of the most collectable

and sought after of all firms.

Oh, gosh.

It was made in about 1900.

So, what is the Sampson Mordan owl ink well worth today?

-I'm going to stick my neck out.

-Right.

And I think you'd be jolly lucky to acquire this today

for an investment of one penny for the sum of £500.

Oh, really? That's fantastic. She'll be so pleased.

That's wonderful.

And I think she is, as well.

Yes, yes, she is.

You don't look, to me,

like the typical sort of person who would sew.

Not really, no.

So, what's with the thimble?

The thimble, basically my great aunt gave it to my mother

and she left it in her sewing box for 25 years

and she recently discovered it,

and has given it to me,

and we want to find out more about it, basically.

What a kind gift.

-Yes.

-It's made of tortoiseshell and gold.

-Yes.

You can probably see that very clearly here.

Have you ever wondered or read what's written underneath here?

-"Piercy's patent".

-Piercy's patent.

Piercy's patent, John Piercy was a goldsmith

and maker of small fine objects,

who's registered in Snow Hill, part of Birmingham

well known for its jewellery trade, in about 1818,

-So, this probably dates from around then, around 1820.

-Wonderful.

It's quite a scarce thing. Often you find the little gold parts,

but the tortoiseshell is normally quite badly damaged.

-Yes.

-You've obviously looked after it well.

It's just been sat in the sewing box, so no-one's handled it,

touched it, so it's stayed in quite good condition.

Such a small thing.

-It's actually got quite a nice value.

-Oh, really?

I can see collectors paying there are many, many thimble

collectors and I can see collectors paying

anything from sort of £350, £400 for it.

Cor, that's pretty good.

That's quite nice, actually.

So, do you think any other members of your family might want it back?

Mum might, might take it back off my hands now.

"My dear Mrs White,

"I am writing to let you know how very much I appreciate

"the magnificent job which you did during your recent visit

"of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, to Jamaica.

"Indeed, I must say, "that in spite of all your

"additional responsibilities, "which were many,

"you never failed to be your usual charming self."

And this is from Sir Colin Campbell, who was at Kings House, Jamaica.

-Yes.

-Now, how did you get this letter?

My Mum used to be

the housekeeper there.

And he was the first Governor, Jamaican Governor General,

and she was the head housekeeper

and a lot of dignitaries

passed through visiting.

And the Queen Mother visited,

and that was a gift left to her.

-This brooch here?

-Yes.

-Good grief!

-On her visit.

-How amazing. That's absolutely gorgeous.

-Yes.

It's gold, and then it's set with cultured pearls in the centre,

and, of course, we've got the initials "ER" at the bottom.

Yes, lovely.

And it is from the period that it was given to her, the late '50s,

early '60s, very typical of that period.

Early '60s.

Wonderful, natural outline of the brooch in this leaf,

textured leaf design which was very popular

at the time.

But then, of course, we move to this bangle here,

and how did she obtain this bangle?

Another visitor to the King's house

-was Haile Selassie.

-Gosh!

Because, of course,

he was associated with the Rastafarian Movement, wasn't he?

-Yes.

-Yes, the Rastafarians revere him as a prophet,

so that was very important to them.

I mean, the streets were lined from the airport.

The crowd was ten thick.

The Rastafarians saw he was going to bring

peace and harmony and...

Yes, to the world.

..to the world, didn't they?

And, of course, he was Emperor of Ethiopia.

Not only that,

Haile Selassie also has connections with this abbey, here.

Indeed he does, doesn't he? He came to stay, didn't he?

That's right.

He was living in Bath at the time, for a few years,

and he came here and opened the village fete which

we actually have a photograph, here,

of him when he was at Hartland.

So, here he is, and Sir Dennis Stucley,

the then owner of Hartland Abbey isn't that amazing?

-That's something yes.

-Yes, exactly,

but why would he bring a bangle like this to Jamaica,

I mean, it is a magnificent piece of jewellery,

gold, beautifully tooled

in this lovely rope work manner,

and the black detailing that goes around it.

Thinking it might be camel hair.

Well, it is hair, but it's not camel hair,

it's actually elephant hair.

They're seen as themselves as having peace and harmony, as well,

and so to plait the hair, as we have here, within the bangle,

has great sentimental connotations to it,

and, of course, we also have the cipher

on the front here as well.

So, two beautiful pieces of jewellery for, obviously,

a lady that he was very, very fond of,

Selassie and also the Queen Mother.

Very appreciative of the work that she did,

and, I can tell she was extremely well loved by both of you, as well.

-Still is.

-And still is, that's wonderful. Naturally, values.

If they came up for auction with all the history that we have with them,

the supporting letters, etc.

the brooch would probably fetch

somewhere between £600 and £800

and the bangle, I think, which is absolutely gorgeous...

-Yes.

-..probably around about £1,500 £2,000.

Lovely, lovely.

That's interesting.

It's so good to see

a genuine 17th century

piece of oak furniture

in this wonderful condition.

What do you know about it?

Well, it was something I always admired. I worked for somebody,

and they became very close friends,

and she said to me, "When I die, I'd like you to choose

"piece of furniture"

and I chose this.

-Right.

-I've always loved it.

She had it in her, in her home.

And what do you use it for now? Where is it placed in the house?

Well, it was quite a job emptying it.

It's full of Christmas things, actually, and photographs.

Right, right.

Well, this piece of furniture was a piece,

which, let's say, travelled around.

-That's what we wondered.

-Hence the carrying handles on the sides.

-Yes, yes, it's very heavy.

-It is extremely heavy.

And these handles would take the weight?

Yes, they would be strapped around and put on the back of a cart

and when we see these lovely dental mouldings along the top,

it, to me, just says it's an English piece of furniture.

-Yes.

-It's lovely.

-Yes.

-Very simple, unpretentious, and you've got this raised panel.

But when it's opened, it's fabulous.

It's stunning, isn't it? I know.

-Because all these handles they're original.

-Mm, Yeah.

And, I'm just going to pull this drawer open here.

Just to say how original this piece is.

Look at that! That handle's never ever been disturbed.

It's exactly the same place, yes.

Yeah, beautiful, and it just sits so comfortably there, doesn't it?

Mm, mm.

The date of this, I say, is about 1680-1690.

It's an early piece of furniture.

It's a marriage piece, a marriage chest.

Oh, that's nice to think of that, yes.

Presents and linens and lace,

they would have been placed in these drawers.

The condition is lovely, it's really really good.

Unfortunately, the only thing which has happened you've got

the original hinge here but this hinge at the bottom, here,

that's been replaced, and the same on the other side, I did notice.

Right, right, right.

But, apart from that, it's a genuine article.

The colour is delicious, made of oak.

The top, as you can see, is in two planks.

-And see these little delves?

-Yeah.

Because it's never been disturbed,

they're just slightly raised up, and that's a lovely little feature.

A lot of antique things have gone down in value,

but when you get something like this,

which is honest, straightforward and holding a colour,

this is what the collectors want, this wonderful patination.

I would put a value on this between £3,500 £4,500.

Right, right.

It's just such an honest collectable piece.

Now, when I was growing up in the Scottish Borders,

I had an irrational fear of the dentist,

and when I saw this, today,

it came rushing back.

Tell me about this.

Well, this is a...

Georgian tooth key.

-It's for extracting molar teeth.

-Yes.

It's what all the best...

My dentist assures me,

it actually belongs to a very good friend of mine,

and he assures me that it's what all the very best dentists were using

-in the mid 1700s.

-That's...

So, you might be interested in this.

But, equally, you might be interested in how it actually works.

I just say I know what you're going to do, now, and I'm...

So, he's been teaching me how to use this,

and the first thing you need to do

is to make the patient say "ah".

-Right, OK, so aaaaah.

-Aaaaah, so, aaaaah, OK,

and then, you sort, of pick it up and you, then you insert it

very gently, like this,

and, um, you, sort of, wind it round like this, and then.

-And is it going to make a noise?

-It does make a noise.

-Oh, I mean...

-There. It comes out.

-And the patient collapses.

-And the patient collapses.

And then you could actually put it in again, quite quickly,

-and do it all over again.

-Do it all over again.

It's quite easy, really.

Well, you know something, actually,

it's Georgian I would think,

you know 1760-1780,

and it is what all the up-market dentists would use.

I'd probably value it at about £60 to £80.

-Really?

-But I'd pay you double not to use it on me.

It never ceases to amaze me,

how far people will travel

to come to the Roadshow.

We've had people come from New Zealand, from Australia, from China.

But this is a first,

because you've interrupted your honeymoon to come to the Roadshow.

That's correct.

My goodness, and you got married in the house here, didn't you?

-That's right, yeah.

-We got married on Saturday, yes.

Just on Saturday.

And this is you in the Alhambra hallway, here.

I was filming in there earlier on, actually.

And were you there? Were you a bridesmaid?

-Yes, did you have a lovely day?

-Yes.

I bet you looked beautiful in your bridesmaid's dress.

So, what happened, then? Where did you go on your honeymoon?

We've been to London for a few days.

And did you bring anything along today?

-We did bring some china along, today, yes.

-And was it worth it?

Oh, absolutely, it's been an absolutely wonderful day.

What I was meaning was, was it worth bringing the china?

Not really.

Well, I have to say, this is a fairly impressive cuckoo clock.

Are you a collector, or have you acquired it fairly recently?

I've got several clocks but this is the most valuable.

And how long have you had it for?

About seven year.

And where did it come from?

A house clearance, and all these bits was fall off,

it was wet and damp, you know.

So, you have actually

done the restoration, yourself?

Yes, my cousin, mainly.

There will be a cuckoo in here. Does anything else happen?

-Music box in the bottom.

-A music box?

-Yes.

-I like. How many tunes does it play?

It plays six tunes.

I'm going to turn it round, it is quite heavy.

I notice, here,

we have part of an old trade label

-from Camerer Kuss and Co.

-Yes.

And I'll take the back away, and again,

down here below the gong, another trade label from Camerer Kuss.

Yes.

And the joy of this cuckoo clock, compared to many,

this is a spring-driven clock.

Many of the later cuckoo clocks, as you know, hang on the wall

-and they have those weights that look like pine cones.

-Yes.

But this is a wooden plated, Fusee cuckoo clock.

And just looking at the style, with this metal bridge,

across here, and these

lovely little coiled springs

on the edge of the ratchets,

I'm fairly happy to say to you

that this is by a very good maker called Johann Baptist Beha.

-Right.

-And we're talking here

a date of the mid-19th century, so this is a good early clock.

Let us also just have a look down here

at the musical box.

Gosh, that's pretty fine, as well,

with four bells

and a magnificent comb.

So, we'll see if the cuckoo's doing his thing. OK.

So, he didn't really want to do very much there, did he?

One o'clock that was.

Right, OK.

Right, now, here he comes up two o'clock.

Oh, we won't go off on two o'clock. I can tell you that.

Oh, when does he...?

It only goes off is that because it's not meant to?

Yeah, I don't, I don't think it's meant to.

OK, so it only goes off...

Three o'clock he should go off.

Three o'clock, six o'clock and nine do you think?

-No, every hour.

-Every hour, but not at one and two.

-Not at one and two.

-OK, that's a new one on me. I love it.

OK, so there he is, cuckooing.

And here we have the music.

What's this one?

-I don't know what that tune is, to be honest.

-He's stopped.

No, and then so you reckon it will do another tune

-at four o'clock etc, etc.

-Yes.

But he doesn't want to do it at one and two.

Just pop it back together.

So, it's got its trade label,

-it's by one of the best makers of this sort of clock.

-Yes.

It's a very good size,

but it is very much in the rough.

It does need complete restoration.

So, in its current state,

I reckon it at auction in the region of £2,000.

Somewhere about it.

-Are you happy with that?

-Yes.

When it is restored,

it would certainly be in the region of £5,000.

It would?

But there's a big difference between in the rough and top retail.

I don't often get pictures on the Roadshow with the glass

shattered on its front.

It's been twenty years in my garage, that's why it's broken

and for twenty years I've been threatening to throw it away.

About forty years ago I owned a mansion

the other side of Bideford

and it had about fifteen bedrooms,

and all my guests and myself saw an apparition.

Not every night, now and again, of a woman walking along the corridor

in the bedrooms, about one o'clock in the morning.

At the same time, you could always hear piano.

It was always Chopin being played,

you could hear this throughout the house.

They were looking at a ghost?

Yeah, yes,

but it was a friendly ghost, I mean,

you know, the apparition, you couldn't see what it was,

all you could see was a blue haze.

And then, one day, the amazing part was,

one day I was in Bideford, in a little street in Bideford,

and an old lady came out of a shop and said,

"Are you master of Hills?"

That's, do I own Hill House?

"Yes".

She took me round the back of the shop and gave me this picture

and I was shocked because that picture is painted

in the drawing room of Hill House, my house,

and that's the apparition we'd seen

and that's the piano she was playing on.

So, I then hung the picture back in its place

and nobody heard this all again for years.

By returning her to the house, you put the ghost to rest.

Yeah, and I tried giving this back to the people who own the house now,

and they don't want it so.

Do we, therefore, suppose that they're suffering

as a result of not having this picture?

I don't know. You can suppose that, but it's all a bit...

I mean, I must say, I'm, sort of,

slightly shivering having heard that story.

She's painted by, or rather,

drawn in pastel by an artist called Cyril Roberts.

It's signed and dated in the lower left-hand corner.

A reasonably prominent pastel painter,

who worked in Paris.

-I mean, she is not what you would describe as a modern taste face.

-No.

She's not, you know, one of those

diaphanous, impressionist figures

that we attach considerable price tags to, these days,

but, as for value, well, as a pastel in not great condition

the surface is not as fresh as it could be,

the subject isn't ideal but is quite pretty.

It's worth perhaps £500 or £600.

So ghost, or no ghost, it's not the sort of thing

that you can really leave knocking around in your garage,

-I suggest.

-No, no, OK.

Who is responsible for these little toys?

-My dad.

-Your dad. He collects them, does he?

Yes.

If you had to pick one,

-which one would you pick?

-That one.

-Do you know what that is?

-Yes.

-What is it?

-Shishi.

Very good, excellent. A shishi is exactly what it is.

It would be a Buddhist lion if you were Chinese,

but he was actually carved in where?

-Japan.

-She knows her stuff.

I tell you, twenty years from now, she'll be on the programme.

She wants to be a pilot, so I don't know about that.

Oh, well we have pilots as experts on the programme,

-it's quite possible.

-There you go.

-Yeah, he's carved in wood.

And he's a really strong vigorous bit of carving.

I mean you see this hole?

That's where the cord would have gone,

which you tied it there,

but it's actually jolly big for a netsuke

and it may be just an okimono,

but it's got age.

I mean, it's early-19th, even possibly 18th-century in date.

Very, very nice.

These two are an object lesson

in ivory carving.

-That's elephant ivory.

-Yes.

And they're both water buffalo.

This one is quite nice,

dating from the second half of the 19th century,

but if you look at the way the carving has been done

for this rope, for example, it's actually not that good.

It doesn't, kind of, work as a rope should do.

Whereas, this one, is absolutely fantastic,

just look at the way that runs across his back.

And you can tell how old it is,

by the fact that his backbone has worn

and we've also got wear to the rope at those two points.

You'll never find that on a later one.

We've got a reserve, here, with a signature in it,

but it's too worn to read.

So, that's, I think, a very, very nice one.

And...

-..do you know anything about this one?

-No.

Do you like this one? You like that one.

But what have we got? We've got a temple bell.

-And it's a sennin, isn't it?

-With a what?

A sennin, I think.

Oh, now we're getting in here deep.

Actually, no, but I'm very impressed.

This is a wonderful Japanese legend

-of a girl who fell in love with a priest.

-OK.

And the priest spurned her.

He said, "I don't want anything to do with you."

And, so, she turned into a demon and she lured him to a temple bell

and he went inside the bell

and she wrapped herself round the bell

and then made it red hot, so he was burnt to a cinder.

And this is her, and she's called Hannya,

and she's got that horrid face you can recognise her by.

So, that's what that is.

So, what values do we have?

Has he had any training on what to buy or...

-No.

-Just good eye,

that's what I've always put it down to, but maybe I'm biased.

Well, I have to say,

I'm full of admiration.

He has got almost

entirely good objects.

That one would fetch around

£1,500 to £2,000.

That one would fetch

around £300 to £500, only, because he's not that good.

Hannya would fetch around

£700 to £1,000

and that one would fetch around

-£1,500 to £2,500, as well.

-Really?

Sitting on the table,

£10,000 to £15,000 worth at least.

I hope he didn't pay more than that.

What a beautifully made bowl you've brought in.

-Is it a family one?

-It is.

It belonged to my husband's aunt

and she was given it as a wedding present in 1932 by her company,

and that was quite a nice wedding present for her.

Very generous present.

And when you look at the way it's actually produced

we've got all this lovely piercing, that's all hand piercing,

beautifully engraved.

In fact, the engraving would have been done

-before the piercing.

-Right.

And then all of these swags,

as you go round, are all cast separately

and applied to the body.

I mean, it's made the way it should.

Right.

Do you know where it was made?

-No, I don't.

-Well, in fact the marks

we've got underneath, here,

are actually for The Netherlands.

-Oh.

-From the 19th century. 1850-1860.

Gosh.

But what's been happening there? The handle's all out of shape.

-Ah, well that happened during the war.

-Right.

The bowl always lived on the sideboard

but a V2 bomber hit the house.

That was blown off the sideboard and,

as we understand,

that got bent but the glass never got broken.

Wow! It's generally the other way round.

-yes, exactly, yes.

-The glass gets broken.

But, amazing that that glass has actually survived.

-Yes.

-So, what is a 19th-century Dutch,

blasted-by-a-V2 bowl actually worth?

I would have said that bowl, today, probably set you back the best part

-of £2,000.

-Gosh, my goodness.

It's a delightful bowl.

Yes, so very generous wedding present, wasn't it? From her boss.

Well, the French have two words for jewellery, we only have one.

They have a word for gem set jewellery,

and a word for artistic jewellery.

This is joaillerie

and this is bijouterie, and, in a way,

we've brought the polarity of what it means, to the table.

But tell me about them with you, what about this diamond star

-it's yours, isn't it?

-Yes, it has come down through the family,

it's one of three and the two others are still in the family, I believe,

and I don't often get a chance to wear it, needless to say.

No, what do you feel like when you do wear it?

I've worn it to a ball.

Yes, and was it like champagne? Did it raise your spirits and...

Quite nervous about it

but my husband's father insisted

that I wear the star to this ball because, you know, showing off.

-He was quite right.

-Yes.

And interesting that there were three of them

because there's a little fitting on the back,

and it actually suggests to me

-that it's part of a tiara.

-Yes.

-And did you know it was?

-No, I don't know much about it.

Maybe the flanking ones are smaller that's the convention

with these things

and it's a highly successful jewellery design, the star, really

because, of course, the diamonds return the light like the stars do.

-Yes.

-And date-wise, any thoughts about that?

Eighteen something?

Yes, eighteen something's really good because it was a fashion

that existed in 1800 and was still going strong

in the 20th century.

Even Chanel made jewellery in the form of stars like this.

-Oh, yes, yes.

-But this is an English star and it's backed in gold

and set in silver and the diamonds are there simply decoratively.

Their value is not in their sort of gemmology of them,

-the purity of them, the colour.

-Yes.

But it's actually all about the return of light

and a beautiful object.

These objects are really made at about the same time.

They're both mid 19th-century jewels with very different intentions.

-This is art jewellery. Tell me about that.

-Well, this one, I think,

my grandfather must have collected it.

He was in the Royal Navy

and he, sort of, bought things all over the place.

And I inherited a desk off him and this was in a cigar box.

-In a secret box.

-Well, just a jumble of, sort of...

A jumble thing because it's slightly naughty, isn't it?

It is, the concept of it is slightly naughty

because here is a Satyr, a half man, half goat,

associated with, sort of, carnal love in antiquity

and he's trying to advance his relationship with a siren,

a mermaid, and they're in a thick embrace, there

-and it's made of steel.

-Really?

-Steel?

Yes, it's rather wearing sables on the inside of your mackintosh

because it's steel on the outside.

-Yes.

-And on the inside is beautifully lined with pure gold.

It's a very, very distinguished object, indeed.

It's the sort of object made throughout Europe,

and one of the manufacturers of such objects was a fellow in Paris,

oddly enough, called Tissot, and it may be that he made that.

I think it's sculpture in miniature.

It says everything about art jewellery, to me,

and we've got to have a little bash at valuing them. Curiously enough,

for the reasons that you were a little bit reticent

to wear this to that dance,

is the reason it's not as valuable as it jolly well ought to be,

because the fashion for wearing these in the UK has fallen away.

-Yes.

-That kind of entertaining doesn't really happen.

But I think that's probably got to be

worth £4,000 to £5,000 of anybody's money

and I'd like to think it was worth more, but it just might not be.

This one here, is worth, well,

close to as much.

-Good grief.

-I think somebody who wanted that very much,

would be quite keen to give, you know, £2,000 to £3,000 for it

if it was properly described,

because it's a highly original concept

and there are avid ring collectors,

so what a strange story masses of diamonds, masses of art,

-both apparently valuable, and both you love, don't you?

-Yes.

-Yes.

-What do you think now?

-I'm amazed.

People bring along ships made of all sorts of things to the Roadshow,

often of matchsticks, of course.

What's this made of?

Cloves, you can smell it, actually cloves.

-So you can. So...

-Its smell lasts.

-So, each individual clove. Look at that!

-Yes, yes.

-And do you know how old it is?

-Between 1850 and 1900.

And why make a ship out of cloves?

Well, the Ambonese, in Indonesia, it's a native tribe in Indonesia

made these as tourist attractions, which they then sold to the tourists.

The smell of that time has come down through the centuries.

-Yes, yes.

-It's an amazing thing to see.

Yes, it's something so unique

that, well, that's why I thought I'd bring it along today.

Well, one day on the Roadshow, we'll have smellovision.

Wish you could smell it. So strongly of cloves.

This drawing is titled

-"Putting the Changi Guardian to bed".

-Yes

Now what was the Changi Guardian?

The Changi Guardian was the newspaper for the prison camp of Changi.

And eight copies were typed each day,

and I have one of the copies, just here.

This is an original copy.

That's an original printed, or should I say typed,

in Changi Gaol by one of the characters

that you see in this cartoon.

Well, Changi Gaol, of course,

was used by the Japanese to house prisoners who were in Malaya,

Singapore

-during the Second World War.

-Yes.

-From 1942 onwards.

Changi Gaol was built to house

600 people.

The Japanese put 5,000 people

in that gaol for three and half years.

My grandparents were in Malaya at the time.

My grandfather working for the Colonial Service

as an agricultural chemist. He was taken by the Japanese.

Both my grandmother and my grandfather

spent the whole three and half years in Changi Gaol.

And were they separated in Changi Gaol?

They were. There was the men's section,

or the men's camp, and the women's camp.

So, they had little contact with each other during that time.

They had to secretly pass notes to each other,

through friendly guards

or people who were passing from section to section,

that they knew they could trust.

Should they have been found out, then it was very, very dire indeed,

the consequences.

-I should imagine.

-Yes.

-And this one, this little note here says,

"My dearest one."

So, is this one of the notes they would have passed to each other?

This is one from my grandmother to my grandfather.

It would have been folded up as you see into a very small space

and passed through the camp that way.

"I am glad that the Red Cross have been misled

"and our true conditions of living

"and housing have not been revealed". Why do you think that is?

They were pleased that their parents

didn't really know what plight they were in,

because they were in a dreadful state, all of them.

My grandfather kept a diary for the first year while he was in there,

and after five months or so, in the diary,

they are saying how thin they are becoming from starvation diet.

Little did they know they had another three years of this.

Incredible, isn't it?

It is. My grandfather caught malaria,

my grandmother had dysentery three times while she was in there

and the priest offered her the last rites.

-Really?

-The last time, and she said,

if I do go, if you could get my wedding ring to my grandfather

in the men's camp, then he will know. She survived.

Now, you've brought along a few drawings, paintings, as well.

Now, what does this one show?

This one is painted by my grandmother

this was painted in the gaol and this shows how, in the women's camp,

they got a little privacy.

They put a curtain on bamboo poles going across here,

so, in between each curtain there was a bed.

And this really illustrates the living conditions.

Their living conditions as it was for the women.

Now, this photograph.

This is just after they'd got back.

They both were in hospital when they arrived in Britain,

because they came back as skeletons on stretchers,

and so, this is shortly after they bought their dream cottage.

-This is in their garden.

-Now, that's marvellous.

-Yes

And do you have many more drawings and pictures and documents?

Yes, many many paintings and drawings from my grandmother.

-How many do you have?

-I must have forty or fifty.

A number of these very good cartoons

by a man called C Jackson.

Well, you know, we come to the stage where we have to talk about value,

but I sometimes feel rather uncomfortable

with items such as these, talking about value.

There is a collector's market, would you believe,

for this type of item, and if you've got forty or fifty paintings,

I would think that the market would be

in the low hundreds, maybe £300 £400,

-but the value isn't is not the important thing.

-No, no.

It's the historical aspect, the fact that here we have

living proof, documentation, of a period in our history

that many people have forgotten about, of the Second World War.

Yes, yes.

And I'm so glad to have seen it, and been witness to this today.

Thank you very much, indeed, thank you.

Boys Preparatory School, and you know it does exactly

what it says on the tin,

-because out of that box, came this.

-Yes.

-And it is wonderful.

We've got eight students, a teacher. He looks like,

he looks like a school master should do, doesn't he?

With his moustache, but he doesn't have a cane so...

-No.

-That's one good thing.

-That's Mr Brown.

-That's Mr Brown?

Now, you're saying that with some conviction.

Did you play with this, then?

Oh, yes, of course I did.

But it's much too old to be yours, so, it came to you as a child?

-Yes, yes.

-Whose was it before?

-Well, it came from my mum's side of the family.

-Right.

I don't know much any other history.

-Did you go on to be a school mistress?

-Oh, no.

-You got it all out of your system early did you?

-Yes, yes. Oh, yes.

The whole thing is just gorgeous.

Now, I'm absolutely certain that it's all come from Germany.

-Do you think so?

-Absolutely. On the back, there,

-it says "foreign".

-Yes.

And that is a very good indication that it came from somewhere

-that didn't want to identify itself.

-Oh, I see, yes.

So, my feeling is that it's around about the time

of the First World War.

-Would that fit in with your mum's...?

-Yes, because she was born in '08.

-There we go.

-So that would be about it.

-That would fit in.

-Yes.

-Because she wouldn't have been given it as a tiny tot.

-No. Oh, no.

She'd have been given it when it was more, you know,

she was old enough to be able to deal with it.

It's absolutely charming.

I think it's given you, obviously, a huge amount of play value.

-Oh, yes.

-I'm hoping that I can get my play value out of it too.

But value-wise,

I would put it at between

£400 and £600 without any question

and, I think, on a good day, it could fetch even more than that.

-Yes. Oh, well, it'll never go, leave our family.

-Quite right too.

-I'll leave it to one of the things.

-So, there we go. The class of 1915.

-That's right, yes.

-Just great.

Well, Vue De Launceston, I mean, it's a French title,

but I assume we're looking at Launceston in Cornwall, here.

Yes, yes.

And tell me, why is it in French?

It belonged to my great-great-great grandfather.

He was Mayor of Launceston

in the second half of the 19th century.

When he was a very young man, he was fishing in the river

and he got into some sort of difficulties.

The castle at the time was being used,

I think, as a prisoner-of-war camp for higher ranking

French naval officers and one of them spotted

my great-great-great grandfather

and he went over his boundary and rescued him,

and they struck up some sort of a friendship

and he later presented him with this picture.

A wonderful, wonderful story and of course let's just think about it,

because I can see in the bottom right-hand corner,

it's got a date 1808.

So this was a French prisoner-of-war

and the detail that this officer has painted,

it's like a miniature, and I think he's, sort of, hankering for home,

because I feel the, sort of, Frenchiness feel to it.

And it's not, obviously, in deepest Cornwall, is it?

And it seems quite a liberal existence.

There he is,

probably allowed outside the confines of the prison,

-so a sort of open-air prison, really, wasn't it?

-Yes.

That chance meeting,

I think is just wonderful and you've got a piece of history,

and I think a really, really beautiful view of Launceston

from the early 19th century.

So, the great moment, valuation.

Is it something you've considered?

Well, it only belongs

half to me, because my sister owns the other half,

so I can't really sell it.

I wasn't suggesting you sell it.

I've got strict instructions to pass it on to my nephews, so.

Shall I whisper it to you, then? No, well, it is difficult to value,

because nothing similar's been on the market.

But I would say something like this was worth at least £2,000 to £3,000.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

Gosh, it's delightfully wonky, isn't it?

-That's right, yes.

-But that begs the question

is it misshapen because it's cheaply made or because it's very early?

-What do you know about it?

-Well, they were given to me from my uncle's estate

and my father brought them over amongst some other dishes,

said, "You can have those." So, I've had them ever since.

-And are they things you just liked?

-Yeah, I just liked collecting plates

so it was something I've always enjoyed having, actually.

I mean, the design, I suppose, Japanese influence, here

somewhere back along the line, but these were made in Italy,

they're Italian porcelain.

And, actually the backs are such an extraordinary colour.

-Yes.

-As if it's so dirty and it really is, isn't it?

I mean, it does feel dirty and scruffy, because this was amongst

the very earliest Italian porcelain.

We're going back to the 1740s.

They hadn't really discovered the pure white porcelain

that made porcelain in Japan, and made porcelain in Meissen,

which was the great European porcelain.

Instead they've used local clays,

and produced their own version, which is this colour.

It is, I think, just charmingly irregular.

Yes, that's right.

They come from near Florence.

This was the first period of production at the Doccia factory.

At that time they were developing nice bright colours.

I love this flame orange, it's really a super colour.

Yeah, it's beautiful.

-Is that what appealed to you?

-Oh, yes, I think they're stunning.

I did think they were Chinese, originally,

but I'm not terribly sure on ceramics, so...

The Chinese would have made them, and the Japanese,

so perfectly formed.

Instead, these are as if they melted in the kiln

and they couldn't get the temperature quite right

at this time.

It just took a few years to perfect it.

By ten years later they were making superb porcelain at Doccia.

But at this early first period I like it, because it went wrong.

-Oh, right.

-And the design Tula Panno we call this.

So quite rare things to find.

-Oh, really?

-Yes, so...

They were just given to me in a pile of other plates

and I thought, "I'll keep those," and I've had them ever since, so...

You did the right thing, because now the pair are worth

£3,000.

Really? Really?

I thought a couple of hundred.

I never thought it would be that much.

-Wow, gosh, shocked.

-It's good that they're wonky and early.

Well, I'll treasure them even more now, actually.

-This is what every bookseller dreams of.

-Really?

Going through a load of second-hand books

and suddenly coming across

inscriptions by the author,

or even better, as in this case, a poem by the author.

"When I was a farmer And walked o'er my land,

"I found a gold sovereign Wherever I did stand.

"But now I'm a scribbler And nude as a carrot

"All stuck full of feathers And words like a parrot".

And then this wonderful inscription, here, and it says,

-"For Maggie and Marcus".

-Yes

And then "With love from Carol"...

That's his wife.

.."and Ted Hughes",

which is who we're talking about. It's a wonderful inscription

on a perfectly ordinary book.

So, what is the connection between you and Ted Hughes?

Well, we met through a fur coat I won't go into...

-Through a fur coat!

-I won't go into it any more than that.

Are you sure you don't want to expound?

No. And we became really good friends. My then husband

and Carol and Ted and we had many many happy evenings.

-Because he used to live down here.

-Yes.

-Obviously he lived down here.

-Yes, yes, yes, yes.

That was when he was Poet Laureate, was it?

-Before and after, yes.

-Well, you have these wonderful inscribed books,

you've also got this... How did he give this to you?

I mean, this is a poem, and it says,

"For Maggie and Marcus with love from Ted" in pencil, there,

-and then this extraordinary poem here.

-Yes.

-Which I can hardly decipher at all.

-No, nor me.

-It's called, "Fox Riddles".

-Riddles.

-Go on, what's the first line?

-I would have to see it, I don't know it by heart.

No. "Who's the best dressed in the" something "room?"

Gentleman in England.

In England, yes. Oh, anyway, it goes on like that.

-It is quite difficult.

-It's enormously difficult, isn't it?

-Yes.

But how lovely to have these that were actually,

that he actually did and gave you on various occasions.

He used to turn up with, with his latest book,

and then he would inscribe it either for us or for our children.

I suspect this is unpublished, isn't it?

-I think it is unpublished.

-Well, it...

I did show it Carol and she didn't think it was published.

..from your point of view it's unread,

as well. This, I think, is rather fun, this piece, here.

It's nothing that one would think of Ted Hughes as doing, really, is it?

No, I don't know that he's known for his drawings.

-Yes, and yet you have, over here, you've got other things actually.

-Yes.

-Signed by him, and there's a pike.

-Well, he was a great fisherman,

but I think he was very comfortable drawing,

it only took him a moment to do them.

-And this one for Leo, September 1990.

-That's my son, yes.

Werewolf's friend. I mean that's an absolutely wonderful inscription,

-isn't it?

-Yes.

-Well, I suppose we have to go on about price,

-which always seems a shame.

-Yes, it does really.

I mean, he was a greatly loved poet and, you know,

benefited us all, I'm sure, by his wonderful poetry.

A signed poem, unpublished, has got to be worth the best part

of £1,000.

The books, themselves, not desperately valuable,

first editions maybe.

Somewhat abused, I think, they've been read.

-Read in the bath or whatever.

-Yes.

-But it hasn't affected them, really, at all,

and they are all in superb condition, are going to be worth,

what, I don't know, £400 or £500 each, easily.

-They're really very exciting.

-Thank you.

At first look, this looks like it should be a piece

of Wedgwood Fairyland Lustre by Daisy Makeig-Jones, but it isn't.

What's going on?

Well, Daisy Makeig-Jones was my great aunt

and, really, I've brought it along, today,

just to get to know a bit more about what it really is.

My brother's got one and my sister has another design,

and it will be interesting to see your opinion of this one.

Well, I've looked at it, and this is one of her original drawings,

this is her original drawing for the plaque, and it is very rare.

You know her, she was your great aunt,

but she was a very interesting character,

she wrote, not a begging letter, but she basically wrote a letter

to the Wedgwood firm to say "I want a job as a designer,"

and they took her on as a trainee

and in two years she had her own studio.

She started off doing what Wedgwood called ordinary lustres,

which were plain, sort of, a powder colour grounds with dragons,

butterflies, dragonflies, that type of thing on it,

and then in 1915-16 she started her Fairyland Lustre.

And it's interesting, she wrote a little book

called "Glimpses of Fairyland", which was partially

a brochure, partially made-up stories, which she illustrated

and one of the things she used to describe Fairyland Lustre

was the stuff that dreams are made of,

so, it's rather lovely that this design has that same name on it.

There's this, as well. What's going on here?

This is very curious.

We've always wondered what it is,

because it looks like plastic,

it's got her goblins

clearly running through, but we have no idea.

And this belonged to Daisy?

We believe so, yes.

Well, it's not plastic,

it's glass

and it's actually one of the rarest pieces of pressed glass

in the world.

Must take care of it.

Nothing to do with Daisy Makeig-Jones

apart from she owned it. It's actually made by John George Sowerby in Gateshead

in the north-ast of England in the 1870s.

It's a type of glass which they called Queen's Ivory.

Nobody has ever seen one.

Sunderland Museum have a piece of one

and that's the only one anybody has seen.

I rang three prominent collectors, today,

and they've all said they've never seen one.

So, it's not the rarest piece of pressed glass in the world,

but it's one of them.

So, I suppose, we've got to come to values.

Designs by Daisy Makeig-Jones don't come up.

When, in 1931, she was sacked by Wedgwood,

she stormed into the office and she ordered a boy to smash all her vases,

so they're a difficult thing to value.

Likewise, the piece of pressed glass nobody in the world's ever seen apart from a fragment.

We know them from catalogues, which is why we know.

And, bizarrely, they're described as tiles,

although I think they're actually tiles for making into plaques like this,

not tiles to put in the bathroom it's simply not thick enough to plaster on the wall.

So, it is difficult to value but I rang a leading pressed glass collector this afternoon

and I said to him, "I yu saw this for sale, would you pay a thousand pounds for it?"

And he said, "I'd hesitate, but I would."

So, your aunt's bit of plastic is a very rare piece of thousand-pound glass.

This, if it was a plaque by Daisy Makeig-Jones, we would know exactly what value it is.

Again, it's a difficult thing to say, but I know if this came for auction

-we'd be looking at a figure between £6,000 and £8,000, potentially more.

-OK, thank you very much indeed.

So, I'm going to give you that back. I've spent almost my whole Roadshow career

-hoping one of those turns up

-Thank you very much indeed.

Remember at the beginning of the programme

I was telling you that this area has long been famous

for shipwrecks and objects that have washed up on the shore over the centuries.

Well, you might be imagining, as I did, caskets of jewels or gold coins

perhaps not a can of peanuts. But this has an amazing provenance,

because this was on a ship during the Second World War

that was dispatched from this area, an American ship to help the troops at D-Day.

It was a cargo ship full of food.

It was torpedoed and it sank, and this washed up on the shore.

Now, even though there was rationing at the time,

the people that found it, never ate the peanuts,

and I can tell they're still in there.

From the Antiques Roadshow at Hartland Abbey, bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd