Weald and Downland 1 Antiques Roadshow

There's a place in Sussex where you can travel back in time.

These are some of the last working oxen in the country.

With its 15th and 16th century buildings, this place seems as if

the centuries have just passed it by unchanged -

a timeless rural idyll.

But all is not as it seems. 40 years ago, none of this was here,

not Chris, our oxen herder, not the animals, not the fields,

not even the buildings.

It's the remarkable location for this week's Antiques Roadshow -

the Weald and Downland Museum.

BELL RINGS

BIRD TWEETS

Today we're in West Sussex, seven miles from Chichester.

I think our experts will approve of the Weald and Downland Museum.

It's like a sanctuary for endangered buildings,

rescued and lovingly rebuilt.

But they might be surprised to find it all owes its existence to,

of all things, Crawley New Town.

Why? Well, in the post-war years, Crawley was chosen as the spot

for thousands of new houses to replace those bombed out in the war.

To many, it seemed a dream come true, but for one man

it was the start of a mission.

Roy Armstrong had devoted his life to teaching

and the history of Sussex.

For him, the people of Crawley were having their roots torn away.

He described seeing wonderful medieval buildings

from the old village of Crawley literally consigned to the flames.

Determined to save other timber- framed buildings from the same fate,

Roy decided to create a museum of buildings, and in 1965,

he set about trying to find space for all his rescued houses.

As you can imagine, with exhibits that size, you need a lot of room.

An eccentric millionaire, Edward James, came to the rescue,

offering Roy 50 acres of his ancestral land

for a peppercorn rent of a pound a year.

Soon, buildings began to arrive -

houses due to be submerged under a reservoir, a toll house

that had been hit by a lorry and was due for demolition, a granary

in the way of a new road, and the landscape here

began to change around the houses, barns and workshops.

40 years since the museum opened,

it's as if these buildings have always been here.

I'm sure Roy would be delighted to know

that the Antiques Roadshow is setting up its stall

alongside one of his rescued houses from Crawley Old Town.

So you researched this on the internet?

Yes, but unfortunately we were unable to find

anything about it at all.

-I'm surprised, because you've got quite a lot of clues here.

-Right.

What did you put into the internet?

-That's down to my husband, he did that.

-Ah, you're blaming him.

-Yes.

I am, yes.

If you went back to the internet, what would you do with this mark?

I would probably have to try and find the number?

-Would that make sense?

-Start with the number?

-Yes.

-That's the wrong approach.

-Oh, dear, never mind!

-You've got this wonderful word Florian.

-Right.

-Florian ware, and underneath you've got Macintyre.

-Ah-ha.

If you put any of those in, you'd hit straight away what this is.

-Right, OK.

-When do you think it was made?

-Erm, my mum felt that my grandmother had it in the 1920s.

-OK.

Other than that, I know nothing about it.

-I'm going to go back one generation further.

-Right.

-This dates to around 1900, 1910 maybe.

-Really?

-Why did it come to you?

-Erm, my grandmother

passed it on to my mum, who has allowed me to have that

because the colours are so lovely,

and they match the curtains that I bought for my new bedroom!

-So it's to match the curtains?

-It was, yes.

Now, when you look it up on the internet,

you will find under Macintyre a very famous name - William Moorcroft.

-Right.

-He designed for Macintyre's

-around the year 1900, before he went solo with his own factory.

-Right.

This is the sort of thing he did.

-He was a brilliant designer using floral motifs.

-Yes.

-And you can see, he loved colour.

-Yes.

And all of these outlines are tube- lined, rather like icing a cake.

-Right.

-So, quite sophisticated.

-You liked it because it matched the curtains.

-I did, yes.

It's probably worth somewhere in the region of,

let's say between £600 and £900.

Never! Really?

Gosh, I think my mum will be quite pleased with that,

but I would never part with it, never.

Have you still got the curtains?

Erm, I have, but I don't use them.

I love him, he's the best dog-painter in the world, for me -

Cecil Aldin.

And here we've got a really amusing picture of this poor terrier

being fed medicine,

inscribed, "To Dr Cameron, may your doses never grow less."

-Who was Dr Cameron?

-That Dr Cameron was my grandfather,

and he was in practice in Clapham in London at that time,

and I presume this was a gift from a grateful patient.

And I would think Cecil Aldin was a grateful patient

because he didn't suffer from great health -

towards the end of his life, he went to live abroad in warmer climes.

-Yes.

-I see you've brought a photograph...

That just shows my grandfather outside his house in Clapham.

He's got an original Scottish car - an Argyle, made in Glasgow.

-Oh, was it?

-It's a rather period piece, a lovely little picture.

-This is a very early work by Cecil Aldin.

-Yes.

-It's '05,

and he was born in the 1870s, but it's a really lovely

illustration of how good he was as a sort of character painter

-and getting, you know, a dog's character.

-Yes.

-And I presume this is your grandfather feeding the dog?

-Yes.

-He had a great sense of humour, Cecil Aldin.

-Yes, I've seen some of

his other doggie pictures, and they're great fun.

-They're very popular when they come up for sale.

-Yes.

And it's such a nice personal story - are you a doctor yourself?

And my father was, too, yes, we're three in a row.

Good old family doctors, love it.

Well, this I think, if it came up for auction,

would make probably somewhere in the region of £1,500-£2,000.

Yes, yes, so I shall have to look at the insurance a little, I think.

Yes, thank you very much for that!

Well on the face of it, it looks like a good early Rolex Submariner.

-How did you acquire it?

-Um, my grandfather gave it to me.

He knew I was a big James Bond fan.

He gave it to me about five or six years ago.

And do you know when he bought it?

I was under the impression it was 1952 in Hong Kong.

'52, no, that would be a little bit early.

Let's just have a look at the reference number,

and actually it's lucky that you haven't got the metal strap

because I can now see here the reference,

and there it is, it's the 6536.

Absolutely right, it's what they refer to as the "James Bond."

It's not actually the one that was worn by Sean Connery

in the early Bond films, particularly Thunderball,

because that was the 6538 which had the bigger winding crown.

That's the one that collectors all want is the big heavy winding crown.

But this is the earlier one,

circa 1958, and the other difference is, of course,

this goes down to 100 metres, 330 feet, and the later reference

goes down to 200 metres, 660 feet, that's the Bond one.

The main thing is, it's a correct watch

and there are a good few fakes around.

Has anybody tried to give you a price guide on this before?

A few years ago a local dealer said he'd give me

-200 quid for it.

-Were you tempted?

-I wasn't.

I wouldn't part with it, it's a sort of a family heirloom,

it's close to my heart, but I'm just curious about how much it was worth.

Damn sensible decision,

because if you'd taken the £200 then,

you might now have seriously regretted it.

As I say, it's the early one,

it has no shoulders to the winding crown, it's absolutely gorgeous,

the condition is just as you'd expect for something of this age.

Never, never, never have the dial repainted -

it will ruin an awful lot of its value.

So that 200 quid that you could have taken,

in this state, I'm going to quote you -

hope you're happy,

£7,000 to £8,000.

GASPS IN CROWD

Crikey.

You can take it away thinking you could have taken

that 200 quid.

-Thank you very much. Oh. Superb.

-Are you happy?

Yes, thank you very much. I'll put it on.

JAMES BOND THEME PLAYS

It looks like someone's had a bit of a brutal attack on here.

-What's happened?

-Yes, I'm afraid they did.

Back in December 1965, my dad became very curious about this box,

it had been in the family for,

well, as long as he could remember.

My grandfather told him it had actually been bought as

a job lot at an auction by my great grandfather, who was born in 1843.

So, Dad searched around for some keys, tried various keys,

nothing worked, and against all his best principles,

he actually had to use a screwdriver to gently ease the lock.

When he opened it up, he'd been told it was just a load of old bottles

-and of no particular interest.

-And there we are.

He decided to have a look at the bottles and he picked one up.

Now, as he picked one up, something fell to the floor

and when he looked down,

there was a piece of folded paper on the floor,

and when he opened it out, he couldn't believe his eyes.

Because actually it seemed to be signed by the Duke of Wellington.

-And here we have the folded piece of paper.

-Yeah, that's right, yes.

That was it, that was all he knew,

so there's a Duke of Wellington piece of paper and the decanters.

I mean my father was quite creative in his imagination,

very interested in history,

so immediately he thought, "Right, OK, I'll contact Coutts Bank,"

who very, very kindly wrote back to him and confirmed that, yes,

the Duke of Wellington did hold an account with them.

Well, what's interesting is that the cheque is dated March 1823

and the cheque's for £195.

And £195 in 1823,

if you use an average earnings index,

is nowadays is in excess of £100,000

-So this is a cash cheque.

-Yes.

In other words, he was going to Coutts to cash

a cheque for £100,000

-What on earth for?

-The mind boggles.

Yeah, the mind does boggle,

and the mind boggles in all sorts of different ways

because he had a number of mistresses over the years,

including one called Harriet Wilson,

who threatened to write her memoirs and he said "publish and be damned."

Sorry, can I just stop you there. That's very, very strange.

My daughter is called Harriet Wilson, so...

Well, how bizarre is that? I had no idea.

Nor did I!

Well, there we are, how extraordinary,

well, Harriet Wilson threatened to write her memoirs and they were

salacious, inevitably and he said, "publish and be damned."

Anyway, so is this £100,000

to pay off someone like Harriet, who knows?

But there's another thing that happened in 1823 -

his son bought a commission in the army.

He was in the 81st Regiment of Foot.

Was that to buy his son's commission?

-It's still an awful lot of money.

-It is.

And he, you know, it's odd to have as cash.

But it is a campaign decanter case,

so, did the Duke take it on his campaign?

In which case, was it at Waterloo?

And then subsequently he kept using it and a few bottles got smashed?

-We just don't know.

-Just never know.

So, as far as valuation is concerned,

the easiest part is the cheque.

Cheques from Wellington appear on the market

and as a cheque it's worth, perhaps £50.

-Right.

-As a Duke of Wellington cheque.

The campaign decanter case is a little bit tired,

to be perfectly honest.

There are two decanters missing, the rest are a little bit nibbled,

so it's worth £600 maybe a little bit more, it's that sort of order.

But if we could ever prove that this

was taken to the Battle of Waterloo, then it's worth tens of thousands.

-So a wonderful thing.

-Thank you very much, thank you.

-Thanks.

At first sight, this looks like a well modelled version of an eagle,

-do you know what it is?

-Yes, well, it's a car mascot,

either to go on the radiator cap or, in fact, be screwed on to the bonnet.

Well, that's absolutely right, because if we take it out,

you can see it's got this thread

which would have gone onto the radiator cap,

or onto the bonnet, as you say.

Does it have any history that you know about?

Well it does. It was given to me by a friend,

who used to be a private secretary

to the old Duke of Kent, Prince George. Oh, yes.

He received it from Hurstpierpoint College,

which is where I went to school.

That's quite nearby, isn't it?

-It's quite nearby, just over the top there.

-Yeah.

And this was for opening the chapel tower,

and the eagle represents the weather vane,

on top of the chapel tower.

How wonderful! So, that's not a bad thing to be given

because there's something rather special about this

from all other car mascots, and that's...

It's actually made of silver,

because if we pick it up and look here,

it's got a nice set of hallmarks.

Maker's mark W&H, that's for Walker and Hall.

-Right.

-Crown, that it's made in Sheffield

and the date letter for 1930,

and it actually has a slightly 1930s look about it.

But, you can imagine you don't really drive round

in a car with a silver mascot

on the front because it's likely to get nicked.

But silver mascots are incredibly rare for that reason.

-Right.

-And, also, because they're not legal any more,

you can't put a mascot on a modern car because,

for health and safety reasons,

they've become very, very collectable,

so, something like this, with a good story behind it,

is going to be sought after by...

I can think of quite a few collectors

that would be really keen to have something like this.

If this was plated, or made from another metal...

-Right.

-..it would only be worth a few hundred pounds

but, because it's silver, it's so much rarer,

with that great story, £2,000-£3,000.

Good Lord! Really?

Oh, well, that's a nice gift to have received, isn't it?

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you.

A beautiful portrait of a lovely lady. Can you tell me who she is?

Yes, she was my granny, Nadia.

She was born in Irkutsk in central Siberia,

-which is a long way from where she died, which was Paddington.

-Wow!

But, on the way, she was taken with her father and with her siblings

on the Trans-Siberian Railway,

where they met a lot of people.

There were 90,000 people working on the railways...

At the time.

-..at the time. And some of the people were circus people.

-Right.

So, they taught her, and her brothers and sisters,

how to do different acts, singing and dancing,

-magic acts, acrobatics and things.

-Acrobatics.

Acrobatics! And when they got down to Vladivostok

that was the journey's end, I think it was two years later,

they then joined a circus,

which took them down the whole length of China,

and they eventually got down to Bangkok.

And the girls used to dance, and the girls danced so beautifully,

and they were so elegant, that the King of Siam got to hear about this.

-Ah!

-And he came around to see them.

He said, "I want you girls to come back and dance in the palace",

-which they did.

-Right.

And she actually had to go with her mother to make sure

-there was no hanky-panky going on.

-Right.

-And, at the end of it, he gave her this bracelet here.

-Wow!

It's composed of some coins, which are known as ticals,

and these coins are very specific to Siam.

Now we know it as Thailand, and these ticals are usually in silver.

So, it's very unusual to be in gold.

And the reason they're in gold

is because they're a gift from the King, so around 1910.

The Royal Family were really the only people eligible

to have gold ticals.

-It's a wonderful name, isn't it, ticals?

-It is, it is.

You've got seven in all here,

and then with a lovely little medallion at the bottom for the...

From the King.

From the King, exactly. So, the Imperial crest of Siam

and then, of course, you've got the lovely white elephant

with enamel and detail here,

and the elephant itself showing the freedom of the country.

It's a free country, it never was invaded.

In terms of value, I think in auction,

you could see it fetching £2,000 to £3,000.

-OK.

-And I hope, on a good day,

it should fetch the top end of the estimate.

Yes, I wonder if the Siamese family would like to buy it back.

You never know.

Give them a ring.

One of the limiting factors of most decorative objects

is a factor called gravity,

which means that basically you've got to put them on the floor,

a table, a shelf, the mantelpiece.

You've got to put them on a surface. The thing I love

about these, is they take us into another dimension

and I'm very keen on going into another dimension.

Great! A sun catcher.

-Yes.

-Good thing, eh?

Lovely, yes, it's wonderful, and it hangs in front of a picture window

and getting all the light from the west through it.

-It's beautiful.

-It glows.

I think it kind of brings a smile to your face, it does mine.

-That's it.

-It's called the Sunspot.

Generically, they're sun catchers

but this one is specifically the Whitefriars Sunspot

and it was always made in this colour

with sort of various striations, designed by Geoffrey Baxter

in 1970-ish, and they're not bad money actually.

-So, you found yours in...?

-No, it was a present.

It was a gift, I should think in the '70s probably.

Well, I think it's a nice... I love them.

It's a happy thing and on a value, £100 to £150 but...

-That's wonderful.

-I think it's enough to bring a smile to anybody's face.

I should think so. Marvellous. Thank you, Andy.

You've probably heard by now, how the market in Chinese antiques

is thriving, with the Chinese

so keen to buy back objects from their own heritage.

Now, our ceramics specialist, John Axford,

has set us a particularly difficult task this week.

We have three blue and white Chinese vases.

They don't look superficially that different, but one is basic -

worth about £50, one is better -

worth considerably more, £20,000,

and the best one is worth £200,000!

So, I'm keeping my distance.

We're going to be asking our visitors to take a look at them

and, at those prices, no touching.

We've seen some interesting collections on the Antiques Roadshow

over the 33 years that I've been doing it,

but I'm almost having to restrain myself here with excitement,

because this is just a tiny part

of a huge collection of handcuffs, leg irons,

all kinds of restraining equipment, which you've got.

-How many have you got at home?

-820 different models at home.

It was, at one time, the world's largest collection

and featured in the Guinness Book of Records for four years.

A chap in America has now got a larger collection than me,

so, I'm about second or third in the world now.

Presumably you came to this through what - the police force or...?

No, my grandfather was a member of the Magic Circle

and, at the age of seven, he gave me

a birthday party with magic at the end of it.

About a year later, the Houdini film was on television with Tony Curtis

and Mum sent me to bed halfway through it,

and I never saw the other half of it.

Next, day I went to the library and got interested in Houdini,

and performed at a local Scouts,

and performed straitjacket escapes upside down from burning ropes.

You're an escapologist?

-I was an escapologist, yes.

-I know you are married.

-I am married, yes.

Now, what's it like being married to a collector of anything,

but of this kind of material?

-Did you know he was a collector when...

-Yes, I did.

-..when you knew him?

-Yes.

-What did you think of that?

Well, I thought they were teasing me

when they told me that he had this collection of handcuffs, you know.

So, I was quite surprised when I saw them, yes.

-And you realised that...

-That it was true, yes.

But when you look at them,

looking at it not from a sort of collector's point of view,

but when you look at them, what goes through your mind?

Well, I have to say, I know that when Chris looks at them,

he sees how they're made and the locks and everything else.

And I have to say when I look at some of them,

I just see the suffering, so we look at them with different eyes.

So, you think about who they were put on to.

Yes, yes, yes.

-Interesting.

-And some of them in particular

are difficult to look at for me.

OK, so that's an interesting sort of female-male

different way of dealing with it.

So, there are probably three that stand out.

You know, I suppose these are the most bizarre, these sort of mittens.

The most unusual, yes, yeah. Patented in 1929 by James Mackenzie,

30 to 40 of these were actually made up

and they were used for transporting prisoners on the railways in America.

Unfortunately, the prison guards found they were too effective

and if the call of nature was necessary for one of the prisoners,

the prison officers refused to attend to the prisoners

and they were actually withdrawn,

and we know of only 22 that are still in existence 80 odd years later.

-Gosh. And this, this is part of that, is it?

-Yes.

-That's like a ball and chain.

-It is.

-But more...

Well, I don't know, is it as heavy as a ball and chain?

That weighs 16 lbs - that weighs.

-Goodness!

-And that fits on top of the stirrup

which is... With the boot attached to it.

The railways found it far more useful than having a ball and chain,

because railway workers could get on with their duties far more better,

but, with this attached to your leg, it's virtually impossible to run.

It's very disorientating.

-One leg weighs 18 lbs more than the other leg.

-Absolutely.

-It's virtually impossible to run away.

-One can see that.

If one had to say which is the most valuable here,

would it surprise me? Would it be the least obvious?

I think probably the most valuable will be these bar cuffs here,

which I would... The last pair of those sold,

there's only two pairs known, and the pair that recently sold

didn't have the belt attached to it,

and they fetched 17,000, and that was about three, four months ago.

-A remarkable collection.

-Thank you.

-Fascinating history.

And thank you very much indeed

for breaking them out of the attic and bringing them down here.

-Thank you very much.

-Brilliant.

Blue and white china, three vases that don't look that different.

But the basic one is worth £50,

the better one £20,000,

the best one is worth £200,000.

Which do you think is which?

I'd probably say this was the cheapest one.

-The cheapest, basic one?

-Yeah, basic one.

-OK.

Which do you think is which?

I think perhaps this one, about 50 quid, something like that.

-OK, so that's the basic one, right.

-Yeah.

-This one would be better.

-Right.

-I think the middling one is this one here.

-That one.

200,000.

This one's the most expensive.

-The best?

-Yeah.

-You think this is the best?

That's the most expensive one.

-That one.

-Would you like something like this in your home?

I'd love to have something like that in my home,

-thanks, if you're offering.

-You must be joking!

Well, what a funny little thing!

Why have you brought it today?

Well, it actually belongs to my mum,

and it was given to her by a very good friend in the 1960s.

-She just saw it and sort of gave it to my mum as a gift.

-Right.

-She said it was old then.

-Yes.

But I don't know what it is, where it came from, nothing.

It's very much under speculation,

but I think that the key to it is that it's decorated

with enamelled flowers, and it's clearly made of silver

and it's in brilliant condition because it's oxidised,

it's blackened and it gives a feeling of deep antiquity to it,

-which I think it deserves.

-Right.

It's not in absolutely perfect condition, it's damaged at the back,

but I don't think that matters terribly much

because what we're interested in, is what it is,

-and where it comes from.

-Right.

And I think that the enamel flowers on the front, are the key,

-because with flowers come scent, doesn't it?

-Right.

And there was a positive obsession with scent

in almost every generation but our own, for various odd reasons.

They thought that bad humours - indeed disease -

-would come from the smells from which they were surrounded.

-Right.

Because of the stench and the filth in the streets with open middens

and animal remains, and God knows what lying around in the street -

-and then the conjunction of plague in these urban situations.

-Right.

They felt - completely erroneously - that the smell from the streets

was part of the way in which these infections invaded you.

The way to protect yourself was to mask the smell of the urban climate

and to burn fragrant woods,

to get far-fetched spices from the Orient,

-and you'd need to fix them.

-Right.

And perfume fixative which would be ambergris or civet.

-Ambergris is a sort of phlegm coughed up by whales.

-Ooh!

-You don't fancy that.

-That's revolting!

Coughing whales, a big cough.

And the civet is extracted from the tail end of a rather fierce cat.

-So where's this all going?

-I don't know.

Are you worried yet? You won't get a plague from it,

although I rather suspect it could come from that period. Anyway...

To mask it you'd put the scents of the flowers, the essences,

into these ambergris, civet, musk, and then carry them round

in, perhaps, little tubes of waxy material which would lodge in here,

and then don't forget this is completely open work

and it's open work because the scent would exude from that

-and you'd carry it.

-Right.

Then when plague was ripping through the country,

as it did in 1608 in London,

it was one of the most terrifying plagues

-where hundreds of thousand of people were dying.

-Right.

This is some sort of pomander.

A pomander means an apple of ambergris

and this is a quasi magical object, made of silver,

decorated with enamel.

-How old is it?

-It is, I believe, 17th century.

-Possibly 18th century.

-What? Right.

-The 17th century was the big plague, yeah.

-Yes.

And how to value it? I don't know, what did you think it was worth?

I don't know. My mother thought it was...

She called it a bit of old tat.

Oh, well, she was right about the old, but not about the tat.

There's a magical cure here. People do collect these things.

They collect them very avidly, there's a great company of people

who want to collect aromatic goldsmiths' work,

which is what this is, almost jewellery,

and I think they'd be jolly pleased to give you something

in the region of £2,500 for that today.

Really(?) Good heavens!

Gosh, she will be shocked when I tell her!

-Ooh... Oh, dear I'd better be more careful with it.

-Better had.

I know this is a Korean chest, but we don't know any more about it,

so I'm hoping that you can tell us something.

How do you know it's Korean?

We replied to an advertisement in our then local paper in Hong Kong

for somebody selling Korean chests

and we assume, therefore, that it was from Korea.

Well, it is Korean, definitely.

Let's look. I think the actual configuration of the drawers

and the doors is absolutely typical. I can't resist opening one of them.

-I love this butterfly motif. Isn't it pretty?

-It is.

-Is it a moth, or a butterfly?

-I would assume it's a butterfly.

It's nicer, isn't it?

This is elm here which is very typical of Japanese,

and to a certain extent Chinese, and Oriental furniture, to use elm.

But when we...

That's very interesting, it's got a very soft pine back on it

and these slide back and forward. Yes, I see.

How old do you think it is?

I think it's 19th century,

but I'm not certain.

How did you get it here?

-Today?

-Mm.

-In the back of the car because it comes into three pieces.

-And not too heavy?

-No.

-Nice and light, isn't it?

-Nice and light, yes.

Do you want a chair?

No, well, I hope... I don't think so.

-It's not very old.

-Oh! Oh, how disappointing.

Right...

-I'm sorry to disappoint you. It is not 19th century.

-Right.

Shame.

We didn't spend a great deal so it's not the end of the world.

I think I'm going to be brave, and ask you how much you paid for it.

Well, we can't exactly remember,

but it was less than £100, probably quite a lot less.

That's lucky,

because I know that people paid over £1,000 for these

-in English and European antique shops.

-Mm-hm.

In probably the 1970s almost every provincial antique shop in the UK

had one, and probably Europe, had not exactly the same,

but a similar type of modern Korean cabinet.

Whether the Koreans made them as that dreadful word, fakes,

I don't know, or whether they were making in the traditional style.

Let's be generous and say it was traditional style,

and somebody very cleverly started importing them.

Had you had one of these and you bought it for £1,000,

-I'd be saying to you today that it was worth £500.

-Mm-hm.

Luckily you bought yours for...

You can't remember, but under £100, so yours has gone up to £500.

Well, that's ideal, thank you very much.

I'm quite happy with that.

Well, quite a challenge this week.

Our ceramics specialist, John Axford,

has brought along three vases.

As you know, we were talking to our visitors in the programme earlier.

One of them is a basic blue and white Chinese vase worth about £50.

One of them is worth £20,000, so quite a difference.

One of them is worth £200,000.

And, frankly, I'm just a bit nervous standing near them. Erm...

This is a difficult one. I've put them in the order I think they are,

basic, better, best.

John, how can you tell because they are all blue and white vases,

and apart from the difference in the patterns,

they don't look that different.

It is very difficult. Yes, they're all blue and white.

They were all made in the same place, in Jingdezhen,

and, actually, also they're all copies of earlier pieces.

-They're all copies?

-They're all copies.

You have to start with some knowledge

of the history of Chinese porcelain.

Blue and white started in China in the middle of the 14th century

and by the time they get to the 15th century

they're making terrific pieces.

Some of the best Ming pieces are made then.

These pieces then get copied and copied and copied

throughout the centuries.

In the British Museum, you could see vases like all of these there.

It never occurred to me that they would all be copies.

I assumed the one with the stonking valuation would be genuine.

I mean, what should we be looking for?

Start with quality.

Well, start with the designs.

This one and this one, they're designs that go back to 1400

and have been copied, but the quality should be very good.

This vase is very fuzzy, it didn't fire very well.

Look here, there's a scar on the side. See that, like a thumb print.

It's been made pretty badly. The colour of this blue,

which is this very turquoisy colour

is really quite wrong for an early piece.

I was hoping that fuzziness was a mark of antiquity,

-but there you go.

-I'm afraid, Fiona, this is the basic vase.

-I'm older than this is.

-No!

-So that's the basic one.

-That is the basic one.

That's worth no more than £50.

Right, I'll definitely stick to the day job.

Going on to the better, the vase nearest you.

-This one.

-This is the one I thought was basic.

That's the one you thought was basic. Look at the decoration.

We've got little dots painted in here,

that's copying an earlier technique,

it's reviving a style but the painting is rather cartoony.

It's a good vase.

It's quite a rare vase, late 19th century made for the Chinese.

Yes, in auction today that's £20,000.

See, I thought it looked...

I mean, I'm embarrassed to show my ignorance,

but it looked like it had been transferred on,

-obviously it's hand painted, then?

-Yeah, all three are hand painted.

Right.

Da, da, da, da, da!

This is obviously the humdinger.

Now, it's beautiful, but why is this

worth at least £200,000,

because it doesn't look that dramatically different?

It is brilliantly painted, the painting,

the quality is fantastic. It dates from the 18th century.

There is only one original Ming vase like this is known to exist

in the Percival David Foundation in the British Museum in London.

-So an original?

-There's only one...

-Would be worth?

-Who knows?

-Millions.

-Many, many millions.

They started reproducing this design in the 18th century.

It is difficult to tell, it's about the quality of the painting,

the space of the decoration, the surface of the glaze,

the way the base is finished

and all of these things come together

to make it a genuine 18th century piece.

It's a terrific vase

and, yes, it is coming up for auction

and I'm expecting it to make in excess of £200,000.

Gosh!

-Blimey!

-Quite!

Well, I'm embarrassed by my lack of scholarship,

let me just move these round then.

It breaks my heart to do it, so basic,

better, best.

I could not have got it more wrong.

If you have some blue and white china at home,

who knows? It may be worth £200,000.

We'd love to see it at the Roadshow.

Bring it along very carefully.

You can check out our locations on our website:

bbc.co.uk/antiquesroadshow.

Fiona, one final thought.

-You got all three wrong.

-Yes.

-You don't get the job, I'm sorry.

Charming!

Well, I hope you won't be offended

if I tell you that I think these extraordinary elaborate figures

are an affront to the modern taste for minimalism.

Minimalist they are not.

I mean, the detail in them is breathtaking,

wonderful little shells

and a lady selling fish here,

and the chap with a hare and a duck on a stick over his shoulder.

Really richly elaborate and wonderfully decorative things.

What do you know about them?

I know they were a wedding present to my wife's great grandparents.

Yeah.

I believe, I don't know the exact year, but around 1900.

Let's pick it up and have a look at the mark

and here we have an applied, pink triangle mark.

Impressed into that it says Royal Dux Bohemia

and there's an E in the centre there

and that stands for a man called Eduard Eichler

and he was the proprietor of the Royal Dux factory,

which was in a place in Bohemia called Dux.

He specialised in elaborate,

highly-styled and wonderful figures like this.

Date-wise, it works very well with your family provenance about 1900,

-that fits for me.

-OK.

But, you know, looking at these figures in the 21st century,

we live in a land of black leather sofas, white walls,

blonde wood floors

and, you know, 20 years ago, when I started looking at things like this,

people tried to make their houses like the inside of a country house,

or a Victorian villa. The more you could stuff into them,

the more elaborate they were, the better.

Now it's exactly the opposite.

That's why I say, you know, these things are just

the antithesis of British taste

and the value of them is almost like a barometer of that taste.

At auction today, I think, these wonderfully elaborate,

richly decorative, high quality figures are worth

-in the region of £800 to £1,200.

-OK.

But when I tell you that 20 years ago,

when I started doing this job,

they were worth twice as much,

1,500 to 2,000.

-One day, they'll come back.

-Well worth keeping hold of.

-Keep 'em.

This is a stunningly pretty clock.

Can you tell me anything about its past life?

Well it was given to my grandmother for her wedding,

-and we think it was about 1903 that she was married.

-Right.

And here she is.

-In the middle.

-In the middle.

-I love all the costumes.

-Are they all related?

-They're all sisters.

-Good heavens!

Yes, it was a large family, and three sons too.

And it came from your grandmother.

It came from my grandmother and it was given to me

-for my 18th birthday.

-It's a fabulous present.

I particularly like the enamel dial

which has got a Latin lettering which I think is "festina lente"

and my schoolboy Latin makes me think that's something like

"make haste slowly."

She always told me it was "hurry slowly."

-Hurry slowly, yes, exactly.

-Yes.

But what's so nice about this is the condition, it's really gorgeous.

Just look at the enamel round here, this tree and the lovely colouring,

even the colour of the dial itself is absolutely wonderful.

You've obviously looked after it extremely well.

I thought it was special.

-Yes, and it's in the high Art Nouveau taste.

-Right.

But if we turn it round,

what gets even more interesting are the marks at the back here

-and we can see it's got the mark here for Liberty & Company.

-Ah.

Now, Liberty & Company were one of the real pioneers

of the Art Nouveau style, particularly at this period,

and it's got a date letter here.

Made in Birmingham in 1901.

That would marry with the wedding present at 1903, wouldn't it?

Exactly, absolutely.

They had a very important designer working for them,

at that time, called Archibald Knox.

-Knox designed a number of clocks.

-Yes.

-I'm pretty certain this is designed by Knox.

-Right.

-This is prettier than most.

-Oh!

Now I have to tell you that Archibald Knox is very much

-the flavour of the month at the moment.

-Oh!

So, not only have you got a lovely item,

-you've got a rare item.

-Oh.

You've got a very collectable item.

I've got the difficult task of trying to tell you

what it might be worth.

Right.

I think comfortably £15,000 to £20,000.

AUDIENCE GASP

Oh!

What a wonderful present I was given.

-What a lovely grandmother you had.

-Yes.

This is, this is just so special and it's so wonderful.

I've almost fallen in love again in my life.

It is an absolutely stunning piece

and such a pleasure and a privilege to handle it and see it.

Well, thank you very much.

That's really good news and the family will be delighted.

Thank you very much.

What do you think this is?

Answers on a postcard, please.

Scrap that, we can't cope with the admin, I'll just tell you.

It is a prosthetic leg for a bull.

As you tie it on.

Tie it on here at the top

and look, it's articulated and everything.

You might wonder why would anyone go to all the trouble

to make a prosthetic leg for a bull, lovely though they are.

This might give you a clue.

Here's a prosthetic leg

and just look at the bedroom eyes that the cow is giving the bull.

All I can say is, it must have been a very valuable blood line!

From the Antiques Roadshow team

here at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum,

until next time, bye-bye.