Wimbledon 1 Antiques Roadshow

Over the last 34 years, the Antiques Roadshow has visited

some of the most prestigious locations in the British Isles.

High on the list must come some of our greatest sporting venues.

We took the show to the heart of Test Match cricket, at Lord's.

Then, we celebrated the sport of kings,

at the Queen's favourite racecourse, Royal Ascot.

But now, for the grand slam.

We're at the most famous tennis club in the world.

Welcome to the All England Lawn Tennis Club, at Wimbledon.

BELL RINGS

MUSIC: "In The Summertime" by Mungo Jerry

To get the authentic Wimbledon experience,

there's only one time to visit,

and that's during Championship Fortnight.

People have been coming here since 1877,

to watch the most talented players in the world

compete for the coveted Wimbledon trophies.

'15-all.'

Even as long ago as the 1930s,

more than 200,000 people turned up to watch the matches.

Of course, things were very different then.

Men were still playing in flannel trousers

and women had not long since discarded long skirts and petticoats

but many Wimbledon traditions established then

are still in force today.

It's the only grand slam tournament in the world which is still played on grass

and where it's compulsory to wear predominantly white clothing.

This is Centre Court, the heart of Wimbledon,

where the world's best players have competed.

Who can forget when a young John McEnroe burst onto our screens

with his brilliant volleys and sometimes colourful outbursts?

Well, we think we may have unearthed an antique he might recognise.

I caught up with him and Sue Barker on Centre Court.

Yeah...

That looks vaguely familiar.

I think this has the ring of authenticity

smashed in a moment of anger.

That's a setup. Your show... That's not mine.

This was brought along by a young chap to an Antiques Roadshow a few years back,

who said that when you stayed with his mum in digs

when you were playing, his mum was called Linda...

-Ring any bells? You gave her this racket.

-Which one? No, I'm kidding.

Does this look familiar?

-Yes, that was definitely a racket I played with.

-Same size grip? Yep.

What happened here?

Well, I know this is hard to believe,

but there were times when I got a little upset out there.

We remember them well. Now...

-Yes?

-Would you sign it?

-Sign it?

OK, all right, sure, absolutely.

That would make it something really fantastic.

Something very quick.

"Thanks for the memories."

THEY LAUGH

OK, so I don't know if this will increase or decrease the value

but there you go.

I think we can safely say that makes it an antique of the future, John.

-Thanks very much.

-You're welcome.

We'll find out if John's signature

has increased the value of that racket shortly.

Time to transform some of the outer courts in front of the clubhouse

as we prepare for our own slightly smaller championship event

called the Antiques Roadshow.

Well, this is a wonderful bronze of a ballet dancer.

-Is it a family piece?

-It is. It belongs to my father.

It was bought by my grandfather in Paris in 1925

and then given to my father after he got married.

And not only have you brought along a bronze

but also the original receipt.

-Yes.

-And here it is,

dated 19th December 1925, obviously in Paris.

And we see that he paid 1,200 old francs for it,

which I think was about £110 in those days,

-so quite a lot of money.

-Yes, yes.

And here we can see, "La mort du cygne (La Pavlova)."

"The Dying Swan," and that gives us an indication of what the bronze is.

Yes, Anna Pavlova, very famous Russian ballet dancer.

Famous for The Dying Swan.

Some people think it's connected with Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake

but it comes from The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens,

-The Dying Swan.

-Yes, yes.

Anna Pavlova, as you probably know,

worked with Diaghilev, of course, at Les Ballets Russes

and then she was the first person, I think, to take her own ballet tour

throughout the world.

And she was extremely well-known in London and in America.

It's a wonderfully expressive bronze and if we look at it,

she's in the typical pose that she performed during The Dying Swan

and wonderful the way the casting

has got her dress flowing out like this.

It's spectacular, great movement in it.

-It's a beautiful piece.

-It's got a liveliness to it.

And if we look down towards the base,

we can see that it's signed, "P de Boulongne".

Pierre de Boulongne was a reasonably well-known bronze sculptor

working in France in the 19th and 20th century.

We can see the "7 25" indicates it's a limited edition

of just 25 cast from the mould and this was number seven.

So, quite rare. Do you have it on display at home or have your parents got it?

My parents have it, yes,

it's very proudly displayed on my father's piano.

-Are they ballet enthusiasts?

-My mother was a ballerina.

-Was she?

-She was, yes.

-But perhaps not as well-known as Pavlova.

-Not quite as well-known as Pavlova.

-I think it's a glorious bronze.

We have to look at prices

and because only 25 of this edition were produced, I would think

if this appeared on the market today at auction, it would probably

fetch £6,000-£8,000.

-Ah!

-And on a good day, it might even make 10.

-Wow. Wow!

Gosh. My parents will be very, very pleased to hear that, I should think.

But it'll go back on my father's piano.

Thank you very much.

Well, as you can imagine, this makes me very excited.

What we've got here, these pages, all handwritten,

and this is a memorandum,

"By William Westenburg,

"assistant surgeon on the Victory,"

Nelson's flagship,

"between 19th and 22nd October, 1805."

The Battle of Trafalgar. Absolutely tremendous.

Here we are, "HMS Victory off Cadiz." Tell me about it,

-where did it come from?

-We've had it in the family for over a century and a half.

-Yes.

-Just wanted to know a bit more about it.

Over a century and a half, that means...

This...he is related to you?

-No idea how we got it in the family.

-It's absolutely wonderful.

And we see here, "England expects every man to do his duty,"

which is, obviously, the famous one, but he goes on down here and we get to

"The Right Honourable Lord Viscount Nelson, commander-in-chief,

"was wounded in the left shoulder by a musket ball

"out of the Redoubtable."

The idea this was actually written in the battle

or somewhere very near it, you know,

obviously when he wasn't staunching blood flows

or stopping musket holes or anything like that,

it's quite incredible, really.

And what else? This goes on about...

it goes on about manoeuvres and manoeuvring.

The preparation for the battle was remarkable

and Nelson left nothing to any chance.

What's clear in this is that there was something that Nelson did -

he swerved down to the rear of the French line

and then swerved back in again,

and that has not been properly recorded, and it's in this letter.

So, it's in this letter?

-So the Antiques Roadshow has another first?

-I'd like to think so.

Well, so would I. I think that's absolutely incredible.

So, a family item, this lovely piece of history under my hands.

It's got to be worth a lot of money.

-What do you think?

-I have no idea.

Well, I think because you have actually pointed out

the bit about the manoeuvre,

which is not in most of the history books,

I would say you've got something here that's worth about £5,000.

-Thank you very much.

-You're very welcome. Thank you.

-Thank you.

These were both found in a tin box in a bank vault

when my grandfather died and we believe they belonged to his father.

As far as I know, this one is the oldest one.

My brother-in-law dated it about 1606-1607

but I don't know much more than that.

What I find interesting is he's quite right. That is the older one.

This one is known as an apostle's spoon

because it's got an apostle's body cast onto the top of it.

Which is a slightly earlier form than this type,

which is known as a seal-top

-because this looks to all the world a bit like a seal.

-Yes.

This one is a genuine early 17th-century spoon.

-I've dated it to 1634 in fact.

-OK.

-But we won't argue over 30 years.

This one is fascinating.

-This is...a fake.

-Is it?

-It is.

-Excellent.

SHE LAUGHS I had no idea.

This spoon would have been made at the end of the 19th century

to satisfy the demand

which was very, very strong at that time for antique spoons.

It's been made out of a tablespoon of 1761.

They've clipped off the end, cast an apostle

and stuck the apostle on,

changed the shape of the bowl, so probably made about 1870-1880.

OK.

-So a lot later than one would have thought?

-It's hard to tell

and it was made to deceive.

At the end of the 19th century, believe it or not,

there were no published hallmarks at all available to anybody.

The Goldsmiths Company thought that if they published hallmarks,

-it would be a faker's charter.

-Absolutely.

And people would copy them and use them to make up old silver

and sell it as old silver. Well, that didn't help

the person that originally bought this

because if we turn it over...

-the marks on the back...

-Aha.

-..are for London.

-Right.

-1761.

Mm-hm.

The person that bought it from the faker

would have been unable to check.

He'd have seen hallmarks on the back of it and thought,

"A silver spoon in the form of an apostle's spoon,

"that must be right.

"That must be early 17th century, therefore it's a good spoon."

-"I'll have it."

-There's nothing much he could do to check it.

-But it is a complete fake.

-That's fantastic.

I mean, you know, it's disappointing in some ways,

but in other ways, it's fascinating to know that somebody went

to all that trouble to produce something

that isn't real. It's a fake.

-They would have sold it for a lot of money at the time.

-Yes.

And then we come down to the difference in value

which is now remarkable.

Ah.

Your original seal-top spoon of 1630s these days worth about...

-£1,200-£1,400.

-Aha. Wow.

Your apostle's spoon, which should be worth about £2,000-£3,000...

-Yes.

-..is actually more or less worth its weight in metal.

It's worth about £50-£60,

but because it's been converted

so substantially from its original form,

it's actually technically illegal.

-Goodness me. I had no idea.

-There you are.

-Thank you very much.

-That's fantastic.

-Not at all.

-Fascinating.

-Do you know what this is?

-I think it's...

..a pen holder, a Chinese pen holder, like a quill holder.

Do the Chinese either use a pen or a quill?

From my memory, it's like a pen, like a wooden dowel pen. No?

-They use brushes.

-Of course they do.

-They write with a brush.

So that hole...

..is too small.

We'll come back to that.

-Where did you get it from?

-I bought it in Malaysia.

-We lived in Malaysia for a little while.

-Oh, really?

And we lived in Kuala Lumpur.

And I saw it in an antique dealer's shop

so I waited for him one morning till he came, so I got a good deal.

You are in common with today's Chinese taste.

For objects, they like this clear, clean, white jade.

It looks it from a distance as if it's sort of randomly

chopped about, but when you get close to it,

you can see what's going on there.

-Do you know what it is?

-I think it's the Zodiac.

It is indeed the Chinese zodiac.

And some of the objects are readily identifiable.

We've got a tiger up here.

We've got... I think that's a pig. Yes.

Then we've got a horse down here, tiny little horse.

We've got a snake who comes up here, and various other ones.

I would guess that there would be 12.

What I think this is for is for the tools used to organise

the ash in an incense burner.

And they're very tiny rake, spade sort of thing and a pinprick.

And they would fit very nicely into there.

So this is an object for the scholar's table.

-Right.

-Date?

I think it's probably late 18th, early 19th century.

May I ask what you paid for it?

It would be between £100-£120.

-Oh, you were quite brave, weren't you?

-I liked it.

Even if I told you it was worth 60-80?

Still like it.

Well, it's not 60-80.

I think it's 1,500-2,000.

OK.

-Thank you very much for bringing it in.

-Thank you.

You might remember this tennis racket we showed at the beginning of the programme

belonged to John McEnroe. Who else, because it's broken in half.

-Now, Sam, this has become your racket.

-Yeah.

You brought it along to the Children's Antiques Roadshow a few years back.

Do you remember what it was valued at then?

I think it was £5,000-£8,000.

And that was with a bunch of other things as well?

Yeah, with a shirt and a headband.

Right, so the question is now, Sam,

now that McEnroe's actually signed it,

is it going to be worth more? John Baddeley,

you're the man to tell us. I'm going to leave you to it.

It's quite a thing. Have fun.

A broken tennis racket? John McEnroe's?

How do we know it is his apart from him signing it?

Well, my mum ran some residence where he stayed for a while.

So she had quite a lot of contact with him,

helped sew on some sponsorship badges on shirts and things like that.

And, eventually, after he left,

-this was handed to her.

-As a parting gift?

-As a sort of thank you.

-What's interesting about this

is it's one of the very last wooden framed rackets ever used

and McEnroe was one of the people who used it really to the very end,

then he went into fibreglass and all those other modern materials.

We can date this quite closely

because in 1981,

he signed a contract with Dunlop to just use their rackets, going forward.

As you can see, this one is Wilson

and this is the one he would have used

right up towards that deadline of 1981.

But he was still an up and coming young man at that stage, wasn't he?

It's really important we know when he used it

because if it was in the final, that amazing final, the 1980 final

against Bjorn Borg, it's considered one of the all-time great matches.

And should this be the one from that final

rather than the lead-up games,

then you've got something of extreme value.

Bjorn Borg's racket used in the final

-recently changed hands for 25,000.

-Wow.

So, going back to Fiona's original question does the signature

make any difference, of course it does. You've got the history,

you've got the provenance, and now John's actually signed it,

although retrospectively,

you've probably added another £2,000-£3,000 to it.

So, certainly well worth getting something signed by the star himself. Thanks for bringing it back

-for the second time.

-Thank YOU very much.

-I can't resist making these nod. Shall we do that?

-Yes, please.

-Let's get the hands going and the heads.

-And the tongues.

-And there they go together.

-Yes.

I find people either find them fun or find them horrific.

-What's your view?

-I've grown up with them, I love them.

Yeah.

-They're just part of the family.

-Always been in the family?

Always been in the family.

They were my grandfather's and they've come down to my mother

-and now to me.

-Was he a collector or...?

-No, my great-grandfather owned a pawn shop.

-Oh, right.

And they have come down through the family.

So, maybe these were unredeemed pledges,

perhaps the original owner didn't want them back.

Possibly, we don't know.

I've always loved them, so the whole idea of making these figures

with nodding heads, I think, is great fun.

I mean, I suppose they're meant to be Chinamen or a Chinese...

well, this is a Chinaman.

And that's the Chinese woman, the pair of them.

But they didn't really come from China.

These were made in Germany.

The idea of these nodding figures originated in Dresden

at the great Meissen factory

when Kandler produced the first one of these in the 1730s

and since then many, many factories in Dresden

-have produced versions of these in all sizes.

-OK.

You get little ones and big ones.

But these are the really full-size and I think they're splendid

when you get the big ones with so much detail.

-I notice inside the tongues move.

-Yes, they do.

They have counterweights inside that force the springs inside

to make the little tongues come out.

I mean, how more bizarre can it be?

So, totally pointless, totally unfunctional

but just made to amuse

and I think people have laughed at them for a long time.

But lovely big ones.

So, these are...

I suppose, in date we're looking at about...1870-1880.

-Got a fair bit of age.

-Yep.

-They've had a bit of...

he's had a bit of a problem with cracking there, hasn't he?

I don't think the damage is going to affect the value too much.

-I mean, these are surprisingly valuable.

-Are they?

-Because of there... everybody wants a pair of this size.

-Oh, right, OK.

So, even by the smaller Dresden factories, a pair are going to be...

-Oh...£2,000?

-Wow, as much as that?

Goodness me.

A lot of odd sized items brought onto the Roadshow.

For militaria, they're quite often fairly small.

This, I think, has got to be the biggest thing we've ever had.

-Really?

-And it has an intriguing tale, doesn't it?

-It certainly has.

-Do tell me about it.

Very briefly, the Japanese captured it at the fall of Singapore

on 15th February, 1942.

Right.

And, so, Sergeant Major Uchiyama of the Japanese army,

who captured it, decided that he'd like it as his trophy of war.

-You know what's written on it, don't you?

-Indeed I do.

-Please tell us.

Well, without going into the minutiae of it, what it says is

"commemorating the fall of Singapore,

"15 February 1942,

"Sergeant Major Uchiyama." Simple as that.

And at this point, what unit were you in charge of?

I was the intelligence officer

of the Tanganyika Battalion of the King's African Rifles.

How did this end up with you?

Well, after a number of battles and skirmishes

and unpleasant incidents in Burma,

we launched a serious attack

on 3rd November 1944.

Many of my comrades, British and African,

were killed in that attack, charging machine guns, which is no fun.

And fortunately, we won the battle.

And because my task included

searching the bodies of Japanese to find intelligence material,

I found the body of Sergeant Major Uchiyama

and beside him was his pack.

So naturally, I opened the pack,

and there, to my absolute amazement, I found this flag.

I couldn't believe it.

I thought, "It may have been his trophy of war, but it's certainly mine."

You want to do something quite special with it, don't you?

Well, I do. You see, so far as I am concerned, the African soldiers

I served with were unsung heroes of World War II -

they fought the Italians in the Abyssinian campaign,

they fought the Vichy French in Madagascar,

and they fought the Japanese in Burma.

These are pastoral tribesman serving our King and country.

And I would like to think that I would let this flag be sold

and the proceeds donated to military charities.

That would be far more satisfying from my point of view,

and I think it would honour my former comrades.

The difficulty with something of this type is putting a value on it.

Normally, souvenir flags, because they're difficult to display,

fetch perhaps around £200.

Because of the history of this, that it came from Singapore,

I think it would raise £400-£500, possibly more in auction.

And even that's a slight guess, because it's absolutely unique.

Thank you very much for bringing an unique item into the roadshow.

-Thank you.

-Aren't I lucky?

-You are.

Where's Cliff Richard when you need him?

We're at Wimbledon, and guess what? It's raining.

I guess we could have expected it - it's traditional.

Still, we've had to move some of our experts inside,

but many others are out here queuing undeterred.

So I can safely announce rain will not stop play.

# I got lucky in the rain

# One day when I had nothing to do for an hour... #

We've got a bit of father-daughter rivalry going on here at the Roadshow.

You both brought along items, and each of you believes that you have the more valuable item.

Of course! Of course I do. Mine is old, antique.

-Mine's new and modern.

-That condemns it.

-You've brought along what you think is an Old Master.

-Yes, I have, yes.

-And it's been in your family a long time?

-A long time.

At least 100 years.

And her stuff's all modern.

-You brought along some photographs by Lord Snowdon.

-Lord Snowdon.

-Who was of course married to Princess Margaret.

-Yes.

-Now, how did Snowdon come into the family?

-My father was his solicitor.

-For over 50 years.

-So during the divorce from Princess Margaret as well, then?

I did all that, and a lot more. And his second divorce, and everything else.

-That must have been pretty interesting.

-Yes.

And you ended up working with Lord Snowdon as his PA, effectively.

For 20 years, on and off.

And then he became a very good friend

and he's godfather to my daughter now.

Tell me about these photographs, then.

There are of the Royal family,

and especially of Diana and Prince Charles and the boys.

-How wonderful.

-And he signed them.

So you think these photographs aren't up to much?

Well, I've lived with them all my life, of course,

and been responsible for selling them, looking after them,

making sure that there's no more litigation.

So they're not a great source of joy to me.

Well, I'm in no position to judge.

But I have to say, your Old Master is going to have to be a humdinger,

I would humbly suggest, to trounce these photographs.

-Oh, I'm sure it is!

-All will be revealed. We'll find out.

It's a fair battle.

This is a completely surreal experience.

It's pouring with rain,

we're standing next to a bed on the green grass of Wimbledon.

-It is strange.

-I quite agree, yes.

-Is this your marital bed, then?

-It's our bed, oh yes.

I see this tapestry here is dated 1974, so that's not very old.

We can date that with accuracy. What's the history behind that?

Well, we bought it in 1970, in the Portobello Road,

when we were getting married,

and it had a rather disagreeable bit of fabric in the space there,

so I designed what's there now, and my mother embroidered it.

-So these are her initials, presumably, on the bottom.

-Yes.

-And the R and P, is that you?

-That's us, yes.

-That's my wife and myself.

Right. That's rather lovely. I can remember in that

late '60s, early '70s period

how popular this type of Gothic decoration was.

So what do you know about the age of the bed?

I've made various attempts at research,

and it seems to me to be designed by somebody who had looked at

Pugin's engravings for Gothic furniture,

but the armorial is not British.

Well, my initial reaction when you see the fleur-de-lis

is a French bed, but then you've got a sort of shamrock here,

so you begin to wonder. It's very eclectic.

-It's a pastiche in that way.

-Yeah. It is French, I think.

-Really?

-It appears to be made of oak, which again you'd expect

in a French bed, but it's clearly got a Catholic feeling about it.

I would have thought there would have been a cross there,

-I imagine, on this shelf.

-I think so, yeah.

Presumably you put a reading light or something there now.

-Yeah.

-And then you've got the little shelves here.

-Only one.

-It's maybe for a single person.

-Possibly.

But I love these angels giving you a nice, quiet, peaceful night.

Yes, yes, they watch over us.

It's quite difficult to date a bed like this.

I don't think it's as old as it seems.

-It's clearly not Gothic, I think you realise that.

-Oh, yes.

My suspicion is that it's probably the early part of the 20th century.

-Really, yes?

-1900, even as late as 1920. But I think what's wonderful

is to think that you actually sleep in this every night.

You bought it 40-something years ago, and you're still enjoying it.

I think it's a wonderful thing. I think it's long enough ago

to risk asking you how much you paid for it.

-Was it a lot of money?

-Well, it was at the time. It was £170.

-Right.

-Which I remember so clearly

because it was the money that I got when I gave up my job,

I took the pension fund out.

-So you're sleeping on your pension fund?

-Exactly! Yes, yes.

I'd have thought that to go to Portobello Road now

and buy something like this,

certainly £2,500, and possibly a little bit more.

But to you it's a precious object, the nuptial bed of 40 years.

I think it's wonderful. It's a lovely story.

Sorry we got you out of bed,

and go back home and have a good night's sleep tonight!

Ever since I've been a child,

I've been really drawn to pictures that tell stories,

and this is a picture that's all about teaching you about something.

-Can you tell me about it?

-Yes.

This is, of course, a historical painting, it's Catherine de Medici

instructing her son Charles IX to sign the order

which meant that the next morning

they were going to slaughter all the Protestants. Of France.

It was a very, very tense moment in history,

and I loved it as a historian,

because you see the King is resisting his mother's pressure.

His foot is pressing down, he's saying, "No, I don't want to do it,"

and she's pointing, saying, "Do it. Do it. Do it."

So this painting, it looks to me mid-19th century.

It looks to me to be continental,

possibly painted by a Flemish artist or even a French one.

-It's all about detail and symbolism.

-It is.

-It's all about message.

I mean, we forget these days with photography just the power

-and the importance that art had.

-Yes.

-In telling you stories.

One's eye, as it rolls over it,

can actually see that everything is geared towards the document,

which had catastrophic effects.

This was to be the biggest slaughter of Protestants in Europe.

And he knew that this is what he had to sign for.

It was an appalling decision to make.

-This is cinema of the mid-19th century, isn't it?

-Yes, it is.

Do you know anything about the history of the picture?

I know is that we've had 100 years and I've always loved it,

and there's a remarkable story about it.

My mother went up to Scotland once with a friend, in the 1930s.

And a fortune-teller told her

that this picture was immensely important and probably very valuable.

The fortune-teller had never been to London.

-Mother wasn't even thinking about it.

-So let's get this right.

The picture was not in the room.

-No, no.

-But the fortune teller...

-Described it in detail.

So the question is, has she foretold a great fortune in your life?

Well, it would be nice if she has! That's for you to tell me.

Well, it's a picture of age, it's a picture of some quality,

not the best quality, but reasonable quality,

but ultimately, this is not what the market really wants.

I mean, if it were by a great known artist...

-and I'm afraid I can't come up with an artist for this...

-No.

Perhaps, who knows, after this, we may be able to,

so therefore I think we have to value this

as an anonymous painter of a subject that we know,

but of a type of subject which,

when you consider the onslaughts of modern art,

is not fashionable any more.

No. No.

So, as far as valuation is concerned,

I suspect the fortune teller was not a professional picture dealer.

It's worth about £1,000-£1,500.

Well, I shall treasure it, all the same.

And, who knows, one day it might suddenly prove to be quite different!

One can only hope.

Thank you very much.

Well, a spinning wheel!

What specifically do you want to know about it?

Well, I'd love to know why it's the shape it is,

because every other spinning wheel I've ever seen

has been low-level with a big wheel and sometimes a smaller wheel,

and this looks as if maybe it's just for decor rather than use.

Well, it certainly is highly decorative.

I think when you say the word "spinning",

instantly, an image comes into your mind

of a little old lady sitting in a cottage,

and plainly, a spinning wheel like this

has never seen the inside of a cottage.

It's altogether so much more sophisticated.

It would have been perfectly at home with someone like Jane Austin

and her sisters in a drawing room.

It was made around the late 18th, early 19th century

and really reflects this change from spinning being a task,

an essential task that had to be undertaken,

and a move to it being, really, a sophisticated pastime.

This spinning wheel completely reflects furniture

that was made in that late 18th-century period.

It's made of mahogany,

and there's all sorts of detail and decoration on it

that isn't essential at all.

These wonderfully elegant square tapering spokes

with boxwood stringing down the sides,

just like legs on furniture of this late 18th-century period,

and the quality of this brass mount just takes it to the next level.

I think it was made by a spinning wheel maker based in Leeds

called John Planter. Who did it originally belong to?

My grandfather bought it in auction in Cork in the 1920s,

and when he died, it was sold with other items from the family home,

and my father decided to buy it, because he'd loved it as a child.

What an extraordinarily thing for a man to buy,

and it really must have clearly had nostalgic childhood memories.

-Absolutely.

-What did your father pay for it?

He paid £50 in 1960.

Right.

Well, it's currently worth around £500, so in real terms,

-that's a pretty static level.

-Absolutely.

I think the fact that it is purely a decorative piece of furniture

-indicates why the value hasn't increased greatly.

-Yes.

Do you know, this is an absolutely wonderful collection of royal photographs.

I mean, obviously, the Prince and Princess of Wales,

but they are quite incredible.

This sitting here, they've got everything.

They've got far too many grapes. They'd never finish them!

It's very formal, isn't it?

That's what I like about Lord Snowdon's work.

-His ideas come out in the photographs.

-Yes.

And he wanted a picnic, an old-fashioned picnic.

-And you've got it signed here, and it's signed to?

-Evelyn.

Evelyn, there, and Tony signed there. Well, that's wonderful.

But you know, this one up here, I think is really rather special.

Tell me when this was taken.

That was at the end of Prince Harry's christening.

This is Prince Harry here, and, obviously, the Princess of Wales.

Looking like a film star, a 1930s film star.

They'd just finished the sitting,

and the Princess of Wales just picked up Harry

and was giving him a cuddle, and Lord Snowdon was walking out

and he turned round, and as he said, "I snapped it."

Well, it's the most brilliant snap, because the Princess of Wales,

-her eyes are always slightly wary, aren't they?

-Yes.

She's not looking on this one, but it is so spontaneous.

-It's mother holding baby.

-It is just too good, isn't it?

It really is absolutely fantastic.

This one over here, now this is an odd one,

because the boys are dressed in sort of country casuals,

and don't have any shoes on,

and their nanny has not given them any socks,

as far as I can see,

and the Princess of Wales is dressed up to kill!

This was at the end of this sitting.

The end of this sitting?

The boys were still dressed,

and they had gone off, I think to have their supper,

and Mummy was carrying on with the photographic sitting,

and the boys literally rushed in to see what Mummy was doing.

So Mum went out of something casual,

slipped into something formal and got the boys in.

-Yes.

-I don't think I've ever seen it before. Is it generally..?

No, it's never been released.

I saw them when we were going through them, so I said,

is it possible I could have a copy, and he actually said yes.

-Do you think the royal archives have a copy?

-I wouldn't have thought so.

-First on the BBC?

-I think so, yes.

Oh, wow!

I love the hand on Harry, sort of, sit!

-Yes, sit!

-Sit!

-Yes!

Now, these other ones here, this one here.

That was taken when I was 18.

Oh, this is you here?

That's me having my hair brushed by my elder sister,

-and that's my little sister.

-Yes.

My father did Lord Snowdon's divorce,

and my father's very old-fashioned and he didn't charge.

-Good heavens!

-So he happily helped Lord Snowdon out.

-Helped him out?!

This was a thank you!

I love this one of you in a boat.

It's at his old house, and the boat started to sink,

it was on the lake, and I said to Lord Snowdon, it's sinking,

and all he came up with was, "Well, you can swim, can't you?"

And I did end up swimming!

This "Come and get me look" on your face means, "Get me out of this!"

It was. It was getting rather wet.

That's absolutely fantastic. Well, I can't tell you, this is so exciting.

There are so many of them!

And you've got the auction catalogue of all the dresses of Diana.

-Yes, I have.

-Some of them photographed by?

-By Lord Snowdon.

-And this is inscribed as well.

-Yes.

Gosh. Not a lot of his stuff comes on the market.

Very difficult to put a price on them,

but they are absolutely stunning.

Now, let's go to the best one. I think this one.

That one I think on the market

would certainly make somewhere between £500 and £800.

Goodness!

-£500 and £800.

-Whoo!

This one is terribly posed in a way that this one is just wonderful.

-This one is £200 or £300.

-Right.

This one over here, I love the story behind that,

and that shows how unstuffy she was, I suppose.

That one at about £400, £500.

Yours, well, I don't know. What are we going to price those?

-Not an awful lot of money. They're tremendous fun.

-They're personal.

£100 each. The catalogue?

Well, the catalogue is going to be nowadays about £300 or £400.

Goodness.

So we're talking about the best part of £2,000 here.

Whew!

Wow!

That rather knocks into cocked hat your father's picture, doesn't it?

It does rather.

-Can't wait to tell him!

-Right.

Thank you.

What an amazing array

of characters we've got here.

Have you played with them yourself?

No, I've never played with them myself.

I think to be a puppeteer of this calibre would be very difficult.

I think they're late 19th century, which for puppets is quite early.

-We're talking about maybe 1885, 1890.

-Yes.

These were nine characters that my mother bought in 1936.

A man called Wanslaw, who was a puppeteer,

was walking near Southampton one day near a farm and saw a box,

and saw a leg sticking out of a box, and being a puppeteer,

he knew exactly what this leg was,

and so he found who the lady was

and said, "May I have a look at your box?"

And she said, "Oh, some junk that's been there since 1916."

He bought the box with great glee and brought it to his studio in Chiswick,

and my mother knew Wanslaw and fell in love with him and she was able...

-With him or with them?

-No, no, no, with them!

What springs to mind is there was a famous group called Tiller and Clowes,

and they were working in Southampton in the late 19th century,

and they became very well-known as a troop around the country.

They are indeed. Tiller Clowes Marionettes, yes.

-Really?

-Yes.

-Because I am pretty certain they are made in England.

It's always difficult to be totally certain,

but the faces are like an Old Master painting, basically.

They've got a base of wood, then there's got a layer of gesso

and then oil paint over the top,

and there are two here that have dropped...

-This one.

-This one.

And that one, yes.

This one, these two, and I think they were two of the first puppets

to have these articulated faces.

Later on, they became more and more articulated,

and they've all got these wonderful glass eyes,

which I think were probably French, hand-blown.

Anyway, I could go on and on, because I love this sort of thing.

-And because there's so little of it these days.

-Yes, very little.

I mean, children's parties are not quite the same as they were.

-They do need restringing, they need a lot of work on them.

-And clothes.

And clothes.

But there are people that still entertain with these,

and I should imagine that if you were to sell them en masse,

all nine of them, that it would be a very narrow market,

but I can see them making somewhere in the region of £2,000-£3,000.

Really?

You want 'em?

Well, in terms of railway tickets,

this really is the daddy of them all.

The longest place name in the United Kingdom,

and if we look at the back of the ticket, we can probably see a date.

-Yes, here we are. 3rd July, 1965.

-That's right.

-And why did you buy it?

Just because I was on a walking tour at the time,

and it seemed a good novelty to get.

I'll probably never visit it again.

I have never visited that station again.

It was a platform ticket, you didn't travel on the train.

-No, no.

-It cost you thrupence.

-Yes.

-It's a fun, quirky item.

It's not a great value.

I could see this fetching perhaps £20 or £30,

but it's a wonderful memory to have.

Now, most important thing, can you say the name of the town?

I cannot, no.

I've tried, but I've failed.

Well, I had a Welsh mother, and she taught me the name of this town

when I was very young, and I think it's lodged in my memory ever since.

So, with apologies to our Welsh viewers for my accent,

-shall we give it a go?

-Why not?

Llanfairpwllgwyn-gyllgogerych- wyrndrobwllllantysilio-gogogoch.

Well done!

We've got three monumental bronzes here,

and I'm just trying to think what they must look like in your home.

They're pretty imposing. Tell me something about them.

Well, the two...this one here and this, they are in the family

many, many years ago, and this one has been purchased.

We are very, very interested in bronzes, paintings etc,

but these are very, very close to us, in particular, my daughters.

They love them.

But I need you, the expert, to give more information about them.

-Well, let's hope that I can live up to that.

-OK.

I think you would call yourself a collector, wouldn't you?

-I am, actually, yes.

-Right. How many bronzes do you have in the house?

-A few.

-A few?

-Yes.

-OK.

Are these the biggest and the best?

I think they are.

OK. Well, certainly, it's not very often I get to deal with such large bronzes,

so let's talk a bit about them.

We've got some kind of classical themes going on here, haven't we?

-Yes, we have.

-This of course is Hercules.

-Yes.

-He's strength.

This is Amalthea and Jupiter's goat.

Oh, I knew her as the beautiful maiden with the goat.

Right, well, that's as nice a way of knowing her as any,

but that's her classical title, so to speak.

Now, these are both unsigned bronzes, which is quite unusual.

I would expect big monumental bronzes of this type to have a signature on them,

but they haven't got a signature on them.

But what that tells me about them is they're a kind of very generic style of French,

decorative bronze that was very popular in the 19th century.

Yes, I knew this one was 19th century.

Well, they're both 19th century,

and they both date from around about the 1870s or 1880s.

Your bronze in the centre here, this warrior, there's more information.

If we look at him,

you know already that there's quite a bit of information

written on the plaque at the front here.

-Yes.

-It says Corybante. Now, that's him.

This is Jupiter as a youngster.

Now, this is by a well-known sculptor called Louis Cugnot.

He was French, obviously.

This bronze was cast in around about 1870,

so actually, they all very much fit the same period.

And they really fit that kind of feeling

for classical kind of subjects, and indeed, they are very imposing.

This gentleman seems to have been quite popular in some ways,

because he seems to have quite a lot of wear on his pecs.

-Yes.

-You don't happen to kind of go like this occasionally, do you?

Well... LAUGHTER

I'm not saying! LAUGHTER

Now, what happens is with particularly, I've found,

bronzes of this nature, is that the market is quite cyclical.

-They seem to fade in and out of fashion.

-Of course.

So I think we're going to have to talk about value,

and I'm going to very much talk about a retail value,

because I think if you had to buy these two in a retail, current retail situation,

you would probably pay in the region of about £3,000-£5,000 each.

-No!

-Retail.

-I had no idea.

This figure here has more of a track record, in fact,

and I know that one recently sold, absolutely identical to this,

-in France, for just under £2,000.

-OK.

-At auction. So that gives you a fair idea.

-Well, I'm delighted.

We inherited it from my husband's stepmother,

and we believe she acquired it or was perhaps given it

when she worked for antique dealers in the '50s and '60s in London.

It's from northern Italy, from the area of Lombardy.

It's 18th-century, about 1760, 1780. It's like a little child's desk.

We wondered whether it was a piece of child's furniture, yes.

-Or somebody suggested it might be an apprentice piece.

-Right.

I like the idea, you've got this little...what we call a well,

this slides back and forwards, for putting papers in.

-A child wouldn't have something like that, would they?

-Secret papers?

-Maybe.

-But, let me look at the front. Look at that.

Walnut. The colour is absolutely fantastic, isn't it?

It's a lovely patina, I think.

Because when I saw you carry this in, and I saw this colour of the walnut,

I thought, "Wow, that is really, really exciting."

When you look at the handles, the handles are all original.

And if you look, they're like little balusters.

If you imagine a balustrade on the front of a property,

that's what's being echoed here. Lovely, really, really nice.

More often than not, these have been replaced, so to find

the originals, the feet are original,

the locks are original, all the boxes are ticked there for an avid collector.

Great.

-It isn't a child's piece.

-No? Right.

THEY LAUGH

-Apprentice piece?

-It's not an apprentice piece either.

It made us wonder whether it was perhaps a prie-dieu,

but then it doesn't go with the desk, does it?

-Well, that's what it is. Exactly what it is.

-Oh, right.

This would have been, say, in a merchant's property, and, being Catholic,

after you've done your work, you'd actually kneel and pray.

-I must try it some time.

-Yeah! And maybe your prayers will be answered!

So you knew roughly what it was.

We were puzzled by it, because it seemed a bit of a combination.

It's rather small and it's a combination. Yes.

No, it's a fine little piece of furniture. I think it's exquisite.

-I would place a value on this of around £1,500.

-Yeah. That's fine.

We're not planning to sell it, but we just wanted to know more about it.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

What a pretty little tea set. Royal Worcester, of course,

and painted with Highland cattle by Harry Stinton.

Absolutely idyllic. How come you have it?

Well, I got it as a gift at my christening from my grandmother,

and I remember Mum used to walk in on me playing with it when I was younger.

She caught me, but now I know to take care of it.

-What, play with dolls, having tea?

-Yes.

HE LAUGHS

But how marvellous that you had this as a gift at a christening.

Marvellous. You love it, do you?

-I love it a lot. It's so beautiful.

-Royal Worcester, made in the 1920s.

And Granny would have bought it, do you think?

Possibly her mother, I would have thought.

So going back generations now, three generations through the family. Lovely.

It's a super little set, complete with the spoons and everything,

absolutely gorgeous, and go on enjoying this,

because, do you know, it's a rather valuable set.

I think in value, about £3,000.

Oh, OK. Well, thank you, Granny!

Everyone loves a Giles cartoon. What's the story behind this one?

Well, after the war, my great aunt worked at Middlesex Hospital,

and Giles came into A&E with a septic toe.

-Ooh! Must've been painful!

-Yeah!

And while he was waiting, he drew it and gave it to my aunt.

He gave it to your aunt? I love what's happening here.

They're tossing a coin, these two, to see which patient they get,

the luscious woman here or the old drunk, by the looks of things.

-And she knew it was Giles when he came in, did she?

-Yeah, she'd always been a great fan.

It was just amazing timing, really, for her to be there when he came in.

So he just sat there, passed the time,

and distracting himself from the pain of his septic toe, presumably,

and just, what, handed it over to your great aunt at the end?

And so, what happened to it then, did you have it in pride of place in the home?

Yeah. It was framed and put up in the lounge, yeah.

-And so where do you have it?

-It was in the loft until last night.

-Oh, gosh, so it's not on display any more?

-No. It might be now, though!

Well, I spoke to a couple of our paintings guys,

who said they reckon this is probably worth certainly a few hundred pounds.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah.

-Gosh. That's a surprise. Genuinely, I didn't think it was worth anything.

So where are you going to put it now?

If I'm honest, I think it might go in my downstairs toilet.

-In the downstairs loo?!

-Yeah!

Doesn't it deserve a more dignified location than the downstairs loo?!

I'm trying very hard to date this. Can you help me?

-Do you know anything about it?

-I don't know a lot.

We bought it in Singapore about ten years ago, maybe eight or nine years ago,

and we bought it in a shop which does mainly reproduction furniture,

but it's a sort of warren, it's got five or six little hutches linked together,

and we found this under a bunch of carpet or something,

and I'm not sure that it was actually for sale, but it looked rather nice,

it looked not reproduction, it looked like it may be a genuine antique,

and so I sort of picked it up and we went to the little lady who was selling,

had reasonably good English, and we agreed a price.

I can't remember the price, but it was not a lot of money.

It was in Singapore dollars, and not a lot of money.

And I think as we were walking out of the shop,

there was a very animated discussion between the little lady and her husband,

and at that stage we sort of beat a rapid retreat

in case somebody was suggesting that we pay a little bit more than we did for it.

-So it could be a reproduction or a fake chair.

-It could, absolutely.

And that's one of the reasons why we're interested in finding out exactly what it is.

It's clearly Chinese, I think it's Chinese provincial.

Where in that vast country it was actually made I don't know.

There's not enough research yet being done, or done,

but it is being done as we speak.

Firstly, just let me show what I love about it,

it's typical of many Chinese pieces of furniture, it folds.

Oh, gosh, isn't that glorious?

It's the equivalent of a handmade six-inch nail holding it together.

Very, very crude, so very provincial,

in some sort of fruit wood which has been stained a red colour

to look like that Chinese cinnabar lacquer of the 19th century.

And this is absolutely typical. You've got this lovely, lovely splat

with bats' heads, leading down to this lotus in the centre,

and then the bottom more or less repeats the top motif.

What I love is this wonderful ming shape here,

late 17th-century shape of this yoke-shaped top brow,

reminding of a Chinese peasant with the yoke over the oxen,

pulling the cart, and that's what that represents.

It's a super, super thing.

If it's a fake, it's a jolly good one,

and I don't think ten years ago they were making fakes to this standard.

Oh, right.

It's almost certainly about 100 years old, if not a bit older.

And I think they really, probably regret selling it to you.

I have to value it. You can't remember the price. It doesn't really matter.

-I'm going to put a figure of £500 on it now.

-All right.

That's a lot more than we paid for it, I know that.

I don't know the exact amount,

but I know it's a lot more than we paid for it.

It's a wait-and-see. This market is beginning to explode.

You know, it's a funny thing with this roadshow, because sometimes

I think we daydream, and yesterday I was talking to a colleague

who said, "What would you most like to see brought in at Wimbledon?"

I said, "A really, really important looking brooch."

"Really? What sort of brooch would that be?"

"Oh, I don't know, turn of the century, something like that."

And I had in my mind that it would be wonderful to see

a really spectacular...

butterfly brooch.

And then lo and behold, you sit down at my table and you bring this out.

Can you imagine how I felt?

-THEY LAUGH Surprised!

-Very pleased.

Now, I'd like you to tell me whatever you can about its history.

It was given to me after my uncle died.

It was part of his estate, he'd bought it for his wife.

So what sort of timeframe would that have been? Is this the 1940s or 50s?

Yes, that was the time, 1940s.

And then he died, '58-59, something like that. And then it came to me.

So there it is in the family. Then it's come down to you?

-It's passed on to my daughter, yes.

-What do you think about it?

I think it's amazing, it's really lovely.

-I've never worn it, unfortunately.

-Is it because it's such a statement?

-Well, yes.

-Because it is, isn't it?

-Yes!

Now, the thing about it that makes it so impressive for me

is that you've got this wonderful combination of stones.

Now, look at the stones themselves. They're diamonds, of course.

You've got in the wings near-colourless diamonds,

that's the main fabric of the piece.

But here and here and here and here and here and here

we have fancy brown diamonds.

Now, the brooch itself was made in about 1900.

I think it's turn-of-the-century.

But from my perspective, why do I like these brown diamonds so much?

Apart from the setting, is that these two principal ones,

they go back to round about 1750.

-Really?

-Really.

-Really?

-So they've been in something else?

-Exactly.

They're old diamonds that have been extracted from some antique piece.

Now, the diamonds themselves, when you get these old stones

like this, do you know where they used to come from?

-I've got no idea.

-Around the Taj Mahal.

-Really?

They're old diamonds that sometimes were traded in places like Calcutta,

-and that's where those diamonds come from.

-Wow.

Do you see, you've got a medley of stones, different sources,

all planted together in this wonderful butterfly.

I'm going to go out on a limb, because I like it.

It's got all this material packed into it.

I would like to think that if this ever came up for auction, you know,

so its market value, not insurance value, market value would be...

What shall we say? £25,000-£30,000.

Probably £30,000-£40,000.

-That's a lot.

-Which means an equivalent insurance valuation

in the top London market would be something in the region of £60,000.

ASTONISHED LAUGHTER

Oh, my God. Oh, wow. I wasn't expecting... Oh, my God.

In other words, get it back in the safe deposit from whence it comes.

It is a very, very spectacular brooch. How wonderful.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much. Thank you.

-Wow.

It's been wonderful to be here at Wimbledon today,

the great home of Britain's tennis, and so many people

have come along with items connected with tennis or connected with Wimbledon.

One thing that's just come in, John Bradley, you're a big tennis fan,

and you're very excited about this.

It's one of the very earliest tennis rackets,

made just when Wimbledon was starting back in the 1870s.

So well over 100 years old. And look at the shape.

It's such a funny shape. Why would it be that shape?

Well, I think they didn't do much overhead shots,

it was more sweeps from below,

so it fits in with that sort of

more genteel sort of tennis in those days.

And who's this chap here?

-He's the actual owner.

-Oh!

-Mr Bryant, sitting outside his shop.

He was a very keen tennis player, and this is his actual racket,

dating back to the 1870s.

-Isn't it wonderful? Presumably quite valuable?

-Very.

I mean, to replace it today you're going to have to think about

a figure of maybe between £3,000 and £4,000.

Wow. Well, I can see why you're excited.

From the very old, though, come over here, to the new.

This has just been donated to the museum here at Wimbledon.

It is a 1950s tennis skirt, look, it's a Fred Perry one,

you can see Fred Perry on every single pleat here.

So from one of the oldest items here, the tennis racket,

to one of the most modern, well, the '50s, anyway,

this lovely skirt. We've had such a great day here at Wimbledon.

It's been a thrill to be here.

I hope you've enjoyed it half as much as we have.

Until next time, bye-bye.

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