Manchester Town Hall 2 Antiques Roadshow

Manchester Town Hall - the ultimate example of civic pride

and they say its foundations are built on bales of cotton.

Hmm.

Welcome back to the second helping of the Antiques Roadshow from Manchester.

'The official opening of Manchester Town Hall

'was to be a glamorous affair,

'so the monarch was invited.'

But Queen Victoria declined to attend

when she got wind of the Mayor's radical beliefs.

He'd wanted to produce a newspaper for the poor called

The Poor Man's Guardian - outrageous!

Ironically enough, though, it was the Mayor who stood in for her

when this magnificent building was opened on the 13th September 1877.

And here he is, the radical himself, Abel Heywood.

The architect was a northern lad, Alfred Waterhouse.

He designed cotton flowers all over the building.

It became known as King Cotton's Palace -

a reference to the vast amounts of cotton imported to Manchester

for the manufacturing of textiles.

And you can see bees everywhere too,

as busy Manchester was a hive of industry.

130 years on and the town hall is just as busy as ever.

This is still the place you come to register births, marriages and deaths

and it's a favoured Hollywood location.

Only recently Meryl Streep was spotted striding down these corridors

dressed in the familiar attire of Margaret Thatcher.

The Mayor's staterooms are where the great and the good have been wined and dined

over the last century or so.

Benjamin Disraeli, Dr Stanley Livingston - I presume?

Sorry, couldn't resist that.

Winston Churchill - he was made a Freeman of the City,

they've all been entertained here.

Today we are the guests of Manchester City Council

and what a spectacular place for our experts to weave their magic.

The story of Manchester's industrial history

is dominated by a word, which you hear all the time,

and it's cotton, cotton, cotton, cotton, cotton and cotton.

It's what you hear all the time.

There's another part of Manchester's industrial history,

which is pressed glass.

And Ancoats was stuffed with pressed glass works.

That's Manchester,

that really is a piece of Manchester's genuine past,

as much as any cotton you could think of - and it's survived!

I'll tell you what, it's survived a lot more than the cotton, hasn't it?

-SHE LAUGHS

-Yes.

-It's in a lot better condition that a shirt you would have bought!

So, come on, tell us about your bit of it.

Well, it's a piece that was always in Grandma's house

and when Grandma died 18 years ago, obviously, the house was cleared

and it was just passed down to myself, as a member of the family,

and when we had family get-togethers

Grandma always used to put the celery in it!

Which is really bizarre, bearing in mind it's a celery vase! THEY LAUGH

Is it really? Right.

It's a celery vase.

It's not really, they've described it as a celery vase

because the tax on practical glass was less than on fancy glass.

So, if they called it a flower vase it would have cost more

but because they called it a celery vase you could sell it cheaper.

-Right, so...

-And as for date, well, we know how old it is

cos there's a little mark down here.

It's a design registration lozenge.

It's about 1865.

-Oh, REALLY?

-Yeah, really.

1865?

It's not a fantastically valuable thing. What's it worth?

£30 or £40 quid sort of money but the fact is, it has survived

-and it's still here...

-It is.

-..proudly proclaiming MANCHESTER!

So we can use it for celery then? Legally!

THEY LAUGH

Cock Robin merrily singing his heart out on a Victorian tree branch,

in a gold frame, in the original fitted box.

What's the story behind it?

It was my maternal Grandmother's.

I know nothing about it

and I would like to know how the robin got there!

-Yes, because he's trapped within, isn't he, really?

-Yes he is, yes.

It's in incredibly good condition.

The reason is, as I do always say,

if you've got the original box for the item,

goodness me, that really does help to keep the condition

absolutely top grade.

What it is, it's called a reverse crystal painting.

Take a bubble of rock crystal, engrave it from the back

-and paint the detail of the robin from the back.

-Oh.

So it's painted on and if you could see, literally, behind it,

you'd see that there's a sort of engraved hole filled up with paint.

Very high quality gold frame, 18 carat gold frame,

and at the back, like all the best Victorian pendants,

-a locket compartment for you to put a photograph or a lock of hair.

-Yeah.

Probably given, do you not agree, as a Christmas present? Do you think?

-Probably, yes.

-I would have thought so.

-All right, been in the family all these years.

-Yes.

Do you wear it?

I don't now but I have worn it when I was much younger,

I used to wear it with a black velvet ribbon with an evening dress.

It's not valueless, they are very collectable

and this one is a particularly good one, in a Hunt and Roskell box.

Would you like to hear that it's worth something in the region £2,500?

That's a very nice surprise, thank you.

-Would you be pleased then?

-I'd be very pleased, yes.

Just my height, this.

Oh, God, yeah. It's handy to lean on.

-It's a big pot!

-Good.

Where did you get it from?

My mother bought it in 1945...

..from in a shop in Manchester.

-Fantastic, and you've had it ever since?

-Yes.

-Do you like it?

-I do like it, yes.

Do you know what it all means?

I don't, not at all.

I'll tell you something.

As I approached this pot I knew instantly what it was...

-Japanese.

-Lovely.

-It isn't!

-Oh.

-THEY LAUGH

-Once I got close, I realised I was wrong.

-Right.

It's actually got a fair amount of Japanese influence on it

-but it's actually Chinese.

-Oh, right.

-And dates from the middle of the 19th century.

-Right.

-So it's 150 years old.

-Right.

Do you know what these are?

Look like overgrown tulips.

-They're actually peaches!

-Oh, right.

And a peach in China, is a symbol of longevity.

Well, it's an omen that she bought it - she lived to be 98!

It works!

So, you're going to live to 98 - oh, you're not 98 yet are you?

I'm 80!

Er, down here we've got...

-immortals on different animals...

-Yes.

..and they're the Taoist immortals, not Buddhist but Taoist.

-Different religion.

-Right.

And I think this would be very saleable

to the modern Chinese market.

And I think you would get somewhere between £5,000 and £8,000 for it.

Do you know how much it cost?

No, tell me.

-I'm going to show you.

-Yes.

My Dad bought it, in a shop, a furniture shop in Manchester...

..in 1945...

-..five pounds.

-It's gone up 1,000 times.

The first one I bought about 15 years ago,

just from a local antiques fair,

and then the other one I bought about six or eight months later,

again just at a local antiques fair, so...

Are you an Art Deco collector?

Because these obviously do date from the 1930s.

I do like the Art Deco period.

-So you're a bit of a magpie, yeah?

-Yeah.

Well, first of all, let's just look at the features,

cos the features immediately tell you that you're looking at something

-which is from that, sort of, inter-war period.

-Yes.

Because it's amazing, you can look at fashion plates

and ladies have got these elongated faces,

erm, and also it doesn't need much for me to know

that there's a mark behind there that's going to say Goldscheider,

although it's a little bit obscured.

So we know that they're made in Austria,

and this one, I notice, benefits actually from a label as well.

Yeah, I only noticed that last night when I took them off the wall.

-And you've been living with them for 15 years!

-I know.

That's incredible.

I mean, I love this particular one, I've seen this one before

-because look at that hair!

-Mmm.

-Ringlets of jade green.

-Yeah.

I mean, to be honest with you, it looks like a hairdresser's nightmare

-where a perm has gone badly wrong in the rinse, or whatever!

-It does.

But this is the sort of object that collectors are very keen to have.

They made a whole range of wall masks, including THIS one.

Now, this one does set the pulse racing.

I've got say it's a rare subject.

Anything to do with skiing these days is always at a premium.

You even find auctions in London dedicated to skiing posters and skiing memorabilia,

so she would sit well in two distinct sales.

-Obviously an Art Deco sale and a skiing sale.

-Yes.

Well, let's just go back to this girl.

-How much did you pay for that?

-120 for that one.

-OK.

-That was more expensive than the other one.

All right, well let's take this one.

120, today...

the market for that is going to be nearer £300 or thereabouts. OK.

Now, when you say more expensive for our ski girl.

That was the cheaper one.

-Oh, that was the cheaper one?

-Yeah.

-Oh, right, so how cheap is cheap?

-Well, it was £100 for that one.

-£100.

Erm, I've not seen this before,

and I've seen a lot of Goldscheider masks,

so I wouldn't hesitate to quote you somewhere in the region of £800

to possibly, possibly £1,000.

Wow, that's amazing!

That is amazing.

So, the Crystal House or Crystal Palace

-was built for the Great Exhibition in 1851...

-Yes.

..and it was, you know, the most exciting thing that had happened at that time.

Six million people -

-a third of the population of Great Britain - came to see it.

-Wow.

It was 990,000 square feet

and so there were a tremendous number of commemoratives made for this event...

-and you've brought one.

-Yes.

-Where did you get?

-I got it from my great aunt.

-And did she go? Do you know?

I'm not sure

but I think it must have been passed down through the family.

Well, it was such a spectacular event

and many, many things were produced...so they're quite common.

Right.

But I've never seen this one before.

Right.

-So, and I LOVE the verse.

-Yes, so do I.

-Because it's not very good, is it?

-It's strange.

-It's very strange.

"These are the soldiers so gay and so bright

"Who like to play best but are willing to fight

"In defence of the Police, so active and bold

"Who mind not the heat and fear not the cold."

THEY CHUCKLE It's lovely.

So produced for this -

I haven't seen this one before, so rarer than most,

and I think you would have to pay about £500.

Wow! Just for this?

My goodness.

Heavens!

I can't believe that, I really can't.

So if you don't mind me asking you, sir,

this is meant to be hanging in Mottram Church,

what's it doing, today, at Manchester Town Hall?

Well, we, in 1980, bought a biscuit company in this cotton mill

and, within a year, we were clearing out store rooms

and were throwing out all the junk.

And some of the boys discovered this amongst the junk.

So, you bought your biscuit factory

-that happened to be an old cotton mill.

-Yes.

This was found there.

Yes it was.

It's been hanging in reception in the biscuit factory ever since.

-And so its history is incredibly rich, isn't it?

-Yes, it is.

Because it says here,

"The South Side of Mottram Chancel is Repaired By and Belongs to

"the Earl of Warrington as Lord of the Manor of Stayly."

So, Mottram church, where is that?

Well Mottram church is in Stalybridge,

which is in the village of Mottram itself.

And it's between Stalybridge and Glossop,

about 15 miles east of Manchester.

This shield actually dates from 1694,

when the Earl of Warrington placed it in the church at Mottram.

Because this armorial, the sort of focal point of it,

-is incredibly detailed, isn't it?

-Yes.

-It goes back generations, really.

-Yes.

Explaining, you know, his blood line,

-it's a bit like a family tree, if you like.

-Yes.

So, presumably, it was hanging in the chancel or...

actually, looking at it,

one wonders whether it might even have formed part of the, sort of,

the panelling within that chancel.

-There's a curious square just here, isn't there?

-Yes.

-A good repair!

-Yes, a good repair, possibly even a door or something.

We're not sure whether it's a door or a panel

but it certainly hung in the chancel for about 150 years

and it was only moved by a guy called Chapman,

a wealthy mill owner from the area,

who bought the chancel from the church and decided, in his wisdom,

that he was wealthy enough to take out all the accoutrements

that were in the chancel, replacing them with his own.

So, at that time the armorial shield disappeared,

that was in 1854 or thereabouts,

and destroyed everything that was within it for his own goods.

And this of course disappeared at that time.

But interesting that it was never actually destroyed or thrown away,

and not hard to imagine why

because it STILL has that richness to it, doesn't it?

And so when you purchased the old cotton mill as your biscuit factory,

what did you pay for it?

Oh, we paid well over the odds, we paid £1.

A pound? SHE LAUGHS

-A whole pound.

-And that was for the factory, machinery and this.

-One whole pound?

-One whole pound, yes.

Well, we bought the debt as well, I have to say,

but, you know, not a bad deal.

Well, it is such a visually attractive object

and a very similar armorial panel to this

was sold a couple of years ago, at auction,

-and I think probably surprised everyone by fetching £12,500.

-Yes.

Now the question with this is, where does that sit alongside it?

I think its provenance is fantastic.

So, I would think, really, that it's got to be worth at least that much,

possibly as much as...

£15,000.

Sounds very nice, yes, I wouldn't argue with that, sounds very good.

Not for sale!

-My father used to work for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company...

-Right.

..in the Abadan Oil Refinery.

And then planned to live out there but unfortunately,

along with other foreign residents, were thrown out

after some dispute over the oil company,

-and he came home and brought these Persian rugs with him.

-Right, OK.

Well, let's talk a bit about exactly where they come from.

We call them Kashan - Kashan is a city in the Isfahan Province of Iran,

and rugs, traditionally, were made there

in the 17th and early 18th century, to this pattern,

and they were made in royal workshops. Very, very high quality.

Of course rugs from that period are extremely rare

and extremely valuable.

I use the term "rugs", as well,

because people seem to get a little bit confused -

often people say "carpets",

Carpets, in my mind, have to be something quite a lot bigger.

These are very definitely rugs.

The interesting thing about the business of making these rugs

is when the Afghans invaded Iran in 1722,

production of these rugs virtually ceased

and production didn't really resume until around about the mid 19th century,

and there's a very interesting little idiosyncrasy

that ties these in with Manchester.

Would you have any idea what that might be?

I understand that some of the carpets were made of Manchester wool.

Ah, well, that's good, because actually you've pretty well hit the nail on the head!

Because, in fact, there was a shortage of good quality wool in the late 19th century.

Between about 1890 and 1930 they couldn't get enough good quality wool

to manufacture these rugs in Iran,

so, effectively, what they did was, they imported merino wool from Manchester,

which is quite incredible, isn't it?

So that's the connection.

But I think dating them is a LITTLE bit difficult.

They're 20th century.

When did he pick them up?

1950s?

I reckon that my father probably left Iran,

Persia, about 1950, at the latest.

Right, OK, well, frankly I think they date from pretty close to that period.

I can see that this one's got some new fringing on the bottom of it,

a replacement fringing,

but I think they date from around that period

or not long before that period,

so they're early 20th century, perhaps.

Price wise, a matching pair like this

are probably going to sell for about £2,000 at auction.

You're joking!

That is a surprise.

I mean, to me the value of the rugs is the sentimental value,

that my father worked there and brought them back here.

If there is a connection with Manchester,

well, that would be fantastic

thinking that the rugs have come home.

-Lars, how's it going?

-OK, thank you.

How many items do you think you've seen today, so far?

-Cos there've been SO many people here.

-Items? My goodness...

-Well, how many people then?

-People...

somewhere between 200 and 300 people on ceramics, just me, yeah.

Wow, wow. Anything stand out particularly?

Well, we've seen a HUGE variety of things

but the thing that, sort of, stands out is a recent report from outside,

that a gentleman, who has been seen in here,

with what he says was valued at £5,000,

has broken it outside.

Ooh.

Now, I don't recall seeing anything worth £5,000

so, it's a bit of a mystery.

Well, at least it broke outside, and not inside.

I'm hoping he's going to bring the bits in!

Here we are, standing in Alfred Waterhouse's, in my opinion,

his masterpiece, the great Town Hall.

And you might think it's a bit O.T.T.

and then you look at your clock,

which is, again, a wonderful example of Victorian...decoration.

Is it something you have at home sitting in pride of place?

It is, yes. We, erm...

It's in the hall and people see it and remark on it when they,

when they visit and it's a conversation piece.

The clock isn't too accurate but we love it, you know, yeah.

You've exactly said the words, you, "love it,"

because some people might say this is something that is SO Victorian

and it's over-ornate.

I mean, just starting at this top and this sort of wonderful dome,

with the finials and the lion's head coming down to the spandrels -

and what are these strange ears at the side?

They are so over-the-top Victorian in many ways

and either you love it, or you hate it,

and, I have to say, I'm a bit of a 19th century fan, so I love it.

Now, as a clock, it was made in Germany.

-Probably around about 1900 somewhere about 1890.

-Really?

So about 110 years old but as a long case clock, not terribly exciting,

not terribly valuable UNTIL you reveal what's in the front here.

Yes.

And we open it up and what do we have? We have a disc musical box

and that makes it really desirable to a collector.

And what makes this interesting is that you can have endless discs.

How many have you got at home?

Six or seven, similar sort of things.

That's probably the favourite tune, I think, that we've got on for you.

Because so often with musical clocks, it has one tune, or maybe two,

and I should after ten years -

my goodness you'd be rather bored with those tunes!

-But you can change the discs and change the tune.

-Yes, of course, yes.

And the whole clock, musical movement, was made in Leipzig

by the company called Symphonion.

-Right.

-There were two big companies,

Polyphon and Symphonion, great competitors.

But this is a Symphonium long case clock,

it was made for the home -

some were made for pubs, where you put a penny in the side,

but this is a home model.

And therefore, to a collector, a rare piece.

At auction today...

..we're probably thinking about a figure of between £7,000 and £9,000.

Really? As much as that? Gosh.

TUNE TINKLING

-Now you're a father of how many children?

-Four children.

Four children, OK, and you've brought me

a book written by a daddy.

That's right, with two of his children.

Right, OK. And if we have a quick look at it,

it's called The Lion Skin.

If we open it up to the first page,

we'll see that it's written

by a Mr Hudson

-for his children in 1925.

-Yes.

Apart from the name, do we know where, where this came from?

Well, my daughter bought this property

with lots of furniture and miscellany.

-Right.

-And this was part and parcel of it.

There were two very, very elderly people there

and I would feel that possibly one of those was one of the children.

And what can you tell me about the story itself?

Well, it's a story about children pestering their father...

-Right.

-..for a lion's skin,

and he goes to Africa to just do that.

Here's the opening page. As you say, The Lion Skin by a daddy.

Beautifully drawn. The sort of execution is lovely.

The quality is sort of naive,

but very, very good as well

and he heads off to Africa by way of London

where, in those days, you could go and buy a gun.

-Certainly something you couldn't do nowadays.

-No!

And then later on, he gets on board a ship,

travels all the way to Africa,

where he finds this lion, which rather conveniently...

Strangely, in the desert.

In the desert, yes. And what happens to the lion?

The lion somehow manages to deflect the bullet

and off comes the tail, which clearly upsets the lion.

Something that we know

doesn't happen nowadays, thankfully. The lion's a protected species

and there are so many. But back in those days, there wasn't quite

the sort of same attitude towards hunting that there is now.

That's right.

And then, towards the end, once the father has managed

to sort of run away

from this now enraged lion.

-Enraged!

-Exactly.

He finally escapes back to England

and meets up with his children again

after visiting a taxidermist, essentially,

where he buys a lion skin.

So the whole adventure

has been sort of for nought in a way, but he's ended up

getting the lion skin to give to his children who then can relax.

-That's right.

-And presumably stop pestering him.

-Yes.

-I think it's beautifully illustrated. He obviously spent time

with them, actually sitting down composing the whole thing

-and the result is, as we said, a unique object...

-Very nice.

..that is actually worth a bit of money, funnily enough.

Well I think this, if it came up at auction, would certainly

make in the high hundreds, easily over £1,000.

-Good heavens!

-Yeah.

Well, for decades and decades the name Carlton Ware

has been synonymous with some fantastic ceramic creations,

from floral embossed wares, to teapots with legs.

But in the middle of it all, there is a period where they produced

some of the most opulent and extravagant wares,

like these in front of me.

So tell me, how come you are the lucky owner of two fabulous pieces?

Well, they've been in my family for as long as I can remember,

they originally were my Grandma's and she's always had them.

I believe before that,

I think they were her dad's,

-possibly back to the 1920s, I think.

-OK.

So give me a bit of a background of you and your family in the 1920s.

-Were you, shall I say, well-heeled?

-I can't say I was.

What about Grandma and Granddad?

I think yes, they were. My Grandad started, with his father,

a building firm back in the 1920s and as far as I know did quite well.

They were quite wealthy.

So these would have been bought for Grandma then? Or Great Grandma?

-Great Grandma as far as I've been told by my dad.

-So both of them?

Both of them. There was a third piece.

there was another vase exactly like that one

and there was an accident a few years ago with it

-and I threw it away.

-OK.

Well, everything you're saying

in terms of the time, the era, adds up perfectly

because this is Carlton Ware in the 1920s.

Specifically, this is Carlton Ware about 1929

under the artistic directorship of a chap called Enoch Boulton,

and he was a designer of some serious excellence.

I mean, he really was the boy.

He knew what he was doing and he was reacting to everything

that was coming out of Europe in 1925 at the big Paris Exhibition.

And in fact a lot of people today now say that this happened.

These vases, these pieces actually epitomise

the British interpretation

-of the Art Deco Movement at this period.

-Oh, gosh.

These are seriously important design items of their time.

-Right.

-So this period, there is good and there is great.

And is that the zigzag pattern? Am I right in..?

Well, the pattern is actually, for me, another name

that just perfectly epitomises the whole era.

This is known amongst all of us, and from the pattern books, as Jazz.

Oh, OK.

And what else is going on in the 1920s and 30s? It was the Jazz Age.

It was the music, the new creation, the new people.

These really daring, daring young people

who were doing everything different to their parents.

And how much more different could this be

from a load of Victorian chintz and florals?

-So with great, comes great interest.

-OK.

With great interest, I have to tell you, comes great prices.

OK.

And you threw one of these away.

Well if I tell you that you've thrown away

-somewhere in the region of £800 to £1,200.

-Wow.

Oh, gosh. Oh, dear.

And if we then move up to the bigger piece,

-and we actually call these the gondola.

-Yeah.

If we actually go up to this,

you're looking somewhere more like £1,500 to £2,000 for it.

Wow. Oh, dear.

These epitomise everything

that was going on in that era at its absolute best.

The interpretation, the understanding, the idea

and, more importantly, the execution.

-They are an absolute joy, so continue to treasure them.

-I love them.

Yeah, fabulous. Thank you.

Last time the Antiques Roadshow team visited Manchester Town Hall

was back in 1989 - there were lots of great finds but it was also a

rather sobering day for a young man who met our art expert Philip Hook.

So this is just what we wanted to find in Manchester,

the familiar image of the industrial landscape

and the magic signature at the bottom here, LS Lowry.

Can you tell me how you came by these two pictures?

Well, I've a classic car restoration company.

And about three years ago I was doing

a job for a chap in London on an E-type Jaguar and he was short of

the payment by about £250 and we was casually talking about antiques and

what not, old cars, and he asked me would I like to take this painting.

And I took the painting and that's how I acquired it.

Well, you brought these in earlier and I've had the chance

to consult with Sandra Martin from the Manchester City Art Gallery

and I'm afraid she tells us neither of these are actually by Lowry.

Yeah, well...

Which is not the best news, and apparently there are - even now

- fakers at work producing Lowrys - it's a big business when a Lowry...

I mean had this been genuine it could have been £20,000 or £30,000.

Rupert Maas you're on our art team today -

any fake Lowrys turned up so far?

Not as yet, but we're always on the QV for them.

The thing is that they were faked prodigiously

particularly by the Greenhalgh family, you know, local boys

from Bolton, Shaun Greenhalgh now doing time for faking Lowrys

and they're out there in their thousands perhaps.

We don't really know but we do see a lot of fake Lowrys.

And people are increasingly turning to the net to buy paintings these days, aren't they?

Yes, well it seems easy but you're only looking at a photograph,

you can't see the actual thing

and it's a particularly dangerous thing to do.

What kind of things are being faked these days?

Well, Lowry has been faked - everyone knows now -

a lot of people do, that there are fake Lowrys out there,

so people - the fakers - they move on to pastures new

and I understand that Greek painting is being faked a bit now

and also progressive Indian painting.

They tend to target the areas which are in the sort of twenty

to thirty thousand pounds maximum range because that is the area

which is least researched and most remunerative.

Pays the most!

Thank you! Pays the most, but anything below that

is not worth doing and anything higher than that,

somebody's written a book about it and there's knowledge. Knowledge is the faker's enemy.

Rupert, thanks very much.

You have been warned.

These were inherited by my husband,

they came down through his mother's side of the family

and we know very little about them

other than the fact that we think they may be Italian

because there's some boxwood packing on the back of them.

We think they're ivory and we think, or he thinks,

that they are book ends or book backs from somewhere

and the reason he thinks that

is because the two corners here appear to be...

Like have a small chamfer on them, and that's all we know about them.

Right, well we can't see that.

I don't think they're book ends or book backs,

I think they're almost too delicate,

even imagining how precious books were at this time,

so I don't think they're that.

-The packaging on the back - let's discount that as well.

-OK.

-So these have been in the family a long time?

-Yes.

OK, well they are ivory.

That's the right fact. And they're beautifully, beautifully carved.

Have you ever tried to look into the iconography, the story behind them?

Some years ago my husband photographed them and e-mailed it

down to the Victoria and Albert in London, who said that they thought

that the pictures themselves came from a Rubens painting.

Right, Rubens painting.

I'm not a painting specialist.

So I'm going to be brave

and say I don't think they are from a Rubens painting.

But the scenes are roughly the time of Rubens, sort of 1600-ish,

-something like that.

-Right.

I'm pretty sure this is Henry IV of France.

Right. Yes.

King of Navarre, King of France

and this is clearly... All these heavenly maidens up here,

are clearly bringing him a portrait of his bride-to-be.

Right, oh right.

-Marie de' Medici - very important Italian family.

-Right.

And I just wonder if this is his betrothal here, or at least

he's having a look to see if he wanted the portrait or whatever.

Great way to get married, isn't it?! "Oh, she looks all right, yeah".

And then over here, I suspect this is clearly the birth of a child.

-But I think it's not religious, it's secular.

-Right.

-And that is the birth of their first child, their first son.

-Right.

Who became Louis XIII of France.

So I think this is celebrating an important event in French history.

Because without him, that dynasty - the Bourbon dynasty -

probably wouldn't have survived, so this is very, very important -

all the 18th century kings we know about, the Louis, are all from him.

Yes, right.

Dolphin of course is the son of the king, is a dolphin or the dauphin.

Dauphin, yes.

Now, they come from the harbour town of Dieppe in northern France,

on the Channel.

Where all of the ivory shipments and a lot of imports into France came.

-There's a big school of Dieppe ivory carving.

-Right.

They're not - sadly - the same date as Henry IV of Navarre.

They're not late 16th, early 17th century.

He died in 1610, but it's great carving

from a very, very important centre, so date-wise about 18...

They're quite early - 1850, 1860, something like that.

Right.

Well, I think certainly...

..minimum insurance value of £5,000.

Right.

Well, it was bought in 1961,

that was a present for a belated wedding anniversary.

Fantastic, so was it just these two pieces, or more?

No, there's the small one

and there's the dressing table to go with it and there's a stool as well.

And a stool as well? My goodness me.

Yes, there's actually a single wardrobe to go with that as a set.

-So you've got the whole bedroom suite in one?

-Yes, that's right.

In its day, enormously fashionable as well.

So doing your hair and make-up,

you must have looked very much a fashionable person of the moment.

That's right, yes.

The story behind these objects -

there are a number of different things.

And fashion I'm going to come back to.

First of all, the fact that it's still a large piece

and this walnut veneer over here

and this very sort of architectural shape,

harks back to the Art Deco movement,

-so the pre-war fashion for Art Deco, architectural stepped forms.

-OK.

But, of course, things did start to change.

After the war there was a new style, there was a new fashion,

so although at first glance it feels very solid and architectural,

you start to see features like this.

This almost looks like a chemical model or a chemical structure

within these little balls here and these lines,

and of course the 1951 Festival of Britain,

a lot of that was about - chemical structure,

the world of tomorrow, the future.

And have you noticed on here, this wonderful curving form there?

Yes, exactly, yes, yes.

But it also looks a little like a car grille,

and of course all those things

became really influential in the post-war period.

Now we know who it was made by, of course,

because if we open this up...

-..it says "Beautility".

-Yes.

Beautility Furniture Limited was founded in 1894 in London.

Good company, it lasted through into 1950s and '60s,

and I mentioned fashion and it sold fashionable furniture,

so you could buy the whole thing and immediately take part

in a new fashion of the age, the new style of the age.

But there's a little bit more to it, isn't there?

There is, there's a secret door.

There's more to this wardrobe than it looks,

because if we slide this open here,

you reveal a full-length mirror,

just so you can admire yourself before you go out.

And down here you'd have been able to store hair brushes,

so if you needed to just...

That final tweak before you go out on the town -

there it all is, ready for you.

Why do you still have it? Do you still like it today?

Well, actually the main story is me Mum's actually moved in with us now,

so we have nowhere to store it

and we need to get rid of it, basically.

That's why, unfortunately,

because it is a nice piece of furniture

and me Mum does love it, she's had it since like 1960

so...it's unfortunate, really.

Absolutely.

Well, returning to fashion again,

these pieces really have been out of fashion for a very long time

and if you're looking to sell it, how do you sell these sorts of pieces?

They're still not wildly fashionable today.

However, fashions change again, they're changing,

there are a big number of younger people

who are really looking for these stylish pieces from the 1950s.

-Really?

-Absolutely.

-That surprises me.

You might get... A good quality vintage or retro shop

might be asking sort of about £80, £60 to £80 for that

and maybe around £100 to £150 for that, with the dressing table,

you're probably nudging over the £200, £250 mark.

Right, OK.

My advice to you personally would be to keep it,

as I think you might get a bit more money in the future.

Right. OK, we'll bear that in mind.

My goodness, it's dusty, so it must be old.

How old?

I don't know exactly, we've had it just over 20 years

but I don't know exactly how old it is.

And where did it come from?

My father bought it off somebody

and it's just been sitting in a warehouse ever since.

20 odd years ago, that would take us to around 1991?

Yeah, yeah.

-Which is exactly the date we've got on this lovely colourful sticker.

-OK.

The year of the Ram, 1991.

But the thing that really interests me is this here.

Now have you translated this?

I haven't no, no.

You ought to have done, because that's going to help you date it.

In here, we've got a date.

Those two characters tell us that this was made

either in 1804 or in 1864.

-OK.

-The Chinese cycle of years goes in 60-year chunks.

-OK.

So we can say that this gong

almost certainly dates to either 1804 or 1864.

From the point of view of value, or importance,

it doesn't make any difference.

-Right, OK.

-We just say it's 19th century,

and as far as I'm concerned, that fits perfectly with the gong.

OK.

Now the stand could be anywhere in the 19th century,

it's a very, very traditional Chinese stand

-and it is indeed a stand for a gong such as this.

-Yes.

The only problem with it is,

you haven't got the little circular cushion

that usually sits just between the gong itself...

-Ah right, OK.

-..and the top of the stand.

-OK.

And the reason to have a cushion on there

is when you actually strike the piece, it allows it to resonate.

Ah.

So, I think this dates from the 19th century.

-Do you use it for anything?

-No, like I said,

it's just been sitting there for the past 20-odd years.

Not for bringing the children down for early morning breakfast?

No, no, not even that.

-You've been to China, I guess.

-Yes, I have, yes.

-And you've seen these in China?

-In temples, yes.

-In temples.

-Temples, yes.

They're usually tucked away

-either in the corner of a room or right next to the door.

-OK.

And they strike them and they usually bring people to prayer.

-Right.

-Just as bells do all over the world.

-Right.

-Now, without the cushion,

-I'm afraid we're not going to make a great noise, are we?

-OK.

-Let's have a go, shall we?

-Sure.

THE GONG RESONATES

Huge resonance, it's still going.

Get a cushion and your children will have fun with this,

waking you up on a Sunday morning.

-It's a purely decorative object.

-Yeah.

It has no collector's value.

-This is - the value of this lies in what it looks like.

-OK.

To buy one of these,

I think you would spend...

-somewhere between £1,000 and maybe £2,000.

-OK.

Yeah, interesting to know, yes.

When I saw this, this morning, the phrase that came to mind was

"hiding your light under a bushel".

Because out of this plain box, we have this rather magnificent plaque.

-And this is just the back side of it, isn't it?

-Yes.

Here it is here, and I don't need to tell you what it is.

You know what it is - what is it?

It's a Royal Lancastrian pottery plate.

It is indeed,

and this has been in your family or something you've bought?

It's from my great grandfather.

He was given it by a member of the Pilkington factory

who he was friendly with at the time.

Right, so was he in the pottery business as well?

No, he was a director of an engineering company in Swinton

and they became friends and this was given to him as a gift.

Well, what a gift it is. I mean, it's magnificent.

I think there's no...

I think highly appropriate, you know, in the Gothic surroundings

of Manchester Town Hall, we have here not a Gothic piece,

but an Arts and Crafts piece, which was a movement

which ran at the same time, and a little bit beyond

and, I mean, what a plate -

we've got St George and the dragon here,

dragons around the outside and you notice how this side is black,

this side is much more lustrous.

These lustre colours were fired at very high temperatures

to get the red and the lustre,

they almost had to burn the pattern off

and if they didn't control the kiln...

-These were coal-fired kilns - no switching a button on.

-Yes.

Coal-fired kiln, the whole of this design could be destroyed.

-It is, it's magnificent.

-Yeah.

And look at the back, I mean the back is as beautiful as it is.

And I mean even the way that the colours have sort of run

and given this lovely sort of bloom to it.

Here we've got the mark, here, the P and the bees for Pilkingtons,

the Royal Lancastrian Pottery.

And we've also got... Have you noticed here?

There's another mark there as well.

-Have you seen that before?

-I have, yes, I can't remember what it is.

Well that's the mark of Richard Joyce,

-who was one of the artists at the factory.

-Right.

And whether it was a presentation piece

particularly for your great grandfather...

I'd like to think it was, because it is...

-It's not a run-of-the-mill piece, it's a special piece.

-Yeah.

And, you know, as a consequence, it's worth a special price.

I think if this was to come to auction,

there would be no problem at it getting £10,000 to £12,000.

-Right.

-So maybe it should go back in its box.

-Yes.

-And back to the bank for your great grandchildren.

-Definitely, yeah.

We've had so many people here today.

Do you know, by lunchtime, we'd had 3,000 people come along

to Manchester Town Hall, all queuing, very patiently...

Thank you.

..and all their own little boxes and bags and things.

Hello - pouncing on you - what have you got in there?

Beatles autographs.

Beatles autographs? Oh, can I have a look?

Just a few.

And how did you come by these?

I used to work in the fan club in the '60s

and when I left school we used to just go up there,

just like for an hour, you know, just after school.

That is a great Scouse accent, I can tell you!

Yes, so we just ended up getting friendly

and in the end we got working there

just like, you know, school holidays, we got a guinea a week.

What and you - so you were working at the Beatles' fan club?

Yeah, just helping out, just cutting labels off the actual letters

and sending people photographs.

So show me these autographs, then.

-John Lennon.

-John Lennon.

Ringo Starr, George Harrison

and Paul McCartney.

-"This is from us Beatles"

-This is from us Beatles.

So who's written that then?

I think that looks like John Lennon's writing, that one.

Fantastic, and what else have you got in here?

Just a few - got a Christmas card

and actually similar type of things.

-And this is to you?

-Yes.

-So a Christmas card to you from the Beatles?

-Yes.

Hang on, hang on, let's have a look.

"To June, best wishes, Ringo Starr" with a little star.

"George Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney".

How fantastic!

Now, has anyone valued this for you yet?

No, no, I haven't had it valued yet. I'm just waiting.

Brilliant, well we might have to go and find someone to have a look.

Great.

When I was in Manchester back in the 1970s and an undergraduate,

certainly we didn't have anything like this

to get to university and back, it was the boring bus.

This is what's termed as an apprentice piece,

but I've seen lots of apprentice pieces but this is the real McCoy.

Yes, it is, we know that this is the actual model

that the apprentices at the factory and the works

where they actually made these trams,

the apprentices made this just to prove that they could do the job.

And then having proved that they could do it,

presumably they were then allowed to go on

and actually be part of building the full-size ones.

Yes, and we have the only remaining full-size one left

out of the 515 that they actually made.

You personally or...? No, you're the Chairman of the Tramway Museum.

Yes, the Tramway Museum have it, it took 25 years to restore it,

but it is in full operating condition,

we have occasionally run it in Heaton Park

and we take it to other places to actually operate it

but it costs a lot of money to hire suitable horses to run it.

-So we have one full-size.

-Mm.

-And one apprentice model and that's it.

-Yes.

And what makes this one so unusual?

I see it's got... On the front, it's called something patent.

It's an Eades patent -

instead of having two staircases and two driving points,

this only has one staircase and one driving point,

and when it got to the terminus,

the driver could lock the brakes onto the truck on it.

Unlock the body and then the tram would do this.

-Wow!

-The whole body was designed on a turntable,

so it could turn round

and set off back in the direction they'd just come from.

-So obviously horse-drawn.

-Yes.

-So one, or two horses.

Usually two horses side by side and when it came to a hilly area,

they'd keep extra horses at the bottom of the hill

and they'd put on a trace horse on the front to pull it up the hill.

That is amazing. I mean, what a lovely bit of engineering.

Rather than like a train, you had to build a turntable,

which would have been huge and very expensive.

Just a little cunning design like this got round the problem.

And they also didn't have to lay extra track to build turning circles

and it just saved an awful lot of money.

Now these, I understand, were introduced in, what, the 1870s?

It's mid 1870s and they ran through till the...

last ones operated early in 1903.

And that was because they were phased out

because no more horse-drawn?

Yes, the electric trams came in and they gradually replaced

the lighter-weight tracks that these ran on

with heavier-weight tracks for the electric trams

and all the overhead wiring that was required for the electric ones.

And I think you've brought along a picture showing Piccadilly.

Yes, this picture of Piccadilly shows lots and lots of trams in it,

and every single one of them is one of these trams.

And you see congestion, even back then.

Exactly, definitely, it was quite bad then.

-And the only one left?

-Yeah.

You can't reproduce it, really historic,

such an ingenious way of turning it around.

I really love it and it's part of Manchester's history.

-Exactly, very much so.

-I would have thought...

well, if Manchester Corporation didn't buy it back,

any collector would pay £12,000 to £15,000 for it.

So a fantastic piece.

Well, we are delighted to own it and we're even more delighted

because we actually have the full-size version as well.

Don't ask me to value that!

This is really nice - I mean I like wheel engraving,

it's one of the most delicate forms of glass decoration.

What you do is that the engraver holds the glass

against rotating copper discs,

which they put a kind of abrasive slimy stuff on,

and scratch the decoration onto the glass,

and I think that works well, don't you?

Well, it's come out beautifully,

I think the engraving is absolutely first class.

So it's Stourbridge, that's where it was made, the glass.

And it dates from about 1870-1880 so did you have it as a child?

No, my sister and I were clearing a friend's house out after she died,

and it was just lying in a box with some glasses

and it just caught my eye, I thought how beautiful it was.

So you said, "I'll have that".

I said, "Oh, can I have it?" and she said, "Yes".

-So how long ago's that?

-About 10 or 15 years ago.

So it's about 130 years old.

The downer on it is that this isn't silver.

-Oh.

-If it was silver, it would be worth pots of money,

but as it is, we're talking about Greek revival,

Stourbridge made, wheel-engraved claret jug.

Claret jug that's worth £500, which is not bad value, eh?

Very good, and how much would it be worth with the claret in it?

Oh, let's go and find out, shall we?

Right, we'll meet after the show.

Ah, here you are.

-Can I interrupt? I saw this lady earlier on.

-Yes.

Have you spoken about what this is worth yet?

Not quite, we were just about to do that.

Well, come on then, put me out of my misery,

and put you out of your misery, as well.

It's a wonderfully personal little collection,

very, very pertinent, I love it

and I think this is going to make between £3,000 - £5,000 at auction.

-You're joking.

-Absolutely not.

-Oh, that's wonderful.

-Is that a surprise?

-Very much so - didn't think...

Didn't think that much at all.

Thank you, John, Paul and Ringo.

It is, yeah, that's lovely.

It's years since I've seen any of these on a Roadshow,

they're really sweet little things. Where did you get them?

My mother left them to me.

And you know what they are, or...?

Very little, I think are they Royal Worcester?

Absolutely, they're Royal Worcester

and it'll say so on the bottoms.

Let's have a look.

This one here, yeah, we've got a Royal Worcester mark just there

and there's a date code and it will date them

to around about the end of the 19th century.

Right.

They'll be about 1898, somewhere around there,

but what's important about these ones is the decoration

and who they're painted by - have you had a look at this closely?

-Not really, no.

-Because if you look at either of them,

-you see there - the signature?

-Oh, yes.

It says "Baldwin" - Charles Baldwin was the son of a piano tuner

but he went into painting

and he painted on Royal Worcester porcelain.

At the beginning of the 20th century he went into...

I think he gave up and went into watercolours,

he exhibited at the RA, but Royal Worcester collectors,

-when they see things by Baldwin, they get excited.

-Oh, right.

This particular shape of vase comes in two sizes

because I looked at them and I thought...

and then I remembered, it's only the large ones

-which should have covers.

-Right.

These ones are almost exactly the same

but the large ones came with covers.

These small ones were made and sold without covers.

So, all is looking pretty sunny about them.

Fantastic.

I don't suppose you know this one's cracked?

I thought there was a little hairline crack on one of them, yes.

Yeah, it looks little, but it runs all the way round the outside here.

-Round up there and up into the rim.

-Oh, what a shame.

So effectively you've got a couple of vases,

you've got one in really good order, one with a crack,

-almost invisible but it's still there.

-Yeah.

And that makes a huge difference to the price.

But if you put them into auction they would make £3,500 or £4,000.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Wow.

They're that sought after, even in that condition.

Fantastic, I'll make sure I get them insured now.

Earlier on, Fiona and Rupert were having a conversation about fakes,

and fake Lowrys, and here we have a wonderful Lowry

with a covering letter,

which gives really good provenance to the picture.

The picture really speaks for itself

because it is just typical Lowry and beautifully painted.

So how come you have the painting and the letter?

Well, my father was an amateur artist in Manchester,

something of a junior contemporary of Lowry

and a very big fan of Lowry, and he collected several scrapbooks

of art gallery catalogues, newspaper cuttings,

anything he could lay his hands on, to do with Lowry

and he did use to meet up with Lowry occasionally

and at some point told Lowry about the scrapbooks.

Lowry was interested, wanted to borrow them,

ended up keeping them far too long, really,

and so when he returned them,

he was a bit embarrassed about how long he'd had them,

and he gave this little picture as a present.

It's explained in the covering letter.

And I've got a transcript of the letter here

and I think it's just absolutely fantastic.

"Dear Mr Kay, I have this day left your book in Bloom Street

"and offer you my sincerest apologies for the delay.

"I do hope you will forgive me.

"Do try and forgive me, please, yours sincerely, LS Lowry."

And then we have,

"PS - I have put inside the parcel a very tiny oil sketch

"which I hope you will like".

It's interesting that we have this letter,

because it's dated 1955 so we can actually put a date on the painting

and do you know - I have seen big Lowrys, I've seen a lot recently -

when I look at that, if I wanted a Lowry, that is what I would like.

Why? We've got here a street scene in Manchester,

Salford with the factory buildings,

we've got the smoke coming out of the chimney,

we've got these children -

and I do get annoyed when people start talking about

"matchstick men and matchstick dogs,"

because, in fact, he was much more than that.

It was the way the flicks of paint - the legs, the boots

on the children walking up the street there - it's just fantastic.

And where are the albums, the scrapbooks?

The albums are now in the Lowry Centre

as part of the Lowry Collection.

They were donated after he died about ten years ago.

That is fantastic.

And did Lowry and your father have tea together or...?

-Well, they used to meet at parties.

-Really?

And my father visited Lowry's house several times.

So they did know each other, although not well.

I think he must have really liked him,

to give something like that, it's so personal.

And, you know, it's a small picture.

What would something like that be worth today,

with this information as well?

Well, and I'm saying this conservatively,

I think that that would make

in the region of £30,000 to £50,000 at auction.

Quite amazing! Not that we've any intention of getting rid of it.

No, but I just think it's wonderful.

It's everything in a big picture, in a small picture,

and it ticks every box, absolutely beautiful.

What are the chances of that?

One minute I'm talking about fake Lowrys with Rupert Maas

and the next minute, the real deal comes along!

Mind you, Lowry was a local lad, so maybe we could have expected it.

Anyway, we had a great day here at Manchester Town Hall.

I hope you've enjoyed it. Until next time, bye-bye.

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