Lulworth Castle 1 Antiques Roadshow

This week, we've come to the beautiful Dorset coast.

Here, near the famous beauty spot of Lulworth Cove,

stands Lulworth Castle, set in glorious secluded grounds.

Just the place to relax.

Enjoy the peace and quiet...

ARTILLERY FIRE

Or maybe not!

This week, the Antiques Roadshow comes to you from a castle

with a very unusual back garden.

ARTILLERY FIRE

BELL RINGS

Since 1916, part of Lulworth Castle's huge estate has been

a firing range... with the odd tank here and there.

Back then, when tanks first arrived in the quiet lanes of Dorset,

they were so new and so secret, they were known as "hush-hushes"

and the residents had to pull their blinds down

and stay in the back room as they passed by.

These days, tanks aren't quite so hush-hush.

I've come to Bovington,

It's filled with historic tanks, spanning the decades,

including the first-ever tank, Little Willie.

And guess who gets to drive this one?

A 432 armoured personnel carrier.

I've got some illustrious predecessors.

King George V was in a tank here in 1928,

Princes William and Harry learned here, and then, who could forget?

That Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, in a headscarf and goggles.

Well, I was tempted but I can't find those.

Instead, I've been given this rather natty helmet.

Off we go!

Of course they won't let me loose in this thing alone.

Instructor Roy Avery will be keeping a close eye on me.

The faster you go, the lighter it becomes.

I wasn't thinking of going too fast.

Well, I don't know, you might get carried away!

ENGINE GRINDS AND ROARS

'You'd think something weighing 15 tonnes would be slow and lumbering,

'but with a top speed of 32mph, this is really pretty nippy.'

Shall I go straight ahead? Yeah.

'I'll tell you what. Perched at the front, it feels a lot faster.'

'I think I could rather get to like riding in tanks,

'and despite all the noise,

'perhaps Lulworth has reason to love them, too?'

It seems that the big guns and the tanks are doing some good,

protecting the heathland, acting as a big, noisy nature reserve.

In fact, this is a World Heritage Site.

The only one that also doubles as a firing range.

Since today's venue, the castle, is just over there,

is a company called Whitanco, and it's your family company.

It is indeed.

My grandfather and grandmother both died

when my father was five years old,

and I was shown this catalogue when I was a child.

And you said, "Great, where's the company!?"

That's true. But, of course, at the time, it was just a catalogue

of some old toys, and I was more into toys of the time.

This came out of, basically, the attic, you know,

and from there I've been trying to research the company

and find the toys. Brilliant!

So when did all this start?

This started in 1997.

Quite late, I have to say. Very late!

As far as the toy market is concerned. Very late.

You know, the market was pretty well developed by that point.

That's right, unfortunately.

So, I can't believe that there are any huge bargains to be had,

but let's just talk about Whitanco which is, as we can see

on their 1921 catalogue,

it's a shortened form of the company name, Whiteley, Tansley and Company.

because let's put it into context.

Before the First World War, most tin plate toys were coming from Germany.

That's right. And after the First World War,

the British were not very keen on buying German-produced goods,

and so Whitanco had really

a very fertile ground to exploit.

But looking at the actual quality of the products,

one has to say that it's a bit mixed.

On the one hand, you have this big limousine down here,

which would rival any of the really expensive

and desirable toys made from...

really the 1910 period upwards, in Germany.

I mean, it's a fabulous limousine. Yeah.

And then you get to something like the spinning top, which obviously...

One of the objects here that is most arresting, perhaps, is the tank.

Here we are in Dorset. Just up the road there is Bovington Tank Museum.

that we're looking at a tank. Does it work? It does, it does.

so it's something that people would be familiar with.

Let's see if it works after all these years.

OK. You're safe!

So, as far as value's concerned,

this won't be a great discovery moment for you

because you've been buying them over the last 13 years.

So, I think that the values vary

between perhaps ?800 to ?1,000 for the limo,

down to under ?100, for instance, for the spinning top.

Within that range, we've got other things

at ?300, ?200 and so on,

so is it like getting the family back together again?

Every part I find is a bit like finding part of my grandfather, you know, who died in 1923.

Well, good luck with it. Thank you.

I'm looking at a piece of paper here

which is headed with the word "abdication".

Now, that takes us straight into

very exciting contemporary history.

I don't know what it is about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

They are just so much part of our imagination.

There are films, there are books,

there've been wonderful sales of the Duchess' jewels.

It's something that we all grab onto as part of our history,

even though it's actually a terrible story, when you look at it.

This seems to be an abdication statement, but why have you got it?

I have got it because my great uncle was the Naval Secretary at the time

and he was obviously sent this.

So what we're looking at here, is not that famous broadcast

where he said, "I can't live without the woman I love". No.

But this is almost more important,

as this is the formal statement of abdication

which he then signed, a crucial piece of history.

If we look at the back, there's a circulation list

and they're all very, very important naval officers, First Sea Lord,

the First Lord of the Admiralty.

It was obviously very, very restricted access. Is that him? Yes.

Naval Secretary. Yes.

He must have been a very senior and distinguished naval officer

to be part of this process.

I think I'm going to read the first sentence because it really says it all.

"After long and anxious consideration,

"I have determined to renounce the Throne

"to which I succeeded on the death of my father,

"and I am now communicating this, my final and irrevocable decision".

This had never happened in history before.

This is the moment all our lives changed, really.

Obviously, there's been a whole film about it, which we've all enjoyed.

So you always had it? Yes. It's been in the sort of family papers?

Yes, it's been in a drawer, and I just...

But you brought it today. Yes. I thought it'd be interesting.

It's more than interesting, it's very valuable.

I can see a collector being very excited by this -

a rare chance to get something

which was the instrument of changing history.

I'm going to say it's going to be between ?500 and ?1,000. Gosh!

And why not? It's a great family treasure. Yes.

And a great national treasure. Thank you very much.

Because we're surrounded here with loads and loads of sheep,

wonderful landscape beyond, too,

Lulworth must be the perfect setting to see a really lovely Victorian landscape

by Charles Jones, depicting sheep.

You can see lower right that there's a monogram and it's dated 1888.

And he was known as "Sheep Jones",

the artist Sheep Jones from the Victorian period.

And that's all he painted.

Occasionally the odd cow, but mostly sheep.

And I thought we might just go and see whether we think,

make our own judgments, whether Mr Jones WAS a great sheep painter.

Excellent.

These have to be the largest pair of knickers I've ever seen, I think!

I've never tried them on, I can tell you.

I'm extremely glad you haven't!

My sister has been holding on to them all these years, all wrapped away.

So, because of this great insignia here, we can tell they were actually

owned, and presumably worn, by Queen Victoria. Correct.

And, seemingly, when she was a young girl, she had a 20-inch waist.

Nine children later...

Yes. That's halfway there.

I think she's 50-something. So where did you get these?

My sister's husband had a second-hand shop back in the '60s.

And he inherited it from his father.

They were cleaning the shop up and painting bits,

and they were using this pile of rag out at the back.

And here it was... And my mother spotted these.

The Queen's knickers. The Queen's knickers.

You've done a bit of research on that. I have.

Some went about two years ago and I think they fetched getting on for 3,000, ?4,000.

I can't remember the exact figure. Gosh!

There's a lot of interest in Queen Victoria, royal memorabilia... Yes.

There's a tremendous upsurge of interest now.

And, of course, the Americans are fascinated, the Japanese. Yes.

Unfortunately, I don't think these would fetch that now. Right.

The thing about it is, she had a tremendous number of pairs of these

and for all the different houses she had,

so there are quite a lot of them around

and I would say, really, now,

probably ?500 to ?600.

Right. OK. But still... OK.

For a pair of knickers. Exactly! LAUGHTER

Probably worth saving, then.

If we imagine Charles Jones standing here with his easel

in 1888, painting this lovely landscape with the sheep beyond.

I think comparing this picture with the present beautiful landscape,

he was pretty good and I now can see why he had his reputation

as Sheep Jones.

You get all the light and wonderful texture,

but also the landscape's good. Tell me, where did it come from?

It came from my mother. She was a housekeeper at Keele University,

at the Provost's Lodge,

and the Provost there was a man called Sir George Barnes,

who, unfortunately, died of a long illness,

which my mother looked after him,

and the family were so grateful, they bequeathed her this picture,

and since then it's been in our family.

But we greatly admire it.

It's something to be wondered at, isn't it, really? Yeah.

The features are unbelievable.

That's a lovely bit of history.

It's always good to know a good bit of history on a painting.

Of course, he was a very good painter.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Your picture is painted quite late in his career, '88.

But I have seen earlier pictures, from the '60s - 1860s, 1870s -

which are much, much tighter in quality.

And I think it's from the '60s he got his reputation

for being one of the great animal painters of his time. Yes.

Anyway, this is still a very good picture by Charles Jones,

Sheep Jones. Brilliant, yes.

And this is worth ?3,000 to ?5,000. Wow!

Thank you.

Don't know...

Well, there we are. It's an insurance job for me, isn't it? Thank you.

What a gorgeous carriage clock.

How did you get it?

It's been in the family for quite a few years.

My mother had it for many years and she got that, we think,

from her grandmother,

who was born somewhere in the middle of the 19th century.

What sort of date do you think the clock might be?

Well, somewhere... 1870s on, I would've thought.

But I don't... Where you put more accurately than that.

Well, I think that's fairly useful. It's a little bit later than that.

I'd happily say 1875 to 1880 for that clock.

Maybe just a little bit later.

The joy is that on the inside of the box here,

we've got the signature of Jean Badollet and Company.

Jean actually died in the 1850s,

but there were a series of Badollets up until the 1920s

and they had an uninterrupted line of clock and watch makers for three centuries, as a family.

So these are great, great people.

Now, the very best carriage clocks are always signed. Ah.

This is particularly lovely because we have a full signature,

very unusually, on the side of this plate.

Do you see, on the edge of that plate? Oh, I see, yes.

Now, that is a sign of great quality. Ah.

The movement itself,

in all honesty, is going to be French. And the platform,

that's the bit on top, the rectangular silvered bit,

will almost certainly be made in Switzerland.

So it would've been finished by Badollet

in their Geneva manufacturing.

We have a top-of-the-range case, beautifully engraved with flowers.

The porcelain dial is lovely.

We've got this little cherub within the dial centre.

Do you have it working? No.

It used to work about 15 years ago or so,

but it's gradually got slower and slower,

and finally it's ground to a halt.

It really is worthwhile having it cleaned and overhauled.

With that case and that clock - it's a jolly good thing -

I think, ooh, happily ?3,500.

Not bad at all! Thank you very much for that.

So, again, worth spending a little bit of money having it cleaned.

I definitely shall. Great.

Now, what qualifies our experts to be called such, you might wonder.

Well, one thing, among many, is their ability to spot subtle

differences that can make a huge financial impact on the object.

Like this teapot, for example.

We've got three teapots here.

They all look pretty similar to me, but one of them is worth about ?200,

one about ?2,000,

and one is much rarer, is worth about ?20,000.

Fergus Gambon has set me, you, and our visitors, a challenge,

to see if we can tell the difference.

I'll have to do some homework but let's see if our visitors can help.

Do you know anything about teapots?

No.

But you like drinking tea? Absolutely.

Well, that's a start.

Best.

Best, yes. OK.

Better.

Better, I'll move it for you.

Basic.

And why do you think that's the best?

Er, because of this detail here on the lid.

Why do you think this is the cheaper one?

I think it looks transfer printed.

This one just looks like

a bit of a cheap copy that someone's made at home really.

Someone's knocked up? Yeah.

I'll look really stupid then, won't I?

Do you know, you have made me a very happy man.

Oh, I'm glad of that.

Some are, and some aren't.

They were in a sense presentation,

so, yes, at the time of Baptism and particularly, for example,

with these Apostle spoons, there you can see, we've got St Peter.

The key a very obvious feature for him there.

But it's a Barnstaple spoon,

and some of the best spoons in the 16th and 17th century were actually

made in Barnstaple, there were some really top spoon makers there.

The thinking is that if you were going to be called Peter...

You'd have one made. With St Peter on the top,

you know, being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. True.

So at the christening side, baptismal side, you'd get that.

But then of course you can also get

what's known actually as a Puritan spoon.

It wasn't known as a Puritan spoon in the 17th century

when it was made, but here we've actually got a marriage.

Ah yes, yes.

And we can go to other end of life as well.

And here we've got two absolutely fascinating ones,

they're a pair of spoons and the inscription that we've

got here "Martha Pope" and "Memoria 1629".

Oh, right. It was quite usual at the time of a funeral for there to be

funeral gifts and spoons were particularly used in this way.

That's exciting, but this one...

What we've got on the top here is this figure of a lion.

Ah, right.

It's so beautifully modelled,

can you see how you actually can see behind the legs?

Good heavens.

So many of them were just a sort of blob of metal.

And this one was actually made by Robert Wade,

and he was working in Bridgwater and in Taunton as well.

And that again is 17th century.

I should have listened to my husband when he told me about them.

So he was actually the collector?

Oh, yes, as a small boy he used to bicycle round the countryside.

Gosh. Where do we start with value?

A spoon like this,

I would think today...

we're looking at about ?6,000.

Good gosh, yes.

I knew it was valuable, but nothing like that, I must say. Right.

This one, I have to say Puritans are really quite rare, ?2,000 to ?3,000.

Yes.

And the Robert Wade spoon, very desirable, ?3,000 to ?4,000.

Ooh... Getting rather frightened!

It adds up...

These, this pair, they've got to be ?5,000, ?6,000 for the pair.

Well, they're going straight in the bank again. Right.

I mean, overall, we're probably looking in excess of ?30,000...

maybe ?40,000.

Gosh, yes, that's quite something, isn't it?

I knew they were good, but not that good.

Well, no doubt the castle holds a secret or two, but I gather your desk does also?

It's got lots of secret drawers, yes.

Are you going to show me? I'll try.

Have you ever counted them?

I haven't, no, but it's lots.

And where does it come from? It belonged to my grandmother.

We think she got it as part of a payment of a bill.

Shall we have a go? Yes, if you're up for it.

Well, I can see a pin here.

Yes. And it normally starts with a nail or a pin, doesn't it?

Yes, yes. That's right, that's right.

That's right, there's one at the back of there.

OK, well, that's stained beech. Oh, is it?

That doesn't look quite as old as some of the rest of it.

That's more 19th-century, bit of pine and a bit of oak together.

And these are all little drawers here.

Shall we lift that whole section out?

Demolishing your desk! No, it's fine.

Just goes on and on, doesn't it? Yeah.

And so you know it goes back to the 1940s.

Yeah, way before that. It was old then.

Yes, and what's your idea of its date?

1890, something like that?

Yes, that's right. Oh, is it?

Almost any date you said, could have been right.

It could? Ah!

Looking at the back, the back is all early 20th century, there are

some stunning bits of timber here which date from the 17th century.

This all looks like George III oak side table,

but actually it doesn't quite fit. Can you see the legs overhang? Yeah.

The base is actually too wide for the top. Yes.

And then sort of, to try to piece it together,

and there's a very nice lock in there,

but then this escutcheon is a bit of early 20th-century fretwork.

Oh, is it? So almost any date you care to mention. A mixture, yeah.

What's it worth? ?150 maybe ?200.

SHE LAUGHS But you won't find another one for that!

I'm absolutely certain I will never see another piece of furniture just like this.

No. The only thing now is, we've got to put it all back together again.

I hope you know where everything goes. After you!

Well, I know where this one goes. Yeah, that's in.

Earlier on, our ceramics specialist, Fergus Gambon,

set us a little challenge, to try and work out

which of these three teapots is basic - worth about ?200,

better - worth about ?2,000, and the best - worth about ?20,000.

Now, they're all English, all 18th-century and, to me,

they look pretty similar. We all struggled a bit with this, actually.

Fergus, this was quite hard.

I didn't quite know where to begin, actually. Are we looking for marks?

I think marks are what we are not looking for. Oh, OK.

Marks would be easy, if it was all marks, the thing would be easy.

Most, or a lot of, 18th-century English porcelain

is completely unmarked,

or sometimes, there's a mark of an entirely different factory,

so the way we do it, is not look at the marks.

We look at the marks last.

We look at the paste and the glaze, and the shape and the decoration.

Now, some of these are in better nick than others. Yes.

That one's got a whopping great crack there.

And then a crack inside as well.

Yes, yes. Does that affect the value?

Generally, damage makes a big difference, it really does.

A damaged item is worth less than half of the perfect one.

It depends what kind of objects you're looking at.

If it's something, perhaps there's only one or two in the world,

if it's damaged, it doesn't matter, because you won't get another.

A crack in a teapot is a pretty fundamental problem.

It makes it unusable, doesn't it?

But, a crack in a teapot actually indicates

how well the teapot's made, because when you make a cup of tea,

you pour boiling water into the pot, and not all porcelains are the same.

A good porcelain teapot won't crack. We're very used to teapots

that don't crack, but in the 18th century,

many teapots that people paid good money for, they took them home,

they poured boiling water in, and they cracked, just like this.

And it's often a circular crack like that which is a heat-shock crack.

So, seeing a teapot cracked in that way,

that was made in the 18th century, isn't that unusual.

They were really struggling. I'm now thinking I've made the wrong choice,

given what you've just said.

I decided that this, in consultation with our visitors here... Right.

..was basic, because it just didn't look very detailed. Right.

I was very torn between these two.

Because this looked finer, the paintwork on it. Yeah.

The detail was just so beautiful, and the colour of it's so beautiful.

But it's got this whopping great crack. Quite a long crack.

So I put that as better. Yes.

Even though I don't like it as much, I put this as best

because it has this lovely detail on the top. Right.

And hasn't got a crack.

No, OK.

You've got it all wrong. Oh!

Which you love, of course!

Not one of them is right. Oh, no, not one!

No. So if we start at the bottom,

the basic is that.

Why? Which is the, as you say, the kind of best-looking one.

Yes, right. Well, it's Worcester, it isn't cracked.

Worcester porcelain was warranted to stand the heat.

So that's a good thing.

That's a good thing. But lots of teapots were sold because of that.

Everyone wanted them. They sold lots of them.

And this is printed, not painted, and it's also quite late.

It's about 1780-1785, and by that date, much of the interest has gone

for 18th-century English porcelain collectors.

OK, I'm liking you less now, Fergus. Sorry!

I'm sorry, I'll carry on! And then the better one is this one.

Oh! And it's also Worcester, but it's a bit earlier than the basic,

it's about 1758 to 1760.

I mean, for porcelain collectors this is a wonderful design,

a hand-painted dragon, after Chinese porcelain.

as opposed to ?200 for the basic.

Yes, good. And so this one is the best?

This one is the best. With the big crack and damage?

The big crack, well, because it's early,

really early on in the history of English porcelain.

That little teapot was made between 1746 and 1748.

How can you be so precise?

The factory was in production for a very short period of time.

Which factory was that?

Limehouse in the East End of London in what is now Narrow Street,

and there were a very, very, very small number of them,

and the fact that it's cracked is a negative point,

but there isn't another.

So it's really all a question of the noughts.

?2,000,

Gosh!

For a totally unmarked teapot.

So, basic, better and best and all I'll say in my defence

is I did always really like this one, Fergus.

you've got some idea what to look for, if you didn't already.

look on our website and you can see the locations we'll be coming to.

The address is:

We're in Montmartre in the 1890s,

absolutely my favourite time

in any city in the world, 1890s Paris.

And this is by Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen, you can see that.

He was a Swiss, and he knew Toulouse-Lautrec,

he knew Alphonse Mucha, and they were pretty well involved

in the same business, in that they were designing posters.

And particularly, what Steinlen did, was design posters

for Le Chat Noir, an exhibiting venue and music hall

in Montmartre. And of course, his great love was cats.

Steinlen's own house was a meeting house for all the Parisian cats.

Lift a cushion and there was another one.

Um, I got it in a garage sale about a year ago.

That great source for great art.

and I loved the composition of it.

I love the colours of the tortoiseshell cat,

and it looked French, because when I looked at it,

I thought of Toulouse-Lautrec, immediately.

Immediately, I thought of his posters and his other engravings

and things like that, and that's what actually...

But did you know anything about it? I didn't know the name, no.

But I could see that it was...

Is it a silk screen, is it, or something like that?

Yes, it's a kind of screen print and it's on silk actually,

it's the boldest, most powerful image

of the most cat-like cats you've ever seen. Yes.

And it really does have a simplicity that punches home, doesn't it?

Did you bargain to get it down that low? Definitely, yes.

Haggled? I haggled. Yeah, yeah. From ?30!

From 30? So he was a hard bargainer himself, wasn't he?

Oh, I'm dreadful when I get going, actually.

Well, it's probably worth about ?2,500, actually so... Right!

So you did pretty well. I did, didn't I?

Yes. Yeah, you really did.

There's a collector's market for these things,

and it is just such a good one. Yeah.

Very sought after. Good.

I'm holding here, one of the great singles from The Beatles,

from their very earliest days, "Please Please Me"

released in January 1963.

But, do you know, somebody has defaced it and put "FT" on it.

Who is FT? That was me.

Ah, useless!

That was my name before I was married.

And you were a Liverpool girl? I can hear the accent. I am, yes.

And did you ever go and see The Beatles?

I went every lunch hour with a group of friends

because I worked round the corner from where the original Cavern was.

How amazing! And we used to go every lunch hour to see them,

before they were really, really famous. Yes, yes.

We must have been one of the first groupies. Amazing!

Because we followed them round Liverpool, everywhere they went. Fantastic!

And it got to the stage that, when they saw us, they used to say, "Hello, girls, how are you?"

Oh, fantastic! But, you know,

the problem is, that not only has it been defaced on this side,

but you turn it over, blow me down, it's been defaced on the other side!

Yeah, well.... But actually, this is a bit better, isn't it?

Because on the other side, it's been defaced

by the people you'd like to have it defaced by,

which is all the boys in the band,

and, in fact, Paul McCartney has signed it twice. He has.

Did you have to pay him with a kiss?

No, I didn't, but I was really very appreciative that he did that.

He was your favourite, was he? He was my favourite.

Does this bring back wonderful memories for you, in your heyday?

Stomping down the Cavern. Stomping down the Cavern, yes.

It's worth something. Is it? Yes.

Never really thought about it, it was just, it's a much-travelled...

I've travelled all over the world, lived all over the world,

and that's always come with me, no matter where I went,

and I always made sure I knew where it was. Good job.

Yes, we just thought, well...

Recently, an early signed album fetched over ?10,000.

So I think your single could probably make around ?3,000.

I thought it was worth about ?500!

You've got something which is what everybody else wants. Right.

Good job you wrote your initials on it.

Yes, but they can't have it, it's mine!

Thanks very much indeed. Thank you.

So what do you do with a pot like this?

My mother believed it was a punch bowl.

She doesn't really know much about it,

she can remember it as a little girl. Yes.

It's not a punch bowl, it's actually called a posset pot. Oh, right.

A posset was a most extraordinary drink with curdled milk

and wine and stuff in it, horrible stuff.

And you sucked it out of this spout.

The spout is for sucking this dreadful drink out! Lovely.

Supposed to make you better or well. But that's what it's for.

And the date of it is going to be somewhere around about 1680-1690.

It's very old, then. Very, very old, very old, yes.

The difficulty with these posset pots of that period,

with this style of decoration, is whether they're English or Dutch.

There's always arguments about this.

The style of figures look a little bit Dutch,

but I'm convinced they're English. Oh, right.

And the trees are painted in a very traditionally English way.

These are sponge trees, rather like children at school

drop a sponge in colour... Yes. ..and then dab it.

Dab it, yes. So these are all dabbed-on trees.

Wonderful way of making a tree.

And I think the whole thing is an English pot.

It's had a hard life. A very hard life, very hard life!

It's in a body called Delftware, tin-glazed pottery,

so underneath this tin glaze lies a brown earthenware body

which makes it look a bit like porcelain.

The idea was make it look posher than it was.

And then you painted it with these gorgeous paintings.

I think very primitive, but wonderfully exciting painting.

Unfortunately it has been considerably damaged.

There are rivets on it. There are, yes, it's held together with rivets.

These rivets hold cracks together.

A wonderful process of repairing pots in the days before good glues,

you had to rivet. Drilled tiny holes and pulled a little metal rivet,

into the crack, and then you clamped it together,

and it stayed like that for evermore.

I mean, those rivets are probably 18th century.

A safety pin for crockery then, really. I know! Absolutely wonderful.

If it had been perfect without cracks and chips and damage,

I suppose I would have to put it to around about ?3,000-?4,000. Mm-hm.

But it has been a sad wreck. I know.

But still, as a wreck, I think it's still worth

about ?800 to ?1,000. Right, thank you. That's very nice.

Which is jolly nice. Thank you. Yes, for something that's as old as it is,

it's done very well. Yes.

Sometimes our visitors have a little bit of a wait to see our experts.

There's quite a queue here.

You walk along and see some fascinating things...

CHILD SINGS ..or hear some fascinating things.

Hello, chappie! Connor, Connor, say hello.

Hello! I can hear you all the way back there.

I should imagine so. What's this?

It's a blackjack,

it's a tankard, I think, that was made from Oliver Cromwell's war horse.

Made from Oliver Cromwell's war horse! How amazing.

And you've got the provenance

so you know that it was from Cromwell's horse? Yeah, yeah.

Our experts will love to see it. Yes, yes.

And enjoy the singing as well! Yeah, lovely, yes. Great.

CONNOR SINGS HAPPILY Thank you.

Do you normally have these on your sideboard filled with something sustaining? No.

We have them on our sideboard without anything in them.

Well, that's probably why they're not stained! THEY LAUGH

Do you know where they come from?

Well, I inherited them from a doctor who worked for the China Inland Mission.

He was a neighbour and a good friend. That's fantastic.

I don't really know more about them than that, which is why I'm here!

Do you like them? I love them.

What we've got is quite thinly blown glass.

These are very light in weight,

much lighter than I might have expected

for glass of this date, which is about 1865-75. Mm-hm.

Let's start at the back on this one, and one has a wreath of thistles

and immediately you think "Scotland". Yeah.

And turn it round, and indeed

we've got Scots of one sort or another,

led by a woman, beating the bejesus out of each other.

They've killed this man, or she's killed this man.

I don't know what this scene is.

It may be from Walter Scott's novels, Sir Walter Scott.

It would not be difficult to find out. Why Scotland?

Because of Balmoral.

Albert had gone up there, built Balmoral to a great castle,

loved by him and Queen Victoria.

So all things Scottish had suddenly become de rigueur, really.

And I'm sure that's what this is a reflection of.

The other one... Slightly odd.

We have on the back...

a spider spinning a web with ivy leaves.

Mm-hm. Now, the ivy, of course, is poisonous.

So we've got two symbols,

maybe death-related.

And here we've got a figure of either night,

or possibly Death,

taking the soul away,

which I find rather curious subject matter to have on a decanter.

Where were they made?

They could be Scottish,

they could be Ford of Edinburgh,

but I think they were probably made in Stourbridge,

which is just outside Birmingham, by Stevens and Williams. Yes.

They were wonderful quality glass engravers.

They're not a pair, so let's look at them separately.

This one I think would probably make

around ?1,500 to ?1,800. Really?

And that one, probably a bit more, ?1,800 to ?2,500.

They're really very nice objects.

Keep them out of the way of the grandchildren.

Or my cat, which wrote off a ?1,000 teapot the day before yesterday.

Ohhhh! Yes.

It's still alive, but only just! LAUGHTER

At school, the one person we all learned about was Oliver Cromwell.

You ask anyone, that's who they learned about.

It's unusual and unbelievably exciting

to have Cromwell's name round the top of this jug.

I mean, tell me about it.

Well, from what I understand,

it was deposited into my family's bank,

which is Hoare Bank in Fleet Street, in London,

and from there the last person I know to have it

was my grandad's father, which is a Wilfred Hoare.

When he passed away, he left it to my grandfather

and he left that to my father,

so that's actually come from the Hoare Bank in Fleet Street in London.

Jacks like this, as they're called,

presumably you know what they're for. Yeah, ale jugs.

Exactly, and they would have been made

as one of a set of ten or 15, or something like that.

But to have his name, Cromwell's name,

Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland...

and he actually became Lord Protector in 1653. Right.

So it's possibly made for the party of that event. Mm.

Great, you've also got his crest.

I mean, is it something you like?

Yeah, I quite like it, yeah.

And the construction being leather.

Yeah, from what I understand,

it was actually made from the war horse that Cromwell used to ride,

so when the horse died,

they had this jug made.

Um... The great thing about this is obviously,

Cromwell, one of the most controversial political

and military figures in English history.

I mean, really, defeated the Royalists during the Civil War,

turning England to a republican state for a short time.

It's got everything you need. And as a jug,

or a jack, I mean, it's an exciting thing.

And really, it would have a good value.

?3,000, ?5,000, something like that.

Mm-hm. Yeah. But with this connection,

with Cromwell, I would have thought

Yeah. CROWD GASP

Good beer money. I'll have to fill that up with beer then, I think!

Exactly! Well, it's the most exciting thing I've seen in years.

Imagine what historic moments that beer jack could have witnessed.

I started the programme driving a tank,

and I thought it couldn't get much better than that.

But now I've moved up in the world, I'm in an armoured car.

And not just any armoured car, a Rolls Royce armoured car!

From Lulworth Castle and the whole Antiques Roadshow team,

until next time, bye-bye.

The knives are sharpened and the heat is on. It can only mean one thing.

I've never, ever seen that!

Britain's best chefs are back in town.