Hever Castle 1 Antiques Roadshow

This week we are at Hever Castle in the beautiful Kent countryside.

And this is a place of many secrets because it was once home to

one of the most famous and fascinating women in English history - Anne Boleyn.

Working on the Roadshow

brings us to some remarkable historic houses across the country.

Our team of experts leapt at the chance to visit Hever Castle

because it's here that you can get closest to Anne Boleyn.

This is a replica of the clock that Henry VIII gave to

Anne Boleyn on their wedding day in 1532.

And it's particularly appropriate that he gave her a timepiece,

given that he had to wait seven years for Anne,

and to marry her, he had to split from the Catholic Church

and so change the course of British history.

Not long after, their only child, the future Elizabeth I, was born.

And then, after just 1,000 days as Queen, Anne was executed.

But even here, where Anne's short and dramatic life began,

it's sometimes hard to find the real Anne Boleyn.

We know this was most likely her bedroom,

but we don't know what she looked like, for example.

Is this her? Or this? Or this?

And when was she born?

When Henry VIII visited her here,

was she an ingenue of 18, or a sophisticated young woman of 25?

Thankfully, there are objects here that give us

that magical direct link to Anne herself.

This is Anne's prayer book.

Incredible to think that she actually touched these pages

with their dense type and beautiful illustrations.

And she and Henry VIII, when they were courting,

used to write little notes to each other, in their prayer books.

And look, here, at the bottom of the page, it says,

"Remember me when you do pray, that hope doth lead from day to day."

And there's her signature just at the bottom there.

"Anne Boleyn".

And hopefully today's Roadshow will discover more magical objects

which bring history to our fingertips.

This looks most intriguing, all I can see is a little hand. Who's is this?

This is Monty, my dog's rug.

And where's Monty?

He's at home.

-Well, how does he feel about this?

-He's not very happy about it.

Let's see what it's wrapping up.

My goodness, that's wonderful, isn't it?

This is where I get a hernia.

I wonder who she's by. Is it signed anywhere?

Yes, just down here, just there, look.

Oh, yes, there we are. Lefebvre. Hippolyte Jules Lefebvre.

And how did you come by her?

She was left to me in a will.

I used to go and have cups of tea with a little elderly lady

down the road and she was on her own, so I used to keep her company.

And when she passed away, she left me in her will.

How very nice, and was it on this as well?

-Yes, the whole thing.

-The whole thing?

Gosh, you must have been a favourite neighbour.

-I made good tea!

-You made good tea, excellent. Strong or weak?

Strong.

-Well, it obviously kept her going for a while.

-Yes, yes!

-And what do you know about her?

-Not a lot, actually.

We tried a bit of Googling and we asked some people

that we know that do auction things,

but we can't find out a lot about her, which is why I'm here.

Well, I mean certainly as far as date is concerned,

she is classically Art Nouveau, really,

sort of late-ish Art Nouveau

because we've got electricity coming in,

-and I think this is certainly pre-First War.

-Right.

So, sort of circa 1910ish.

And it's so elegant, isn't it?

She's very beautiful, yes.

Yes, yes, do... I mean, I dread to think,

-particularly with Monty...

-I haven't plugged it in.

You haven't? Because it does look like Monty may have chewed this.

No, it wasn't Monty, it came like that, but I haven't plugged it in.

I have been told it could be rewired, but I didn't want to touch it before I had it valued.

Well, obviously it loses some originality if you start to take out...

-But I think you ought to, certainly if you intend to light her up.

-Yes, OK.

And it wouldn't be impossible to get more glass beads as well.

That's what I wanted to do, I wanted to sort of renovate her.

-I think it would be a great thing.

-I think she'd be really beautiful.

Yes, well, you know, these French bronzes of Art Nouveau style

are still hugely desirable

and I would imagine in today's market it would be worth

-certainly £2,000 and possibly even as much as £3,000.

-Oh, right.

It's a really beautiful bronze. And I do think that you should have it rewired.

Renovated. That won't make a difference to the price, will it?

I don't think so. And you simply can't use it at the moment.

-I think it would be lovely if it was all up and running again.

-Yeah, OK.

This is an absolutely stunning spoon. Do you know what it is?

I know it's a caddy spoon.

Right. It's not just any caddy spoon,

-this is one of the best caddy spoons I've ever seen on a Roadshow.

-Gosh.

Do you know anything about its history?

Only that my father had had it for a number of years.

He collected silver and this was one of his favourite pieces.

I knew it was very nice quality,

but don't know a lot else about it, really.

There are three ways in which caddy spoons tend to be made.

They're either stamped in a die or they're made out of sheet,

or they're cast, which is the best way, and this is a cast one.

But just look at the wonderful detail,

this fabulous swan's neck handle here.

The quality of this fluting, all this matting has not got

any signs of wear on it at all, so it's in wonderful condition.

Even better news is that the collectors market at the moment

-is really, really hot for great, rare spoons like this.

-Is it?

And if we have a look in the bowl here, it's got some hallmarks.

IW. That's for James Wintle, a well known spoon maker.

And it's got a date letter "N" for 1848,

so it's an early Victorian cast caddy spoon,

great rarity and actually quite valuable.

-Is it really?

-Mm, I'm afraid it is!

I would comfortably say we're looking at probably £1,500 to £2,000.

No! Goodness me, I had no idea.

So, can I ask you,

are you an old rocker, to posses a portrait of Mick Jagger?

Well, I am, but I'm afraid I don't possess it.

-Oh.

-I've brought it today on behalf of my employer.

Right. Is he a rocker?

On the contrary!

He's a very traditional gentleman, he's 89 years old

and is very interested in the Belle Epoque

and antiquities of one sort or another.

But he saw this picture in 1966, fell in love with it, bought it,

took it home and it's had pride of place on his studio wall ever since.

Well, what a great story, and what a great eye he had,

considering he wasn't perhaps into contemporary music of the time.

-Absolutely not.

-And it was bought in the Lefebvre Gallery in 1966,

which was a superb gallery, selling all the great sort of art,

and this is by Cecil Beaton.

-Correct.

-Now, we know Cecil Beaton as a photographer

and as a stage designer.

And a producer of great plays like Gigi, My Fair Lady,

so it's very surprising to know that

-he is a seriously good painter as well.

-Absolutely.

And I believe that Cecil Beaton was always very interested in meeting

Mick Jagger and first met him in the '60s, and according to biography,

I think by Hugo Vickers, who wrote the biography on Cecil Beaton,

they met in the '60s and he loved his face, and he loved, he liked

those cheeks and that incredible look that Mick Jagger has.

I think he's captured it very well, of course.

The style is very good because it's quite sort of Pop Art,

quite Andy Warhol.

-Yes, yes.

-Do you see that?

And I like the way he's brought it very close.

It's like a photographer here. He's come

very close into the portrait and it is like a photograph

but done in this amazing style,

and what a great painter he is.

Perfect.

So what did it cost in 1966?

I believe it was in the hundreds, so I understand.

-The hundreds, quite a lot of money.

-Quite a lot of money in those days.

Yeah, so I think I would insure it for £30,000.

Wow! Wow, wow!

That is a significant sum.

It is, it's a good sum and I think it's worth every penny.

Thank you, I'm sure my... my chief will be very interested to hear that comment

when he gets back from holiday.

He'd better go again on holiday with the proceeds!

-A good day's work.

-Good, thanks for bringing it.

-Thanks very much, Mark.

What do you think of these? Are they nice, or not?

-Be honest with me, are they fetching?

-Well, it's not doing a lot for me.

-No.

-It's the latest Roadshow attire for a rainy day.

But we're enjoying ourselves nonetheless, aren't we, Geoffrey?

We are, absolutely. A stiff upper lip and we're in Henry VIII's little palace,

-and what more could you ask, even in the wet weather?

-You see, it's all going to be fine.

Well, wacky is the word that's usually stuck on me

on this show, but, boy, does this take the biscuit.

This is a really funny thing, I just love it, it's just amazing,

tell us the story.

Well, sadly it's not mine,

it belongs to an aunt and she bought it from auction

in a box of...£5.

But it was apparently buried in the sand at Herne Bay.

And that's all we know about it.

We wondered where the Loch Ness Monster had gone!

It ended up in the sand at Herne Bay.

I actually really love it,

I mean it's a real shame its wings have gone.

And it's an incomplete object, and so...you know.

A bit of wacky, I just love it, but it's probably worth about four quid.

On the other hand, you also brought that in.

-I did indeed.

-And what's the story of that?

This again, Auntie's.

She bought it from a sort of bric-a-brac type store for a pound,

a couple of years ago.

-Did you know it was made of glass?

-No.

Well, it is, and it dates from about 1760

and is a really lovely academic antique.

The story about it is that the 1745 excise tax was imposed on the

production of glassware to finance the army to fight back the Scots.

The Scots were invading England, they got to Derby,

and to finance the war against the Scots, they brought in a glass tax,

in 1745, and through a loophole in this law, white glass

was exempt from the tax,

just at a time when English porcelain was coming in.

You've got Bow, Plymouth, Bristol porcelain coming in,

it's not very good but it's extremely expensive.

On the other hand, you could make white glass fairly cheaply,

So this is an imitation of English china, but it's made of glass.

1777, they realised the mistake, brought in a tax

but by then it was gone, so this dates between 1745 and 1777

and it probably dates to about 1755-60.

It's made in South Staffordshire, it's just a really beautiful

little gem that's 250 years old.

Wow.

And is worth £600 to £800.

No way! Well done, Auntie, wow.

When I first saw this table, from quite a distance, I thought,

"Well, there's another Regency table." Well, how wrong I was,

because when I got up close to it,

I thought, "This is quite extraordinary."

It looks like a table that should be much bigger

because it's got quite a monumental character to it.

I think I know why it was this size,

and that is to take this piece of rectangular green porphyry,

extremely valuable, and only found in the Laconia region of Greece.

So I think

this table was made to fit the marble.

And the table itself, the frame, is in a sense, to me,

equal in value to the porphyry on the top.

Can you tell me anything,

can you fill in the background of this table a little bit?

A person called Mary Elgin,

who was married to the Seventh Earl of Elgin,

and he was an ambassador to Constantinople

in the late 18th Century, early 19th.

And they came back to the UK, in about 1802, I think.

So are we talking about the Elgin who was responsible for

-bringing the Elgin Marbles back?

-That's right.

-Ah.

-That's right.

But she brought back this sheet of porphyry

which I thought came from upper Egypt, but you say Greece.

OK, you're the expert.

And, apparently, it was considered to be very valuable at the time,

more so than any other stone anywhere,

and so that's the way things happened in those days.

Well, that is extremely interesting, because you mentioned the date 1802.

-Yes.

-Well, in 1804 in London,

there was the opening to a very select public

of a house which became very famous.

It was the house that was remodelled by Thomas Hope,

who was the most important arbiter of taste of the early 19th Century

and from which much Regency design was to spring.

And Hope had done an enormous Grand Tour, he was hugely wealthy,

and his house had a series of rooms, all of which had a different theme.

It had an Egyptian theme, a Greek theme, Indian theme,

because he'd been to all these places.

And from Thomas Hope

allowing the sort of gentry and the aristocracy to go round his home,

lots of other people picked up the styles that he was promoting,

and this table speaks to me of the style generated by Thomas Hope.

There's very strong Classical influences in it.

The feet have this wonderful...

beautiful quality feet, I should say,

which are carved wood with a claw foot,

and then these anthemia, half anthemia scrolls.

And then a plinth base which makes it very solid,

coming up into acanthus leaves,

and it has a solidity which, I think is very sort of Classical,

monumentality which is very Classical.

But Thomas Hope also used something which was really relatively new

in English furniture at that time,

which was the introduction of stamped brass inlay.

And you have a lot of that on this little table in different patterns.

You have it along the top, around the porphyry,

you have it on the frieze in a different pattern.

And once more on the base, in this delightful little lacy pattern.

And this was a new technology, being able to stamp brass.

It's often associated with a maker called George Bullock.

But there was also a maker who supplied the rich and the famous,

many aristocratic patrons at the time,

called George Oakley

and he is known to have supplied many people like Lord Harwood,

the Earl of Harwood.

and this table speaks to me of that sort of quality.

It's a very, very top quality table, it's extremely exciting.

Good.

Now, you've had it in the family a long time, have you had it valued?

No.

I think you would be...

I don't think I'm being over optimistic to say £20,000.

Really? Yeah, well, it's not going to be sold.

I'm very glad to hear it, and when I say £20,000,

that's not insurance value, that's a sale value.

A sale value, right.

I have to... I'm not known for giving high valuations.

This, I think, is the highest valuation I've ever given on the Roadshow and I think

it's the best piece of furniture I've ever seen on the Roadshow and I'm absolutely thrilled.

Well, thank you very much. I'm overwhelmed.

Marvellous.

This was given to me by my grandmother and she told me

it was her grandmother's, so that's all I know.

That's all you know. You didn't ask her any more questions?

She went through it, she showed me all of her jewellery

and explained each one, but I'm afraid I can't remember

about this particular item so I've forgotten anything else she may have told me about it,

unfortunately, and too late to go back and ask her now.

Yeah, we always wish that we'd asked more, don't we, at the time.

-Yes.

-Definitely.

Well, it is an absolutely gorgeous brooch and on

a rainy and sunny day like we've had today,

to see this dragonfly brooch,

it would have been lovely to have actually seen some dragonflies

in the garden, but at least we've got this one.

It dates from around about 1890-1900,

and it's a perfect example of jewellery

-known as the Art Nouveau period.

-OK.

And the Art Nouveau period was all about natural things,

female beauty, and also the wonderful effects that you get

when you have a brooch like this, that if you touch it, it moves.

-Yes.

-And this is what we call "en tremblant",

so it's a lovely movement to the actual piece of jewellery.

It's made with plique a jour enamel

and if it's held up to the sunlight, then the sun shines through

and it's rather like stained glass window, and the light

just shines through and all the colour is beautifully picked up.

And then, what's even more gorgeous about it is that the wings

and the body are set with diamonds,

and in the centre here we've got

beautiful yellowy-green coloured diamonds.

Down on the tail we've got delicate sapphires which really help to match

the plique a jour enamel and, as you can see here,

it's trembling away.

As it would have done, when it was worn.

Sometimes brooches like this were also worn in the hair on a hair comb.

-OK.

-And unfortunately we haven't got the hair comb in the base of the box,

but, even so, we do have the original brooch fitting,

as we have here.

OK.

Now, it's French, it's made by the designer that we can see here,

Auger in Paris,

and he, like Lalique, was going to build up a fabulous collection

and pieces of Art Nouveau jewellery.

Unfortunately. we don't know a huge amount about Auger,

but his pieces do appear and are very popular.

And if I said to you it was worth around about £3,000,

would you be pleased?

Fabulous, it's beautiful.

It's gorgeous, isn't it?

Well, what about if I was to tell you it's going to be worth

between £8,000 and £12,000?

Oh, my goodness! Wow, that's...

That's astounding!

Well, for me, the 1930s are what I like to call the age of elegance.

It's all about streamlining, new materials

and when you look at this,

I mean, this really is elegant. Something you live with every day?

Yes, it's in our bedroom.

And where did it come from?

Well, I found it at Brick Lane, I got up early one morning,

went down there about six o'clock, and found that one over there

on a flatbed lorry and I just thought it was fantastic,

and then as I was sort of negotiating

with the guy about buying it,

-I saw this as well.

-And this is all there was?

This was all that there was there, yeah.

Because obviously this is the remnant parts of what was once

a much larger bedroom suite.

Fabulous dressing table, brilliant bedside cabinet.

I can only begin to imagine what the wardrobe must have looked like,

but I mean it's all about this new materials,

I mean this is right there in the middle of the late '20s and '30s

where they're really experimenting with streamlining.

The machine age has come to be and everything is becoming so elegant.

I mean, Deco is inspired by so many other cultures,

everything from the ancient Egyptians to the Aztecs,

to actually the mysterious Orient.

If we look down here, we've got this wonderful symbol

here which has echoes of Chinese about it.

And, actually, if we look at Shanghai in the 1930s,

they actually called it "the Paris of the Orient".

But where does this come from?

And if I'm being completely honest, I don't know,

because this kind of furniture was sort of being manufactured all around the world.

Part of me thinks, is it French,

has it come out of that French School of furniture making? Is it American?

Because you think, if you look at this metal

-and all these forms, and I straightaway think of those chrome American diners.

-Yes.

So I'm slightly at a loss to say where it's from,

but the one thing that is undeniable

is that it's got the most fantastic style.

It's got all those elements of the new materials, the chrome,

the black, the mirror, which all pull together to give

everything that is the essence of that period.

It's just knock out, absolutely knock out.

So, I have to ask the question, what did you pay for it?

I paid, I think it was about 150 quid at the time for it.

-For all of it?

-For all of it.

-Both pieces, £150?

-Yes.

Wow, great.

Because I think the fact that it has such a strong look,

and the fact that it is something that would drop into any environment,

to go and buy this today

I think you will see a ten-fold increase.

I think this is worth the best part of £1,500.

OK, that's fantastic.

It's a great, great set and something that I seriously covet!

Thank you very much.

Thank you for bringing it along, it's wonderful.

This is certainly one of the smallest books I've seen today.

Just pulling it out of its little leather bag which is

lovely in its own way, but look at this binding, isn't that gorgeous?

It is nice, very nice.

I think that's a 17th-century binding.

-Oh, right.

-This lovely calf skin

with this beautiful gold tooling,

but all the more beautiful because it's in miniature.

How difficult it would be to create something like that.

Where did you get it from?

We were in the Lake District for a weekend with my mother, a few years ago,

and there was a market in Kendal and my mother purchased this.

How long ago would that have been?

Well, I think it's probably about 20 years ago now.

Let's open it up and have a look at it.

Well, I have to say, from the title page, I'm not very much the wiser.

It's just a series of hieroglyphics here.

-Yes.

-I can read the name, Jeremiah Rich,

and it does look like a 17th Century book.

Everything about this title page and portrait

-says 17th Century to me.

-Yes.

Apart from the Jeremiah Rich, it tells us it was

printed in London, even says it was printed for the author and,

"Are to be sold by Henry Eversden

"under the Crown Tavern in West Smithfield."

Lovely local colour.

Amazing, isn't it?

Flicking through the pages here

and really I'm absolutely none the wiser, from the text.

-Do you have any ideas?

-What it might be?

-Absolutely.

Well, I assume it's a sort of Bible.

I think it is a Bible, and I think it's a Bible in shorthand.

And I think Jeremiah Rich here was one of the people who invented

the system of shorthand that we still just about remember today.

And so that's what makes this so interesting.

Oh, right.

I would date this at about 1650-1660, and when I think of shorthand,

I think of sort of early 20th Century and think of people in typing pools

and shorthand writers, you know, early 20th Century, but, no,

-it went right the way back into the 17th century.

-Yes, yes.

-Why a Bible in shorthand?

-Yes, why indeed?

What would be the point of such a thing?

I think our friend Jeremiah Rich had this printed

-as a kind of show-off piece.

-Oh.

I think it's a piece of advertising.

I think he was telling people he had invented this wonderful new system, everybody should learn it,

and how amazing, he could get the whole of the Bible into

this tiny little volume which fits in the palm of the hand.

If this came up at auction, it must...

it would have to make £1,000, maybe £1,500.

Gosh, good gracious me! Yes, yes.

Have you ever wondered how our experts can tell the difference

between antiques that look pretty identical,

but are poles apart in terms of value?

Well, keep watching. This week, Andy McConnell, our glass expert,

set us a challenge with three decanters,

one of which is a basic model worth £250,

one is a better one worth £1,500.

and then the best one is worth a jaw-dropping £10,000.

I'm not sure I can tell the difference,

but before Andy reveals all,

I'm going to chat to our visitors and see if they can help me.

-It is really unusual to find one of these.

-I've never seen another one.

Well, you have seen another one - we've got nine here in all!

-So whose were they?

-They were my father's and he was born in 1906

so they were his toys and when my brother and I were children,

we were allowed to play with them.

Really?

But when I had my three children, I didn't let them play with them.

That's very sensible of you actually.

Some would say mean, but I think very sensible.

So he was born in 1906

and so, if we assume that he was given these when he was five or so,

that's 1911 and they would have been new for him then.

I would imagine so, yes.

Was the family well-to-do? What was their...?

No. Just an ordinary family.

Well, they certainly loved your father dearly because...

-Do you know what they bought him? Do you know who made these?

-No idea.

-No idea.

-No.

-Have you ever thought to look in their ears?

-No.

-You've never looked in their ears?

-No.

So you've never noticed that they've all got a little stud in their ears.

-Right.

-What do you think...? Do you know what the stud means?

That it's a Steiff...Sieff bear?

Steiff, yeah. And so it's German

and they first appear in the catalogue in 1897.

Not this particular set, but as a range.

And they did skittles of a mixture of animals,

but they also did, more rarely, this wonderful set with the main bear

who is known as King Ping - P-I-N-G.

So whether that's where the kingpin in tenpin bowling comes from,

I don't know, but anyway there he is in all his finery with his crown.

So, your father born in 1906, this is about when he was five,

so they've only had one careful owner, well, two now with you.

-Do you have the balls that go with it as well?

-No, sadly, I haven't.

-Did you have them when you were a child?

-No.

I don't think it's going to make a huge difference actually.

They were really expensive in their day, these sorts of things.

-And they're still very expensive.

-Are they?

-Somewhere around £8,000 and £10,000.

-No. Really?

-Even without the balls?

-Even without the balls.

I think this is the basic.

I'm going to say that the...

Um...

This is the better...

..and this is the best.

I'm not sure. Actually I'm going to change my mind, I think.

-Sure?

-Yeah, I think, so, yeah.

-Sure?

-Positive, yeah.

She really sounds like she knows what she's talking about.

I don't think I've ever seen a necklace

-that was better suited to an owner. Tell me about it, who chose it?

-OK.

Right, well, I just have this real passion for period jewellery -

sadly for my husband of course -

and I saw it in an auction and luckily enough he liked it too

and so he bought it for me. I guess he quite liked me at the time so...

-Clearly he still does.

-Yes.

But this is absolutely the most marvellous thing for me, personally.

The maker of it was a speciality of mine throughout my entire career.

When I first joined the jewellery trade, very little was known about this type of jewellery

and I had enormous luck finding an archive and being able to write a book

about the maker of this necklace who is undoubtedly Carlo Giuliano,

the Italian working in London

from a premises in Piccadilly, 115 Piccadilly.

He was there from 1874 until 1895 when he died.

This is the calibre of jewellery that was produced

and it's loosely in the Egyptian taste.

This is a sort of Nefertiti looking necklace, isn't it?

Decorated with blue enamel,

absolutely typical of Giuliano's work.

What do you know about Giuliano?

Well, I just know that...

I think he worked with Castellani at the turn of the century

and he was Italian and he set up this workshop

-and passed it on to his two sons.

-Two sons, absolutely right.

And, um, I just...know that he always,

well, as far as I understand,

signed his pieces and this has no signature on it,

and I'm just wondering why would he not sign some of his pieces?

Because he perfectly well knew who made them

and it might have been a race in the workshop to get this out.

There was an implied signature, so I don't think we need to worry about it

because his signature's all over it. I can recognise the handiwork,

I can recognise the chain work from which it's suspended.

There is absolutely not a shadow of doubt that this is by the most famous jeweller...

Oh, that's really exciting.

..working in London in the 19th century. The shop was a magnet

for the contemporary elite.

It not only attracted the people that could afford these things,

which were jolly costly in their own time,

but they wanted something that had some sort of academic background.

Giuliano was frequented by Queen Victoria and by most of her family.

Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the treasure of Helen of Troy,

took it to Giuliano's shop to have it assayed and weighed.

Edward Burne Jones went there to have jewellery designed.

William Holman Hunt, another famous pre-Raphaelite, went there,

and the reason that they went there is that it echoed

what was the sort of primary objective of art in the 19th century,

which was to look back.

This is a revivalist jewel, it's drawing on earlier sources.

And the strongest possible source is ancient Egypt.

It's nothing about intrinsic value.

It's made of gold, it's gem set, it's decorated with enamel,

but these are not why this thing was valuable,

or indeed why it's valuable today. And it's your taste?

I just think it's so pretty.

And every time I wear it, it's a real eye catcher

and everybody...you know...sort of... I always get comments on it,

-so I just love it.

-Well, it is perfect for you. Throw the necklace away and keep the girl!

OK, oh, well, thank you!

Fantastic. But we have to deal with the necklace.

It's still very enviable and I suppose the job that I can do for you

is attribute it in the strongest possible terms to Giuliano,

which frankly was in question.

And having done so,

I think it does add a little bit of value in a strange way,

and what might have been worth low thousands of pounds,

suddenly spirals up like a firework

and it isn't beyond the realms of possibility

for this to fetch £15,000 and possibly even £20,000.

They have fetched 20 in the past so...

-Oh, that's wonderful, gosh!

-And it has no intrinsic value,

it's just simply...

It's only gold, its melt value is measured in low hundreds of pounds.

Its artistic value is enormous, and its context is enormous

and it's fallen, may I say so, very happily on you.

Well, wonderful, wonderful.

I've got to pass it on and I've got three granddaughters - what do I do?

-Big problem, get two more necklaces.

-Yes, you're right.

-Easily done, wonderful. Thanks so much, brilliant.

-Thank you.

We've been setting our visitors, and you at home, a bit of a challenge.

Which of these decanters is the basic decanter worth £250,

the better one worth about £1,500

and the best worth no less than £10,000?

Andy McConnell, now you set us this challenge,

almost everybody had a different idea...about which was which.

-Now what should we be looking for?

-In a decanter?

Well, it depends on whether you're collecting them

because they are delicious antiques

that you value as a collector, or as a practical object.

The thing that people are missing out on,

the reason that decanters are

almost universally worthless in this country is we stopped decanting wine.

We're drinking more wine than we've ever drunk in history

but we're drinking it out of a horrid bottle that we plonk on our table.

We're plonking our plonk on the table and it's horrid!

I remember my dad used to always insist on decanting his red wine

to get rid of the sediment at the bottom

but now, as you say, we don't do that any more.

Decanting your wine, you propel a four quid wine into a six quid wine

simply by the act of decanting it.

But I mean, you say... we used to have decanters,

now they're not worth very much.

-We know one of these is worth a stonking amount.

-Yes.

So, how can you tell the difference between

your cheap common-or-garden decanter

-and something that's really significant?

-It's not easy.

There's no pretending the fact,

as you and your visitors have found, it's not easy to suss it.

But these are all... These were all made

within 30 years of one another, they're all...

Are they? Because I thought there was a significant difference in age.

No, they're all 1740 to 1770...

There's a 30-year span in here.

-They're all 250 years old, as it were.

-Right.

So, striations... Look at the age of that.

I mean, look how wonky donkey, all over the place that is.

I mean, you might say...

it's sort of semi true to say that,

in this era, they were kind of making glass on bonfires

as opposed to glass today that's made in a microwave.

And if you can imagine cooking on a bonfire to cooking on a microwave,

then the ease of glass making has changed.

-The technology allows perfect crystal.

-Right.

So they're grey, they're not very well made and they're rustic,

but that's their charm.

But this one looks so different. I mean...

I thought this looked more modern because it's just...you know...

-the kind of thing you see in a shop these days.

-1765-1770.

Shows what I know, eh?

I'm hugely embarrassed actually

because I just thought that must be modern. And then I looked at this

and thought this stopper doesn't go with this decanter.

It's the wrong stopper, look.

-Just wiggle.

-The style is all wrong.

It's one of the reasons that most decanters are available in charity shops for £2.50

and most of them have a stopper that doesn't fit and a little chip there.

I put this as the best one because it looked the most basic actually.

I thought a little bit of kind of counter psychology, it's...

It was the most valuable and I thought the stopper was lovely.

Fiona, Fiona, let me put you out of your misery.

-You got this one right.

-Oh!

Oh, OK.

-But you got those two wrong.

-Right. So talk me through then.

-I will.

Why is this the most basic, is it because the stopper doesn't fit?

Because the stopper doesn't fit. It's also... This is a pretty good thing.

I mean £1,500 for a decanter in Britain today.

I mean, that's very unusual, you're talking cream here.

It's just that we're talking extra cream with added champagne here.

So why is this one so fabulous?

Oh, this is a rare, rare thing - Jacobite.

It is an absolute blinder.

There are two others known in Castletown House

which is directly related to the Jacobite cause

which wanted to put Bonnie Prince Charlie on the throne of Britain,

supplant the Hanoverians.

This was used by the Jacobites to toast the health of Bonnie Prince.

This is a £10,000 decanter.

It's an absolutely rare, rare thing, it's a historic...

It's a museum piece.

Well, there you are. If you want to raise a glass at home,

why not pour your wine from a decanter?

I hope that you've got some idea now what to look for.

There are more tips about what makes decanters so special

and the differences between them on our website, so have a look.

Cheers. >

What are you going to do with Green and Bohea?

Well, hopefully tea would have been kept in them at one point.

I don't know what bohea tea is.

-Bohea was black fermented tea.

-Ah.

-Which is the tea we drink today really.

-Yes.

-Um, the point was that

the lady of the household would conduct her tea party

and tea was the first social activity

which was controlled by women.

Up to that point, it was men.

Yes.

And then in came tea,

and the lady of the house did the stuff.

And the impact was extraordinary.

It altered all the furniture. You had to have special furniture.

You had light furniture so you could pick it up and move it round.

All the chairs that were sitting round the outside disappeared

and little tables appeared.

The lady of the house would have these on her sideboard

and she would have her tea tray with teapot, milk jug etc.

She would go to one of these, or possibly both,

because she would often mix the two to her own specification,

pour it into a tea canister

which would go to the teapot.

From the tea canister, it would go into the caddy spoon,

-into the teapot.

-Very involved!

And you were judged really on how well you did it.

You know...everybody's watching and thinking, "Hmm, not bad."

Slightly different from just putting a teabag in a mug.

-It's very sad, the teabag, although of course everybody does it.

-Yes.

Do you know what these are made of?

-I understand they're actually made of some sort of glass.

-They are.

-They look like porcelain.

-Yes, they look like porcelain.

-They're glass.

And we can see this very clearly here,

where the scar, or pontil mark, is.

That's where they were held on an iron rod

while they were being formed.

They come from south Staffordshire.

Yeah.

Bilston, somewhere like that, and they're hand painted,

except for the stoppers.

Ah.

And that is transfer printed.

Oh, I see.

And in fact what's odd is that we've got two identical ones,

which you would not normally expect to find, but anyway we have.

They date from about 1770.

-Really?

-Yeah. Older than you thought?

Well, yes, much older than I thought. I had no idea.

Yeah, and they're quite influenced by Meissen actually.

These scenes of the birds on here

are very Meissen in style.

I love this white glass.

I think it gives a brightness to the enamels

which you find in no other way.

On the reverse, we've got a glorious...

Oh, I mean, these are wonderful!

I want them.

God, those are good. I mean, they don't get any better than this.

Fantastic to hear.

I'm very jealous.

It would cost you...

..£12,000 to £18,000 to replace them.

No!

Oh, my goodness. Are you being serious?

-I am fairly. Yeah, absolutely.

-Good Lord.

They are top of the range.

Gosh, thank you very much.

They don't get any better than that.

My mother, to whom they belong, is going to be very pleased at that.

Sit her down. Give her a cup of tea before.

-Thank you very much, thanks.

-Thank you very much for bringing them in.

It's been one of those days on the Roadshow.

We started in glorious sunshine then the heavens opened, it poured down

so I got my very fetching blue poncho out and umbrella,

and now, I think...

..yeah, it's stopped raining and we've come full circle.

From Hever Castle and all the Roadshow team,

until next time, come rain or shine, bye-bye.

Subtitles by Ericsson