Stowe House 1 Antiques Roadshow

This is one of Britain's most majestic rooms.

Many years ago, a very naughty schoolboy clambered along

this ledge, up over the figures here, onto the next ledge

and jammed a tennis ball into the frieze.

And then, when restoration work was done,

the tennis ball was taken out, painted over and put back,

and is now the world's only Grade 1 listed tennis ball.

Welcome to the Antiques Roadshow

from Stowe House and Gardens in Buckinghamshire.

Stowe House and Gardens belonged to the Temple-Grenville family who,

in the 18th century, employed the best designers to create

an inspiring landscape and magnificent architecture.

But as the family fortune waned, the estate fell into disrepair

and was on the verge of being demolished.

The house was saved in 1923 by becoming a school.

The majestic gardens were rescued in 1990 by the National Trust.

And in 1997, The Stowe House Preservation Trust was created

to restore it to its former magnificence.

As you can see, they're still hard at work today

here in the elegant music room.

Many slivers of gold leaf are being

painstakingly applied to the mouldings.

Stowe House is the largest restoration project of its kind

in the UK, quite possibly in the world.

The house was listed as one of the most endangered sites,

as water seeped into the building and ceilings were close to collapse.

When restoration began over the north and south entrances,

the scaffolding became the largest free-standing

structure in the world.

This is before...

and this is after.

When you look around the marble saloon,

you can see what all the fuss is about.

This was built in 1775 and, I think it's fair to say, it's probably

the finest and most elegant room in the land

and it has no purpose or function as a room.

It's just built to impress.

It's a majestic, elliptical shape that is 56 feet up to the centre,

or oculus, up there.

It's based on the Pantheon in Rome and is a marvel of engineering,

geometry and artistry.

As you can see, the restoration work is truly worth it.

These figures just appear to be bursting out of the ceiling.

We're delighted to be holding our show in this grand setting,

as guests of Stowe School and the National Trust.

I think this is a Roadshow first for me.

I can't remember ever having talked about a bed.

But what a good bed and it wouldn't actually look that uncomfortable

in one of the rooms here. It's got the right

-presence about it.

-Exactly.

-So, is this your bed?

-It is my bed, yes, yes.

-A family piece?

Yes, it was inherited from a great-aunt whose

grandparents bought it originally

in auction, in 1904, in London.

1904. So by that stage, it had already travelled,

because this bed started its life at the turn of the century in France.

Although actually, looking at it,

it has got quite an Italianate feel, but it was a smart bed,

made in burr walnut here, this lovely walnut,

an ordinary grained walnut, but it was a bed with a presence.

-Now, you sleep in it.

-Yes, I do.

-And you love it?

-I love it, yeah, definitely.

-Why do you love it?

Oh, it's just such a beautiful piece,

and obviously it has real family... It's a family heirloom now.

So did you know, did you know her?

Yes, she was my great-great-aunt.

And did great-aunt have a name?

Auntie Connie and she was five foot tall.

So she was very small.

She was very small and, because the bed was so high at the time,

she actually had to use a step to climb up into it,

even when she was 99, when she still slept in it.

Oh, how fantastic. So she had a pair of steps to get up into bed.

-Yes, yes.

-I mean I love this sort of architectural pediment here,

but if there was one element that I could chop off and take it home,

honestly, these are to die for, aren't they? They're so tactile.

You know, you could just slice them off at the collar, put them

on little plinths and have them as a decorative ornament. Not that

I think in any way I'm suggesting that you should do such a thing.

And it's a very masculine bed, so it's a bed that you would expect

to be in a dressing room, somewhere that, when the husband isn't

sleeping very well, he can slip away and sleep comfortably on his own.

And do you think there was ever a pair of these?

We're led to believe there may have been, yes.

Because, of course, these days, one of a pair is...

Everybody says, "Where's the other one?"

And, of course, that must have a bearing on its value.

It's fabulous quality. Where would you go and get another?

But, you know, if you put it in an auction,

its pre-sale would probably be somewhere between £600 and £800.

-Ooh, lovely.

-Wow.

Not that we're going to sell it.

I don't think there's any chance from what you're saying.

-No chance!

-No, not at all.

This is a piece that absolutely oozes quality.

And the inscription

does explain why.

"The Royal South Bucks Agricultural Association

"from HRH The Prince Consort

"to the grower of the best root crop, 1860."

Now, who was the grower of the best root crop?

It was one of our ancestors, obviously.

It's been passed down the family,

so I should think it was probably the boys' great-great-great-grandfather

that was actually presented with this cup.

And it's super to have that sort of continuity.

And, of course, when you think about it, 1860,

that is actually the year before Prince Albert died.

Yes, that's right, yes.

Now, you don't see so many pieces associated with Prince Albert.

As I say, that obviously explains the quality,

all of this decoration is most beautifully applied to the piece

and, of course, if we then look at the marks,

we've got 1860 as the London hallmark

and, not surprisingly, the Royal Goldsmith, Robert Garrard.

But I do love this, absolutely wonderful here,

the A, of course, for Albert under the royal crown

and the laurels again, for the victors.

What a piece. So...value...

Mmm.

I would suggest that, today, you would be very hard pushed

to buy such a piece for less than about £4,500.

Goodness.

Right, thank you very much.

That's...an amazing figure. Thank you.

Now, you've brought along this little autograph album.

Who's in it?

There are a lot of signatures of Victoria Cross winners.

-Now, why is that? Was it yours?

-No.

This belonged to my father-in-law,

who took my husband to Windsor one day.

At the Castle, there happened to be a garden party

for the Victoria Cross winners...

-Right.

-..and he collected these on the way out.

So did he have the autograph album with him?

No, he rushed along to Woolworths and he bought it.

Let's have a quick look in it.

The first one we turn to

says Reverend AH Proctor, VC.

Now, I happen to know that Proctor, who wasn't a Reverend,

-at the time of the First World War...

-Oh, right. Yes.

..went out over the top of the trenches, because he saw two men.

They were wounded. He went out under heavy gunfire

and he dressed their wounds, took them warm clothing,

promised that they'd be rescued,

-after sunset in the dark and, after dark, they were rescued.

-Gosh.

And for that, he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Let's have a look further on.

Now, we've got one here

for WB Butler,

-West Yorkshire Regiment.

-Yep.

Now, he was in charge of a mortar in the trenches

during the First World War

and accidentally the lever of one flew off

and it was in danger of exploding, so quickly,

he took the mortar, put it in front of him,

turned away from all the other troops that were behind him

and said, "Get out, quick!"

And they all rushed to safety and, when they had got to safety,

he threw it over the top of the trench and it exploded instantly.

So he saved all those lives and again, for that,

he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

-Now, how many have you got in here, do you know?

-There are 37.

Now, that's very valuable.

I think this is going to be worth...

£1,500-£2,000.

-For this tiny little book, tiny little book!

-I can't believe it!

My husband will be delighted.

Now, like most people of my generation,

I will willingly confess to being a Beatles fan.

I'm old enough to have grown up with them.

Indeed, I saw them in December 1963.

So, here we have, rather unexpectedly,

clearly a Beatles story,

but it's something with a difference, isn't it?

Where does it begin?

It begins in the Cavern Club, back in Liverpool.

And an Old Stoic called David Moors, who was 17-years-old,

great Beatles fan, heard about...

-He went to this school?

-He went to this school

and heard about the Beatles playing in his local town.

Went to visit the Cavern Club, I think it was a lunchtime concert,

rather than the evening concerts, and thought,

"This is a band that I'd like some of my friends to hear."

He had the initiative to write to their manager, Brian Epstein...

-Aged 17.

-Aged 17.

He invites the Beatles to come and play at Stowe

and so, this is the beginning of a correspondence that we've got,

starting on January 13, and then moving all the way through to April.

This is the documentation of that gig, if you like.

It's one gig, from inception to completion.

Which is a very, very rare collection of material.

It's got the contract, it's got a photograph of the gig,

-it's the whole history of it, isn't it?

-It is.

Let's get this straight, this is obviously a Stowe story.

Where do you fit in?

Well, I'm the seventh headmaster of Stowe and you'll be pleased to hear,

I wasn't headmaster of Stowe in 1963 when the Beatles came to play.

-Were you a boy, then?

-I wasn't born in February 1963.

-Fair enough.

-I was a twinkle in the eye.

-Yeah, OK.

What surprises me is several things. One...

I would never have thought the words "Stowe" and "Beatles"

-had any connection whatsoever.

-Yeah.

What was it like for them, coming to play

in a famous public school, straight out of Liverpool?

I think for them, it was a bit of a shock.

Paul McCartney tells the story that, when he came to Stowe

and the boys showed him round,

the first impression that he had

of some of their studies was how unbelievably squalid the rooms were.

They thought they were going to see this wonderful neoclassical building,

Palladian splendour and, of course, boarding schools in 1963

were rather different to boarding schools in 2012.

Do we know the playlist for that great night?

I think it started with Twist and Shout.

And then the set progressed through Please Please Me, the album.

What I love about this is the fact that, when Brian Epstein realised

that he was corresponding with a 17-year-old boy,

it would be good to have the whole contract

countersigned by your housemaster,

-because it's not legal if you're just at school.

-Yeah.

Where does that take us with all the sculpture?

-So, the sculpture, the link with the Beatles is David Wynne...

-Yes.

..who, of course, is one of our finest sculptors.

-Did he go here, as well?

-Here's an old boy. An Old Stoic.

He was here in the Roxbury years, during World War II

and he was completing a show

for a gallery called Tooths and, in the show,

there was a series of busts featuring famous musicians,

so Thomas Beecham, the conductor,

Yehudi Menuhin and a number of other people

who were celebrated at the time and he wrote to Epstein, saying,

"I'd like something a bit more contemporary, can I do the Beatles?"

And Epstein wrote back to say, "Well, you can,

"but you'll have to go to Paris, because the boys are recording

"and they're playing at the Olympia Stadium

"and they're there for ten days." So, David turned up,

went to the George V Hotel. Modelled them with clay...

-And the rest is history.

-..and the rest is history.

Now, we're looking at a lot of stuff and a lot of very important things.

I'm only going to give you a global value,

because I think breaking it down into bits and pieces is unhelpful.

This is a great archive, it's a great range of material,

you've got to be looking at at least £50,000,

probably between £50,000 and £100,000,

because of the intricacy, the rarity

and, of course, the sculptural quality of the things involved.

-So...

-I will have to tell our insurers that.

-Good.

Thank you, Paul, very nice to see you.

-Do you know who she is?

-All we know is she's a dancing naked girl.

We're hoping you'll be to tell us.

Well, her name was Lady Constance Richardson.

She was of nobility, obviously,

and she was a suffragette, an athlete and a ballet dancer.

And she was certainly dancing at the time of Isadora Duncan,

was influenced by her, and was considered quite avant-garde,

because a titled lady to be dancing in scantily-dressed costume

was thought slightly risque, so she was quite a gal about town, I think.

And, obviously captured in this fantastic pose

by the sculptor Carlo Troubetzkoy, Count Troubetzkoy

and it's dated Paris, 1935.

What's the history behind it?

I think my stepfather-in-law would have bought it, immediately,

in 1935 or 1936.

He was a bit of a collector of sculpture and of paintings

and we are lucky enough to have inherited it, my wife and I.

And is it something that has pride of place at home?

Yes, certainly, it's where everybody can see it.

And gets a ring on its toe for Christmas.

Oh, cool!

So I'm glad she doesn't just come out for Christmas.

I think she has lots of energy, lots of exuberance, you know,

a great history behind her and I think she was quite a naughty girl,

-which I also quite like, as well.

-Yes.

Worth quite a considerable amount of money,

I have no idea how much he paid for it back in 1935,

but it wouldn't have been too much, I'm sure.

I wouldn't have thought so.

Today at auction, I would see this as a figure between

£15,000 and £20,000.

That's very interesting.

-Well, this chap looks a bit familiar.

-Yes, Nelson.

-The Horatio boy.

-Yes.

-And it's quite a glass, isn't it?

It doesn't leave a lot to the imagination,

"Conqueror at..." and then his great victories,

terminating with 1805, at Trafalgar.

So...where does Horatio come into your life?

The glass belonged to one of my partners and he died.

We used to use them when we went for dinner and that sort of thing

and I bought them from the widow, both of them

-and we use them at home, as well, from time to time.

-Sure.

The other being the matching piece, with exactly the same composition,

with the portrait on the front, with the list of victories on the back.

So you bought them when?

-In about 1998.

-OK.

And what about the money, how much did you part with?

-£750.

-For the two?

-For each one.

-For each one.

I'm going to have to kill you, you know? I'm going to kill you,

because they're wrong.

-Oh, are they?

-They are.

The amount of pleasure I'm going to get from giving you a kicking

is none! I have no pleasure in telling you that they're out of time

-by 100 years.

-Oh, are they?

They are! I'm really sorry to have to tell you, but they are wrong.

-OK.

-Now, let's break this down, in comprehensible

and bite-sized pieces. This is a right glass,

this one is right. If we look at the base,

I think this is probably a period rummer,

from the right date. So the glass is the right date,

-but the engraving is 100 years later.

-Right.

If I exchange...

then I think that's a wrong 'un. I think...

you will see differences between these glasses.

This has a polished pontil here and rather mechanical wear

and I'm afraid that, I think, that this glass

actually dates, not from 1815,

-but more like 1925.

-Really?

-I do.

Now, a glass dealer, by the name of Churchill, in the '30s,

held an exhibition called Glass With History. History glasses.

And a load of these turned up, like, a LOAD of these turned up.

-And basically, they were made to meet a demand.

-OK.

So if there's enough of a demand and enough money is being available,

people are prepared to pay the sort of money you might be familiar with,

then they'll make 'em

and the way they were sold, I'm not sure it was fraud,

whether the people were buying them knew this, I don't know,

because I'm not there, it's 1930s, but the fact is...

-..that they're stinkers.

-Oh, you reckon?

I'm really sorry. And so, you're into it for £1,500

-and their value...

-£100.

-Each.

-Oh, right.

That's the good news, it's £100 each!

-£150 each.

-OK.

-They have an academic curiosity...

-Yes.

..and for £150, they'd reach that.

-But that's a little bit down.

-It is, isn't it?!

This week, our Basic Better Best challenge

features some of the tiniest portraits

we've ever seen on the Roadshow.

But believe me, they have the biggest of values.

They've been brought along by Philip Mould, our painting specialist

and the Basic miniature is worth £150,

the Better one, £7,500

and then there's a great leap to the Best one,

which is worth £65,000.

Yes, have a look at home and in the meantime,

I'll see what our visitors think.

Yes, usually the smallest one is the most expensive.

In your great experience of this?

I don't know, I've not bought many miniatures in my life.

-Have you bought any?

-None.

-Do you know what miniatures were used for?

-Yeah.

Instead of a passport photograph or sending a photo to a friend you'd send a portrait,

because there were no cameras back then.

-Let's look at these miniatures here.

-I would say the Basic is this one.

-Because it's quite plain?

-It's plain and ordinary. That's the Basic.

I would say that the middle one is actually the Better one.

I would say that this one on the end is the Best,

I think it looks older and slightly classier, I'd say.

I don't know, he looks a bit of a boring old chap,

I think I will leave that with the Basic. Yes, definitely.

Although, on second thoughts, he looks rather charming...

-We're going to be a long time.

-Move that round to there.

This one's the Basic.

-Right.

-I think that's the Better one.

I think that's the best one

because even though it's quite simple,

I think that they were trying to go for a simple look.

-Simple, but classy?

-Yes.

-So come on, them,...

-Um...

-Well, er...

-We'll be here all day!

-We could, we could,

-we could. I think this is going to be the Best one.

-Right.

This goes back to the Basic

and this young lady I think is the Better one.

-So, Basic.

-Yes.

-Better.

-Yes.

-Best.

-Yes.

-Final decision?

-Absolutely, yes.

-What a relief.

-Which one...?

-Can I take one with me?

-No, you cannot!

Oh, right. Right, OK. Thank you.

Amazing - gold, purple, rich, amethyst,

all together in one piece of jewellery,

just says it all to me. How did you get hold of it?

I was given it by a very old friend of my mother's for my 25th birthday.

And she had had it in her family,

who were a combination of Lee-Warners,

who used to own Walsingham Abbey,

and the other side of the family, were the FitzClarences,

the natural children of the sovereign,

and they became the Earls of Munster

-and I believe it came from that side.

-Gosh.

So quite a provenance and just a magnificent piece of jewellery,

which has lots of regal qualities to it in many ways,

from the colour of the amethyst through to this

very beautiful gold work, which is known as repousse work

and it's basically the way the gold creates this lovely swirl

and fluting effect to give it body,

as if it's going to be a very heavy piece of jewellery.

-Do you wear it at all?

-Yes, I do, I wear it quite a lot

and my daughter has worn it for about eight or nine years now

-and used to wear it at balls, when she went to Oxford.

-Fantastic.

It's having the provenance that it has,

it fits in with the makers, Rundell, Bridge and Rundell,

who were Crown jewellers to George III

and produced some of the most stunning pieces of jewellery

from this period. When you pick it up, as I mentioned,

it looks as though it's going to be a heavy piece of jewellery to wear,

but it's actually relatively light,

which is a good thing about jewellery from this period.

The other thing about it is that it breaks up

and you can play around with it

and make some really interesting and different pieces of jewellery,

using the different combinations of the parts.

Here we can see that there's a link at the top

and also either side of this central amethyst section

and so you can actually undo the chain and create a bracelet

or perhaps, just a plain choker

and maybe use the amethyst as a central section

for the bracelet, as well.

The combinations are there to be enjoyed

and it's just wonderful that you are wearing it in that way.

In terms of value, of course, we really do have a very

interesting piece from this period in history and should it come up

for sale at auction, if you ever decide to part with it, which

I'm sure you're not going to do, with the association that it has

and the fact it points in the direction

of Rundell, Bridge and Rundell designers and jewellers,

then we would be expecting it to get

somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 at auction.

A pocket watch by Cartier. And a coin. What's the story?

My grandfather was a jeweller.

He collected things and that's really all I know.

I was passed them down, one to my brother, which is the medallion,

and the pocket watch to me. So we're very lucky.

What I find fascinating about this pocket watch

is not that it's by Cartier, although that's the icing on the cake.

Yes, it's a Cartier pocket watch,

but the really unusual thing to look at, immediately

looking at the front of it, is that the winding button is there

below six, which is unusual.

You would normally expect it to be up where the pendant is.

When you turn it round, it becomes apparent

that it has this rather unusual stand built into it.

I have never seen that before on a Cartier pocket watch.

And I must have seen maybe thousands of Cartier pocket watches,

but I've never seen one with this rather beautiful integral stand.

It was obviously purpose-made for a particularly wealthy client,

who wanted his watch to sit in his waistcoat pocket

and, when he wasn't wearing it, he could put it on his desk

and there it would be looking at him.

It's just the most beautiful piece of engineering in gold

and it's a very beautiful dress watch.

And are you pleased with this? Do you think you've got the better deal?

-Yes.

-Honestly?

-Yes, I do.

-Are you the older brother?

-Younger.

And you reckon you got the better deal?

We didn't get a choice, but I was much happier with that.

-I wore it on my wedding, as well.

-OK.

So if I was to tell you this watch is worth at auction

-between £4,000-£6,000, happy?

-Very. Yes, very.

Shall we have a look at big brother?

You're going to tell me that one's better, aren't you?

What's a medal doing in a box?

My grandpa's aunt was an opera singer

and she was in a particularly prestigious opera,

I don't know which. She was given that medal.

On one side it says, "Royal Academy of Music for Operatic Singing,

"instituted in 1822."

On the other side, it has Gilbert R Betjeman.

On the band, it says here, Margaret Ismay 1909.

-Margaret Ismay was your great-aunt?

-That's it.

From what I understand,

she immediately went off to Cartier, where they did a remarkable thing.

They incised the top of it. Somehow raised it off,

put a watch inside and put the cover back on,

so that you can see the medal and you would never believe that,

when you push the little button at the side,

inside is a lovely Cartier watch. Amazing.

Coin watches aren't all that unusual, to be honest.

And Cartier did make coin watches, as did other manufacturers.

But in this instance, when someone takes their medal around to Cartier

and has a coin watch made out of it, it is pretty amazing, actually.

I've never seen the like before. Now, who came out best?

I love this bit.

I don't know whether there are any opera buffs about who would pay over and above

rather like medal collectors and that sort of thing.

But I suspect there probably are.

And I suspect it would interest them.

Opera people tend to be fairly well-healed,

and it has a Cartier watch inside. And it's a coin watch.

I think he did a bit better than you, I'm sorry to say.

I think this is worth at least £6,000-£8,000 at auction.

-Wow. He's done it again.

-These big brothers!

My big brother does it to me, too.

Somehow he always comes out on top.

-You just have to deal with it?

-You do.

This week, our Basic, Better, Best challenge

is a perfect work in miniature.

Philip Mould, our art specialist, has brought along three miniatures.

The Basic one, worth £150, the Better one, worth £7,500,

and the Best one is worth £65,000.

A massive value for something so tiny.

I've spoken to our visitors, to see what they think.

Philip, it was a very tricky one, this,

and there was no consensus as to which was which.

Now, am I right in thinking that these miniatures,

or miniatures in general, were used by suitors

to show what they looked like

to the person they hoped to be betrothed to?

I mean, they were very hot, intimate things.

Often held in the hand, often worn close to the body.

So, yes, they perform a completely different role

from that of big paintings on walls.

And a lot of the role of photography today

has taken the intimate place of the miniature painting.

When were these popular?

Well, all of these are, in fact, from the 18th century,

which was the century in which the art of the miniature triumphed.

And what should one look for, when you're trying to assess a miniature

and its value, its importance, or significance, where do you begin?

I suppose the same principles apply to miniatures

as do to other areas in the art market.

Quality. A very good name.

By a name, I mean not only the artist's name, but also the subject.

The attraction of the image.

I mean, it's a cruel thing, the art world,

but a sweet-looking woman sells rather better than a plain old man.

Well, I'm already beginning to think I might have made the wrong choice, in that case!

Let's go for it. I put this as Basic, this as Better -

despite what I believed must be diamonds.

I thought you might be bowling me a googly there.

So I thought, no, I'll put that as Better.

And this is as Best, hoping perhaps that this is a rare image.

Well, I have to say, rather boringly,

I was hoping you were going to be seduced by that man's green jacket.

-That is the most basic.

-Oh, good!

I thought, just it was the plainest, that was the only reason.

-So why is this only worth £150?

-This is by an amateur artist.

We know that, apart from anything else, because it's on vellum.

And by this time, 1760s, 1770s,

miniature painting was done on ivory.

If you were a serious artist, you would do it on that backing,

not on vellum.

-So this is vellum.

-This is vellum.

-In a plain little frame.

Yes, by an amateur artist, unknown.

So the next one? The one worth £7,500.

You know, this is really infuriating. You've got that right, as well.

Ho-ho-ho!

Good.

I mean, this looks spectacular and is so beautiful

-of this... Is it a young lady, a young girl?

-It's a boy.

-Is it?!

Look, not only is it a boy, it's a very aristocratic boy.

It's the Second Earl Spencer,

who is brother to the famous Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.

And this is an image done by Richard Cosway,

who was the leading miniaturist in the late-18th century.

He was the sort of... He was the Gainsborough of miniatures.

And probably worn by his mother when he went away to school.

Again, it comes back to this idea of these soft, intimate images

that are only designed to be seen by one person.

When we look at paintings on walls it's a sort of public thing,

we all sort of stand back,

but these things were designed to commune with, really.

So here we have the humdinger, at £65,000.

Now, is it the artist or is it the sitter that makes that so valuable?

Both. This is by an artist called Grigorii Musikiiskii,

who was the court enamellist to Peter the Great.

This was a phenomenally important time in the history of Russia

and Russian culture.

And this is Peter the Great himself, by the artist.

Now, the artist was known for his enamels

and this is the only surviving,

remaining work on vellum by Musikiiskii.

It's signed, it's dated, it's inscribed.

This is really a sort of confluence of major commercial factors.

A very rare artist, an incredibly important sitter, and Russian.

And Russian objects, Russian antiques are greatly sought by Russians.

And the Russian art market, of course, is burgeoning

and people are loving to buy Russian artefacts,

aren't they, at the moment?

Well, there we... I could see past the bling, Philip, that's the thing.

Actually, it was all luck, to be honest.

If you have miniatures at home, you have got some idea what to look for.

And there are more tips, if you want to look on our website...

Now, I have to say, you bear

a striking resemblance to the lady in this portrait.

-Now, why is that?

-Well, I would hope so.

This is my grandmother and this is my mother when she was a girl.

And where did you get the painting from?

Apparently, when my grandad was in the Second World War,

he was at the Battle of Monte Cassino

and whilst he was out there he had no children,

but my grandmother went on to have a child, which he wasn't aware of.

She wrote to him and said, "I've had a baby, her name's Susan."

And when she was about 15 months, in this photo, they sent...

My nan sent this picture, which my grandad carried in his wallet.

And whilst he was there, after the battle, he met some partisans

that were seven brothers, I was told, that were artists

and one of them painted this picture.

They painted it on the back of an orange box.

So this is actually painted? That's actually on an orange box?

It is, yeah.

It must have been an incredibly emotional experience for him

to suddenly find out that he had a child.

Yeah, yeah.

And to receive this photograph must have been a wonderful thing for him.

I think that happened a lot in them times,

people went to war and children were born.

Unfortunately, he didn't see my mum,

when he came back with the photo, until she was three-years-old.

So she was 14-15 months old there

and she was three when he finally came home and saw her.

-But you've got a photograph of him, as well, haven't you?

-Yes, I have.

-Which one is he?

-This is my grandad here.

-And what rank was he?

Well, from what I'm given to understand,

he was with the 8th Division

and was part of the military police.

So a lot of his work was after the battles, the clean-up process,

which accounts for why he was still there after the battle.

-Now, he would have been with the Eighth Army.

-Yes.

Now, you say he was fighting at the Battle of Monte Cassino.

This was in 1944, in Italy,

and it was an infamous battle for both sides,

but, actually, particularly the Allies.

-He's got a wonderful group of medals here.

-Yes, he has. He has got some...

Yeah, he has got some nice medals and oak leaves, yeah, he has.

So he obviously did something fairly brave to be Mentioned In Despatches,

which is what these oak leaves represent.

Now, look, what about value?

It's more of a sentimental value, I think, to you?

-Oh, yeah.

-You could never replace it.

Portraits like this are very difficult to sell on the open market.

Commercially, it would be worth relatively little.

-Probably, would you believe, less than £100?

-Wow.

-That's not the point, though.

-No, no.

It has huge value to you and the family, because it means something.

You've told us the story, the emotional attachment it has for you.

As far as the medals are concerned,

we can attribute the medals to this man.

That's the great thing about the family medal, family knowledge.

So the medals themselves are probably worth...

You've got more photographs, by the way?

-Yes, we have, we've got lots of photographs. He was...

-Documents?

-Yes, all documents. Everything.

-Ah! That all adds to the value.

So the medals, the photographs, the documents,

they're going to be worth something in the region of £300-500.

So it's a lovely little family group of objects

and I find it quite an emotional experience talking about this today.

It's a lovely story. It's a lovely story.

You may remember that, a few programmes ago,

we were asking our experts what they would most like to see on a Roadshow

and our ceramics specialist, Steven Moore,

said he would most like to see furniture

designed by the artist Francis Bacon.

Very, very rare.

Now, Susie, you have brought along some furniture by Francis Bacon.

-I have.

-You just had this hanging around the house?

Well, my grandparents bought it from Francis Bacon in 1930.

-And do you use it?

-Yes, it's used on a daily basis, it's my desk stool.

Now, I didn't know, until Steven mentioned it,

that Francis Bacon had made furniture,

because, of course, that's not what he's known for.

He is going to be thrilled to see this.

Can we have a little sneak preview?

Yes, do. It's going to be a bit disappointing to you, I think, but he'll be excited.

-It is slightly underwhelming.

-Yes.

Well, it's 1930s Modernism, you know, wonderful functionalism.

-Obviously it's a stool. Can I sit on it?

-Yes, you can. Yes, please do.

Can I sit on the Francis Bacon stool?

-It sort of...clenches the buttocks rather, doesn't it?

-It does.

-Have you found that when sitting on it?

-I have.

More and more every day now!

-I think we should take it to show to Steven.

-I think so.

-Come on, then.

Now, I can see you've got a circus,

but where's the ring?

I'm afraid the ring's at home because I thought it would rain

and it would end up a big pile of mush, so I didn't bring it.

-Oh, what a pity, but you have got it?

-I have got a ring, yeah.

-And it hasn't rained.

-No.

-Aren't we lucky?

I absolutely love these circus animals and the clowns.

And they're all wearing different outfits.

I just love them, they're wonderful.

And have your family played with them?

Yes, I used to play with them when I was a child, absolutely.

-Did you?

-Yes, I loved them, yes.

-Hours on end?

-Yes, absolutely.

-Fixing them all up.

-I'm not surprised, because they're...

-They actually are animated, aren't they?

-They are.

And although they've just got legs that work, this hippopotamus,

he's absolutely wonderful.

And even his head moves and his neck. So, I mean, that is fantastic.

-And do you know who it's by?

-I don't know.

-You don't?

-I know it's called Humpty Dumpty Circus, but that's about it.

-Is it?

-Oh, right, well, in your family, it is?

-No, on the ring.

-It says it on the ring.

-Yep, it does.

Good, because it's by Albert Schoenhut.

-Oh, right.

-Which, erm, is an American,

but he was a German refugee, so he was in Philadelphia.

And he started his company in 1872

and he started making dolls and animals

and these are probably early 20th century,

all made of wood, except for this little lady here, with a bisque head.

-Do you know where you got them?

-They belonged to my godmother.

-She was born in 1908.

-Yes, that figures.

So we're talking about 1910, 1915, something like that.

So Schoenhut, to the Americans, is better than it is here,

except there are a lot of collectors.

I'm just going to pick one or two things

that are more valuable than the others.

The fact that the animals have got glass eyes is important -

and they have.

And the animals that you should look out for, if you can, is a gorilla,

-which I don't think you've got.

-No, I'm afraid not.

But you have got a hippopotamus and a giraffe, and that's very nice.

And my favourite is the crocodile, it's wonderful.

In good condition, as well.

Although they've been played with.

And the rarest thing for the Schoenhut circus

is the bisque-headed circus performer.

And you've got it. So let's put it this way.

With the whole ring and all these,

we are talking about between £3,000-4,000.

Wow. I didn't realise it was that much.

-I'll carry them home very carefully.

-Exactly, exactly.

Steven, do you mind if I...?

-I'm so sorry just to interrupt for a minute.

-We will get back to you.

-Now.

-OK.

-We have here an object brought in by Susie.

-Hello, Susie.

Hello.

Right... Oh, my God.

-Do you know what this is?

-Yes, I do.

Well, I know what I hope it is.

And what do you hope it is?

Well, it looks like the thing we asked for two years ago.

It's a Francis Bacon stool...

-There you are.

-..which I never...

I'm glad I'm sitting down.

-You can sit on that, if you like!

-No, I respect it too much.

You did this on purpose, didn't you?

Well, what do you think? Susie, tell Steven about it.

Well, my grandparents bought it from Francis Bacon in 1930.

He had a studio sale, I think it was advertised in The Studio magazine.

-Indeed.

-In August 1930.

They loved modern furniture and they went along and bought it

and it was my grandmother's dressing table stool.

So your grandmother...

Hang on, your grandmother just sat on a Francis Bacon stool, which...

Yes, and I use it as my desk stool now.

Well, it's certainly stood the test of time.

It has, it comes into school once a year and girls have a look at it.

It's something I never, ever thought I'd see.

But to... I'm sorry, I'm sort of...

Steven, I'm glad you're so excited, because when I saw it, I...

In the nicest way, Susie, I was slightly underwhelmed by it,

because it's so plain.

-Most people are.

-But you think this is an object of great beauty?

It's not necessarily an object of great beauty,

but it's an object of great art historical importance.

-Could you value this?

-Yes. £10,000-15,000.

CROWD GASPS

-You might not want to take it into school so often now.

-No, perhaps not.

-Susie, I think you should be sitting down for this.

-Yes, I will sit down.

Have a seat.

On the Antiques Roadshow, we see a lot of prints,

but they rarely see the light of day

because there were so many produced

over the last 500 years

and not often do they - unless they're more of a 20th century type -

really catch the eye of the art market.

And you've got a print here, signed with some very celebrated initials.

-Yes, of Durer. Yes.

-Albrecht Durer.

-Yes.

So let's start with how you actually ended up with this.

I inherited it from my father.

He had a great eye for art works, all kinds of art works,

and he bought it in 1971.

We see so many 19th century copies of Albrecht Durer,

he was one of the most important figures

in the history of art, in many ways.

But also, in the 19th century, the Victorian period,

he was particularly copied.

We see facsimiles all the time with the famous AD

banged there at the bottom of the image.

I'm going to return in a moment

as to whether or not this is a 19th century copy, or fake.

But just for a moment, let's talk about Albrecht Durer,

because he's one of those figures who's almost up there

-with someone like Leonardo.

-Yes.

And his particular contribution to the history of Western culture was

he knitted the Renaissance that was going on in Italy,

with all of those great artists there, with the North, with Germany.

He was born in Nuremburg

and active in the late 15th and early 16th century.

And so, he introduced ideas of beauty and realism and perspective

and amazed his German contemporaries.

And this print here is a beautiful example of just that,

because you've got, in that rather divine face of the virgin,

the look almost of a Botticelli.

And then, if you move your eye to the right,

you've got a sort of northern cuckoo clock-like building.

And you can't get a better example of how north and south are amalgamating.

And the image, which is a very devout, religious one,

with the Christ child on the virgin's lap, is full of detail.

And Durer loved all of that. His pictures were very instructive.

What is particularly noteworthy

is the monkey that's tethered at her feet.

The monkey represents base human qualities

in the iconography of this period -

everything that a human shouldn't be.

You know, naughty, malevolent, full of vice.

But the point is that it's tethered.

And so, it's a lovely, graphic example of female virtue,

in this case, divine female virtue,

being able to overcome monkeyish aspects and attributes.

And that's the sort of games he played.

So back to the artist, Albrecht Durer

and whether or not this is a 19th century example or an original.

Well, it's very difficult sometimes to determine with prints.

But this, to me,

has very specific attributes that tie it to its period.

And I have to say, from what I can see,

this is an original Albrecht Durer print.

-Now, it is a print.

-Yes.

-It's not an oil painting.

-No.

But it is nonetheless a very significant thing

because of his towering role

in the tying together of different culture currents

in the early Renaissance.

-So it comes to value.

-Yes.

Well, I have to say, subject to just a few checks,

given that prints are a complex area, and Durer in particular,

I think this could be worth up to about £20,000.

That's really good news.

That's really good news, thank you very much. Very exciting!

CROWD APPLAUD

Of all the things we've seen here today at Stowe, I think...

THIS has to be the most extraordinary.

It is the egg of the now-extinct elephant bird, native of Madagascar.

Became extinct in about the 17th century,

was, I think, the heaviest known bird, which it must have been!

I mean, how big must it have been to lay this?

Just makes my eyes water, just thinking about it.

Anyway, it's now in the science lab here at Stowe School

and has delighted boys and girls in the science lab

ever since it was brought along.

From the egg, and the Antiques Roadshow team,

until next time, bye-bye.