Cawdor Castle 1 Antiques Roadshow

"This castle hath a pleasant seat, the air nimbly

"and sweetly recommends itself unto our gentle senses."

It is not often I get to quote Shakespeare,

but today's Antiques Roadshow location has links to one

of his most famous plays, so I thought, why not?

Welcome to the Antiques Roadshow from Cawdor Castle,

near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands.

This is the furthest north the roadshow will come this series.

This castle has been home

since the 14th century to the feudal barons

known as the Thanes of Cawdor.

And there was, of course, a very famous Thane of Cawdor -

Shakespeare's Macbeth.

But I hate to disappoint you, he never lived here

and quite possibly the play has nothing to do with this castle.

And yet the history has all the ingredients

of a Shakespearean drama.

Built as a fortress by the Third Thane of Cawdor,

legend has it that the following instructions that came to him

in a dream,

he loaded his donkey and wherever the animal lay down to rest,

there his castle should be sited.

It is said that the donkey laid down under this tree,

a holly tree still standing, which dates back to 1372.

And that date tallies with when the castle keep was built around it.

Since then, the castle's inhabitants have had their fair share of drama.

One of the most dramatic events centres around the Eighth Thane's

young daughter, Muriel.

Her father's archenemy kidnapped her

and forced her to marry his son when she was 12.

In 1510, the couple returned to the castle

and, remarkably, it seems they lived happily ever after.

In fact, they are thought to be two of the castle's resident ghosts.

The rest of the family weren't so lucky and, like many

of Shakespeare's characters, perished in various gruesome ways -

like being burned at the stake for witchcraft or

murdered by their own family members,

like the wife who was tied to a rock

and left to drown by a husband who had tired of her.

Thankfully, some fishermen rowed past and save her.

Though the links between Shakespeare's Scottish play

and Cawdor Castle are fictional,

people still flock here,

drawn to the possibility that this is where Macbeth lived.

Today, the stage is set for another roadshow

and the crowds are here to see our experts.

-This picture is about fishing, isn't it?

-Yes.

They are in the North Atlantic somewhere in a fishing boat, I think.

The chart is of the North Atlantic.

-And they are lost.

-They are quite lost, aren't they?

-Yes.

-It's called Out Of Their Reckoning.

-Yes.

-So, that's the clue, isn't it? And it is by Albert Starling.

-Yes.

And it is about 1890... I don't know two, four.

I think it was in the Royal Academy in 1898.

-1898?

-Yes, I think so.

-Yes, it's about then.

But you know what I liked about this picture was

the rhythm of colours going around.

We've got the lovely rhythm.

This is almost the same green as the boy.

And the browns and the greens and the blues

and these dings of red in their neckerchiefs, as well.

It's really picking this out. But, above all,

these wonderful different light sources, this picture has.

You've got it coming down through the open hatch above them, on to

the chart room table and then you've got this lamp here, as well,

separately lighting them. Beautiful. Beautiful.

What I also liked about it is, clearly,

the navigator is the man with the dividers here.

He's the man who has got himself a bit lost on the chart,

-don't you think?

-Yes.

-He's having to ask the old boy

who doesn't know anything about charts where he thinks

they are by dead reckoning - maybe to sea colour, maybe the weather.

But he's using on his experience, you see,

to try and help him find out where they are.

I wondered if it was an allegory.

Man and God, perhaps, you know, ode to the reckoning.

Looking for some sort of wisdom.

I think that's entirely relevant with a Victorian picture.

A Victorian audience would have looked at that

and picked up on those references far quicker than we do today.

Albert Starling, well, he's...

-He's not a great name. Not really.

-No.

But I thought it was such a successful picture that

could not have been painted really until after this new wave

of English artists, influenced by French painting,

had come to Britain and started colonies like in

Newland and Staines,

where they are really interested in the effects

of light in interiors.

Now, you, I think, have brought this picture to a roadshow before,

-is that right?

-About 20 years ago.

So, it was valued then. What they put on it?

£2,000, I think.

-£2,000 about 20 years ago.

-Yes.

-Well, I think we can improve on that.

-Really?

-Oh, yes.

I had assumed it would have dropped in value.

No, well, that's what people do sometimes,

but every once in a while, a picture comes along

that is just so lovely and has got such a wonderful light in it

and is so accessible and readable, that so desirable domestically

that actually, I think, that role changes around

because it is polarized, you see.

Everyone wants what everyone else wants now,

and I think there'll be a bit of a crowd after this.

-Really?

-Making a value of between six and £8,000.

-Wow.

-Thank you.

-Not at all.

Thank you very much.

So, this is a very handsome,

sizable beastie you have brought us

in to look at for you today.

Are you a collector?

No, I'm not a collector, it's actually a family piece.

It actually belongs to my husband.

He inherited it about four years ago,

but he remembers it in the family for a very long time

because he remembers, as a very small boy, actually sitting on him.

-Did he?

-And I think it was that at that point

it was actually promised to him.

-So, he's got a good memory?

-He has got a very good memory.

Like an elephant. Never forgets.

Um, it's Japanese, bronze.

It's made in the Meiji period,

somewhere around sort of 1890, maybe at its latest 1910.

It is such an impressive size compared to

a lot of the Japanese bronzes that I have seen for that period.

They do tend to be much smaller.

Even a third the size of this would be considered quite a big

bronze of that period. And really attention to detail.

I mean, we can see the kind of movement of the animal

as it's walking. You can see the skin, the folds.

It has a certain sort of life to it.

If we gently turn it over,

and I will be very, very careful here,

and just turn this over,

we will see on the underside,

just here, that we've got this double seal mark.

I believe this is for a sculptor by the name of Seiya.

S-E-I-Y-A.

Who was famous for making these Japanese bronzes.

Also, it has a wonderful patina. The colour is so very good.

-And I like the family history.

-Even though I haven't dusted it.

I think that is all a very good thing, actually.

I think not dusting it has preserved it in a lot of ways.

I mean, I think people can over cleaning these

and to the purest collector today, they want to see it like that.

In a way, that's a discovered-in-an-attic

type mentality. But, so, at an auction,

it would command a presale estimate of between

at least three to £5,000.

Whoa!

-Oh, wow.

-So nobody will be riding it

-anymore. No.

Who designed this chair?

ALL: Mackintosh.

Macintosh. You see, I'm not really needed,

cos these are all culture vultures. It's quite obvious.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the great Scottish name,

the great Glaswegian architect and designer,

who was really very sort of popular in around about that 1890s

through till around about 1915.

And then he goes into a descendency.

And it's, you know, literally in the last sort of 40,

50 years that he has been recognised for being

-a genius.

-Yes.

-But tell me a little bit, because these were found in Yorkshire.

-Yes.

My mother bought them in an auction sale in 1947 in Huddersfield.

And they cost her... There were two of them. They cost her 21 guineas.

-Which was quite a lot of money.

-It was a lot of money.

-Even in Yorkshire, that was a lot of money, wasn't it?

-Yes, it was.

I won't say any more about it. It's interesting because, you see,

you've brought along a chair which has got me,

if I can use a North Country term, slightly flummoxed.

Because I've seen this chair many times

-and it's normally about this height.

-That's right.

And I know that initially these chairs were designed

for Ms Cranston's tea rooms in Argyle Street in 1897.

And this is a slightly reduced version.

Yes. My mother did have somebody look at it quite a few years ago now

and they thought probably it was two of a set of six

that had possibly been made as a dining set.

Probably around the 1920s.

Within his lifetime, which is important.

-Let's just have a look at the chair.

-All right.

-Because invariably...

I don't want to be unkind about Mackintosh chairs,

but they're usually not very well made.

Come down, have a look at this with me.

What you have got here, you've got these stretches.

Apparently,

I talked to students who make furniture today,

these are all in the wrong places,

-from a stress point of view.

-Yes.

So... Mackintosh has decided that's where they should be.

And the actual way it has been made... Let's come back up.

Because you can see there is the fact these have been pinned in.

-They have been pegged.

-Yes.

-So, he's staying true to sort of Arts and Crafts.

-Yes.

In so far as these are handmade, and yet, we take the seat out,

which we can do...

There we go, out it comes.

-And this is all original. You've had that recovered?

-Yes.

-The original cover is underneath that cover.

-Is it?

You've got these, as you can see,

the supports here are all screwed through.

And the same true with the back splats.

So, you know, there is a bit of a compromise, I think,

the way it's been made.

What I will say is that there will be a demand for this.

-You've got a pair of them.

-Yes.

I think a pair of those would quite easily make

somewhere in the region of around about four to £5,000.

Ooooh!

-Right.

-Could you all do that again?

THEY LAUGH

You did that with such gusto, that was wonderful.

The last thing I expected to see here was probably

a collection of aboriginal material.

Yet here it is.

How did it come to be here?

Well, this is a collection made by my husband.

And when he was about 21-ish,

he decided to go to Australia with a £10 passage.

Right.

And when he was there, after about three or four months

and made enough money, just took off into the outback,

on boats, working boats. And one was a mission boat,

which would be delivering provisions to...one of the places

-was Brute Island.

-Yes.

And most of what we see here is from Brute Island.

Some of the aboriginal communities were offshore.

You know, they spread throughout that area.

Are we talking early '60s, mid-'60s?

-Yes. I think he bought those in 1964.

-Right.

It was very unusual for someone that young to actually be

drawn into this culture and what it represents.

It was very much white Australia in those days.

And what he was seeing, what he was collecting,

was little-known at that point.

Now, these pieces, as we say, have various functions.

I like best the woomera, which was a throwing stick.

You used it for throwing a spear, which I am not going to demonstrate.

But a spear slots on and effectively you are using it

to flick, to extend the power of your arm.

Digging stick, rhythm stick, one of those.

Um, according to my husband, it's a rhythm stick.

-We have the pair of those.

-Yeah, they usually are a pair.

-That's a message.

-A message stick.

I mean, it is literally that, it's a way of conveying information

relating to landscape, it's relating to food,

it's relating to where waterholes are.

Um, this is a map in a way.

And, therefore, when you come to something like this,

which I think is wonderful, which is the bark painting,

you've got the symbolism of the animal,

which of course related very strongly to the tribe

that painted this. Everything has a meaning.

So, we've got things that are very traditional, tribal responses,

cultural responses to ideas that are millennia old.

I mean, aboriginal culture is 50,000 years old.

At the same time, of course, you've got people him

beginning to travel and beginning to buy this stuff.

And what is so exciting to me about this is one sees these things

but they often don't have a story.

You are in a rare position to be able to say,

"I know he bought these, where he bought them

"and, more important, when he bought them."

And so we can date these things precisely to that period.

They were made when he was there, they weren't old things.

Now, the photograph I can see is not Australia, but it shows here.

This was one of the occasions where he decided to fly from Darwin

to Borneo area.

Yeah. The best piece inevitably is the bark painting.

I mean this... I can't say who did it, it's impossible.

But with the provenance, with the dating and everything

that you know about this, this is a wonderful early piece.

And it is going to be worth something like £1,000.

The other pieces, obviously, much less,

although the woomera, again, with this style of painting,

again is going to be several hundred pounds.

And all that value has to do with the fact that you know

-when they were made.

-Yes.

It is so crucial to have that evidence.

All I can say is, I wish I had gone there

when I was 20 and I could have bought things like this.

But I didn't.

-Thank you anyway.

-OK, thank you.

It's great that so many people are turning out at such a damp day,

and it is not just the grown-ups.

This should be a busload of youngsters who have come to

see us from a local school.

-Right behind you!

-There, there!

Hello there.

-ALL: Hello!

-Hey!

50 points!

-50 points? You get 50 points for spotting me?

-Yeah.

So, you're from St Thomas's School, is that right? In Keith.

And you have been studying, I'm told, about ancient artefacts

and how to tell if something is fake or if it's real. Is that right?

ALL: Yes.

That should give the experts a run for their money.

Where on earth have you come from this morning with these?

-Four o'clock in the morning start.

-What?!

It's not one of the most desirable films.

Not at all, it was dreadful.

Prince Charlie. That is a splendid document.

22 carat gold. Today's prices,

-£28.93 a gram.

-A gram?!

We've got... I mean, it must be thousands of pounds worth

of gold in them.

It is a little Chinese coin which dates from the early Ming Dynasty.

So, you have brought along something significantly old.

I think, in this rather gloomy weather,

it might be rather nice to cheer you up and say seven to £9,000.

Oh, my gosh!

-Does it make you feel better, though?

-It makes me feel warmer.

THEY LAUGH

So, tailor-made costumes, Le Grand Chic.

-Yes.

-This was a very fashionable time -

1913. How did you get these?

As far as I can work out, on my father's side of the family,

since his great-aunt, so she was a Victorian lady,

and when she died, things were passed down to various members

and these are some of the things my father took.

So do you know anything about this great-aunt?

She lived in a grand old house in the park in Nottingham with her

two sisters, I believe.

And they were all very fashion conscious when they were younger.

And I think they probably used some of the paper patterns to

make their own Paris fashions at home.

Well, that was the thing, this was a period

when Paris, everyone looked to Paris to set the trends.

And, of course, people did this.

They looked at this, they had the paper patterns

and they could become this beautiful young lady.

That's right, yes.

I imagine them floating around Nottingham looking very glamorous.

Elegant women of the early 20th century.

This is the Art Nouveau period,

woman are dressing... I mean, wonderful colours.

-That's right.

-And that's what these give us.

They show us exactly what styles, cos we know the dates to them.

Yeah, they're all dated.

They're fascinating.

If these were split up,

which would be such a shame,

if they were sold, that's what some people would do.

-They would frame them.

-Yeah.

In value terms, I mean,

each book is going to be worth conservatively

£100 to £200.

But I think as a collection,

they are going to be, you know,

-between £1,000 and £2,000.

-Yep.

-Which is not much money, really, for a fabulous resource.

-No.

I think we have decided as a family they are either something

we want to keep just because they are so beautiful

or that somebody could take them and use them.

Well, I certainly think the London College Of Fashion

or Edinburgh...

It's something that would be of tremendous interest to them.

Lovely.

# Couldn't be nicer

# Couldn't be sweeter Couldn't be better

# Couldn't be smarter

# Couldn't be cuter Baby, than you are

# Your eyes, your pose, that cute, fantastic nose

# You are mighty like a knockout

# You are mighty like a rose... #

We're in the Highlands of Scotland, it's pouring with rain,

you've brought me an umbrella stand, but where are the umbrellas?

-They were taken out and left at home.

-Very sensible.

-Apart from the ones I've got with me today.

-Well, I'm glad you did

because it is the most magnificent Wemyss Ware umbrella stand.

Um, trademark cabbage roses, but it is absolutely smothered with them.

It is a showstopper piece.

This wouldn't have been a tuppeny ha'penny bit from the corner shop,

this certainly was something they had specially commissioned.

Every single part of it, smothered in cabbage roses,

almost certainly by the head decorator Karel Nekola.

They've got his signature of just that kind of extra sort of life that

they've got to them.

So, has it always been in the hall with umbrellas in it?

I've had it for the last nine years. I acquired it after my aunt died.

And she'd had it since 1943.

A house where she was working, when the lady of the house died,

she was offered some items from the house

and this was one of the items she chose.

Well, Wemyss was always very popular with the upper-class, shall we say.

The late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother,

was a great fan of Wemyss and had a very fine collection of Wemyss.

This is something she would've liked to have

because it is a real collector's piece.

Everything about it says, "Look at me, I am a great piece of Wemyss."

And a date?

Turn-of-the-century, 1890, 1900.

All right.

Wemyss umbrella stands are rather rare,

and, if this came on the market, I think a comfortable auction

estimate would be between three and £5,000.

Right.

And it could well do better

because it is a piece a collector would kill for.

-You sound speechless.

-Yeah, I am. I thought two to 300.

When jewellery is brought onto the roadshow,

-it usually is because it has a story.

-Yes.

And when I opened the box,

and saw this beautiful picture of this girl, I thought,

-"Who is she?"

-Well, she was my father's sister.

Unfortunately, she passed away

-in 1918 because she developed croup.

-Oh, gosh!

So this little miniature was made after she died for my grandmother.

And my mother inherited it when my grandmother passed away.

-And the name of your family?

-It's Macintosh.

-It's Macintosh?

-Yes.

-So, you from these parts?

-Yes, originally from Nairn.

-Right.

-So, I have been away for quite a number of years.

But I've recently come back to my roots.

There is such a resemblance between, I think, you and your aunt.

Yes, do you think so?

There is a real resemblance and that's what's

so beautiful about jewellery.

-Is to see the history behind it, the family history behind it.

-Yes.

It is beautifully set with the bow at the top there set in rubies.

And it is silver and gold with diamonds.

It is about 1910, that sort of period, so I think

it's been put into a slightly earlier mount.

-I see.

-Because you said that she died in 1918.

-Yes.

-It is sort of...

The actual mount itself was made in about 1900.

Beautiful. But also what I love is this colour, these amethysts.

Now, tell me about these.

Well, my mother told me that it was a tiara originally

and it was then broken down and made into this necklace,

which can be a brooch, as well, and the drop earrings.

But I don't know if that is true or not.

Yeah, I think it actually started off life as a brooch pendant

and a pair of earrings.

Usually you do find a lot of jewellery

is broken up with families from original tiaras,

but this would have started as it is.

Made in around about 1860, 1870.

That's quite early, isn't it?

Yes, with this lovely setting around the side, the claw setting in gold.

-That's right.

-I love this colour amethyst.

Which, of course, used to be worn to ward off drunkenness.

Oh! Oh, right.

And to instil a sober mind.

-I better wear it then.

-Well, exactly.

Absolutely. And of course, it is the birth stone for February.

My father said that the amethyst was actually the stone that

-was from the Macintosh clan.

-Oh, wow.

And so that is quite poignant, really, to have that in the family.

-Well, you have brought it back home, haven't you?

-I certainly have.

Which is just fabulous.

Well, I mean, you know, it isn't about the money,

but if we were to put a value on it, I would say

the lovely little pendant brooch, it's probably

a couple of hundred, £300, something like that.

And this beautiful set here, again,

-we're sort of at seven to £900 the set.

-That's lovely.

But I'm just so thrilled.

I've got a daughter, so she loves antique jewellery,

so she will be getting it all in the end.

-Fantastic. And it will be worn around Scotland.

-Oh, yes, I hope so.

Perfect.

We have got an absolutely lovely drawn by Laura Knight here.

-Yes, it is nice.

-When did you get it?

Probably in the '60s, late '60s,

I think. I was a ladies' hairdresser.

And the picture belonged to Robert Wright,

who had a small gallery in Cambridge.

And his wife suddenly got the bright idea of paying for her

hairdos in pictures,

which I was delighted at because I was interested in pictures.

And she brought that as one of them.

And I think it cost me about £60.

And how much were you charging for a hairdo in the '60s?

A permanent wave or something like that was six or seven pounds.

-Right.

-Which is about 50 now.

-60.

-So this was ten hairdos, basically.

-Yes.

We had a great sort of relationship.

She'd say, "How am I doing?"

And I'd say, "Another few pounds to go."

And I got them.

-The great thing here is you got two for the price of one.

-Yes.

Because if I turn it over, on the back,

we have got another figure.

Yes. It was a rehearsal, apparently, for the ballet

Narcissist, which Nijinsky was dancing.

And she had gone down to the rehearsal room and sketched him

and this was one of the nymphs in the ballet.

Well, of course,

Laura Knight was famous for her ballet...

-And circus.

-Yes.

So, you have that and by extraordinary contrast,

really, you have got this by Josef Herman.

Which was also from Mrs Wright.

I had two or three watercolours as well by Josef Herman,

but I haven't got them.

I just kept that one because I liked the Madonna and child.

-It's a very sensitive picture, actually.

-Yes.

Josef Herman, born in 1911, he was a Polish Jewish refugee.

Left Poland, I think, in 1939

and eventually finds himself in London and moves to Wales.

And I think he died in 1999.

So, you know, not so long ago.

And I do think some of the grittiness and the darkness

of traumatic experience is perhaps brought out in his pictures.

And they're often very dark, I think, his pictures.

But here this is a very light, sensitive picture.

Yes, I liked it straight away, so I bought it.

So, how many weeks haircutting was this?

Well, I suppose that was about five or six really.

Well, I think you have done incredibly well, actually.

Yeah, I do, I think the Laura Knights,

two for the price of one,

they are very sensitive, they are very nicely, beautifully drawn.

And we know what the subject is, which also helps.

And I think that's worth somewhere around two to £3,000,

maybe a shade more.

Good gracious! I thought it might have been about 100.

-That wouldn't have been a very good...

-No.

You should've kept hair cutting.

My elder daughter is getting it so she will be thrilled to know.

And the Herman.

Herman has done very well, too, and I think proportionally,

oddly enough, I think it has probably done slightly better.

And I can see that easily making £3,000.

Oh, gosh, that's splendid.

Very good news.

I'm intrigued to know how long you've had these.

-Er, since January this year.

-This year?

-This year.

I went to my very first-ever auction,

held in the local cattle market.

-My mother used to do reproduction dolls...

-Oh, right.

..right from making the actual...

with the moulds and everything else, you know.

So, I saw these at the auction and knew that they were antique.

-That's a clever idea.

-I didn't know anything else about them,

other than they weren't reproduction.

-So, your mother taught you something?

-Yes.

-Um, the little one, of course, is unstrung.

-Mmm.

-She's a little German doll...

-Yes.

-..and she has a number at the back of her head...

-Yes.

-..which you probably looked at.

-Yes.

-Which is 192.

-192, yes.

Now that tells me that she is either a Kammer Reinhardt,

-or a JD Kestner.

-Right.

But, either way, she's German, she's around 1880 and very collectable.

-Would you like to know how much I paid for her?

-For her, yes.

-£12.

-What?

-£12, I paid for her.

Well, she's going to be worth, even in that condition,

no clothes, unstrung, 200 to 300, plus.

SHE LAUGHS Oh, dear.

Now...

this one has wonderful paperweight eyes and a closed mouth.

-Now, collectors like closed mouths.

-Yes.

-Original mountain goat hair.

I recognised her the moment I saw her.

I don't need to turn her around, but underneath here...

-Now, that's the bit that really puzzled me...

-Yes.

..because all the markings I was looking for,

I was looking for a name.

-It puzzles me why the name's not there.

-Right.

-That is a stamp here, which has worn off.

-Mmm.

-And I think it's been worn off on purpose.

-Yes.

It would've had "Bebe Jumeau...

"BTESGDG,"

which means "sans garantie du governement,"

which means, without guarantee of the government,

so that is the right thing to put on a Bebe Jumeau

and...

then...

her body.

OWNER LAUGHS

Here we have a little plaque,

and, sadly, nothing inside.

Nothing inside, no.

-Now, this would've had a phonograph in it.

-Really?

-And the phonograph would have been saying, "Mama, papa."

-Wow.

And it would have had a key wind movement, and then she would...

-Really?

-..be walking, saying, "Mama, papa."

-Yes?

-1893, onwards, they were making these phonograph dolls in Paris,

by Jumeau, which actually means twin.

It was started in the 1860s by Emile Jumeau,

and it was one of the best factories in France

-for bisque dolls, which is what she is.

-Yes.

Um, she's absolutely stunning. What did you pay for her?

-Do you really want to know?

-Of course I do!

I paid £50 for her.

I think you've got this year's bargain.

We are talking about, in excess of between £3,000 and £4,000.

Really?

SHE LAUGHS

-You are joking?

-Yes, I am actually!

THEY LAUGH

Wow.

I'm so thrilled for you. You are brilliant.

Well, it will come as little surprise

-that I'm holding a piece of wonderful Clarice Cliff.

-Really?

But what's your story with it?

It belonged to my late uncle in and aunt.

When I cleared their house out,

my father grabbed that and shoved it in our display cabinet.

It's a really nice example.

The shape is actually called Bonjour,

and the pattern is called Seven Colour Way, or Pastel Secrets.

But have you ever thought there's something not quite right

with this biscuit box?

Yes, because I thought the lid didn't go to the biscuit box.

Quite right. Well spotted, you.

I'm going to be out of a job at this rate.

And the interesting thing is how these lids get mis-married.

Whenever a china retailer or shop that would've sold the wares

got their delivery, they were often sent in wooden crates,

packed with straw, heavy pieces at the bottom

and getting slowly lighter as they come to the top.

And I have a vision of a wonderful china retailers,

maybe in Aberdeen or Inverness,

where the girls would've been unpacking the crates,

chatting away, having some fun and thinking,

"We'll stick that lid on that one. It looks all right."

What you've actually got is a lid to a biscuit box

in a pattern called Alton.

So, somewhere, out there,

in this area is someone who's got your lid and you've got theirs.

-Mmm.

-So, what's it worth?

As it stands,

-it's worth £230.

-Oh, wow. Really?

That's a surprise.

Go and find the person who's got the right one, do a bit of a swap,

you'll both end up with biscuit barrels worth £500.

Oh, really? Oh, wow. That's fantastic.

-The hunt is on.

-The hunt is on, yes. The hunt is on.

It's a very unusual compendium in the shape of a cube.

What do you know about it?

Well, Sir James Reid was born in Ellon,

-and he was a physician to Queen Victoria.

-Yes.

And his daughter came back to Ellon and stayed there

and my husband's grandad

was gardening for the daughter and she gave them this.

-That's rather nice, isn't it?

-Yes, it is rather.

-Do you find it a pleasing thing?

-Yes, yes. Very nice.

I think it's a great object and, as I said, it's a cube

in green leather

with these wonderful silver corners and silver handle.

And the hallmark is London, 1896.

And the maker is a man called George Sumner.

He was a London silversmith, best known for making things like,

believe it or not, photograph frames.

But this is the sort of thing you'd get on the edge

of a leather photograph frame, so it all fits in, doesn't it?

-Yes, yes.

-So, let's drop the front.

Now, normally one would have expected to see a fixed...

-clock movement in there.

-Right.

In this instance, we have a Swiss Goliath watch...

Signed by the retail jeweller,

and that will be a nice eight-day movement,

absolutely in period with the case.

Pop that back in,

shut it up and then the rest,

as we turn the clock round, are the various sides.

So, we're going to go to this one first,

which is a calendar, the knob is missing,

but you set the date against the day

-and then you can read it throughout the month.

-OK.

The next one is a rather nice aneroid barometer.

And then the final side is a lovely curved mercury thermometer,

giving the temperature in Fahrenheit.

And back we go to the clock and the calendar again.

A lovely, lovely compendium. Much desired.

If it were solid silver, it would be a fortune,

but even like this, it's still going to make about £2,000.

Really?

-Oh, oh, that's super. But I won't part with it.

-Good.

Keep it wound up, keep it used, which is what it should be.

Yes, I will.

Now, every once in a while on the roadshow,

you get a wonderful moment and, for me, this is one of them.

This painting is by Evelyn Dunbar,

and it looks to me like it was done sometime around the 1950s.

And it's an extraordinary dream.

You get an artist who the market's never heard of, really,

or doesn't deal in,

because they're not available to sell, and she is one of them.

And yet, her connection to this country, and to the landscape,

and her influence on other artists and the fact that she was

a war artist in the second war, one of the only female war artists,

officially, who represented the women's role at wartime,

and the connection to you is that

you're Evelyn Dunbar's nephew, aren't you?

-And she painted you?

-That is correct, yes.

-One of the last things she did.

-Let's have a look.

That's a terrific picture, isn't it? Look at that. How old were you here?

Coming up to 14.

That louche period in your teens and I like the sort of shape

of this jumper and your feet pushed into those slippers.

She dashed it off in a couple of days.

I think it's extremely successful. I like that very much.

-You look ever so bored.

-THEY LAUGHED

But this painting is clearly a deeply psychological thing,

done in a very, very modernist way.

And I find it so full of levels of meaning,

I hardly know where to start and certainly I need a guide.

It's your picture, help me.

Well, it's very much a love gift from Eve to her husband, Roger,

-Dr Roger Folley.

-Is that him?

That's correct, yes. He was a poet.

But they met and married during the war.

And shortly after their marriage, Rodge went into the RAF,

and served his time in Mosquitoes, night fighters.

The war, as it did with so many people, changed him psychologically

and he developed an emotional distance,

which although their marriage remained extremely happy,

there was a gulf caused by that,

which I think is probably common to so many service people at that time,

which Eve sought to bridge.

And, in painting this, I think she was reaching out to him,

to offer the fruits that life had to offer,

which he was prone to reject.

-It's a psychodrama, isn't it?

-Yes, it is. Exactly.

A psychological landscape.

It's almost a mapping of their relationship.

-She seems to be very, very connected, doesn't she?

-Exactly.

Very connected, grounded

and earthed almost by this extraordinary sheet

carrying these, these rather Cezanne vegetables and she's like,

putting them at his feet and he's disdaining them,

he's not sure, he's got a quizzical expression on his face.

He's holding what is perhaps one of his poems

and he's just not getting it.

He doesn't sit in this landscape where she is so much of it.

Yes, she was a very earthy personality.

Um, tremendous sense of humour, very ebullient.

I think that's all utterly fascinating and to me,

how do you value

what is perhaps an unknown artist to the market's masterpiece?

Because this is such an extraordinary picture. Er...

-You can't put six figures on it. I'd love to.

-Mm-hm.

-It should be.

There isn't any precedent,

I don't think there are any sold at auction.

Nonetheless, I'd be very surprised if people didn't...

-get that it's worth between 40 and £60,000.

-Mm-hm.

That's my feeling on it.

Well, I'm delighted by your valuation, obviously, but the whole

rationale behind it would reject anything to do with the financial.

This is purely emotional and personal.

Some things are just completely beyond money.

-That's right.

-This is one of them.

-Yes, yes.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Two very different jewels with two very different meanings,

but what's the meaning of them to you? Tell me about them.

They're family heirlooms, heirlooms that I've inherited.

So they're precious for that reason. The brooch belonged to my mother

and the pendant came from my grandmother

and she gave it to me when I was 21.

The brooch was a gift to my mother. There's a little bit of a story.

My father was keeper of the Indian section

-at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

-Really?

And people would come to him for advice about their possessions

and things perhaps that they wanted to buy.

And there was a Hungarian dealer called Imre Schwaiger

who came to him for advice.

-Obviously, my father must have given him very good advice.

-Yes.

Because then he said to him, "Well, I must pay you for this."

My father said, "No, no, no. This is all part of the museum service

"and I wouldn't dream of taking any remuneration."

So Imre Schwaiger said,

"Perhaps you would do me the honour of having dinner in town with me

"and please bring your wife."

So they met at some grand restaurant in London

and when my mother was shown to her place,

-there was this jewel box sitting where she was to sit.

-Good heavens.

And Imre Schwaiger said to my father,

"This is nothing to do with you.

"It's entirely between your wife and myself." So my mother was thrilled.

I should think she jolly well was, actually!

A magnificent display

of coloured diamonds evoking the leaves,

-vine leaves, aren't they?

-Yes.

And what's marvellous is the way in which it's drawn.

First of all, it's a drawing of vine leaves

and the leaves are divided in the sense of the veining of them.

And hanging below is a magnificent cluster of coloured grapes

in various stages of ripeness because they're natural pearls,

Stunning thing. You can take this away, can't you?

Yes, you can. You can take the pearls off.

-Yes, for a sort of dress-down Friday diamond brooch.

-That's right.

An absolutely beautiful object and it presumably dates from the late 19th century.

It's naturalistic to the finest degree because one can see

the very sensitive use of, perhaps not valuable diamonds

because of their colour...

and the very sensitive use of these coloured pearls

A wonderful thing, but a different story to this one here.

-Do you like this one?

-I do.

It's very different and I can't imagine my grandmother wearing it

-because she was a very dowdy little lady.

-Yes.

-It's quite Baroque.

-It is.

-But I don't know anything more about it.

-No. Did you like it when you are given it?

-Oh, yes.

-Good.

-I used to wear it to dances.

-How wonderful!

Well, it's a very interesting jewel. It's actually in the 16th century

Italian taste, a neo-Renaissance jewel.

This was a very high point of fashion in London

in the 19th century and a number of Neapolitan craftsmen

came to London to make jewellery for a very elevated clientele,

-a sort of elite, really, an artistic elite.

-So he's Italian?

Yes. I happen to know by the handwriting of this jewel,

the sort of painting of it, if you like, that this is actually made

by a man called Ernesto Rinzi

who had a workshop just behind Regent Street in Argyle Street

-and made all kinds of very colourful jewels there...

-Right.

..in homage to the Renaissance. This is, of course, enamelled gold.

We can hardly see any gold at all because of the beautiful palette

of enamel colours and pearls

and black-and-white agates centring on it.

It's a jewel of no particular intrinsic value.

It's only about the gold and a few pearls and certainly not the agate.

Here we have two jewels saying two very different stories

and, in a funny way, it's going to be jolly difficult to value them.

Which one do you value most?

-Well, I think this one.

-That's where you really are?

-I think so.

-Absolutely.

-Yes.

-There's colour and excitement.

And so I think for all of that, the gift from the gentleman

who wanted to reward your father by a gently and very elegantly

circuitous route gave, effectively, you something

that's probably worth £8,000 today.

-Oh, really.

-Yes.

-Right.

And then, surprisingly...

Well, you'd say no intrinsic value, no diamonds,

nothing much to hang your hat on, might be hundreds.

-And I'm afraid you be very wrong. It's thousands again.

-No?! Really?

Yes, absolutely. This is very collectable,

-very exciting mood in 19th-century jewellery.

-Gosh.

-So I think without any problem at all, £3,000 for that.

-Wow.

I never expected that.

-That's actually my daughter's now so she'll be very pleased.

-Good.

That's marvellous. Well, I'm thrilled.

This is one of the most extraordinary things I've ever seen

-in 45...I don't know how many years looking at furniture.

-Oh. Right.

-What I think is very odd is that you've carefully studded this for us...

-Yes.

..to get our initials on the top. AR, Antiques Roadshow.

-Was that you?

-No. I'd never even thought of that!

What does that mean to you?

Well, it was bought by two spinster great-aunts of my mother.

And they, we think, bought it in about 1880 through a friend

who was a Quaker in Birmingham.

It's always been known in the family as the Queen Anne chest.

Now, I have no idea whether it genuinely is or not,

but I have known it all my life...

She was queen, let's say circa 1700, so that's...

-300.

-A long time ago. 300 years ago.

It is the most extraordinary thing.

The initials of a queen, Anne Regina.

-A queen's crown, I think, there.

-Right.

-Let's examine it.

Let's get this drawer open. What have we got here?

Well, that is just magic, isn't it? Magic.

Quilted silk drawer lining.

It's the only one that's still got that in it.

-And I've never seen that before.

-Oh, right.

-Never. Ever.

-And then look at the drawer lining here.

-Yes. That's lovely.

It's lined with marbled paper. Hand-painted paper...

and silk lining.

-That suggests to me it was made for somebody quite important.

-True. Yes.

I mean, it's the most extraordinary thing on a pine carcass

with a very, very thin leather.

You can just see on the edge here, the leather's very thin.

It's less than a millimetre. So whoever did that tanning was very skilled.

Yes. I mean, it does get polished occasionally,

but I'm not the world's best housewife.

-I don't want you to polish it any more.

-Oh.

-Just love it and touch it.

It's...

-an incredibly rare piece...

-Is it?

-..of late-17th early 18th-century furniture.

-Heavens.

I've never seen a chest of drawers made clearly with the handles on the side,

the runners underneath, the skids... We've got them on these little blocks

to keep it off the wet grass at the moment,

-but skids like skis underneath...

-That's what they're for!

So it can be dragged along a cobbled floor or something, up the stairs...

-Oh, I see.

-..for the progress.

Now, the thing is, is it a royal progress?

-Well, she did travel around quite a lot.

-She did.

Until she got vastly overweight.

HE CHUCKLES

One of the most precious things she would have had, apart from her jewellery...

-This is not a jewellery chest, obviously.

-No. Quite.

-It's made for clothes. Silks.

Her undies, for example. Silk dresses.

Those exotic, wonderfully embroidered clothes

-that we sometimes see on the Antiques Roadshow.

-Yes.

I've never seen one.

Ever.

Have you ever had it valued?

It's been valued at about sort of £600. Nothing very vast.

-I don't know what it's worth.

-Right.

-But I have to try and come up with a figure.

-Right.

And I think that it could be worth...

-..£20,000.

-What?!

Heavens above.

And if it realised £30,000, I wouldn't be surprised.

-Heavens.

-There is no guide mark at all.

I had no idea.

Well, the next stage is to try and research this.

-It would be a wonderful research project for someone, a student in a university or something.

-Right.

Just to see if there's any old inventories where there's

any record of the Queen, Queen Anne, having a leather chest of drawers.

It may be... If you can prove that,

then my valuation may prove to be conservative...

because every museum in England or Scotland would want to own it.

I'm not sure if you've made my day or terrified me.

What an incredible find.

Let's hope someone will delve into its history and enlighten us.

It's brightened what has been, I have to say, a rather damp

and drizzly day here at Cawdor Castle.

Typical Scottish weather.

Now, before you all write in and complain, I can say that. Come on. I'm Scottish.

Until next time, from the whole Antiques Roadshow team, bye-bye.